student debt strike rally Mon Nov 21

[Thomas Gokey]

For all of those who can make it I encourage you to attend the student debt strike rally that is starting at Zuccotti tomorrow Mon Nov 21st at 1:30pm under the red statue. The rally will move to Baruch College at 3pm where tuition hikes have just been announced.

What I like about this new project is that it has a working group dedicated to it that can hopefully hash out some of the issues that we've been dealing with too. I think that we should try to coordinate our efforts in the best way possible. There's no need to reduplicate each other's efforts or work at cross-purposes, instead we should find out how our group can build a platform to help facilitate the kind of organization that this kind of debt-strike will need.

Right now they are just working with a pledged-based campaign. They want to collect 1 million pledges to strike and then strike. I think this is a problem and that we can provide a better way by designing our platform. What we need to do is allow for coordination and communication among debt-strikers, minimize the risk and incentivize participation.

If you can make it to the rally please come, I think it would be useful to have as many of us as we can to build a bridge between our two starting points towards a debt-strike. I'll give a full report afterwords.

-Thomas

Thomas Gokey
The Art School in the Art School | Department of Wonder and Joy
Syracuse "University" | VPA Foundations
Time Arts | Two-Dimensional Creative Processes
w: thomasgokey.com
e: thoma...@gmail.com
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[Thomas Gokey]

I forgot to add the links. Here is the link to all the rally info. Here is a link to a story about the new student debt strike campaign in The Nation.

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____________________________________________________

[Sarah Jaffe]

I will most definitely be there. Say hello! (If you've forgotten what
I look like, the zebra print coat makes me hard to miss.)

--
Sarah Jaffe
ohyouprettythings.net
@seasonothebitch

[Eric Sanders]

I hope Monday was great, hope to make the next one!

It sounds like what this group is devoted to is what Thomas said clearly:

"I think this is a problem and that we can provide a better way by designing our platform. What we need to do is allow for coordination and communication among debt-strikers, minimize the risk and incentivize participation.

So the goal for this group is to design an online platform for people to launch debt strikes.  Is this correct?  If so, we will need programmers!  

I'm sure we can come up with some awesome features in our collabathon, but we will need programmers to actually build this platform.

So let's ask some programmers to be involved.

Best,

Eric

[Greg Belvedere]

I'm just curious if anyone who attended on Monday could give us an
idea of how it went. I guess I'm curious if anybody made any contact
with the people organizing the event and if so how they felt about our
approach. I think we should coordinate our efforts, but I also think
we have thought out our approach a bit more even if we are a way from
executing it. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

On Nov 23, 8:28 am, Eric Sanders <e...@funintrouble.com> wrote:
> I hope Monday was great, hope to make the next one!
>
> It sounds like what this group is devoted to is what Thomas said clearly:
>

> "I think this is a problem and that we can provide a better way by *designing
> our platform*. What we need to do is allow for coordination and

> communication among debt-strikers, minimize the risk and incentivize
> participation.
>
> So the goal for this group is to design an online platform for people to
> launch debt strikes.  Is this correct?  If so, we will need programmers!
>
> I'm sure we can come up with some awesome features in our collabathon, but
> we will need programmers to actually build this platform.
>
> So let's ask some programmers to be involved.
>
> Best,
>
> Eric
>
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 8:14 AM, Sarah Jaffe <sarah.ja...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I will most definitely be there. Say hello! (If you've forgotten what
> > I look like, the zebra print coat makes me hard to miss.)
>

> > On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 11:27 PM, Thomas Gokey <thomasgo...@gmail.com>

> > wrote:
> > > I forgot to add the links. Here is the link to all the rally info. Here
> > is a
> > > link to a story about the new student debt strike campaign in The Nation.
>

> > > On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 11:25 PM, Thomas Gokey <thomasgo...@gmail.com>

> > >> e: thomasgo...@gmail.com

> > >> ____________________________________________________
> > >> This e-mail is a handmade object, all errors of spelling and grammar
> > give
> > >> it a sense of character and authenticity.
>
> > >> Gmail's algorithms search the contents of our e-mail for keywords which
> > it
> > >> uses to customize the advertizements it shows us. Google tries to be
> > >> sensitive, however, and disables the ads if you are writing about tragic
> > >> subjects. If the algorithm finds keywords like "massacre," "slaughter,"
> > >> "bloodbath," or "murder" it will not show you ads. Since I just used
> > them
> > >> here, in my signature, I'm ad free.
>
> > > --
> > > ____________________________________________________
> > > Thomas Gokey
> > > The Art School in the Art School | Department of Wonder and Joy
> > > Syracuse "University" | VPA Foundations
> > > Time Arts | Two-Dimensional Creative Processes
> > > w: thomasgokey.com

> > > e: thomasgo...@gmail.com

> > > ____________________________________________________
> > > This e-mail is a handmade object, all errors of spelling and grammar
> > give it
> > > a sense of character and authenticity.
>
> > > Gmail's algorithms search the contents of our e-mail for keywords which
> > it
> > > uses to customize the advertizements it shows us. Google tries to be
> > > sensitive, however, and disables the ads if you are writing about tragic
> > > subjects. If the algorithm finds keywords like "massacre," "slaughter,"
> > > "bloodbath," or "murder" it will not show you ads. Since I just used them
> > > here, in my signature, I'm ad free.
>
> > --
> > Sarah Jaffe
> > ohyouprettythings.net

> > @seasonothebitch- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Thomas Gokey]

The event on Monday was a pretty successful PR stunt I think. It got the idea of student loan refusal out there and hopefully lots of people around the country will start thinking about it seriously. But I completely agree that it seems that they haven't really thought it through as much as we have. I was disappointed that we didn't have any time to discuss ideas. I'm glad that they've got a working group dedicated to the idea. I've come to trust the working groups and the process, and I think that there are other people who share the concerns that I have about this approach, so hopefully they will sort it out.

My basic feeling is that I should never ask someone else to take a risk that I'm not willing to take myself. And the more I think about their 1 million pledge system, the more I think that I just can't take such a big risk under these conditions. It doesn't seem likely to succeed. So I wonder if we should try to coordinate our efforts, but keep ourselves somewhat separate. I wonder if they're really serious about trying to pull this off, or if it was just a publicity stunt. I'm more interested in trying to actually pull it off which means taking the very big risk we're asking people to take seriously and trying to find ways to mitigate it and to actually succeed.

The thing that I liked the best about their debtors pledge and faculty pledge of support is that they are calling for all private schools to make their financial records public. I think this is a fantastic idea and I'm going to be working with some students this next semester to try to do just that here at Syracuse.

-Thomas

e: thoma...@gmail.com

[Greg Belvedere]

Thanks for the update Thomas. I think we are all on the same page in
wanting to actually pull this off. Though it sounds like the event on
Monday raised awareness about the issue.

Do we have any details on when and where we will meet next weekend?

> here, in my signature, I'm ad free.- Hide quoted text -

[Thomas Gokey]

I don't know anything more specific for Dec. 2nd. Does anyone else know? It's coming up really quickly.
-Thomas

e: thoma...@gmail.com

[Eric Sanders]

Hey Thomas,

Would you be interested in writing an article about this for the website I recently co-founded, Action In Action?  We're expanding it and starting to get some good traffic!

Best,

Eric

--
Eric Sanders | Writer/Editor
er...@actioninaction.org | www.actioninaction.org

@eric_sanders