Debtor's Revolution: Are debt strikes the next weapon against the banksters?

[backscatter712]

Posted originally by marmar in Editorials & Other Articles

I'm just posting it here because I wanted it to see a bigger audience.

http://www.alternet.org/story/152963/debtor%27s_revolution%3A_are_debt_strikes_another_possible_tactic_in_the_fight_against_the_big_banks/?page=entire

Debtor's Revolution: Are Debt Strikes Another Possible Tactic in the Fight Against the Big Banks?

What does it mean to stop cooperating with the banks? Some activists, organizers, and technologists think the answer might be mass refusal to pay debts.

November 3, 2011 | In the gorgeous, purple-and-green-lit Lower East Side headquarters of the Angel Orensanz Foundation, nearly 300 techies, activists and thinkers gathered, shouting out ideas for social justice-minded Web projects that they would break into small groups to attempt to hash out in a day.

A man in a plaid shirt stood up and told the moderator and the crowd, “I want to create a tool for organizing debt strikes.”

The man was Thomas Gokey, an artist and adjunct professor at Syracuse University, and his idea wound up one of the four “winners” at ContactCon, a conference hosted by Douglas Rushkoff that urged people to think of solutions to the problem of the corporate-controlled Internet—and by extension, the world. The project, nicknamed “Kick-Stopper,” is in the works, but Gokey notes that he's far from the only person out there suggesting, especially in the wake of Occupy Wall Street's successes, that it's time for some more serious, organized direct action around the issue of debt.

“I wanted to do this project because I kept having the same basic conversation with everyone at Zuccotti and everywhere else,” Gokey told me. “When I talk to people about what we could do that would really compel Congress and Wall Street to meet our demands or really alter the current system, we inevitably start discussing what non-cooperation with our own oppression would look like. What does it mean to stop cooperating with the banks? What we inevitably end up describing is some variation of a debt strike, simply ending our own participation in a system that exploits us.”

I'm all for this. In fact, with my student loan debt, I may have little choice but to participate...

[midnight]

1. I wonder why the people in debt can't have the same benefit with their debt that

our tax dollars did for the bankers debt?

[backscatter712]

2. It's hard for the middle-class to buy politicians... n/t

[nineteen50]

3. to start with

do not pay any debt created by fraudulent banking behavior.
All debt caused by fraudulent practice should be dismissed.

[KansDem]

4. I've wondered if this might be possible...

What could possibly be the outcome? "Bad credit scores?" There isn't a whole lot of credit being offered anyway. And when you do qualify for a loan, it's at some ghastly interest rate. I needed to replace my water heater and buy a new refrigerator. I took out a loan to cover the costs--interest rate? 24.9%.

People make due. We heated up water in large pots on the stove for baths while we were waiting to get the loan. And since our refrigerator wasn't cooling very well, we were careful what we bought to eat: canned goods, slow-to-perish items like fresh fruit and vegetables. Anything we bought that needed refrigeration we used immediately--like within 24 hours.

But this would have to be undertaken by as many people as possible to have the full effect.

[gratuitous]

5. I had a friend many years ago, who was caught out financially

He had a bank account that covered his overdrafts for a fee, and he was caught betwixt and between, financially speaking. So he just kept writing checks, and ran up a couple hundred dollars in fees (which were much lower in those days), not to mention the overdrafts. When the bank finally called him, he basically told them that he was good for it, he'd cure the deficiencies, but right now he had to satisfy his other creditors. The bank threatened him, and he told them if they started formal collection proceedings, he'd just go bankrupt, and they could wait in line with his other unsecured creditors to see if they got anything.

It worked. The bank backed down, waited patiently, and my friend made good on his overdrafts and fees within six or eight months. When he told me about it, I thought it was rather well done. I don't know if the same strategy would work today, but once upon a time, you could bargain with the banksters.

[TBF]

6. I am way ahead on this one -

when we graduated (grad school) we were way in debt, student loans and credit cards. Our cc limits where probably way too high considering we were in school, but we had been granted those limits when we were working so they were higher than you'd expect. At any rate, at some point we were having trouble paying everything, and when I called Citibank to ask for extra time, they claimed that I'd have to miss another payment before they could "do anything". By the time that happened every other creditor noticed the late payment and up'ed their interest rates (and minimum payments).

It was early enough in this decade that we could've declared bankruptcy (before the new laws), but we didn't want to do it. We thought that now we were out of school and with persistence we could eventually pay everything off. Well, the credit card companies don't work that way - they sold the accounts to collection agencies, and that's when I unplugged the phones, paid only my student loans, and decided we were dealing just in cash for awhile. Our credit scores plummeted and there we were.

Now it is several years later, many of those items have eventually dropped off, and even the few we were sued on were easy for our lawyer to get dismissed (and I have paid less than $3K in legal fees, while the credit card debt in total was about $100K when you added everything together). We have money in savings, we are still paying the student loans (most we got extended so we could pay for awhile at a lower rate), and we now only have a few secured cards that we are using to rebuild our credit. The one way it really hurt us is that we couldn't buy a house, but our credit scores have recovered enough that we should be able to in the next year or two.

After our experiences we are very gun shy about credit, have kept older cars, and will not buy more than we can handle with a house. But there is more than personal responsibility going on here - I believe the banks should have some role in being responsible as well and not grant loans to folks who obviously will not be able to pay when that ARM goes up to the next level (for example).

ETA: Wanted to add that a lot of folks would have to do this for it to have any effect, and you'd have to check your state laws. We were OK in our state because they can't garnish wages on credit card losses. Don't know if this could work on a nation wide basis given those individual state laws.

[grasswire]

7. the comments section is priceless

The stories of those who yearn to avenge the disasters the banks caused their grandfathers are stunning. That's a story in and of itself. Avenging the 20th century crimes of Wall Street against one's family.

I find this whole discussion fascinating. An American Epic Tale.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. I've been talking about this for years..........

This is another weapon (along with strikes) in the class war. We could also ALL declare bankruptcy at the same time if they got pissy about it. Everything stops while you're waiting for a court date and the bk courts are already overloaded and slow. If it were done right, it could be literally YEARS before your case came to court.

And don't worry too much about that meme of bks ruining your credit forever. As another poster said in that other thread, it's similiar to the "permanent record" thing we all heard in school. I've recovered from TWO bankruptcies (seven and a thirteen) and it didn't take too long. Maybe a couple of years. Less than that to get your score back up.