Strike Debt's Rolling Jubilee

Strike Debt’s Rolling Jubilee The Promise and the Performativity of Financial Contracts Christian Riley Nagler

Figure 1. The People’s Bailout,Strike Debt’s variety show and telethon, 2012. (Photo by Stacy Lanyon)

Around the time of the global financial crisis of 2008 relatively few people in North America knew much about the wider economics of student debt. The issue had garnered very little media attention. In the years following the crisis, however, before the news cycle was consumed by the later stages of the election of the 45th president, it was quite the contrary. Every day saw a major national or international news segment about the shocking rise in rates of student debt since the 1980s, featuring many stories of ordinary people “shackled by unpayable debt” (Beach and Chessum 2012). At that time, it became clear to many that there was a severe asymmetry between the .06 percent interest rate they received from their bank savings accounts (not

Christian Nagler is a PhD student in Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. His writing has appeared in Performance Research, Art Journal, Filip, Art Practical, and SFMoma’s Open Space. His performances and artwork have been presented at the Tate Liverpool, Oakland Museum of CA, and elsewhere. His dissertation research is about global cultures of speculation and performing the long-term economic future. [email protected]

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114 Christian Riley Nagler tracts sets the standard for all contractual agreements and for social cohesion itself” (2015:83). tracts setsthestandardforallcontractual agreementsandforsocialcohesionitself” Vogl’s words, “a systemofmutualobligationsin whichthetemporalstructureoffinancialcon- that touchesontheveryfoundations ofcapitalistreproductionthesocialorder, orinJoseph the issueofdebtfromadrearily enduredrealityintoapoliticallycontestedstateofaffairs, one the sensethatasmallgroupof scholars, activists, andartistswereinstrumentalincatapulting stake istheroleofagencyinperformanceresistance. on alllevels, bothpublicandprivate, isaquestionthat describesapoliticalrift;andpartlyat or isinsteadtheconsequenceofcriticalattentiontoongoing financializationofeducation of whethertheongoing “crisis” istheresultofa “dis-equilibriated” fieldofmarketmechanisms Wall Streetin2011, sharespartsofthisdiagnosis, butforverydifferentreasons. The question that theleftistpoliticalsphereemergingoutofOccupymovement thatbeganwithOccupy of economization futures thatwillnevercometopass;itmaylooklikepredation butit’sactually consumers (students)inwaysthatruncountertoprevailingeducational norms, promisingthem on byaccesstogovernmentbenefits. Educationalbusinesses areforcedtoaggressivelyrecruit tions, whosecompetitiveadvantagesintheaccumulationofprestigewerebolsteredfromearly other. For-profit schoolsandeducationalstart-upsstruggletocompete with “legacy” institu- loan moneyandinfrastructuraldevelopment)desperation-inducedconsumerfraudonthe of artificiallyinflatedpricescausedbyfederalsubsidiesontheonehand(assistanceaswell ical landscape(Economist2014). This argumentcontendsthatrisingstudentdebtistheresult price ofaservicethathasreachedsaturationpointinrapidlyshiftingculturalandtechnolog- result of “productivity stagnation” intheeducationindustry, amarketadjustmentofthefair ical emphasisonthelongtailandeverydayethicsofglobaldebtcrisiswasaninevitable just, fornow, onreserve. the publicinterest(Barkan2017;Dayen Wong 2017). Butperhapsthecriticalenergyis unquestioningly committedtoopeningtheeducationmarketcompetitionbycleansingitof cational institutions)intoamajorrallyingpoint;andnowtheUShasSecretaryofEducation of Trump University(orothersimilarlicensingagreementstakingthenominalformofedu- colleges, CorinthianColleges, LLC. This momentumwasnotquitesufficienttomaketheissue due tothebankruptcyandsubsequentcriminalinvestigationoflargestchainfor-profit constituted erasureofmassamountsfederalstudentloans, alongwithnewsetsofregulations, to relievethedebtburdenofstudentsincertaindemographics. We witnessedthefirstlegally Obama administration, theUSCongressconsideredanumberofunprecedentedbillsdesigned 2013:70; Brown2015:41). Inthemidstofallthisattention, duringthelasttwoyearsof form ofsubjectivation,” trainingstudentsto “consider themselveshumancapital” (Lazzarato neoliberal governmentality, foreclosinganyformofsocialsolidarityand “produc(ing) aspecific in Europeanleftistthoughtthatthe American universityhasbeenthemodelandlaboratoryfor were conceivedtobeintheprogressiveage(Kahlenberg, etal. 2012). Itisnowacommonidea institutions ofhighereducationas “engines ofinequality” insteadofthe “great equalizers” they pursuit ofdegreesthatfailtoresultinstableemployment, haveledtothewidespreadcritiqueof of educationfinancereformtowiderpublics. Sanders madeitakeyplatformissueofhiscampaign, whichhelpeddisseminatethepossibility between wagesandthecostofliving(andlearning). The issuewasathighebbwhenBernie tal inthedesperationofpoorforanexponentialratereturn, essentiallyrentingthegap security ofcapital lic seemedtobeatworkinthecredit-abundantworld:poorinvestingtheirresources their loansorcreditcards(enoughtodoubletheprincipalinafewyears). A strangehydrau- enough tokeeppacewithinflation)andthe820percentcompoundinginteresttheypaidon On onesideofthisriftistheeconomic prognosisIjustsummarizedandontheotheris One (suchastheeditorialboardofTheEconomist) Loans withhighinterestratesandinflexiblerepaymentschedules, takenonbystudentsin — — niche marketingfortheknowledgemarket. What’s interesting, however, is the banks — and generallylosing;therichinvestingtheirexcesscapi- might arguethatthemomentarypolit- — in thelanguage Strike Debt 115 Thomas — where participants gathered municipal and sovereign —

