Today: Strike Debt Bay Area Presents Oakland’s First Debtors’ Assembly
Posted 11 years ago on Feb. 2, 2013, 9:10 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
oakland,
strike debt
Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 2pm
Eastside Arts Alliance, 2277 International Blvd.
Oakland, CA
On Saturday, February 2nd, Strike Debt Bay Area will host Oakland’s first 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.
Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.
ORGANIZATION INFO: Strike Debt Bay Area is the local chapter of Strike Debt, an international movement of groups working to build popular resistance to all forms of unjust debt. Strike Debt has organized the Rolling Jubilee, the Debt Resistors Operations Manual, and local debtors’ assemblies. Strike Debt supports the creation of just and sustainable economies, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence. We owe the financial institutions nothing. It is to our friends, families and community that we owe everything.
Keep it up. The banks must come down. Decency has a place in human affairs. The environment has standing. The commons are common resources gifted to the benefit of all. Love IS real.
Support strike debt all over the country.
Strikedebt news
http://occupytheory.org/read/the-clock-strikes-red-strike-debt-occupy-student-debt-campaign-declaration-of-solidarity-with-students-for-a-free-cooper-union
Strikedebt news
http://occupytheory.org/read/the-clock-strikes-red-strike-debt-occupy-student-debt-campaign-declaration-of-solidarity-with-students-for-a-free-cooper-union
OCCUPY: The analogy of swallows flocking. Many individuals reacting intuitively through consensus based action. Sometimes they partition into fractions and factions, facets that reform unto the collective whole. Our philosophies, ideologies or epistemologies do not have to be homogeneous to be ubiquitous. My only personal suggestion would be that all actions are peaceful and harm no-one. Onwards into 2013...
Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here? By Michael Moore November 22nd, 2011
'Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:
We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society; [2] where we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus; [3] where people are encouraged to take personal and collective responsibility and participate in decision making; [4] where we learn to live in harmony and embrace principles of toleration and respect for diversity and the differing views of others; [5] where we secure the civil and human rights of all from violation by tyrannical forces and unjust governments; [6] where political and economic institutions work to benefit all, not just the privileged few; [7] where we provide full and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow and flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs over monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective democracy is impossible; [9] where we work together to protect the global environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and clean air, water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.'
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/where-does-occupy-wall-street-go-here
Naomi Wolf's Suggestions for Occupy Protests:
'BE PEACEFUL no violence, no property destruction VIDEOTAPE police and post their images on a website esp if there is violence HAVE lawyers observing and representing; memorize the lawyers’ numbers. DON’T resist arrest. Lie down if it looks as if you are being charged by police. DON’T taunt or yell at or insult police. NON-VIOLENT PEACEFUL DISRUPTION of business as usual is the way to go Carry the UK flag or some other patriotic symbol that makes it a BAD visual for you to be beaten. DON’T think short, sharp, militaristic strategy — think in terms of modelling a way of life. SIT don’t march SING don’t chant DON’T cover your faces'
http://naomiwolf.org/2011/11/some-collected-notessuggestions-for-occupy-groups-and-any-others-working-to-effect-change/
Noam Chomsky: What next for Occupy? The Guardian, April 30, 2012 (Extracted from Occupy by Noam Chomsky, published May 2012.)
'Q: How best do you think the Occupy movement should go about engaging in these, what methods should be employed, and do you think it would be prudent to actually have space to decentralise bases of operation?
A: It would certainly make sense to have spaces, whether they should be open public spaces or not. To what extent they should be is a kind of a tactical decision that has to be made on the basis of a close evaluation of circumstances, the degree of support, the degree of opposition. They're different for different places, and I don't know of any general statement.
As for methods, people in this country have problems and concerns, and if they can be helped to feel that these problems and concerns are part of a broader movement of people who support them and who they support, well then it can take off. There is no single way of doing it. There is no one answer.'
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20120530.htm
Tweeted - even though the event was yesterday 2/02/2013. This is good stuff to share - spread awareness.
Strike Debt Bay Area Presents Oakland’s First Debtors’ Assembly http://occupywallst.org/article/today-strike-debt-bay-area-announces-oaklands-firs/#.UQ69Np59uz4.twitter Food4Thought pls share/circulate.
Support strike debt - and consider forming a "strike law" group to form people powered law cases.
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A Congressional aide asks the politician: "What are we going to do about the new abortion bill?"
The politician's reply: "Shhhhh -- just pay it."
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How about the criminal banksters who are still getting triliions for nothing. You want that back too?
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So THEY (criminal banksters) crashed the economy, destroyed their business (therefore should have went bankrupt in a capitalist system) then took a trillion in govt/taxpayer bailout/handout (like a socialist system) And you are good with that?
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