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Debtor’s Unions

Debtor Organizing Can Transform Our Individual Financial Struggles

September 17, 2024 J. Patrick Patterson, In These Times. , , ,
Although debtors’ unions are a new, emerging front in the fight against racial capitalism, their potential holds across many types of debt. The millions of people being crushed by medical debt could organize locally to demand hospitals cancel their bills. Or they could start a national medical debt strike to advance the cause of universal healthcare. Credit card debtors could rally against usurious lending practices and advocate for a socially productive — as opposed to predatory — system of credit and debt. Student debtors could transform not only the predatory lending that has become synonymous with higher education, but also the landscape of who has access to that higher education in the first place.

‘You Are Not A Loan!’ Introducing The Nation’s First Debtors’ Union

July 23, 2024 Hannah Appel and Astra Taylor, In These Times. , , , ,
A dozen members of Debt Collective were arrested at a Capitol Hill protest in May demanding that President Joe Biden ​“fund education, not genocide.” Before they were taken away by police, the protesters unfurled banners reading ​“You Are Not A Loan” and “$1,700,000,000,000” (the current amount of outstanding student debt). The connection was clear: Biden can and must use his executive powers to cancel all student debt and fund education, not to authorize and fund Israel’s destruction of Palestine. Organizers and activists came from all over the country to Washington, D.C., to tell him so. The ​“Fund Education, Not Genocide” action in May was just a sliver of what we’re about — and what we’re capable of.