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Tonight, Strike Debt will officially launch the Rolling Jubilee with the People’s Bailout Variety Show And Telethon from Le Poison Rouge in New York City.
The event is a new take on the classic telethon, intended to raise money for the Rolling Jubilee. This project is designed to relieve the 99% of unnecessary and oppressive debt by fund raising to purchase debt around the country and abolishing it. The event features Janeane Garafalo, Lizz Winstead, Hari Kondabolu, David Rees, John Cameron Mitchell, Jeff Mangum, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Kool AD and Dapwell of Das Racist and many more. So far the Rolling Jubilee has raised $198,428 and counting which will abolish $3,973,386 of debt. This evening hopes to push that number even higher. The sold out event begins at 8pm tonight and will be livestreamed at RollingJubilee.org.
The project is a product of Strike Debt and came out of a series of assemblies in New York this year geared toward addressing the issue. Already, the work of this offshoot of Occupy Walls Street is simply amazing. The Debt Resistors Operations Manual (.pdf link) was released just ahead of the September 17th Anniversary and has people all over the country getting educated to defend themselves against a culture of debt-based oppression. Strike Debt has followed up with this direct and effective action: in liberating “debtors” and engaging people in collective resistance.
Debt has become a commodity that can be purchased for pennies on the dollar after it has been charged-off by the original creditor. In most cases, tax write offs have mitigated the loss for the company. This highlights the absurdity of collecting money from people that has already been paid for the benefit of the few. Strike Debt intends to spark a movement of collective noncooperation and resistance by showing people debt’s true form. To get involved, go to RollingJubilee.org and enjoy the show tonite.
You can read the Debt Resistors Operations Manual (.pdf link) at StrikeDebt.org.
Check out our #OccupySupply Skill Share: Occupy 2.0 Strike Debt with Astra Taylor, Thomas Gokey and Melissa Fleschman
Here’s Democracy Now! on the Jubilee:
More about Strike Debt on Firedoglake:
11 Comments
You might want to embed Democracy Now’s piece on it, John Washington.
Occupy Sandy, Rolling Jubilee. Yes, this is how we take back our lives. Debt is the irresistible weapon of the Plutocracy.
Thank you John Washington for this post, and thank you Occupy for showing us how we when we work together we all have better lives. Well, 99% of us can, for sure, and I suspect that the 1% would be happier if people liked them better.
Thank you for posting this. I fell in love with the idea as soon as i read of it. Freaking genius (!) is actually what i thought.
I’m giving a donation in the name of every person on my Christmas list. My people will get a small print of a painting i did while the idea was sizzling in my head, and a note to each about the project in case they want to carry on with it.
What an awesome gift idea!
Great idea, wendy. Done!
thanks for the help guys
Thanks, darlin’. So many cool ways are brewin’ to Fight the Machine, eh wot? I love it!
Walmart’s gettin’ it’s skanky ass kicked too. ;o)
Perfect: PRI’s Marketplace is doing a piece on this right now, including the biblical origins of Jubilee debt-forgiveness.
I would like to hear more emphasis on the fact that many of these sold accounts have not only been written off, but have actually been paid.
I myself got a call a few months ago about an old, old debt (the statute of limitations has usually, as in that case, long since run when they collectors buy the accounts, that I knew very well I had settled. I demanded the legal requirement – that they send me a written statement of what I allegedly owed….never got anything in written, never heard from them again.
The business model for these buyers is to collect even a small portion of the alleged debt: at the price they pay, any amount they can get is pure profit, and they really don’t care if it is genuinely owed. The cost of proving it’s really owed would cut into profit, so they won’t bother. They can’t sue (see statute of limitations), so they try to intimidate the alleged debtor into paying.
It’s good to have this exposed; but in two news reports, I’ve only heard glancing mention of the fact that the “debt” may not actually be owed.
One of my friends gets the occasional call for debt he doesn’t have. It’s always the same assholes, too — the Barro Law Firm in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Evidence that these vultures don’t actually correct the record for a given individual. They judt put the file at thr back of the (virtual) file drawer, and try again a coupla years later when they work their way through the drawer.
It ‘s a racket, and should be exposed. I hope this works.
Last year i started getting calls from some of those scummy collectors seeking payment for a debt of my ex husband’s from 26 years ago. TWENTY SIX years ago, not even my debt.