Open Society Foundations

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Open Society Foundations
(OSF)
logo
legal form Foundation, endowment
founding 1993
founder George Soros
Seat New York City , USA
Action space Global
people George Soros
Website www.opensocietyfoundations.org

The Open Society Foundations ( OSF ), formerly the Open Society Institute ( OSI ), are a group of foundations of the American billionaire George Soros , which claim to represent the idea of ​​the open society by supporting civil society initiatives and financing political activities, especially in Central and Eastern Europe . In October 2017, it was announced that Soros had transferred around $ 18 billion, the largest part of his fortune, to the Open Society Foundations. This makes the foundation the second largest behind the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation .

structure

Since 1979 Soros Foundations have been coordinated by Open Society Institutes located in New York , Baltimore , Berlin (moved from Budapest ), Brussels , London , Paris , and Washington, DC .

Soros foundations are autonomous institutions that were established in many countries or regions, especially those of the former Eastern Bloc . The national departments have similar names with central government institutions and are deliberately placed in their vicinity and, if possible, rented directly in government or administrative buildings. Through this extensive network, George Soros gains the necessary informational advantage worldwide when observing and influencing new economic and social trends. The priorities and specific activities for influencing are determined on site. The programs include promoting freedom of the press , protecting human rights, and supporting economic and social reforms and entrepreneurship .

The headquarters in New York serves as an interface between individual foundations and organizations in over 50 states, including the USA, which, according to their own account, promote education and health care and campaign for human rights. For example, through the National Security and Human Rights Campaign , it supports US organizations that campaign against the unlimited imprisonment of terrorist suspects, the failure to allow due process, torture or the undermining of privacy through surveillance.

There is also an OSI in Budapest that is formally independent of New York and looks after the Eurasian continent . In May 2018 the foundation announced that due to the “repressive government policy” the office in Budapest will be closed and relocated to Berlin.

activities

Open Society Foundations supports the International Network of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Ukraine

Part of the OSF network is the International Renaissance Foundation , which, according to its own statement, works for a democratic and pluralistic society in Ukraine . The Mir & Co Foundation also mentions it as a donor, which, according to its self-portrayal, provides military support: "Helping Armed Forces of Ukraine, National Guard of Ukraine, Special Operation Forces and volunteers." The supply of equipment and ammunition is also mentioned .

Hungary

In 2018 the OSF moved its headquarters in Budapest to Berlin, according to its own statement “... in order to react to the increasingly repressive political and legal environment in Hungary. The Open Society continues to support civil society groups in Hungary and works on topics such as art and culture, freedom of the media, transparency as well as education and health care for all Hungarians. "

Russia

The Open Society Foundations supported many non-governmental organizations in Russia .

On November 30, 2015, the Open Society Foundation and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation were identified by the Justice Department as an " undesirable organization ". This means that they are prohibited from any political activity or financial support in the country.

DC leaks

In the summer of 2016, it became known that hackers had gained access to the OSF's internal network and it is believed that they could steal information for about a year. Around 2,500 documents from the OSF network were later published on the Internet.

migration

The International Migration Initiative is part of the Open Society Foundations . In the years 2014–2017, she stated that the goal was to set political norms at regional and international level in order to better protect the rights of migrants. To this end, interventions by civil society in the international debate on legislation should be strengthened, and legislators' capacities should be built to better deal with the challenges of migration. The group used its funds in 2016 to support the Migration Policy Institute , the Columbia Global Policy Initiative, and the School of Public Policy, part of the Central European University . The International Catholic Migration Commission , the Global Coalition on Migration , the Migrant Forum in Asia , the Alianza Americas and the Platform for Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) were also supported. In 2019, the Border Violence Monitoring Network was supported with three paid positions and reimbursement of travel expenses for the activists. The Global Detention Project also identified the Open Society Foundations 2020 as a supporter.

