Student Militancy Increasing

Tuition hikes, financial aid cuts and the massacre in Gaza have sparked a semester of occupations.

Micah White
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25 Feb 2009
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6 comments

Students occupy Nottingham University (source)

A series of university occupations that began in mid-January has continued with growing momentum. As of today, there have been thirty occupations at universities in the UK and the US. And, what is most surprising, is that many of the occupations have ended with victories for the student activists who dared to speak up. Are we witnessing the first stages of a global student uprising?

According to Occupations.org.uk, "To date there have been 28 UK university occupations. The universities occupied have been SOAS, LSE, Essex, King’s College, Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Manchester Met, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Sheffield Hallam, Bradford, Nottingham, Queen Mary’s, Manchester, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Goldsmiths, Edinburgh, UEA, Byam Shaw, UEL, St Andrews, UWE, Plymouth, UAL and Cardiff. There have been 2 occupations of BBC buildings- one in Glasgow and one in London. There has also been two university occupation abroad that we know of at the University of Rochester in the USA and NYU." We can also add the New School occupation to their list making a grand total of 31 university occupations.

In other cities, students are engaging in activities that could lead to future occupations. In Philadelphia, for example, students from Penn State and Temple recently protested against budget cuts. Elsewhere, University of Buffalo students protested in Albany and in Binghamton, New York, graduate students are forming an alternative Graduate Student Employment Union.

With student protests increasing, middle-class dissent simmering, and a global economy in crisis it feels like the future might be up for grabs.

Will students unite with their parents in protest?

Micah White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. www.micahmwhite.com

The Summer of Rage

Will a tsunami of middle-class dissent wash away governments worldwide?

Micah White
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23 Feb 2009
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28 comments

Military personnel faced off with protesters in Riga, Latvia in January. Weeks later, Latvia's government collapsed.

Iceland was first and now Latvia has become the second European government to collapse as a direct result of the protests sparked by the global economic crisis (source). In Dublin, more than 120,000 workers protested outside of the Irish Parliament in a campaign organizers say is inspired by what was done to Iceland's government (source). And in the UK, the head of the Metropolitan police's public order branch, is warning of a 'Summer of Rage' that will involve mass protests by middle-class citizens fed up with the economic situation (source). A tsunami of dissent is coming and it is not clear what will remain and what will be remade.

The economic recession is now impacting the majority of people in most countries in the world. There is a growing sense of global solidarity among the people who see their governments spending billions of dollars to rescue the banks who are to blame for the crisis. With the visible success of protesters in Iceland and Latvia - who managed to topple their governments relatively nonviolently - the realm of possibility seems to be expanding.

It feels like the the time may be approaching for a global movement to take hold which intends to rethink capitalism and the systems of world governance. Instead of demanding the resignation of a Prime Minister, what if this global movement demanded the resignation of the whole system?

Does the moment feel ripe in your town? What would you like to see as a result of the global protests?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. www.micahmwhite.com

Debtors Union and Bank Strike

Momentum is building for an anti-capitalist solution to the financial crisis.

Micah White
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19 Feb 2009
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27 comments

Activists are organizing a Bank Strike inspired by Enric Duran

February is becoming the month of anti-capitalist solutions to the financial crisis. In an earlier post I outlined a plan for a Blackspot Debt Collection Agency that would buy, then forgive, debt. Now others are calling for a Debtors Union and some activists associated with Enric Duran are organizing a Bank Strike. Here is a quick summary of these two big ideas.

A Debtor Union has been proposed by Keith at the Pirate Caucus. Keith writes that "A debtors union is open to all who are indebted—credit cards, car loans, mortgages, student loans, medical bills etc. and once we organize ourselves we can refuse to pay and organize a mass default and force the debt to be written off, or we could decide to renegotiate the debt at a steep discount maybe twenty cents on the dollar. That will be for the union members to decide for themselves. In any event, we can take our destiny into our hands --Let’s 'bailout' ourselves, lets 'recapitalize' ourselves, lets get out of debt!" (full post)

The daring anti-bank Spanish activist Enric Duran who reached international fame by borrowing and then refusing to pay half a million Euro is promoting the idea of a Bank Strike. His organization, Crisis, has already spawned a North American Bank Strike Chapter. Here is how they explain their plan for a Bank Strike:

"We must withdrawal our support for the financial system. Everyday it exploits our debts, our savings, and our paychecks—to fund speculation, predatory lending, environmental destruction, and corporate expansion. This will be an indefinite strike which will not end until people’s debt is cancelled just as Wall Street has been bailed out. It won’t finish until the current international financial system is abolished and alternatives are created that cover people’s needs and not those of speculators."

"If hundreds of thousands of people around the arranged to stop paying their debts—and if they supported one other—they could not be stopped. If there are a many more participating in this call by withdrawing the money from the banks, this system that enslaves us would be stopped."

"What meaning would a delinquencies list have if everybody was registered in it? What strength will the seizure of foreclosed property represent if they its affects millions of people? What will they speculate with if we take all of our money out of the banks? Let’s begin this indefinite strike! Let’s withdrawal our money from the banks and put it in alternatives that don’t speculate with our paychecks! We won’t pay our mortgages and we will stay in our homes; we will not pay personal debt. Let this crisis be paid for by the richest!" (more information)

Buying debt and forgiving it, a debtors union, and a bank strike are just a few of the possible alternatives. What are your ideas for an anti-capitalist escape from this financial crisis?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. www.micahmwhite.com

Article

Tactical Briefing

(from Adbusters #82: Endgame Strategies).

