Workers and Debtors of the World, Unite!
Under finance capitalism, we can exert power by collectively leveraging not just our labor but also our debts. This May Day, let's think about worker organizing and debtor organizing as part of the same struggle.
Debt Collective activists demonstrate in Washington, DC, on April 4, 2022. (Debt Collective)
On April 5, the Biden administration announced a fourth payment pause extension on federally held student debt. Like the historic Amazon Labor Union victory a few days prior, that payment pause extension was the result of hard organizing — in this case, not by a labor union but by the Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union, and our allies.
Student debt payments were set to resume today, May Day. Debtors’ union organizing not only extended the pause; it also brought us closer than we’ve ever been to full student debt abolition. In mid-April, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced publicly that Joe Biden will either extend the pause again or announce cancellation. And just last week, Biden told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that “he’s looking at different options to forgive most, if not all, student debt for those with federally-backed loans.”
April’s victories in worker organizing and debtor organizing alike are historic — and their proximity in time is not a coincidence. It’s evidence of a slow but unmistakable resurgence of multiracial working-class collective power.
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