The Occupy movement has a side project and it’s all about invisibility. Not Harry Potter style cloaks of invisibility mind you, but rather working behind the scenes to help debtors rub out their markers.
It’s an interesting concept: raise funds and channel them through the debt collection system to erase the financial obligation of everyday citizens.
The new mini-movement, dubbed Rolling Jubilee, was begun by Occupy offshoot Strike Debt. The group held a recent fundraiser headlined by none other than Janeane Garofalo and featured in this article from YES! Magazine. Organizers have stated that the event raised enough funding to cancel an estimated $5.9 million in bad debt.
According to Strike Debt activists, the movement is targeting the purchase of debt tied to health care, housing, and education yet have only been able to buy medical debt so far. Anonymity within the system ensures that individual debtors cannot be targeted since default accounts are sold off in bundles.
The best part of this plan may be the letters the debtors will receive informing them of their cancelled debt.
What are your thoughts? Is this a project long overdue?
Brian Adams PR 