David Graeber
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10 Feb 2009
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25 comments

Our Blackspot Moment

85,000 people were fired on Monday. How will we collectively respond?

Micah White
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27 Jan 2009
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4 comments

The AFP reports that 85,000 people globally lost their jobs on Monday as mega-corporations desperate for profits dump their human chattel overboard. But the ship is sinking and throwing us to the sharks won't save the capitalists. In these times of unparalleled economic uncertainty, it is within the power of culturejammers to change the course of history. This is our Blackspot moment: we start local, blackspot businesses and kick out the mega-corporations.

How many culture jammers actually know how to start a small business? It is time that we learn. The blackspot will be built through head-to-head competition with the corporations currently choking our local communities. And they won't go down without a fight. Unless we are willing to take risks by entering capitalist dominated territory, we will never be able to reclaim our culture from their grip.

Let's talk specifics, the main difficulty that we face when opening a blackspot in our community is raising the start-up capital. The fact of the matter is that bank loans are not a viable option for blackspots due to their demands for personal collateral and high interest rates. No bank (within the U.S.) will give a loan to a small business without securing the loan with your house, car, personal assets, or assets of your family. And in these economic times, that may not even be enough. However, given that accepting money from a bank is usually no different than accepting corporate donations, I think most blackspotters will agree that we should refuse bank loans outright. Without the possibility of a bank loan, we will need to turn elsewhere to fund the initial start up capital for our blackspots. It is here that I propose a slightly modified version of an idea that has already been floating around: blackspot microloans.

Unlike traditional microloans, I propose that blackspot microloans be given by individuals to local blackspots in leiu of a donation. For example, if the anticipated start up costs of a blackspot cultureshop that will employ 3 people in a rural town is $15,000 then this blackspot would solicit loans from individual culture jammers at a reasonable interest rate of 2% to be repaid over the course of three years. Although 2% may not sound like much it is reasonable when one realizes that at this very moment the stock market is hemorrhaging, banks failing and the average savings account is yielding under 1%. Funding our own local blackspot businesses would immediately shift the traditional division of power between consumers and corporations into a mutually sustaining relationship of active participation. The local blackspot benefits by receiving low interest rate loans in a time of economic turmoil, the community benefits from a truly local and unique business that provides jobs, and those who gave the loans benefit through a modest return on their investment. Those individuals who still prefer to donate their money could ask that the loan be repaid to a general blackspot start-up fund that would provide seed money to other culture jammers. As you can see, a blackspot economy could very quickly develop based upon this proposed model.

Ultimately, the future success of the culture jammer movement, the demise of global capitalism and its byproduct of mental pollution, depends upon doing away with the mentality of charity. Instead of desperately waiting for a few pennies to be donated, it is time to look around our local communities and identify potential financially viable blackspot opportunities. Each employee hired by these blackspots, each dollar of profit that goes towards funding full-time culture jamming, and each individual turned from consumer to participant will bring us one step closer to our vision of a non-corporate future.

Can we turn this economic crisis into an opportunity for the renewal of local, anti-corporate cultures?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

A longer version of this article originally appeared in Adbusters #75 under the title "Blackspot the Future".

The Last Boom-Bust Cycle

Can our planet sustain an economic recovery?

Micah White
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31 Dec 2008
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15 comments

All eyes are on the economy as startling statistics are released daily: the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 35% this year, jobless claims are at a 26 year high in the United States and over twenty-five banks failed in the US alone in 2008.

Given the constant litany of bad news, most people now understand that years of unsustainable growth based upon overzealous money lending and rampant financial speculation have pushed the world into a major economic depression. In other words, the capitalist roller coaster ride has reached the summit of a period of economic boom and we are now racing to the bottom of an economic bust.

Cries for help resound from all sides. But all these urgent calls seem to have one common assumption: that what we need is an economic recovery. Is this necessarily the case? I wonder whether an economic recovery is really in our collective best interest or whether it will simply mean the resumption of a period of unsustainable growth in anticipation of another (even worse) economic collapse.

And then there is the question of whether our weary, devastated planet can even sustain another period of economic growth.

Is it time we stopped calling for an an economic recovery and started demanding an economic rethinking?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

Article

Big Idea: A Steady-State Economy

The growth economy is failing and we have to attempt a steady-state economy. The steady state answer is that the rich should reduce their throughput growth to free up resources and ecological space for use by the poor, while focusing their domestic efforts on development, technical and social improvements, that can be freely shared with poor countries.

Herman Daly
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17 Dec 2008
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24 comments

economy
GDP

Photo: Elicia Di Fonzo

The earth as a whole is approximately in a steady state. Neither the surface nor the mass of the earth is growing or shrinking; the inflow of radiant energy to the Earth is equal to the outflow (the greenhouse effect has slowed the outflow, but the resulting temperature increase will force it back up); and material imports from space are roughly equal to exports (both negligible).

Editorial

Adbusters' Person of the Year

Herman Daly's ideas might help us claw our way out of the economic and environmental mess we're in.

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17 Dec 2008
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16 comments

feature article
Big Idea: A Steady-State Economy
by Herman Daly.

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