Fergie Chambers


James Cox Chambers Jr., also known as Fergie Chambers, is an American communist political activist, philanthropist and former heir in the Cox family, which derives its wealth from Cox Enterprises.

Early life

Chambers is the son of James Cox Chambers and Lauren Hamilton; the Cox family controls Cox Enterprises. He spent his childhood in Brooklyn, New York, primarily with his mother, as his parents divorced when he was two years old. After attending Saint Ann's School, Chambers was admitted to Bard College, but dropped out before completing a degree. He subsequently worked for a year at Manheim Auctions, a company owned by his family, as a management trainer. Chambers owned a portion of Cox Enterprises until divesting from the company in 2023, resulting in a payout estimated by Rolling Stone of at least $250 million.
Around age 12, Chambers was introduced to Marxist literature by a teacher, including Howard Zinn’s A 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.

Career and activism

Chambers has described himself as a communist and has provided funding for leftist causes, including through paying legal fees for others. In Massachusetts, he founded a group called the Berkshire Communists, which identifies itself as a "revolutionary Marxist-Leninist collective"; his title is general secretary. He also founded the Babochki Collective, who served as his ideological advisers. Amongst his entourage were Calla Walsh and Paige Belanger of Unity of Fields. In November 2023, Chambers paid $50,000 to bail out Walsh, Belanger and Sophie Rose after they attacked an Elbit Systems office in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
In the early 2010s, Chambers opened a gym called the Berkshire People's Gym in Alford, Massachusetts, which was closed to "landlords and capitalists", among others. His property purchases in the Berkshires have been described as forming a "commune" by Mother Jones. 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 a CrossFit gym in Alpharetta, Georgia. In 2012, an employee of Chambers' was Marjorie Taylor Greene. In 2020, Chambers claimed to have witnessed Greene conduct multiple extramarital affairs while employed by him.
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 the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Chambers also ran a commune in Madison, 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.
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.
In Georgia, Chambers has provided financial support for members of the Stop Cop City movement.

Views

In 2020, Chambers described his political ideology as "somewhere between an eco-anarchist and a Marxist-Leninist", while in 2024 he simply stated his ideology was a Marxist-Leninist and praised Stalin and Mao.
Chambers is a vocal supporter of Hamas; he described the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel as "a moment of hope and inspiration". Chambers denies that rapes occurred during the October 7 Attacks. Chambers previously told Mother Jones in an interview that he believes "the most important thing for the prosperity of humanity is the destruction of the US", while he told Los Angeles magazine "I chant death to America every day. Imperialism is the death of humanity".
Chambers has also been supportive of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and visited Russian-occupied Donbas. Chambers has referred to Vladimir Putin as a "great man".

Personal life

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. Chambers and his second wife, Cameron Park, met in Atlanta after his return from Russia. In 2013, Chambers was arrested for domestic battery and false imprisonment of Park, although he was not prosecuted; they divorced after 2020. In February 2024, he married Stella Schnabel, daughter of filmmaker Julian Schnabel; they have a son together. 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. He is married to Stella Schnabel; they were married in 2024 and raise their son together.
Chambers considers himself to be "on the path of monotheism". Born into a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant family, Cox stated that, at times in his life, he was slightly influenced by conservative protestants but never adhered to protestantism.
In his early 20s, Chambers converted to Catholicism. In the late 2010s, Chambers attended the Peyote Way Church of God, an Native American Church in Arizona.
In 2023, Chambers converted to Islam, and resided in Tunis, Tunisia until 2025, where he is still a major sponsor of Club Africain. Chambers previously lived in New Hampshire and the Berkshires region of Massachusetts. His wealth is self-reported to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.