— went on to form The Debt Collective, which has since Debt Collective, The went on to form — and group die-ins, where debtors pretended to succumb to the where debtors pretended and group die-ins, —

which impacted their lives in less visible ways and had been used strategically by eco- which impacted their lives in less visible ways and they wager that tactical combinations of “direct action, research, education and the education research, “direct action, of and they wager that tactical combinations —

— Strike Debt is an organization of artists, activists, and academics originally based in New and academics activists, of artists, Strike Debt is an organization and they aim to challenge finance capitalists’ are not a loan” “You Strike Debt’s motto is What would prove to be Strike Debt’s most well-known set of actions, however, departed however, What would prove to be Strike Debt’s most well-known set of actions, York, with subsequent branches and affiliated groups all over the world; as of 2017 the larg- branches and affiliated groups all over with subsequent York, Affiliate branches have acted Area and Portland. are in the Bay est and most active branches solidarity among everyday debtors they share the strategy of building social but autonomously, leverage the collective value that their that might or union, a bloc, towards the goal of forming of that system with the threat and to make demands financial system, debts represent in the Street Wall members of various Occupy organized by branch, York The New of a mass strike. the original members and some of disbanded in 2014, working groups in 2011, Taylor Astra and Laura Hanna, Gokey, for canceling debt and for delegitimizing insti- focused on more legislative and legal strategies and payday lenders) that manipulate bail bond companies, colleges, tutions (such as for-profit to their stakeholders and to target vulnerable the availability of credit to evade responsibility contracts (The Debt Collective 2017). populations with high interest rates and opaque (Strike afraid” and ashamed, “keep us isolated, to use of the moral-obligatory power of debt are what have allowed the they claim, conditions, These instrumentalized affective Debt 2012). and community to be displaced by financial bond- friendship, human obligations of kinship, age the foun- Early in the movement’s development, can overturn this widespread subjection. arts” people gathered in where Assembly, was the Debtor’s dational site for all of Strike Debt’s tactics was incurred, how it the quantity of debt they held, person to offer public testimonies regarding and prevented their troubled their relationships, and the ways it had constrained their choices, in which speakers struc- a specific type of storytelling emerged, At these assemblies, flourishing. of debt and the affective conditions surrounding tured their life stories according to legacies described the Stories of indebtedness often culminated in cathartic climaxes as speakers them. had seemed like extreme levels of personal indebted- moments when they registered that what and that these and gender lines, class, across race, ness were in fact shared by millions of others to larger financial forms individual debts were linked inextricably debts these Akin to coming-out testimonies, wealth. nomic elites as a primary means of accumulating These testimonies was transformed into solidarity. stories articulated the moments when shame “debt burns” were often accompanied by dramatic actions such as In other words, through performative practices, debt resisters established a public pedagogy of a public pedagogy resisters established debt practices, through performative In other words, - in the capitalist sys tactical vulnerabilities as they revealed at the same time financial culture of socially to reproduce the structures exchange of contracts on a continuous tem’s reliance and initiated a successful known as Strike Debt of debt resisters A group necessary institutions. the circulation- specifically capital, symptoms of debt-financed opposition to certain expanding - decisive factors in push which are debts, loans and medical interest cycles of student dependent as studies have into poverty, and working poor lower-middle-class American ing the North 2000). Westbrook and Warren, shown (Sullivan, force of their debts, collapsing to the ground (often in places where they staged interventions, (often in places where they staged interventions, collapsing to the ground force of their debts, and stand such as the entrances to banks or government buildings) to later come back to life These actions have figured what agency of the mass. reinvigorated by the collective up again, “a new form of politics [...] that can replace the current predatory forms Appadurai calls Arjun (2016:102). of dividualism with truly socialized dividualism” launched in 2012 and ended in The Rolling Jubilee, significantly from these embodied events. website: was described succinctly on their 2014, their debt documents (bills, summons, notices, etc.) and set them on fire “in a collective ritual of “in a etc.) and set them on fire notices, summons, their debt documents (bills, (McKee 2013) debt abolition” Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27September 2021

