PRO AMAZON AGITATOR JOSHUA BOWEN SHARES DEFACED IMAGE OF CD26 CANDIDATE JONATHAN BAILEY

Joshua Bowen, owner of the Long Island City restaurant, Mothership Meat Company, posted a photo to Facebook of a poster of Jonathan Bailey, City Council candidate for District 26, with Bailey’s head ripped off. Bowen’s post, linked here, read: 

“It’s hilarious when a bonafide Marxist thinks that businesses are going to hang your campaign sign. Save your rubles comrade, no business owner is going to proclaim, ‘I’ve always wanted to be a Kulak. Sign me up.’ 

And just adding that this is the asshole who was menacing Daniel Dromm, who is an actual hero, at his house and banging on his door like he’s some bad ass with a mob behind him.” 

Bowen, who traveled to Seattle in an attempt to rescue the Amazon deal, must not recognize what the campaign knows to be true: small businesses do not have the same interests as Amazon. In fact, their interests are often at odds. 

Rather than inviting retailers like Amazon to shutter small businesses as they have done in Seattle, Bailey’s plan proposes a bill that stabilizes commercial rent and voids commercial rent term minimums in mortgages, to ease the rent burden on small businesses. Bailey’s plan also includes support for community land trusts to act as incubators for the development of new small businesses and worker cooperatives.

Bowen not only mischaracterized Jonathan Bailey’s commitment to small businesses, he also mischaracterized Bailey’s interaction with Daniel Dromm. Bowen’s framing, along with the implied violence of ripping Bailey’s head off his poster, is particularly jarring as we witness increasingly violent rhetoric and actions against Black liberation activists. It is also unbefitting of a business owner with an establishment formerly named after abolitionist John Brown. 

Hours after Bowen’s post, Jonathan addressed the situation in his weekly 7 PM Sunday livestream, which can be viewed here. The campaign condemns Bowen’s actions and will continue to fight for small businesses and a sustainable economy.