Fergie Chambers | |
|---|---|
 Chambers in 2023 | |
| Born | James Chambers 1985 (age 40–41) |
| Other names | Fergie |
| Occupation | Political activist |
| Years active | 2023–present |
| Organization | Berkshire Communists |
| Title | General Secretary |
| Spouses | |
| Father | James Cox Chambers |
| Family |
|
James Cox Chambers Jr. (bornc. 1985),[1] also known asFergie Chambers, is an Americancommunist politicalactivist, philanthropist and formerheir in theCox family, which derives its wealth fromCox Enterprises.[2]
Chambers is the son ofJames Cox Chambers and Lauren Hamilton; theCox family controlsCox Enterprises.[3] He spent his childhood inBrooklyn, New York, primarily with his mother, as his parents divorced when he was two years old.[3][4][2] After attendingSaint Ann's School, Chambers was admitted toBard College, but dropped out before completing a degree.[4] He subsequently worked for a year atManheim Auctions, a company owned by his family, as a management trainer.[4][3] Chambers owned a portion of Cox Enterprises until divesting from the company in 2023, resulting in a payout estimated byRolling Stone of at least $250 million.[5]
Around age 12, Chambers was introduced to Marxist literature by a teacher, includingHoward Zinn’sA People's History of the United States, something which made a lasting impression, although by his account, his focus on political activism has ebbed and flowed throughout his life.[2][5]
By the time he was a teenager, Chambers recalls having severe mental health issues, being committed to psychiatric institutions, becoming depressed and suicidal, and turning towards drugs.[5]
Chambers has described himself as acommunist and has provided funding forleftist causes, including through paying legal fees for others.[1] InMassachusetts, he founded a group called the Berkshire Communists, which identifies itself as a "revolutionaryMarxist-Leninist collective"; his title is general secretary.[6][7][3] He also founded the Babochki Collective (Babochki is Russian for "Butterfly"), who served as his ideological advisers.[5] Amongst his entourage wereCalla Walsh and Paige Belanger ofUnity of Fields.[5] In November 2023, Chambers paid $50,000 to bail out Walsh, Belanger and Sophie Rose after they attacked anElbit Systems office inMerrimack, New Hampshire.[5]
In the early 2010s, Chambers opened a gym called the Berkshire People's Gym inAlford, Massachusetts, which was closed to "landlords and capitalists", among others.[7] His property purchases in theBerkshires have been described as forming a "commune" byMother Jones.[4] In January 2024, the Berkshire People's Gym was shut down when Alford town officials enforced a cease‑and‑desist over zoning violations, finding that the gym had been operating in a barn permitted solely for agricultural storage.
Chambers has owned and operated other gyms, including aCrossFit gym inAlpharetta, Georgia. In 2012, an employee of Chambers' wasMarjorie Taylor Greene. In 2020, Chambers claimed to have witnessed Greene conduct multiple extramarital affairs while employed by him.[8]
Chambers began funding left-wing causes in the early 2000s and later founded the Babochki Collective, a philanthropic initiative that provides approximately US$5 million annually in grants to left-wing organizations and projects. He has directed millions of dollars in funding to organizations and initiatives focused on Palestinian political, humanitarian, and advocacy causes.
His public activism began in Atlanta in 2014, during protests and organizing efforts following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. While based in Atlanta, Chambers regularly organized and participated in direct actions associated with radical political causes. During this period, he worked as a volunteer with several community and activist organizations and also engaged in independent journalism.
In 2017, Chambers participated in theDakota Access Pipeline protests.[5] Chambers also ran a commune inMadison, Georgia on land he owned there for a period in the late 2010s, in which Chambers provided a stipend of $2,000 a month for members. Many members had been Standing Rock protesters. Many former commune members recall in a 2024 interview withRolling Stone that little happened on the commune aside from rampantpsychedelic usage[5] and that Chambers pressured commune members to take part inpolyamory/free love relationships.[5] The Georgia commune was closed in early 2019 and the property sold by Chambers in 2020.[5]
In 2022, he traveled to the Donbas region during the war in eastern Ukraine. His reporting and commentary from the region were published by outlets including Monthly Review, teleSUR, and Toward Freedom, among other international publications.[9]
InGeorgia, Chambers has provided financial support for members of theStop Cop City movement.[4][10]
In 2020, Chambers described his political ideology as "somewhere between aneco-anarchist and aMarxist-Leninist",[8] while in 2024 he simply stated his ideology was a Marxist-Leninist and praisedStalin andMao.[5]
Chambers is a vocal supporter ofHamas; he described the2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel as "a moment of hope and inspiration".[4][7] Chambers denies that rapes occurred during theOctober 7 Attacks.[5] Chambers previously toldMother Jones in an interview that he believes "the most important thing for the prosperity of humanity is the destruction of the US",[4] while he toldLos Angeles magazine "I chant death to America every day. Imperialism is the death of humanity".[1]
Chambers has also been supportive ofRussia's invasion of Ukraine and visited Russian-occupiedDonbas.[2] Chambers has referred toVladimir Putin as a "great man".[5]
Chambers first married a Russian woman, Anya Vostrova, whom he met at Bard. They lived in Russia for some time after 2008, and have three children together.[4][2][5] Chambers and his second wife, Cameron Park, met inAtlanta after his return from Russia.[2] In 2013, Chambers was arrested fordomestic battery and false imprisonment of Park, although he was not prosecuted; they divorced after 2020.[3][2][5] In February 2024, he marriedStella Schnabel, daughter of filmmakerJulian Schnabel; they have a son together.[4][5] Chambers and Schnabel had attended Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn together and reconnected in New York decades later, when Chambers was with Park and spotted Schnabel across the room at a cafe.[2]
Chambers has changed religions several times during his life. Born into aWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) family, Cox stated that, at times in his life, he tried to rationalize his family's wealth by buying into the idea of aProtestant work ethic and committing to being a conservativeProtestant.[2] In his early 20s, Chambers converted toCatholicism and embraced hardlineanti-abortion views.[2] In the late 2010s, Chambers attended the Peyote Way Church of God, anNative American Church in Arizona.[5]
In 2023, Chambers converted toIslam, and resided in Tunis, Tunisia until 2025[11], where he is a sponsor ofClub Africain.[12][5] Chambers previously lived inNew Hampshire and the Berkshires region of Massachusetts.[1][13] His wealth is self-reported to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.[1]