Last November 15th our peaceful occupation exposing Wall Street greed was violently evicted from Zuccotti Park.
One year later, we are launching the Rolling Jubilee – the next step in our movement to shine a light on the system that allows Wall Street to exploit the 99%.
Host a local viewing party of “The People’s Bailout” telethon to help raise funds so that we can collectively resist Wall Street greed.
The Rolling Jubilee, a project of the OWS offshoot Strike Debt, buys debt for pennies on the dollar, and then abolishes it.
The project launches with a telethon fundraiser featuring special guests like Janeane Garofalo, Jeff Mangum from Neutral Milk Hotel, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Lizz Winstead and more.
We’re live streaming it for free on the Rolling Jubilee website starting at 8pm, and counting on folks like you to organize viewing parties.
Please host a viewing party in your local area.
100 percent of donations go to buying and abolishing debt. Plus, it’s going to be a great show that you don’t want to miss.
Occupy Wall Street’s mutual aid networks have already proven their power in the face of Hurricane Sandy. Now we’re going to use them to challenge the predatory debt collection and surveillance system that is crushing millions of people across the country.
The Rolling Jubilee is the anti-debt collector, the bailout of the people by the people that we’ve all been waiting for, a mutual aid project that will demonstrate the kind of values we want to base our economy on.
Hosting a local viewing party will help raise funds so that we can collectively resist the 1%.
Debt is the intersection between Wall Street and our lives; it is the tie that binds the 99%. Since the 1% won’t sponsor a #PeoplesBailout, we are going to bail each other out. Join us.
— from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team
p.s. Although the Rolling Jubilee cannot buy specific individual’s debt, we can liberate debtors at random. As a preliminary run, we abolished over $100,000 worth of debt.
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If you intend to host a viewing party, please register here: http://bit.ly/SwXAp4 Registration will allow us to facilitate communication between you and others in your area who may also be planning viewing parties, and will allow us to promote your event if you so desire.
A viewing party is simply a group of family and friends getting together to watch the Rolling Jubilee Telethon on November 15th at 8pm EST. A viewing party can be as simple as friends watching together in a living room, or as elaborate as an event at a local venue featuring local performers.
The telethon will be 3 hours long and include performances and speed lectures by Matt Taibbi, David Rees, Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kyp Malone & Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, Janeane Garofalo, Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, Greg Palast, David Graeber, Das Racist and more.
The idea is for people to have fun, watch the telethon, talk about debt as a social justice issue, and make contributions directly to the Rolling Jubilee Fund through the website: http://rollingjubilee.org.
The telethon tickets begin at $25, so that could be a suggested donation, but certainly no one should be turned away for lack of funds.
Hosts should facilitate direct contributions by attendees by having a computer available to donate online, since 100% of contributions will go towards buying and abolishing debt. If cash is collected at the door, someone should be responsible for submitting the donations to the Rolling Jubilee Fund via the website on behalf of attendees. Party hosts may wish to keep track of how much money their party raises.
Hosts can promote their viewing parties using social media. We suggest creating a Facebook “event” and using Twitter to ask people to “join” the event. Please use #rollingjubilee and @strikedebt so that we can retweet.
Help us document this incredible national day of action! Hosts and attendees are encouraged to upload pictures and videos from their event to our Flickr pool, tagged ‘PeoplesBailout’.
For once the math is on our side. $25 abolishes an estimated $500 worth of debt; $250 abolishes an estimated $5000 worth of debt. In the weeks ahead Rolling Jubilee aims to raise $50,000, which will abolish around 1 million dollars in debt. We are starting with medical debt, so that people who have defaulted on their medical bills will no longer be subject to collections. The point is to help others and to expose this predatory system.
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.
The Rolling Jubilee is a bailout of the people by the people. We buy debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, we abolish it. 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.
Thanks so much for joining the Rolling Jubilee!
