Comments on: Some speculations on current speculations

By: brian

brian — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:23:50 +0000

Alternatively we can just wait for everyone to follow this example. OK, I know he was a human being and all, but I really can't shed a tear for the fucker

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:09:15 +0000

The anti-poll tax struggle was a struggle against debt. It was (obviously) a collective struggle, but our approach to the debt was collective: we were proud that we hadn’t paid the debt. CAN’T PAY, WON’T PAY

By: brian

brian — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:32:48 +0000

I think one of the hardest things is to work out how we could possibly re-socialise debt. You're right (of course) about the way that debt mostly keeps us in line, but also has the potential to destabilise (i.e. unfreeze) social relations. It's a disciplining mechanism ("keep your head down, don't cause trouble" etc) but one that could flip ("Aw, fuck it!"). There's an interesting take on it here (on Indymedia) which links back to earlier forms of 'criminality' – not just the era of the London Hanged but more recent times of dole survival in the 1980s which was often supplemented by, ahem, other sources of income. The problem still remains: how do we experience money collectively when it's so often such a private thing...