---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Mark Crispin Miller" <markcrispinmiller@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 27, 2011 1:25 PM
Subject: [MCM] What would happen if 1 million students pledge to withhold their debt payments? Maybe something really good....
To: <newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com>
This original and potentially very important action that requires your immediate action.
It involves circulating a PLEDGE to those who already owe or will soon owe student debts NOT TO PAY THEM AS SOON AS ONE MILLION PEOPLE ALSO SIGN THE SAME PLEDGE.
Please note that no one is being asked to stop paying their debt now, so no one who simply makes
__________________________
General Information :
Occupy Student Debt!
National Campaign Launch
On Monday, November 21, Occupy Student Debt is launching a national campaign of student debt refusal. This campaign is a response to the student debt crisis and the dependency of U.S. higher education on debt-financing from the people it is supposed to serve. There is no justice in a system that openly invites profiteering on the part of lenders. Education is a right and a public good, and it should be properly funded as such.
The campaign will consist of three pledges:
-A debtor's pledge to refuse loan payments.The pledge will take
effect after a million debtors have signed.
-A faculty pledge of support for the refusers
-A non-debtors' pledge of support for parents and other public sympathizers
The pledges come out of our commitment to four fundamental principles:
- Education is not a consumer good and therefore student
loans should not be treated like consumer loans. If they are to exist,
student loans should be interest-free.
- Tuition at all public colleges and universities should be federally funded.
- Private and for-profit colleges and universities should open their books.
- The current debt burden should be written off, ending the bondage of
two generations of student debtors.
The launch will take place 1:30 at Zuccotti Park, followed by
CUNY/Baruch at Madison Square Park at 3pm. Given the strength of
national sentiment around this issue, we expect campuses around the
country will join us in staging events to launch the campaign.
The campaign is the work of the student debt subcommittee of the
OWS Empowerment and Education working group.
******
The pledges are on this website www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org
FB facebook.com/pages/OccupyStudentDebtCampaignorg/217129071692202?sk=wall#
--
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From: "Mark Crispin Miller" <markcrispinmiller@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 27, 2011 1:25 PM
Subject: [MCM] What would happen if 1 million students pledge to withhold their debt payments? Maybe something really good....
To: <newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com>
What this country needs—and what the Occupation has made possible—is a national
campaign to cancel student debt. And we can make this happen, if a million students
pledge to withhold their debt payments from the banks.
MCM
From Bertell Ollman:
This original and potentially very important action that requires your immediate action.
It involves circulating a PLEDGE to those who already owe or will soon owe student debts NOT TO PAY THEM AS SOON AS ONE MILLION PEOPLE ALSO SIGN THE SAME PLEDGE.
Please note that no one is being asked to stop paying their debt now, so no one who simply makes
the pledge is risking any punishment. What happens later... well, obviously that will all depend on many things starting with how many people sign it and how far they are willing to go in carrying it out, since individuals who sign can always opt out.
As the number of signers grow, the possible effects range from - at a minimum - making student
As the number of signers grow, the possible effects range from - at a minimum - making student
debt a major public issue with banks as well as politicians (esp. in this election year) mixing their threats with offers of debt refrom, to - at a maximum - .... well, given the interrelatedness of all our social and economic problems, I won't deny you the pleasure of giving free rein to your imaginations
on this one.
Bertell
The pledge—which you can sign if you're a student, whether debtor or non-debtor, or if you're
on a university or college faculty—is here:
OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT CAMPAIGN
Welcome
Welcome to the Occupy Student Debt Campaign. This campaign is a response to the student debt crisis and the dependency of U.S. higher education on debt-financing from the people it is supposed to serve. There is no justice in a system that openly invites profiteering on the part of lenders. Education is a right and a public good, and it should be properly funded as such.
General Information :
Occupy Student Debt!
National Campaign Launch
On Monday, November 21, Occupy Student Debt is launching a national campaign of student debt refusal. This campaign is a response to the student debt crisis and the dependency of U.S. higher education on debt-financing from the people it is supposed to serve. There is no justice in a system that openly invites profiteering on the part of lenders. Education is a right and a public good, and it should be properly funded as such.
The campaign will consist of three pledges:
-A debtor's pledge to refuse loan payments.The pledge will take
effect after a million debtors have signed.
-A faculty pledge of support for the refusers
-A non-debtors' pledge of support for parents and other public sympathizers
The pledges come out of our commitment to four fundamental principles:
- Education is not a consumer good and therefore student
loans should not be treated like consumer loans. If they are to exist,
student loans should be interest-free.
- Tuition at all public colleges and universities should be federally funded.
- Private and for-profit colleges and universities should open their books.
- The current debt burden should be written off, ending the bondage of
two generations of student debtors.
The launch will take place 1:30 at Zuccotti Park, followed by
CUNY/Baruch at Madison Square Park at 3pm. Given the strength of
national sentiment around this issue, we expect campuses around the
country will join us in staging events to launch the campaign.
The campaign is the work of the student debt subcommittee of the
OWS Empowerment and Education working group.
******
The pledges are on this website www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org
FB facebook.com/pages/OccupyStudentDebtCampaignorg/217129071692202?sk=wall#
You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. If you'd like to donate to News From Underground, please visit http://markcrispinmiller.com/donate - we appreciate your ongoing support.
Ways to unsubscribe, 1) send a blank email to newsfromunderground+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. PLEASE NOTE: you must unsubscribe using the SAME email with which you subscribed; 2) go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page.
For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com
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