"I find it astonishing that MoveOn can violate its terms of use for the petition site," said Mara Cohen, a Regional Organizer from Skokie, Illionois. "Although the staff maintains it is an operational issue, I believe it to be a political issue that members should have a voice in and that may impact people's willingness to donate to MoveOn. Do we want to subsidize this effective petition organizing tool for groups with beliefs are opposed to the shared progressive ideals of MoveOn members?"
"During the long course of negotiations on this issue, MoveOn has refused to change the "Open Platform" policy, and has also refused to put this issue up for a vote from MoveOn's membership despite MoveOn's claim to be a grassroots, bottom-up organization," added Maria Schafer, a Regional Organizer from the New York metropolitan area. "That's why I am joining in this effort to educate the progressive community about MoveOn's stance on this issue."
"I believe, no matter what we do at this stage will change MoveOn's strategy allowing anyone to use MoveOn petitions for any issue, even when the petition is in direct opposite of the organization's core values and mission," added Deborah Curtis of Phoenix, Arizona. "I cannot in good conscious continue to use my energies to support an organization that has drifted so far from it's own core values." Curtis has resigned her position as Regional Organizer for Arizona.
"I was so sure at the beginning that we'd be able to work out this controversy with MoveOn, but I was very wrong," said Cilla Raughley of San Mateo, California. " When we asked MoveOn about the article that appeared in The Huffington Post last year, their response was to just put up a wall and say they saw no contradiction whatsoever between that article and their "Open Platform" policy." Raughley, a former Regional Organizer and National Support Corps Team member, is another leader who has resigned from MoveOn over this issue.
"Deciding to resign was an easy ethical decision for me under the circumstances," Raughley added. "Deciding to go public has been far more difficult. In the end, I realized I have a moral obligation to let MoveOn members, and donors, know of this secret policy, so they can decide for themselves if this is something they are comfortable supporting."
"All this is being done, without the knowledge or consent of most of MoveOn's 8 million members, who maintain the online petition website through their contributions to MoveOn," commented Ginny Webster a Regional Organizer from Oklahoma. "Those of us who disagreed with the idea that MoveOn was now going to allow groups like the KKK, or the neo-Nazis, to use our website, to post their regressive, and sometimes hate-filled, petitions felt that MoveOn's members should be made aware of what their donations were being used to support."
MoveOn staff, representing the Board of MoveOn, has hosted several conference calls with volunteer leadership over the past 5 months to hear these concerns, but MoveOn continues to defend the "Open Platform" policy, stating that they do not want to be in the position of adjudicating what is progressive and possibly get in the way of great ideas emerging. Further, while issues are member driven and sent to a vote, the "Open Platform" policy is considered by the Board to be an operational decision and solely at their discretion.
"If MoveOn is so strongly convinced that this is good policy," posed Pat Johnstone, a Regional Organizer from Northern California, "why would they not want it broadcast to all their members?"
"We find ourselves in a difficult position with our beloved organization," said Kate Frankel Nikolenko, a Regional Organizer from Irvine, California. "We have been told we will be asked to step down from our leadership roles, after so many years of dedicated and amazing volunteer work for the people, for the progressive movement and for MoveOn, if we shed a light on our strong opinion about ending the "Open Platform" policy and their rejection of our request for a vote of the members."
"Whatever the consequence to ourselves," Nikolenko continued, "I think our ultimate responsibility is to the 8 million MoveOn members we serve, to inform them of the "Open Platform" and that our critical grassroots power is in jeopardy. I know they will share our concerns and can only hope that members will have a loud response so that our core values will be upheld for our organization and the progressive community at large and we can continue to serve as strong committed leaders with MoveOn."
"MoveOn's actions no longer comport with what it has said publicly, many times, that: MoveOn is its members, said Webster. "As all of our efforts to try to get MoveOn to be accountable to its membership for making these decisions, were unsuccessful, we felt that the only recourse left was to publicly make MoveOn members aware of the situation."
Raughley agreed, adding, "The optimistic side of me hopes that MoveOn will correct their petition site policy, and reclaim their position as a leader of the progressive movement."
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