The original owners of iconic ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s want to free the company from its current corporate ownership and restore its ability to take progressive political positions.

Unilever, the multinational packaged goods company which owns Ben & Jerry’s, said Tuesday because of the federal shutdown it was holding off on plans for a spin off company — The Magnum Ice Cream Company — to run Ben & Jerry’s.

That move was applauded by co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield who are waging a pressure campaign for independence, saying Unilever has “inappropriatedly intervened” with and “silenced” it, the online news site VTDigger reported.

In their letter to the board last month, Cohen and Greenfield accused Unilever of failing to uphold the original terms of the sale in 2000, whic

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