Welcome login | signup
Language en es fr
We are the 99 percent

News Archive

A Statement From The Occupy Student Debt Campaign

Posted 12 years ago on June 25, 2012, 9 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

occupy student debt campaign

Everybody is now talking about the student debt crisis, but nothing is being done about it. Thanks in large part to the great public amplifier of the Occupy movement, this year’s presidential contenders have been forced to embrace student loan reform as a talking point in their respective campaigns. But the debt relief being pushed by the Obama administration is a token gesture, aimed at getting some traction on the youth vote–especially the more disillusioned or alienated student constituencies. Recent bills introduced in Congress–Student Loan Forgiveness Act (H.R. 4170) and the Private Student Bankruptcy Fairness Act (H.R. 2028)–have zero chance of passing in anything like their current form. Practically speaking, no reform program of any substance is on the legislative horizon, least of all one that would regulate the predatory lending practices of Wall Street banks.

The truth is that student debt relief is too important to be left to elected officials. They are chronically dependent on the financial backing of the lending industry, and are structurally incapable of addressing this crisis, let alone resolving it. As a result, reform initiatives such as Student Loan Justice and Forgive Student Debt (to Stimulate the Economy) that have been aimed at petitioning lawmakers have very little to show for all their hard effort. The recent federal modifications in payment schedules are micro-cosmetic compared to the sea-change that is required to free debtors of their intolerable burdens and rescue higher education from its increasing use as a profit engine for financiers, asset speculators, and real estate developers. The pathway to this outcome does not lie in futile pleas for economic reform, but through a political movement, driven by self-empowerment and direct action on the part of debtors.

Read More...

273 Comments

June 28: Save Downstate Hospital!

Posted 12 years ago on June 25, 2012, 8:15 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Downstate Hospital

via Healthcare for the 99%:

Join Healthcare for the 99% and the Brooklyn Community to Rally and Speak Out!

Governor Cuomo wants to balance the budget by layoffs, hospital closings, and severe pension reductions.

The banks got bailed out. We got sold out.

Join us to work for better healthcare and more jobs. Reclaim Healthcare for the 99%!

Thursday, June 28th
11:30am – 1:30pm: Downstate Hospital 470 Clarkson Ave, Brooklyn

Subway: Take the 2 or 5 trains to Winthrop St (Exit at Nostrand/Parkside Ave. Cross Nostrand Avenue and walk one block on Parkside Ave until it ends and turn right onto New York Avenue, walk east one block and make left onto Clarkson Avenue).

Bus: B-12 and northbound B-44 buses stop at the corner of Clarkson and New York Avenues

For more info: visit http://savebrooklynhospitals.info

Help us spread the event on Facebook!

Help print out and post fliers:

Full Page Color
Full Page B&W
Qtr Page B&W

owshealthcare@gmail.com - http://owshealthcare.wordpress.com - (646) 926-4499

who do you trust?

8 Comments