Via OccupyWallSt.org:

76% of Americans are in debt. 15% are being pursued by one or more debt collectors. 22% of Americans are too impoverished to qualify for credit. That forces them into informal debt like payday loans or worse, which generate interest rates of up to 500%. So add that together and we have the 99%.

Strike Debt and the Rolling Jubilee believe that no one should have to go into debt to cover basic human rights like health care, education, and housing. One in seven Americans is being pursued by a debt collector. Credit card debt is often the “plastic safety net” that covers for gaps in household budgets caused by financing such essentials.

Medical debt is an area of personal debt that no one from outside the United States can even understand. Spanish activists are campaigning against the privatization of their national single-payer health system. They see any payment for medical treatment as the breakdown of a decent society. The idea that people might be driven to bankruptcy by medical debt is literally incomprehensible.

But in the United States, we find that no less than 62% of all bankruptcies involve medical debt. Of these people, three-quarters actually had medical insurance. So many drugs and procedures are not covered, and so high are the deductibles, that an insured person can easily find themselves unable to cover their medical bills. Two-thirds of working households do not have the resources to cover a $1000 emergency. One hour of a specialist doctor’s time can cost that alone.

Even these stark figures conceal the discrimination built into health care for people of color, low-income workers and LGBTQ populations. More than half of African-Americans struggle to pay medical bills, compared with 34% of Hispanics and 28% of whites. Black and Latino New Yorkers are more than twice as likely as whites to be uninsured. Despite some progress in recent years, LGBT individuals are less likely to have health insurance, more likely to delay seeking medical care and medication, and more likely to have a number of physical and mental health problems.

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Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.

Called a “bailout of the people by the people,” jubilee comes from many faith traditions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A jubilee is an event in which all debts are cancelled and all those in bondage are set free.

Banks sell debt for pennies on the dollar on a shadowy speculative market of debt buyers who then turn around and try to collect the full amount from debtors. The Rolling Jubilee intervenes by buying debt, keeping it out of the hands of collectors, and then abolishing it. The objective being not to make a profit, but to help each other out and highlight how the predatory debt system affects all our families and communities.

Since they launched their effort, they have raised $561,587 which will purchase and abolish $11,236,570 of personal debt.

Check out their website to learn more, or to get involved.

This is your moment of clarity #188: Everybody wants to know where Occupy is heading. Why aren't they getting pepper sprayed on the news anymore?? Here's your answer.

Keep fighting,

Lee

[LeeCamp.net]

An update on the Rolling Jubilee: Occupy Wall Street reports that the show's over – with enough raised to abolish over $5,000,000 of debt! Keep the Jubilee rolling: click here to donate!

People shouldn’t have to go into debt for an education, because they need medical care, or to put food on the table during hard times. We shouldn’t have to pay endless interest to the 1% for basic necessities. Big banks and corporations walk away from their debts and leave taxpayers to pick up the tab. It’s time for a bailout of the people, by the people.

For every $1 donated, we are able to buy and abolish $20 worth of debt.

We need a jubilee, a clean slate, a cancellation of debt for the 99%.

The Rolling Jubilee raises money to buy debt. But instead of collecting on the debt we buy, we're going to abolish it. It's time for a bailout of the people, by the people.

www.rollingjubilee.org
www.strikedebt.org

#RollingJubilee begins November 15th with the #PeoplesBailout

Buy tickets here: http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/peoples-bailout/
100% of ticket sales go to abolishing debt

Greetings from Strike Debt!

It’s finally time to tell you about our exciting new project, “The Rolling Jubilee” (www.rollingjubilee.org). The basic premise is simple: people shouldn’t have to go into debt for an education, because they need medical care, or because they have to put food on the table during hard times.

No politician is going to fix this.

The Rolling Jubilee is a bailout of the people by the people - we buy defaulted debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, we abolish it. Our goal for the launch is to raise $50,000, which will likely allow us to abolish more than $1,000,000 dollars worth of personal debt. The more money we raise, the more debt we can abolish. Donations can be made online at rollingjubilee.org beginning around November 15.

More details will be released as we get closer to the launch.

THE PEOPLE’S BAILOUT – TICKETS ON SALE Now!

This campaign will launch on November 15th with THE PEOPLE'S BAILOUT, a telethon and variety show at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. There will be music, comedy, education, magic and more. Confirmed guests include: comedian Janeane Garofalo, Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead, actor/director John Cameron Mitchell ('Hedwig and the Angry Inch'), comedian Hari Kondabolu, David Rees ('Get Your War On'), Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, and more. (Download Poster at https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/46531_297288527050595_1862553266_n.jpg)

Tickets for the show are already on sale. Purchase yours at http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/peoples-bailout/. Be quick, we expect them go fast!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We're hoping you can help us spread the message via social media. Let’s get the word out far and wide. Here’s how:

RIGHT NOW

1) Forward this message to friends and family.

2) Please like our Facebook page & share the Facebook Event Page.

3) Follow @StrikeDebt on twitter.

4) Post and tweet using the hashtags #PeoplesBailout and #RollingJubilee, and refer to our website (www.rollingjubilee.org) and twitter handle. Some sample posts can be found here: http://bit.ly/RJSampleTweets.

5) Donate your Twitter or Facebook account for one daily re-post or re-tweet: http://donateyouraccount.com/StrikeDebt. This is a safe and easy way to help us keep spreading the message.

HELP US PROMOTE ON NOVEMBER 15TH

On November 8th and 15th, we’re organizing big coordinated pushes to promote #PeoplesBailout on social media. Soon we will be sending out additional info about how to help. Watch your inbox and invite your friends to sign up at rollingjubilee.org.

Please email us (rollingjubilee@gmail.com or strikedebt@interoccupy.net) if you have any questions about the Rolling Jubilee. We’ll be in touch soon with details about the big social media push.

In Solidarity,

Strike Debt

PS - To head off one common question, we cannot buy specific individual's debt - instead, we help liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. As a trial run, we spent $466 and successfully bought and abolished $14,000 of medical debt.

You are not a loan.

[Via]