For the sake of transparency:

In all movements against oppression, there are people who, through righteous anger, and having no access to the people and systems that oppress them, attack those close to them. Slow Factory is a repeated target of this phenomenon.

Because of certain rumors running around the internet, we are presenting here some basic facts:

Corporate Sponsors:

Support from large corporations has always been governed by our strict policy: No Obligations, No Influence, No Endorsement, No Unfair Exchange (more on our economic policy here). As a small grassroots organization with a radical mission, funding is challenging in the extractive capitalist landscape we are all forced to navigate. Our approach to corporate funding involves accepting funds that have been extracted from the public, and redistributing them back to the community in the form of revolutionary ideas, culture, and grants.

For some, any financial connection to corporations is a non-negotiable red line. We respect that position.

Slow Factory has never had any relationship to or received funding from organizations like the Open Society Foundation or any Soros-related fund, Rockefeller Brothers, Tides Foundation, or any of the major players in the nonprofit industrial complex.

MIT Media Lab:

A decade ago, Slow Factory founder Céline Semaan was invited to join the Director’s Fellowship at MIT Media Lab. While all US-based institutions of this size have deeply flawed economic and political connections, she accepted the opportunity as a young Arab woman eager to impact positive change in the world while maintaining a life above the poverty line.

On the day it was revealed that Jeffrey Epstein had visited and supported the Lab, Céline became the first—and only—Fellow to publicly condemn the relationship and immediately resign from her involvement with the entire institution. From that moment, she severed all ties with MIT.

Neri Oxman:

During her time as a Fellow of the Media Lab, Céline was asked to create Slow Factory scarves for a conference that featured imagery from one of the professors. For a young mission-driven organization like Slow Factory, this represented a significant opportunity. We produced a limited edition scarf with imagery from the professor: a certain Neri Oxman. At the time, we were unaware of her history or her connections to the Occupation Forces.

Once we learned about her involvement with the IOF and the Occupation, and her reputation for benefiting unethically from the work of others, we immediately cut ties with her and removed all related photos from the internet. We had already conducted a photoshoot for the project, and Céline had participated in a panel discussion alongside her before we discovered these associations.

Since then we have had no ties to or communication with Oxman, nor have we ever had any contact with her now husband (who was not her husband at the time).

Don’t Enable Divide-and-Conquer

Be aware that putting energy and attention into strategies that seek to divide our movement is exactly how the enemy keeps us distracted, and only serves colonial interests in the end.