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THE DEBT RESISTORS' OPERATIONS MANUAL

JOIN THE RESISTANCE! THIS OPERATIONS MANUAL—WRITTEN BY AN ANONYMOUS COLLECTIVE OF RESISTORS, DEFAULTERS AND ALLIES FROM STRIKE DEBT AND OCCUPY WALL STREET—IS FOR ALL THOSE BEING CRUSHED UNDER THE WEIGHT OF DEBT. IT AIMS TO PROVIDE SPECIFIC TACTICS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND FIGHTING AGAINST THE DEBT SYSTEM SO THAT WE CAN ALL RECLAIM OUR LIVES AND OUR COMMUNITIES. IT CONTAINS PRACTICAL INFORMATION, RESOURCES AND INSIDER TIPS FOR INDIVIDUALS DEALING WITH THE DILEMMA OF INDEBTEDNESS IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY AND ALSO INTRODUCES IDEAS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE MADE THE DECISION TO TAKE COLLECTIVE ACTION.

THE DEBT RESISTORS' OPERATIONS MANUAL a project of STRIKE DEBT /

OCCUPY WALL STREET

THE DEBT RESISTORS' OPERATIONS MANUAL SEPTEMBER 2012

cna This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

PRODUCED AS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN

Members of the Strike Debt assembly / strikedebt.org Occupy Wall Street / occupywallstreet.org Common Notions / commonnotions.org Antumbra Design / antumbradesign.org

PREFACE

This operations manual—written by an anonymous collective of resistors, defaulters and allies from Strike Debt and Occupy Wall Street—is for all those being crushed under !"#$%#&'"!$() $*#+!,$-!$.&/0$!($12(3&*#$01#4&54$!.4!&40$)(2$ 67*#20!.7*&7'$.7*$5'"!&7'$.'.&70!$!"#$*#+!$080!#/$0($!".!$ we can all reclaim our lives and our communities. It contains practical information, resources and insider tips for individuals dealing with the dilemma of indebtedness in the United States today and also introduces ideas for those who have made the decision to take collective action. 9"#$080!#/$() $/.5.$4.1&!.:&0/$".0$/.*#$&!$*&)546:!;$ if not impossible, for us to meet our basic needs, whether we have debt or not, whether we pay it back or not. We 2#4('7&(2&!8$ of these (and the debt they manage) are owned by—you guessed it—the big banks. The top three—Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase— control more than 60% of outstanding credit card debt.5 We’re talking about the same giant “too-big-to-fail” institutions that ruined the economy through !"#&2$(%7$&22#01(70&+:#$57.74&.:$/.4"&7.!&(70,$-7$!"#$8#.20$+#)(2#$!"#$57.74&.:$ crash, the industry grew exponentially, starting in the ’90s when credit card 4(/1.7�$520!$5'62#*$(6!$!".!$!"#8$/.*#$/(2#$/(7#8$:#7*&7'$!($1#(1:#$%"($ carried monthly balances on their cards than to customers who promptly paid them off. From 1993 to 2007, the amount charged to U.S. credit cards went from $475 billion to more than $1.9 trillion. Late fees have risen an average of 160%, and over-limit fees have risen an average of 115% over a similar period (1990–2005).6 American households have been swimming in debt and losing .$0&'7&54.7!$1(2!&(7$() $!"#&2$!(!.:$&74(/#$!($1#7.:!�$.7*$)##0,$?*./$e#3&!&7$ calculates that a single repricing due to a billing trick can cost a family between an eighth and a quarter of its discretionary income. After the crash, families scrambled to get out of debt. Some were helped by the useful, if limited, regulatory reforms prescribed by the CARD Act of 2009. Credit card debt is down by perhaps 15% overall and cardholders are on to the industry’s old tricks. The problem is, card companies are busy devising new tricks. The total amount of credit card debt remains staggeringly CREDIT CARD DEBT | 15