Can't Pay, Won't Pay - by Debt Collective (Hardcover)

About the Book

A Powerful Guide to Action for People in Debt.

Book Synopsis

A Powerful Guide to Action for People in Debt.

Review Quotes

"The Debt Collective's Student Debt Strike is an important campaign to help build the mass movement we need to resist and abolish student debt." --Rep. Rashida Tlaib"Can't Pay, Won't Pay is less about the mechanics of finance than their meaning in the lives of billions of people around the world. And it is from this focus on personal meaning that the book derives its political power, plucking an identity that is associated with so much shame and silent suffering, and charging it with a new collective power to throw sand in the gears of capitalism." --Jacobin

"A quick and accessible read...an impassioned call to action." --Hyperallergic

"By prioritizing redress and repair, we can win free and universal education, housing, and healthcare. No one should have to go into debt to meet their basic needs, ' Debt Collective declares in this urgent book, which lays out concrete strategies and a powerful vision for radical change." --Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

"This book explains why we are overdue for a debt revolution and, more importantly, how to do it. To abolish debt is to begin to rebuild society. We need to start doing so now." --David Graeber

"The Debt Collective has given us a visionary roadmap for forming an army of debtors that is powerful enough to make capital scream." --Naomi Klein

"Defusing explosive debts and undermining the legitimacy of the punitive, profitable debt system of the current United States is insurrectionary work, and uniting debtors in common cause is solidarity and justice work. This anticapitalist manual is a beautiful guide to how and why to do all those things." --Rebecca Solnit

"The Debt Collective turns a sense of entrapment into a collective call for liberation." --Stephanie Kelton

"This timely and outstanding book demonstrates the many predatory ways that debt stifles mobility for the most economically vulnerable. Fortunately it does not conclude there, but presents a political pathway. Through solidarity and collective action, debtor unions can forge a new economy that prioritizes finance working for all people, rather than our most vulnerable working for finance." --Darrick Hamilton

"Can't Pay, Won't Pay is a clear, readable, and hugely powerful account of debt resistance in the age of financialized capitalism. Debt Collective brilliantly summarizes the contradictions of debt-fueled growth, and demonstrates how ordinary people can work together to resist it. Can't Pay, Won't Pay is the bible of debt resistance--a must-read for activists and academics alike." --Grace Blakeley

About the Author

THE DEBT COLLECTIVE is a new kind of union--a debtors' union--that transforms individual financial struggles into a source of collective power by enabling its members to dispute debts and engage in strategic campaigns of economic noncooperation. The Debt Collective's writers' bloc includes Ann Larson, Astra Taylor, Hannah Appel, Thomas Gokey, and Laura Hanna.

ASTRA TAYLOR is a filmmaker, author, and activist. She is the author of The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age and Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone.