Strike Debt Urges You To Take Action
Fighting debt and our exploitative economic system will require both individual and collective action. Here are some immediate steps you can take to shift the balance of power, apply pressure to creditors, and help the debt movement keep rolling.
- Fight back against debt buyers
- Hold a debt assembly
- Save houses and whole communities using Eminent Domain
- Work together against student debt
Check this page often. We’ll be updating it regularly with new projects.
1. Fight back against debt buyers
One in seven Americans is being hounded by a debt collector. But what rights do those collectors have to demand payment? It turns out it might not be much. A recent study suggested that as much as 95% of collection debts might not stand up to a dispute. You don’t need expensive lawyers – filing a dispute only costs as much as the postage for a certified letter.
The New Economy Project, a legal services nonprofit based in NYC, has provided this easyform letter that you can print out and mail.
If you have an account in debt collection, there is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t dispute that debt before paying a single penny. More often than not, collectors are unable to prove that you owe them anything.
2. Hold a debt assembly
A debt assembly is when a group of people of any size gather in a public place to talk about how debt is affecting their lives and communities. These assemblies have functioned as incredible organizing tools for Strike Debt in NYC – the very act of speaking in public about our debt helps us forge a common identity as debtors and begin to build a movement together.
Watch debt assemblies held in New York City and Philadelphia.
Learn more about how to hold a debt assembly.
3. Save houses and whole communities using Eminent Domain
Submitted by Strike Debt Bay Area
More than ten million foreclosures have piled up nationwide since the beginning of the mortgage crisis, forcing untold millions of people out of their homes. Direct action, lawsuits, and government settlements have only helped a small fraction of those affected. We need abetter solution in the short term: local principal reduction and eminent domain. Here’s anexplanation. And here’s a letter in support of using this tactic that you can share with your neighbors and send to your City Council.
4. Work together against student debt
We stand by the founding principles of the Occupy Student Debt Campaign. They are widely shared and we believe they are crucial to any effort to end the debt-financing of education. We encourage student debtors to find and talk to other debtors and learn everything you can about student debt, from the banks and policies involved, to your own personal loan situation (Who owns your loans? Who services them? What policies do they have? etc). An excellent resource is the chapter on student debt in our Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual.
To truly solve the problem of a broken higher education system, we need to build collective power at the student level, as was done so effectively in Quebec. Student unions are popping up all over the USA – find one near you, or start one: http://www.studentunionism.org/find-a-union/
