Some like to joke that the annual Allen & Co. event in Sun Valley is “summer camp for billionaires.” But an increasing number of opponents say this week’s gathering of media and tech titans in Idaho is no laughing matter.
Allen & Company, a Manhattan-based boutique investment bank, puts a pretty tight lid on public access to its Sun Valley event. That said, they routinely leak their guest list to entertainment media outlets. For instance, Variety is reporting this year’s guests include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Also on the guest list is Palantir CEO Alex Karp, whose critics point to his company’s $billion-plus contracts with the Pentagon and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"It's totally, totally inconceivable that another human being with that amount of wealth can look around the world and say, 'All I want is more,'" said Ethan McKee, co-chair of the Sun Valley chapter of Democratic Socialists of America. "Human nature is to share and be a community. We can clearly see these oligarchs want nothing to do with our community."
While the Sun Valley chapter of DSA may be modest compared to the GOP's tight grip on much of Idaho politics, in other parts of the country DSA “is having a moment,” according to NPR. DSA-endorsed candidates are fresh off major primary wins in Colorado and New York; and Politico reports that organizers are now targeting battleground swing states, like Michigan and Wisconsin.
Their message? "Social justice and economic democracy through grassroots organizing," according to their website. Even an upcoming anti-Allen & Co. protest is being billed as a demonstration of "workers over billionaires."
There are multiple DSA chapters in Idaho, including Boise, Moscow, Pocatello and the Sun Valley region. McKee said the gap between the haves and have-nots in his community continues to grow but they’re not just pushing back against well-to-do families with Sun Valley vacation homes as much as they are protesting what they say is "oligarchy" fueled by astronomic amounts of wealth.
"You may have a second home here, but you are nothing compared to Alex Karp, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg," said McKee. "I mean, these people are the oligarchs of our world's society today."
This week has already seen anti-Allen & Co protests in and around Sun Valley. A third is scheduled for Friday, July 10 in Ketchum Town Square. Demonstrators are expected to march to the Sun Valley Resort, where the high-profile Allen & Co. attendees have been staying through the week.
Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren
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