If I owe the bank thousands, the bank owns me;
but if, together, we owe the bank trillions, then we own the banks.
Strike Debt is responsible for the Rolling Jubilee, a mutual-aid project that buys debt at steeply discounted prices and then abolishes it; the Corinthian 100 Student Debt Strike; and the Debt Resisters’ Operations Manual.
On Saturday, June 6, Strike Debt Bay Area, the local chapter of Strike Debt, will host a Debtors’ Assembly.
As individuals, families, and communities, most of us are drowning in debt for the basic things we need to live, including housing, education, and health care. Even those of us who do not have personal debt are affected by predatory lending. Our essential public services are cut because our cities and towns are held hostage by the same big banks that have been bailed out by our government. All of us are outraged that big banks don’t have to pay their debts, but we do.
Debt keeps us isolated, ashamed, and afraid — of becoming homeless, of going hungry, of being crippled or killed by treatable illness, or of being trapped in poverty-level jobs. Those facing foreclosure, medical debt, student debt, or credit card debt feel alone, hounded by debt collectors, and forced into unrewarding work to keep up with payments.
Strike Debt is building a movement to challenge this system while creating alternatives and supporting each other. At the Debtors’ Assembly we will come together as a community and begin to rethink debt, not as an issue of individual shame, but as a political platform for collective resistance and action. Come to the Assembly to learn about tools for escaping the closing walls of debt, to share resources and skills, and to magnify our assembled energy. As we share our experiences we can begin to take back from the financiers what they have taken from us: our freedom and our future.
Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.
When: Saturday, June 6, from 2:30 to 5:00PM
Where: Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland, CA 94609
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