POLITICS OF DEBT Reading Group
Monday, May 20, 6:30PM
Public School, 2141 Broadway, Oakland
This reading group will discuss some theories of debt. We will read recent texts that treat the creditor/debtor relationship as vital to social systems. The concept of Debt will be explored in historical, ethical, economic, and political contexts, including how it effects people today.
The length of the reading group and the frequency of its meetings will be determined based on interest and convenience.
The second Strike Debt Bay Area Debtors’ Assembly will be held in San Francisco on Saturday, May 18. The Debtors’ assembly will meet from 2 to 5 pm at the office of Unite Here, 209 Golden Gate Avenue, near Civic Center BART.
The Debtors’ Assembly is a chance to talk with other people, share personal experiences and develop ideas for collective action in response to the debt that effects everyone. By discussing all types of debt, personal and public, we aim to break down the shame, fear and isolation surrounding it. The assembly will include an introduction to the Strike Debt movement and a presentation contextualizing personal and municipal debt as a part modern capitalism.
HELP US IN OUR EFFORT TO SAVE THE POSTAL SERVICE FROM PREDATORY DEBT!
Why does STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA want to support the USPS in resisting unreasonable debt?
· The United States Postal Service is a model of self-sufficiency, showing skillful adherence to their Universal Service Obligation. The USPS is a perfect example of a publicly accountable and efficient enterprise uncorrupted by profiteering. But recently it has come under attack by forces of privatization.
· In 1971 under President Nixon, the Postal Reorganization Act forced the USPS to fully fund itself and “run like a business.” Previously a public service, the USPS now receives no tax-payer assistance (the only other government not funding its postal service is Somalia’s) but survives on selling stamps and supplies.
· The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act forced the USPS to pre-pay its retirees health benefit fund for the next 75 years by 2016. This costs the USPS more than $5.5 billion a year and is crippling an otherwise financially sound institution. It is the only organization required by law to do this.
· Postage stamps at $0.46 for sending overland mail are affordable, while sending email costs over $30.00 per month for internet service, or a trip to one of the fast-disappearing public libraries.
· Internet-based service providers like Google, Twitter, and Facebook don’t protect user’s private information from government surveillance. Hand-mailed letters are good alternatives to easily monitored emails.
· Strike Debt Bay Area opposes privatization because publicly accountable organizations – such as the postal service – resist exploitation better than those that serve the interests of the 1%.
· Tactics of creating financial hardship – of creating the need to borrow money – are experienced by most of us as individual debtors and by organizations providing essential services, such as health-care, education, housing, utilities, and the USPS.
· If we don’t save the USPS, then the best example of a publicly accountable and efficient enterprise will disappear. Other essential services would run sufficiently if they could emulate the postal service rather than Wall St.
We hope to see you at our next STRATEGY INTO ACTION Meeting
Saturday May 4, 3:00PM
At the Applied Research Center, 900 Alice St, Oakland
Come to wheel chair accessible door, press intercom for ARC
Near the Lake Merritt BART station
Come to our next DEBTORS’ ASSEMBLY
Saturday, May 18, 2:00-5:00PM
At UNITE HERE, 209 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco
Near the Civic Center BART station
STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA STRIKES BACK ON TAX DAY!!
Monday, April 15
3:00 PM
Federal Reserve Building
101 Market St.
San Francisco
Banks don’t pay taxes but most people do!
Banks don’t pay their debts but we are hounded if we don’t!
Why must we pay income tax when banks and corporations don’t have to? They use accounting gimmicks, offshore headquarters and other scams toavoid paying their fair share. Is it fair that taxpayers bailed out the big banks, but they continue to profit at our expense? Why must we be crushed under the weight of debt for medical, educational, housing AND income tax obligations while those who have made a mess of our communities and our planet freeload at our expense?
On Tax Day, April 15, Strike Debt Bay Area will demonstrate our opposition to debt culture. We will reach out to indebted taxpayers with remedies to a life of financial servitude. Join us to spread the word about our activities.
STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA is beginning to organize for mass debt resistance. Collectively, we can decide that we’ve paid more than enough already for the blunders of the wealthy 1% and we can billthem for the debt they owe us and our communities.
Join us at the Federal Reserve, 3:00PM on Monday, April 15. Bring your voices. Bring your stories of debt persecution. Find out about STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA’s programs for debt resistance.
Saturday, April 6, 3-5:30pm
The Eric Quezada Center for Culture & Politics
518 Valencia Street
San Francisco,CA 94110
Join us! You Are Not a Loan! Or Alone.
We will meet in working groups and then do report backs from those meetings.
Working groups currently include: Study & Research Group, Outreach & Education, Direct Action, Debtors’ Union, and Alternative Institutions
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-Study & Research (people interested in tackling specific research questions, reading books together, feeding research to other groups)
-Outreach & Education (people interested in getting our message out - to community groups, churches, and beyond)
-Direct Action (people interested in organizing direct actions at Wells Fargo Shareholders meeting, and any other great ideas…)
-Debtors’ Union (tactical work for collective organizing against private and public debt)
-Alternative Institutions (Alternative currencies, public banking, alternative credit score systems, communal living, and more!)
Each group will begin to figure out how they want to organize: set up email lists; set meeting times; brainstorm further ideas, etc. Of course, many of us will want to participate in more than one group, so we’ll just have to figure that out as we go along.
We will have a follow-up strategy meeting on Saturday, February 16, at Neibyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph, Oakland, from 2 to 4.
This is a meeting for people who are interested in beginning or participating in Strike Debt subgroups and projects. As a follow-up to the Debtors’ Assembly that took place on February 2, we will be taking ‘next steps’ in relation to the ideas that were generated as a response to ‘what could a debt resistance movement look like?’
At this meeting people may organize into subgroups to work on particular projects. Possible groups might be: Reading groups, direct action, educational actions, and community outreach. We are an open group ready to discuss anyone’s ideas, and excited to continue with the momentum of the Debtors’ Assembly!
The Bay Area’s first Debtors’ Assembly took place on Saturday from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the Eastside Arts Alliance in East Oakland. Aprroximately seventy people came to first hear Strike Debt Bay Area organizers present an overview of debt, then discuss amongst each other debt in small groups, and finally brainstorm on ways to fight against those who hold debt over us as a cudgel.
Debtors’ Assemblies first started in New York City, organized by Occupy Wall Street peeps. Out of them came Strike Debt, the OWS offshoot that created the idea for the Rolling Jubilee and has produced the Debt Resistors Operations Manual. Now Strike Debt Chapters and Debtors’ Assemblies are spreading around the country: Chicago and Detroit are two examples.
A major focus of this Assembly was meeting in small groups to talk about why we came and what a debt resistance movement could look like. Concerns, as expected, ranged from personal financial issues (what can we do about harassing phone calls?) to political perspectives (e.g. capitalism sucks). At the report back, participants talked about alternative institutions (public banks, interest-free loans), collective actions (debtors’ unions, negotiating collectively to reduce our debt) and reforms (include student loans in bankruptcies, limit credit card interest to 10%). One crowd favorite was the idea that since college education has turned into job preparation so that people can get work to pay off their student loans, employers should be paying our tuition!
Before the small groups we had a welcome/introduction, a warm-up exercise that showed how almost all of us are in debt, a short presentation by Claire from ACCE on the economics of debt, and testimonies by several organizers about their own personal financial situations. We distributed lots of free or almost-free materials (DROM, 3 DVDs about money, Chapter 12 of David Graeber’s book on debt, handouts from the East Bay Community Law Center, the Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Group and other organizations). We had name tags that read “My debt is” and people wrote things like “student loans,” “$85,000,” and “terrifying.”
We will have a follow-up strategy meeting on Saturday, February 16, at Neibyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph, Oakland, from 2 to 4.
At that meeting people may organize into subgroups to work on particular projects. A group to read the Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual (DROM) will probably be formed, and we will most likely be scheduling a much longer presentation on debt by Claire. Plus whatever else appeals to the folks who show up — everyone is welcome to join if interested!