Open Society Foundations

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Foundation, NGOSocial change

"Social change"  Open Society Foundations  link () Website
File:Open society foundations new.png
Formation	1993
Founder	George Soros
Headquarters	New York, New York State, United States
Sponsor of	Airwars,Chatham House, Correctiv, Central European University, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, Disney, Memorial Human Rights Center, Project Syndicate,Refugees International,Transparency International,International Center for Journalists,Institute for Strategic Dialogue,Poynter Institute,Black Lives Matter,Democracy Now!,Partners In Health,Helsinki Committee,Alexander Langer Foundation,All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform,Alliance Citoyenne,Amnesty International,Aspen Institute Germany,Belgrade Center for Human Rights,Bertelsmann Stiftung,Full Fact,Media Matters for Democracy,Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, The Baltic Center for Investigative Journalism,Free Press,Tides Center,Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism,NEO Philanthropy, Mozilla Foundation,Borealis Philanthropy,Res Publica,Avaaz,Moveon.org,African American Policy Forum, ACLU,The American Prospect,Brookings Institution,Center for American Progress,Center for Community Change,Center for Democracy in the Americas,Center for Global Development,Center for Investigative Reporting,Center for Strategic and International Studies,Club of Madrid,Creative Commons, Drug Policy Alliance,Freedom House, Free Press,French-American Foundation,Genocide Intervention Network,Global Rights,Hudson Institute,Human Rights First,Immigration Equality,Independent Diplomat,International Center for Transitional Justice,International Refugee Rights Initiative,International Rescue Committee,Movement Strategy Center,National Black Justice Coalition,National Center for Transgender Equality,La Raza,National Immigration Forum,National Immigration Law Center,National Security Initiative,PEN,Refugees International,Asia Society,the Burma Fund,The Eisenhower Project,Border Network for Human Rights, Border Action Network,Cato Institute,Center for Investigative Journalism,Otpor!,Index on Censorship,n-ost,European Council on Foreign Relations,Institute for War and Peace Reporting,Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project,B92,European Movement UK,International Commission of Jurists,TESEV,Sourcewatch,Alternet,Statewatch,Privacy International,Electronic Privacy Information Center,Best for Britain,Dangerous Speech Project,Center for American Progress, Detector Media‎,Foreign Policy Centre,Internews,Institute for Policy Studies,Extinction Rebellion,Kofi Annan Foundation,Tides Foundation,Albert Einstein Institution,Zentrum Liberale Moderne,International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,Media Development Investment Fund,Aspen Institute/New Voices Fellowship,The Nation,Equation Campaign,The Guardian,ClimateWorks,Reporters Without Borders,Forbidden Stories,Article 19,Media Defence,National Public Radio,European Forum Alpbach,Center for Constitutional Rights,Quincy Institute,European Stability Initiative,Prague Security Studies Institute,Charles Stewart Mott Foundation,German Council on Foreign Relations,Anti-Slavery International,Frontline Club,Global Disinformation Index,Apolitical Foundation,Mariana Mazzucato,GLOBSEC
A NGO operating in more countries than McDonald's. It has the tendency to support politicians (at times through astroturfing) and activists that get branded as "extreme left" as its founder is billionaire and bane of the pound George Soros. This polarizing perspective causes the abnormal influence of the OSF to go somewhat unanswered.

Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an international grant-making network founded by business-tycoon George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially support civil society groups around the world, with a stated aim of advancing justice, education, public health, and independent media. Over time, OSF has systematically funded and stimulated entities that created anything but independence, but an abnormal big cadre of beholden politicians, activists and media that support open markets benefiting US political and economic dominance, and incidentally the pockets of Soros. A clue might lie in the name as an "open" society also can mean an undefended one.

Overview

The OSF has branches in 37 countries, encompassing a group of country and regional foundations, such as the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa; its headquarters are in New York City. In 2018, OSF announced it was closing its European office in Budapest and moving to Berlin, in response to legislation passed by the Hungarian government targeting the foundation's activities. Since its establishment in 1993, OSF has reported expenditures in excess of $11 billion mostly in grants towards NGOs, aligned with the organization's mission.

The list of financed organizations listed here is just a small selection, focused on the United States part, since the donation lists are more readily available there, in Form 990. The grantees might also make further grants to smaller entities. The list is focused on the United States, since the donations by law must be published. Donations to more sensitive subjects abroad are camouflaged or not made public.

Media

All Soros foundations participate in media development to some extent.

Polarizing Perspective

While Soros his connections, influence and questionable sponsorships go somewhat unanswered in media coverage, especially as an increasing number of geopolitically important countries like Turkey & Russia are banning the OSF from their grounds - with Myanmar even abducting the employees and seizing the assets - most coverage is only focused on an official narrative "The OSF supports BLM and European socialists, he is helping the people against dictators!", and official opposition narrative "He is funding "extreme left" to divide the nation and take our pride!", a telling example of the decreasing functioning of the corporate media in investigating how a non-elected billionaire and his NGO influence so many nation states.

Activities

Taking over the American Justice System, particularly in metropolitan areas and big cities. Funding successful campaigns of district attorneys, who gained prominence during the George Floyd riots.