George Soros

In October 2017, media reported that George Soros was transferring most of his assets to his foundation. In total, it is said to be an amount of 18 billion dollars.

criticism

Left-wing critics of Soros and his Open Society Foundations criticize that these institutions would primarily serve to strengthen the existing social and economic order. Nicolas Guilhot sees the Soros Foundations as a continuation of the history of capitalist philanthropic foundations such as the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation . According to Guilhot, the control exercised over the social sciences by such foundations has depoliticized them and reinforced a capitalist view of modernization . Despite his criticism of poorly functioning free markets, Soros is actually a neoliberal who believes that competing markets are the best way to order a society. Following this line of argument, the apparent radicalism of Soros' Open Society is only a means of concealing the capitalist order, the basic rules of which are never really questioned or "opened".

Right- wing critics of the Open Society Foundations - including the former Fox News presenter and journalist Glenn Beck - accuse Soros of using his Open Society Foundations to deliberately undermine societies of states in order to ultimately establish a unified global government ( New World order ). According to Beck, the Open Society Foundations have too much influence over the media and higher education, and in some states so much political power, that they can be viewed as "shadow governments."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. US billionaire: George Soros gives most of the assets of his foundation . In: Spiegel Online . October 18, 2017 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 18, 2017]).
  2. ^ David Gelles: George Soros Transfers Billions to Open Society Foundations . In: The New York Times . October 17, 2017 ( nytimes.com [accessed October 18, 2017]).
  3. osisa.org: Open Society Foundations ( Memento of the original from March 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.osisa.org
  4. Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.opensocietyfoundations.org
  5. Political pressure: Soros Foundation leaves Hungary. In: Spiegel Online . May 15, 2018, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  6. Bastian Obermayer , Frederik Obermaier : The Ibiza Affair. Inside views of a scandal . With a foreword by Armin Wolf . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-462-05407-1 , pp. 44 .
  7. ^ International Renaissance Foundation. Retrieved April 6, 2016 .
  8. Mir & Co Foundation. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on June 24, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / mirco.com.ua
  9. 2018 Moving to Berlin. 2018, accessed on June 22, 2019 .
  10. Russia declares US organizations undesirable in Der Spiegel, November 30, 2015
  11. Ben Chapman: "George Soros documents published 'by Russian hackers' say US security services" The Independent dated August 16, 2016
  12. Anna Crowley and Kate Rosin: "OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS - INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION INITIATIVE" OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS 2016, at archive.org.
  13. "ILLEGAL PUSH-BACKS AND BORDER VIOLENCE REPORT" borderviolence.eu, December 2019, p. 17, viewed on June 2, 2020
  14. Global Detention Project: "Funders" Global Detention Project, accessed June 3, 2020
  15. spiegel.de: "George Soros gives most of the assets of his foundation" , Spiegel online , October 18, 2017.
  16. ^ Nicolas Guilhot: Reforming the World: George Soros, Global Capitalism and the Philanthropic Management of the Social Sciences . In: Critical Sociology , SagePub. Archived from the original on April 7, 2015 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved August 14, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / crs.sagepub.com 
  17. ^ Liberalist Fantasies: Žižek and the Impossibility of the Open Society . In: Organization , SagePub. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved October 26, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / org.sagepub.com 
  18. Terry Krepel: What Beck wants you to believe about Soros . In: Media Matters , November 9, 2010. 
  19. Glenn Beck: Five Step Plan . In: Fox News Channel: November 10, 2010. Archived from the original on May 11, 2013 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved on August 14, 2014. “The five steps to control. The first one is form a shadow government using humanitarian aid as a cover. Now, is he doing this? Well, let me start with the central George Soros operation, which is OSI. This is his main group. OSI, it is the Open Society Institute. (German: Five steps to power. The first is the formation of a shadow government under the guise of humanitarian aid. Well, does he do that? Well, first of all there is the central activity of George Soros - the OSI. This is his most important group. OSI stands for Open Society Institute) " @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.foxnews.com 
  20. ^ Glenn Beck Explains George Soros Conspiracy Theory On 'O'Reilly Factor' . In: The Huffington Post , Nov. 13, 2010.