“Occupy never sought office. It never tried to control avenues of power. What most people considered to be its greatest weakness — the lack of direction — turned out to be its greatest asset.”
Zachary Antoyan
[follow id = “CPMustangNews”]
Zachary Antoyan is a political science senior and Mustang News liberal columnist. These views do not necessarily reflect the opinion or editorial coverage of Mustang News.
It was easy for a lot of different people to chastise the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Most media outlets were instantly skeptical, Republicans finally had a liberal splinter group they could berate to take the heat off of their Tea Party, and even Stephen Colbert tried to provide some directional aid. They were making fun of the movement because when someone yelled: ”What do we want?” everyone responded with something different. With demands that were vague and idealistic, the throngs of protestors were easily waved off by those in power.
The most significant argument against the movement itself was that it was directionless. Opposition to the movement believed that, devoid of any tangible goals or even a game plan, it would eventually burn itself out, kind of like a Republican filibuster. Jump ahead two years and, indeed, Occupy Wall Street has lost some steam.
As it turns out, challenges to the purpose of Occupy Wall Street proved to be exactly what the movement needed. Those with the political power to take the type of action that Occupy called for, didn’t. This forced those who took the movement’s ideals to heart to seek out forms of action that bypassed the normal channels of change. What’s more, the avenues of change they found worked within existing political and economic systems. By understanding the systems that Occupy opposes, small groups of activists are able to make big impacts that accomplish their own goals.
So let’s assume that the medical bills that you’ve accumulated from your participation in the National Puma Wrestling League have reached insane levels. On top of that, the interest on the loans you took out to pay those bills is making it impossible to wipe your debt clean. Worst of all, now the pumas have no one to wrassle with. This is where the project Rolling Jubilee comes into play (the debt, not the wrassling). Rolling Jubilee is a project of Strike Debt, “A nationwide movement of debt resistors fighting for economic justice and democratic freedom.”
The people you owe money to know that you won’t be able to pay back all the debt in a timely manner (sponsors for your sport are unsurprisingly hard to come by). Still looking to make money back on the loan, they offer your debt up for purchase to other financial institutions. These are the companies that are advertising to you to refinance your loans during that marathon of “Dance Moms.” These companies buy the debt from the initial creditor for kibbles compared to the initial value of the debt, then rework the loan to make it “easier” for you to pay the loan back. Take note, these programs have been labeled as scams before, sometimes making it more difficult for you to repay your debts. Using this system, Rolling Jubilee purchases the debt en masse from those initial creditors, but instead of reworking the loan, they eliminate the debt entirely.
Conversations started by the Occupy Movement led to the formation of Strike Debt group that seeks to organize effective action towards bailing out individuals at random, as compared to bailing out major corporations and banks. To put it all into perspective, Rolling Jubilee raised around $600,000 to help eliminate personal debt around the country. With that sum it has been able to abolish approximately $14.7 million worth of debt. I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves.
Occupy never sought office. It never tried to control avenues of power. What most people considered to be its greatest weakness — the lack of direction — turned out to be its greatest asset. I say this because in order for it to uphold its ideals, it couldn’t follow the same path the Tea Party took, and it couldn’t operate in the way that everyone said it needed to. It enables individuals to take action in a multitude of ways, and the Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual that Strike Debt offers is a testament to that. Occupy Wall Street provided the base with which people could be the change they wanted to see in the world, collaborating with non-profits, highlighting major issues and inequalities, and perhaps most importantly, starting conversations and connecting people in places where they didn’t exist before.
This is Zachary Antoyan thinking that dino-nuggets are ALWAYS an acceptable choice. ALWAYS. Have a fantastic week everyone.