Let's discuss how to build a bottom up movement to resist debt.
Coming out of S17 let's talk about how to organize something like a Debtors' Union. What would that look like?
What would an international debt resistance movement look like?
This is the first meeting to discuss concrete next steps. JOIN US!
What is Strike Debt?
Strike Debt emerged out of a series of open assemblies, and continues to spark conversations about debt as a global system of domination and exploitation. Debt binds the 99% and it binds some people (women, people of color, and the poor) more tightly than others.
Debt resistance can take many forms and Strike Debt is developing tactics, resources and frameworks for generalizing the fight against the debt system. These initiatives include publishing the Debt Resistors' Operations Manual and hosting debtors’ assemblies; supporting the work of the Occupy Student Debt Campaign and their Pledge of Refusal; launching the “Rolling Jubilee,” a mutual aid project that buys debt at steeply discounted prices and then abolishes it; and planning direct actions across the country, ranging from debt burnings to targeted shut downs of predatory lenders of all kinds.
Strike Debt is also focused on bringing debt resistors together with the aim of growing the struggle against debt into a force to be reckoned with. Imagine, if you will, a global Debtors’ Union made up of a network of lender-specific sub-unions. For example, if someone had a mortgage with Bank of America, tuition debt from Sallie Mae and Citibank, and credit card debts with Wells Fargo and Chase, when this person joins the union they automatically join the sub-unions for Bank of America, Sallie Mae, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Chase. These unions could, eventually, be platforms for sustained agitation, providing support for strategic actions, including debt strikes, akin to the labor battles of earlier eras.
Underlying all these projects is Strike Debt’s support for a Jubilee—a full cancellation of all debts. Civilization after civilization has recognized that when debt gets unmanageable, it must be cancelled.
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