Overview

Debtors have been mocked, scolded, and lied to for decades. We have been told that it is perfectly normal to go into debt to get medical care, to go to school, or even to pay for our own incarceration. We've been told there is no way to change an economy that pushes the majority of people into debt while a small minority hoard wealth and power. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed that mass indebtedness and extreme inequality are a political choice. In the early days of the crisis, elected officials drew up plans to spend trillions of dollars. The only question was: where would the money go and who would benefit from the bailout?The truth is that there has never been a lack of money for things like housing, education, and health care. Millions of people never needed to be forced into debt for those things in the first place.Armed with this knowledge, a militant debtors movement has the potential to rewrite the contract and assure that no one has to mortgage their future to survive. Debtors of the world must unite. As isolated individuals, debtors have little influence. But as a bloc, we can leverage our debts and devise new tactics to challenge the corporate creditor class and help win reparative, universal public goods. Individually, our debts overwhelm us. But together, our debts can make us powerful.

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9781799968412

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Reviews

The Debt Collective's Student Debt Strike is an important campaign to help build the mass movement we need to resist and abolish student debt. -- Rep. Rashida Tlaib The Debt Collective has given us a visionary roadmap for forming an army of debtors that is powerful enough to make capital scream. -- Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author 'No one should have to go into debt to meet their basic needs, ' Debt Collective declares in this urgent book, which lays out concrete strategies and a powerful vision for radical change. -- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, academic, writer, and activist

Author Information

The Debt Collective is a new kind of union--a debtors' union--that transforms individual financial struggles into a source of collective power by enabling its members to engage in strategic campaigns of economic disobedience and debt refusal. The Debt Collective's writers' bloc includes Ann Larson, Astra Taylor, Hannah Appel, Thomas Gokey, and Laura Hanna. Nancy Peterson is a voice talent and audiobook narrator who won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018. Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, author, and activist. She is the author of The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age and Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone.

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