For Some Debtors, “Coming Out” Is First Step Toward Resistance

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:


For Some Debtors, “Coming Out” Is First Step Toward Resistance
Chris Kasper hadn’t realized how much shame he felt for being in debt until he stood up in public and spoke about it. As much of Occupy’s energy flows into debt resistance, many more people are doing the same.

by Chris Kasper
posted Oct 31, 2012


I could buy a two-bedroom home in most American cities with what I owe on my student loans. I’ve been making monthly payments for four years now and, thanks to a locked-in 4.5% APR, my debt is bigger than when I started paying. I’ll most likely die before it’s gone.

So when I heard that people from Occupy Theory, the Occupy Student Debt Campaign, and OWS Free University, among others, were holding open assemblies in Washington Square Park on the topic of debt, I showed up to the next one scheduled.

It took place at noon on a Sunday in early June. Just a handful of people were there at first, but our numbers grew to around 25 over the next couple hours. The conversation focused on debt, and how something had shifted in Occupy that was turning our focus toward this issue. I recognized some labor folks, some professors, and people who I had been in marches with. There were also people I didn’t know.

One professor talked about his work with the Occupy Student Debt Campaign, and about a personal conflict he had been having. He had realized, he said, that he was participating in an exploitative system of education that was sending students out to start their lives in service to enormous burdens of debt. This struck an immediate chord with me, being in service to enormous burdens of my own through that very system. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/ows-debtors-coming-out-first-step-toward-resistance

[FirstLight]

1. bookmarked!

looks like a good article and a good outcome of the movement...