Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I didn’t grow up in the United States. Actually, I grew up
in Eastern Europe, so I’ve seen in the past ten years my country going through
the slow process of neo-liberalization and the privatization of public services
and what that meant. I think a lot of us for a long time who have been feeling
the effects of capitalism have been waiting for some kind for movement to emerge
from the United States in response to that. When it finally did, I was very
happy, and it was clear to me that I should be a part of it. The first time I
came down to the park was a week into it. It was amazing. There was a sense of real
community and solidarity, something I hadn’t often felt in the United States in
the decade that I’ve spent here. I first got involved in the Education and Empowerment
group. I was really involved with Occupy University. It was a great experience.
We were working a lot on things like questions of horizontal pedagogy and learning,
but it was also a self-reflective process. It was really great. Now, I’m
primarily involved with Strike Debt, which has been organizing around the issue
of debt and collective resistance. I’ve been very involved with that in the
past six months.
It’s important because we live in a system that’s
unsustainable. Just having done a lot of research and organizing around debt,
it’s become clear that people are going into debt more and more for basic needs
like education, health care, housing and
food. It’s always been clear to me why this is important on a global level.
This is a global system that’s affecting many, many countries. After the
Rolling Jubilee, it was amazing seeing the thousands and thousands of emails
flooding into our inbox saying, “Please help me. I’m in debt. I don’t know what
to do. I’m ashamed. I’m getting foreclosed upon. My credit cards are maxed out.”
It became clear that people are really suffering and really are looking for
some kind of collective solution.
I hope for a non-capitalist world. I hope for a world that
is not based on profit but that is instead based on some sense of common good. I hope for a
world where people can work less and have more time to just be with each other
in a meaningful way. I hope for a world where people have access to what they
need - food, healthcare, housing and education. I think it’s pretty simple
actually. Honestly, I don’t think we’ll get to that place for a really long time,
but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be fighting for it or striving for it. I
don’t believe that there will actually be a perfect society. I think one of
the problems is that we are in a crisis of imagination where we believe that
capitalism is the only option. There have been many other systems throughout
history, and they’ve all had their good sides and their bad sides. What we’re
trying to build probably won’t be perfect, but I think it definitely could be a
world where people are not constantly stressed about whether or not they will
survive, maybe a world where we’ll actually have a planet that’s not about to
be destroyed.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/