The politicization of debt. M -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 3:22 PM To: [email protected] Subject: <edu-factory> round of discussion on debt system
Last April, the conference in Minneapolis "Beneath the University, the Commons" launched a call for action against debt, the central tool of the ongoing crisis and financialization of our lives. The statement (which can be read below) was discussed and approved in other activist encounters, for instance in May at the European meetings in Paris and Bologna. Now we want to build up a global campaign for a debt abolition movement and to promote a global day of action. In the last few decades debt has been a perverse tool that substituted for welfare policies: or it is better to say, there was a sort of financialization of welfare. This was used by millions and millions of people to access social needs. For example, despite the increase in university fees, there is a trend of increasing enrolments: this means that debt was used for mass access to higher education. In this context, the non-repayment of debt is one of the roots of the current economic crisis, and banks and governments are more and more worried about so-called dangerous loans, that is, loans that cannot be paid back. We don't need a moralistic position against debt, but a political strategy. The abolition of debt is not a gift of governments or international bodies, but a field of struggle. We do not invoke the non- repayment of debt only because it exists at the mass level, but because it is a form of resistance and reappropriation of social richness. We can collectively contribute to the organization of this struggle at the global level, creating connections, and with social, political, and juridical instruments. We can claim the right of bankruptcy for workers, students, and migrants. We know that debt has different forms and effects in different areas and contexts, from the local to the global scale. Of course it is not limited to the university, and student debt is only one of the many facets of the process: in fact, since the Eighties the battle against debt in the postcolonial world was a central issue that contributed to the formation of a global movement. And, as stated earlier, debt is a central mechanism in the contemporary global economic crisis. Surely the campaign against debt must be global, or it will not be at all. In calling for such a global campaign we are aware that debt is not merely a financial matter but also a fundamental condition of the human animal. Because the human species depends on constant learning and education for its survival, these should be considered basic needs, along with shelter and food, to which all governments and social organisations accord universal access. Furthermore, human animals exist in a relation of environmental interdependence with other inhabitants of planet Earth, including inanimate as well as animate beings. The abolition of financial debt is a political correlate to the recognition and accommodation of these other forms of human indebtedness. To build up a global campaign we propose to use the edufactory list as a place of debate, connection, and organization. From the 1st of October, 2010 to the 1st of January, 2011 we are planning a round of discussion and political inquiry dedicated to the various forms of debt - as well as the various forms of resistance and struggles against it - all over the world. To improve free discussion and circulation of news and documents, we will preparing a calendar of scheduled contributions. If you want to send a contribution, please write to [email protected] All the material will be published on a dedicated section of the edufactory website: http://www.edu-factory.org/edu15/index.php?option=com_content <http://www.edu-factory.org/edu15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&; id=356> &view=article&id=356 Call for Action Against Debt We, students, teachers, migrant and precarious workers, call for a debt abolition network to organize a global day of action against student debt. We struggle everyday in movements all around the world against the privatization of the university, the precaritization of work, the new enclosures of our knowledges and for the reappropriation of our commonwealth. We have identified debt as a primary component in all of these struggles. Debt is the main instrument of enclosure of our social wealth: education, knowledge, access to healthy food, housing and healthcare. In nearly every aspect of our lives, the access to credit is necessary in order to live our lives. Debt is a fundamental political question because it is a key component of control of our lives and bodies. This control is exercised as blackmail on an individual level as well as generalized social exploitation on a large scale. Debt has been used as a management strategy to separate, divide and maintain supremacy over individuals, communities, countries and even entire continents for over 30 years. Debt is a necessary parasitical function of financial capitalism today. Without continued lending and deeper debt, capital cannot continue to function. The current economic crisis exemplifies this principle. Debt is therefore an inequitable system that produces profits for the financial industry at the expense of our education and our lives. Student debt is one of the first forms where of this unjust system is put into practice. As students, we are forced to borrow to have access to education. These predatory lending strategies have created generations whose futures are indentured to banks and financial institutions. Student debt means the corporatization and financialization of the university. It is the enclosure of our knowledge and passions, and the precarization of our labor and lives. Student debt is therefore part of a general struggle against the contemporary slavery of credit cards, mortgages, and the international debt system. It is our singular battle in the common struggle for a more just world. We therefore claim the right to bankruptcy for all and we claim the right to access credit for all. We call for the immediate abolition of debt and we call for civil disobedience against the debt system. We won't pay back the debt!
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