Strike Debt: To Whom Are We Indebted?

Strike Debt, a movement that grew out of Occupy Wall Street in NYC in 2012, and organized itself around all forms of debt, drafted a manual titled The Debt Resisters' Operations Manual. This manual "reveals how the predatory debt system works to increase inequality, undermine democracy, and ruin lives. It provides detailed strategies for fighting common forms of debt and lays out an expansive vision for a societal movement of debt resistance." It is well worth reading, as it was written by numerous experts and is enormously comprehensive in its scope.

Strike Debt has been highly effective in its efforts to achieve its mission in debt resistance. Those involved continue to make tremendous strides, and I am personally honored that they cited me in their manual.

In the introduction to the manual, an interesting question is raised: "To Whom Are We Indebted?" It is here in which the authors outline the structural forms of our debt system in the US as well as globally. While acknowledging how it certainly affects individuals, and pointing out how society tends to place blame solely on the individuals who take on the debt, the discussion addresses the systemic ways in which debt divides those with power and those without it (this section even discusses the destabilizing role it plays in our most intimate relationships, i.e. how it divides us). Indeed, debt has the power to destroy our most intimate relationships, as many debtors have shared with me here in past testimonials. Furthermore, the creators of the manual are also highly aware of the fact that debt - as I have said many times here - creates a collective bond between all debtors, but at the same time the manual notes how debt plays a different role in the lives of women, people of color, as well as queer and trans folks. In a word, intersectionality is a key thread in the manual's analysis.

While the question of to whom are we indebted can be answered with notable negative responses, the writers of the manual also remind us of the positive aspects of indebtedness. For instance, authors, in the acknowledgments section of a book, will oftentimes write something like, "I am indebted to my wife or my husband or colleague(s) and without their support, the creation of this work never would have been possible."

Naturally, this got me thinking about the people to whom I am indebted, the people who care about my well-being, who want me to succeed, who are there for me even when I doubt everything about my abilities. There are a lot of people to whom I am indebted, one person in particular I am thinking about right now (he saved my life in fact), but those details are included in the Introduction to my forthcoming book.

To Whom Are You Indebted? You can answer this in the affirmative, negative, or both.