Criticism

Nicolas Guilhot, a senior research associate of CNRS, argues that The Open Society Foundations serve to perpetuate institutions that reinforce the existing social order, as the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation (both with strong ties to the US government / CIA) have done before them. Guilhot argues that control over the social sciences by moneyed interests has depoliticized this field and reinforced a capitalist view of modernization. Through its funding it can create movements or civil society groups and spread ideas to media organizations or government bodies to make believe there is public support for or against an issue - i.e. Astroturfing.

Evictions

In 2015, Russia banned the activities of the Open Society Foundations on its territory, declaring "It was found that the activity of the Open Society Foundations and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation represents a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and the security of the state.

In 2017, the government of Pakistan ordered the Open Society Foundation to cease operations within the country.

In November 2018, Open Society Foundations announced they are ceasing operations in Turkey and closing their İstanbul and Ankara offices due to "false accusations and speculations beyond measure", amid pressure from Turkish government and governmental interference through detainment of Turkish intellectuals and liberal academics claimed to be associated with the foundation and related NGOs, associations and programmes.

History

The Open Society Foundations started in Eastern Europe in the 1980s {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Open Society Foundations |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=New Statesman|+sep=, |Has text=“The conventional view, shared by many on the left, is that socialism collapsed in eastern Europe because of its systemic weaknesses and the political elite's failure to build popular support. That may be partly true, but Soros's role was crucial. From 1979, he distributed $3m a year to dissidents including Poland's Solidarity movement, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union. In 1984, he founded his first Open Society Institute in Hungary and pumped millions of dollars into opposition movements and independent media. Ostensibly aimed at building up a "civil society", these initiatives were designed to weaken the existing political structures and pave the way for eastern Europe's eventual colonisation by global capital. Soros now claims, with characteristic immodesty, that he was responsible for the "Americanisation"; of eastern Europe. ...

The Yugoslavs remained stubbornly resistant [to the sponsored free market revolution in Eastern Europe] and repeatedly returned Slobodan Milosevic's unreformed Socialist Party to government. Soros was equal to the challenge. From 1991, his Open Society Institute channelled more than $100m to the coffers of the anti-Milosevic opposition, funding political parties, publishing houses and "independent"; media such as Radio B92, the plucky little student radio station of western mythology which was in reality bankrolled by one of the world's richest men on behalf of the world's most powerful nation. With Slobo finally toppled in 2000 in a coup d'etat financed, planned and executed in Washington, all that was left was to cart the ex-Yugoslav leader to the Hague tribunal, co-financed by Soros along with those other custodians of human rights Time Warner Corporation and Disney. He faced charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, based in the main on the largely anecdotal evidence of (you've guessed it) Human Rights Watch. ...

The sad conclusion is...that....Soros deems a society “open” not if it respects human rights and basic freedoms, but if it is “open” for him and his associates to make money....He thus copied a pattern he has deployed to great effect over the whole of eastern Europe: of advocating “shock therapy” and “economic reform”, then swooping in with his associates to buy valuable state assets at knock-down prices.” |Is about=Open Society Foundations,Foundation funding, George Soros, Open Society Foundations,Yugoslavia,Milosevic|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate= |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails=https://www.newstatesman.com/economics/economics/2014/04/ns-profile-george-soros |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=

}}

“The conventional view, shared by many on the left, is that socialism collapsed in eastern Europe because of its systemic weaknesses and the political elite's failure to build popular support. That may be partly true, but Soros's role was crucial. From 1979, he distributed $3m a year to dissidents including Poland's Solidarity movement, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union. In 1984, he founded his first Open Society Institute in Hungary and pumped millions of dollars into opposition movements and independent media. Ostensibly aimed at building up a "civil society", these initiatives were designed to weaken the existing political structures and pave the way for eastern Europe's eventual colonisation by global capital. Soros now claims, with characteristic immodesty, that he was responsible for the "Americanisation"; of eastern Europe. ...

The Yugoslavs remained stubbornly resistant [to the sponsored free market revolution in Eastern Europe] and repeatedly returned Slobodan Milosevic's unreformed Socialist Party to government. Soros was equal to the challenge. From 1991, his Open Society Institute channelled more than $100m to the coffers of the anti-Milosevic opposition, funding political parties, publishing houses and "independent"; media such as Radio B92, the plucky little student radio station of western mythology which was in reality bankrolled by one of the world's richest men on behalf of the world's most powerful nation. With Slobo finally toppled in 2000 in a coup d'etat financed, planned and executed in Washington, all that was left was to cart the ex-Yugoslav leader to the Hague tribunal, co-financed by Soros along with those other custodians of human rights Time Warner Corporation and Disney. He faced charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, based in the main on the largely anecdotal evidence of (you've guessed it) Human Rights Watch. ...

The sad conclusion is...that....Soros deems a society “open” not if it respects human rights and basic freedoms, but if it is “open” for him and his associates to make money....He thus copied a pattern he has deployed to great effect over the whole of eastern Europe: of advocating “shock therapy” and “economic reform”, then swooping in with his associates to buy valuable state assets at knock-down prices.”
New Statesman

References