This is exactly the question that needs to be asked, and unfortunately I don’t see many leftist orgs in America talking about it, if at all. How? What does it take to achieve the political goals? What is the strategy here?
I am not going to pretend to be an expert (non-burgerlander here), but I think the first step has to revolve around debt. Without addressing the debt problem, there is no workers movement in America. Everyone is saddled in medical debt, student debt, mortgages, credit card debt etc. If you lose your job, you‘re fucked. And there won’t be many people who’d be willing to risk getting fired to participate in labor movement. This is perhaps the principal contradiction that needs to be addressed head on.
PS. I read the entire PSL program from their website and the word “debt” did not come up even once. Not sure about DSA though.
Well there is the Debt Collective. A project they are involved in is the Rolling Jubilee which buys mass debt in the same way a collection agency would, then forgives it all. They just send everyone on the list a letter to let them know.
Obviously that's a cool thing to do, but it's a token. To change the attitude of the class, you'd need to be operating at a much more massive scale, not just paying off debt, but preventing it from accruing. How do you affect change like that without some real power to begin with?
I can't really think how this org, or a different one, could do out of the Luigi situation to get a victory about the debt situation.
Like what are you generally thinking? Meetings? Posting? Create new orgs? Recruit to existing orgs? Fundraising? Workshops? Riots? Militias?
So far we have a lot of posting energy going on, but how to direct/collect that? I agree with the sentiment of "there must be a way to use this!" but I can't zoom in on any details.. it's all hazy.
First move of an organized movement would be to refuse paying debt collectively until there has been debt forgiveness and better terms for debtors. The system/establishment would not be able to deal with that much cash flow suddenly drying up, would it?
Saying "First move of an organized movement" is circular and contradictory. You need to do things to get organized. You need to do a lot of things to get to the point where mass debt refusal is anything but a pipe dream.
First move of an organized movement is to call a meeting, probably a very small one.
As to the tactical value of stopping the flow of cash, idk about that. I think debt is a lot about discipline and control vs providing needed income to the ruling class. Who after all, own literally everything.
If debt refusal was done the primary value would be a) its impact on the day to day lives of people keeping their money (effectively getting a raise), and b) the building and flexing the muscles of an organized working class.
I agree about getting organized first. I'm speaking more towards how an organized movement could challenge these structures whether they are there to control the populace or whether that system actually plays into how the ruling class can own everything in the first place. Corporations need cash flow in order to maintain their own operations and they have their own creditors/debt that is based on this concept of 'future cash flow' and a drying up of that cash flow would make things a bit precarious for them.
Well like in a more serious reality what form would it take?
This is exactly the question that needs to be asked, and unfortunately I don’t see many leftist orgs in America talking about it, if at all. How? What does it take to achieve the political goals? What is the strategy here?
I am not going to pretend to be an expert (non-burgerlander here), but I think the first step has to revolve around debt. Without addressing the debt problem, there is no workers movement in America. Everyone is saddled in medical debt, student debt, mortgages, credit card debt etc. If you lose your job, you‘re fucked. And there won’t be many people who’d be willing to risk getting fired to participate in labor movement. This is perhaps the principal contradiction that needs to be addressed head on.
PS. I read the entire PSL program from their website and the word “debt” did not come up even once. Not sure about DSA though.
Well there is the Debt Collective. A project they are involved in is the Rolling Jubilee which buys mass debt in the same way a collection agency would, then forgives it all. They just send everyone on the list a letter to let them know.
Obviously that's a cool thing to do, but it's a token. To change the attitude of the class, you'd need to be operating at a much more massive scale, not just paying off debt, but preventing it from accruing. How do you affect change like that without some real power to begin with?
I can't really think how this org, or a different one, could do out of the Luigi situation to get a victory about the debt situation.
Like what are you generally thinking? Meetings? Posting? Create new orgs? Recruit to existing orgs? Fundraising? Workshops? Riots? Militias?
So far we have a lot of posting energy going on, but how to direct/collect that? I agree with the sentiment of "there must be a way to use this!" but I can't zoom in on any details.. it's all hazy.
First move of an organized movement would be to refuse paying debt collectively until there has been debt forgiveness and better terms for debtors. The system/establishment would not be able to deal with that much cash flow suddenly drying up, would it?
Saying "First move of an organized movement" is circular and contradictory. You need to do things to get organized. You need to do a lot of things to get to the point where mass debt refusal is anything but a pipe dream.
First move of an organized movement is to call a meeting, probably a very small one.
As to the tactical value of stopping the flow of cash, idk about that. I think debt is a lot about discipline and control vs providing needed income to the ruling class. Who after all, own literally everything.
If debt refusal was done the primary value would be a) its impact on the day to day lives of people keeping their money (effectively getting a raise), and b) the building and flexing the muscles of an organized working class.
I agree about getting organized first. I'm speaking more towards how an organized movement could challenge these structures whether they are there to control the populace or whether that system actually plays into how the ruling class can own everything in the first place. Corporations need cash flow in order to maintain their own operations and they have their own creditors/debt that is based on this concept of 'future cash flow' and a drying up of that cash flow would make things a bit precarious for them.