This past Tuesday, there was another fast food worker protest. This time it was in Charlotte and Durham, this time with the added theme of workers who are also on public assistance.  It would seem Occupy 2.0 is still alive in North Carolina – but barely.

Note Action NC is listed under the first tweet detailing the press release. ActionNC  employee Luis Rodriguez was a speaker at the Moral Monday held in Charlotte in August. Rodriguez is also one of the former co-leaders of Occupy Charlotte.

FAST FOOD JOBS COST NC: Press Conf CHARLOTTE @ 10am 6500 Albemarle Rd. DURHAM press conf @ 11am 5507 S Miami Blvd @LowPayIsNotOK @Action_NC

— NC Raise Up (@NCRaiseUp) October 15, 2013

NC Raise Up LIVE outside Durham McDonalds. Give workers a raise! @LowPayIsNotOK @FastFoodForward pic.twitter.com/OxABGPpDtB — NC Raise Up (@NCRaiseUp) October 15, 2013

A few days before the event, the NC Raise Up account gave a shout out to the NC NAACP. The picture in the tweet has a man in a suit jacket standing in the center. He appears to “labor organizer” Ben Wilkins. I wouldn’t be shocked if he turned out to be AFL-CIO affiliated. Related: Support Fast Food workers on Tuesday (10/15) | North Carolina’s Union Movement

We are excited to be at the @ncnaacp labor breakfast at their state convention. Forward Together, Not One Step Back! pic.twitter.com/ggUMd9vUjY — NC Raise Up (@NCRaiseUp) October 11, 2013

Unlike the other union front groups, NC Raise Up doesn’t appear to have a webpage. They only have a Facebook page and Twitter account. Both of those accounts make frequent reference to “Low Pay Is Not Ok“.

Low Pay Is Not Ok and The Other 98% – Chicago & NYC Ties

Low Pay Is Not Ok also offers a “Strike Kit” that comes with a strike letter urging the end-user to get other employees to sign. On that same Strike Kit page, they offer a phone number, (347) 974-3944, which is a Voice over IP number out of New York City.

The website  for Low Pay Is Not Ok was registered anonymously. Low Pay Is Not Ok says on their website that they are associated with “The Other 98%“. That group, The Other 98%, might sound familiar to you. I wrote about them in early August while covering the co-opting of the Moral Monday name in Chicago for an ALEC protest:

More about US Uncut

US Uncut bills themselves as an anti-tax dodging movement, but the instructions to getting started seem more like occupy style lawfare.  From their own FAQ: Q: Who is the leader? A: The structure of the group is similar to the hacking group Anonymous in that there isn’t clear-cut leadership. Each branch of US Uncut does its own thing, though they adopt similar themes (targets, slogans, signs, etc.) Well, we know Mr. Gibson is at least one of the heads. According to their website, they have an ‘infrastructure partner’ called The Other 98%. So, Uncut and 98% are apparently money partners in so much as 98% funds Uncut it would seem. Clicking on their donate link takes you to DemocracyInAction.org where “Your tax exempt donation will show up on your credit card as Democracy in Action and you’ll receive an acknowledgement letter via email.” From the US Uncut Support Us Page: While US Uncut remains an action-oriented movement, we recognize that an infrastructure, even one as lean and mean as ours, requires financial support. The Other 98% has been responsible for the bulk of this type of development to date, from graphic design and website maintenance to research and professional media outreach. The Other 98% is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies – Program on Inequality, a tax exempt 501c3 organization. Donations to The Other 98% will make US Uncut’s work possible. I confirmed the Institute for Police Studies (IPS) affiliation with The Other 98% via their website. The IPS address is 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600, Washington DC 20036 and that matches the 501(c)3 look up details for EIN: 52-0788947 – (IPS). I wonder if the IPS was ever given a hard time by the IRS for their tax status. 990′s I located: 2010 Form 990   2006 Form 990

The staff of The Other 98% are a lovely collection of agitators, former MoveOn.org, former ACORN and Occupiers.  Related Read: The Other 98% Launches Campaign to Acquire Tribune Co.

You might have caught the reference to “Mr. Gibson”. If you hadn’t read Occupy Reincarnate:Moral Monday Coalition, then you wouldn’t know Carl Gibson is a professional union agitator/protester who gets arrested pretty much everywhere he goes. Gibson was photographed by the News and Observer being arrested at Moral Monday in Raleigh, yet no one at the paper looked into who he was.

Full Circle Back To Moral Monday & North Carolina

So, we’ve come full circle back to North Carolina and the NC NAACP driven Moral Monday. It should come as no surprise to you that Reverend Barber has attended these fast food strikes organized by NC Raise Up. We keep seeing the same players in North Carolina over and over. They keep forming new front groups, yell a new message in an attempt to stir the pot, and try to create the illusion they are a large movement or majority in NC, but in reality it is just the same small collection of Leftists doing it all.

Screen Cap taken from Facebook Album of Bryan Perlmutter.

Note the caption that this image was grabbed from a Facebook photo album of Bryan Perlmutter. There is a second photo of Barber there. This is the same Bryan Perlmutter who has supported union founded FLOC, is a member of the NC Student Power Union. I documented that he was arrested as a member of NCSPU along with Molly McDonough during the May Day 2013 protest. Perlmutter is now leading the NC Vote Defenders and which is funded by an unnamed 501(c)3.

@NCVoteDefenders Your site says you’re sponsored by a 501c3, mind telling people who before they open their wallets? pic.twitter.com/BMrSHaT4X4

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) October 10, 2013

So, if you meet an NC Vote Defender at a polling area maybe you can ask them yourself who is paying them to hand you propaganda leaflets.

Update: related NC Vote Defenders article at Carolina Journal.

Update II: The Vote Defenders have added a list of their ‘advisory board’

Fun Foot note: My doxing stalker/”Democratic Recruiter” NCBlonde retweeted some of the NC Raise Up strike tweets.

RELATED READS:

• New Student Group Combats ‘Voter Suppression’
• RALEIGH: Triangle fast-food workers will rally for better pay, conditions