116 Christian Riley Nagler ary betweenutilityandaesthetics, andserviceautonomy, inwaysthatrevealtheirdebtto of publicityforthepossibilityfinancialrevolt were atthesametimeinstancesofpubliceducationabout workingsofdebtmarkets, and was thefactthatStrikeDebtenteredintotheirtransactionsas aformofgift-giving same timethattheyrevealthemtobeporouseachother. alism; thatis, theyestablishnearlyhermeticloopsbetweenaestheticandfinancialvalue so, wemightnotethatalltheaboveexamplesretaincharacterofearly “language” conceptu- imagine financial sense)gestureasmorevariableandperhapsvulnerablethanonemightatfirst ists’ attemptstoperformtheroleoftrader. Indoingsotheysituatethespeculative (inthe rate fromtheworksthemselves, circulatingas “derivatives” (Neil2015). All theserepresentart- devised aseriesofvisualartworksalongwithcertificatesownershipmeanttobetradedsepa- (Day 2015;Nagler2016). Another exampleisRealFlow, inwhichacollaborativeteamofartists money, anactorwhosefeesitpaidwouldperformdailyrehearsalsofadramaticmonologue prietary algorithmthattradedelectronicfunds:aslongthecontinuedtomake duo Goldin+Senneby, asapartoftheirpieceM&A, hiredahedgefund “quant” todeviseapro- can alsolocatemorecontemporaryexamplesofthiskindwork. Forexample, theSwedish Levine, andRobertMorris, whoperformedsimilaractsofexhibition-readyinvestment. We the formofhandwrittentextonasingleframedsheetpaper;andalsobyDanGraham, Les grant inriskywarrants(thepredecessorstooptionscontracts)anddocumentedtheaction She citesworksbyLeeLozano, whoinvestedhalfofherproceedsfromanart-institution were drawnto “using financetocritiqueartasaconfinedandself-regulateddiscipline” (4). arose inthe1970sas “the artmarketwasexperiencinganunprecedentedboom” andartists has called “artistic shareholdingexperiments” (Cras2013:3). Crasarguesthatthisgenealogy cial systemwiththepurposeofdisplayingthatengagementasaworkart, whatSophieCras Jubilee couldbeunderstoodaspartofagenealogyartistswhohaveparticipatedinthefinan- the practicesoftraderstorenderthemadmissibleagreaterpublic. InthiswaytheRolling

first elementoftheseperformanceswastherestoration transactions frominvisible, inadmissiblemarketmechanismsintofinancialperformances. The for intheelectronicledgersof Wall Street. Inthisway, StrikeDebttransformedthesetypes of operate symbolically, butalsofelicitously. That is, theirpurchaseswerelegalandaccounted behaviors offinancecapitaliststotheirresistancerepertoire. Theselatteractionsdidnotonly marches tomary formsofprotestagainstfinancialcapital The actionsthatmembersofStrikeDebtplayedamajorroleinorganizingweremorecus- 1. What distinguishestheRollingJubileefromtheseearlier(and later)conceptualgestures buying andcancelingpeople’sdebt. (StrikeDebt2012) campaign ofmutualsupport, goodwill, andcollectiverefusal. All proceedsgodirectlyto not buyspecificindividuals’debt We buydebt forpenniesonthedollar, butinsteadofcollectingit, weabolishit. We can - speculation as an act that inevitably forecasts forms of embodiment grounded in mutual obligation. on this notion of the subjunctive negativity of restored behavior, we might see the mostly discursive act of debt sitions” behavior into divergent (1985:172). Landing symbolic states, both internal and external to the performer (or on). In Richard Schechner’s words, echoing the psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott, of restoration this sort “tran- that behavior to a different of scrutiny, sort directing it towardstrying it out different ends and, at the same time, that go beyond obvious satire and approach reflexive appropriation of the behavior of a “moral other,” subjecting Ensemble to Rimini Art Protokoll. Especially relevant here are actions by these groups, and Strike Debt’s as well, the kindsofprocedural moves recently andactivistgroups, adoptedby from inclinedartist performatively Critical The concept of restored studies, but it has not often been used to interpret behavior is canonical to performance — — it canbeaffectedbyanaestheticintentioninwhichmightthencontained. Even ofthefunctional but withtheRollingJubilee’sdebt-buystheyaddeddétournements — instead, wehelpliberatedebtorsatrandomthrougha — — assemblies, physicaloccupations, rallies, and so thattheirgesturesmuddiedthebound- 1 ofdebt-speculationpractices, takingup — gifts that — at the Strike Debt 117 - - of calcula- 2 expansive urgency

(with its implication of stable identity, of internal sincerity) are combined in the of internal sincerity) are combined in the the promise (with its implication of stable identity, For Raunig and others (Fortes 1973; Deleuze 1992; Appadurai 2016) the term “dividual” refers to a tradition tradition a to refers “dividual” term the 2016) Appadurai 1992; Deleuze 1973; (Fortes others and Raunig For originarythe concept think modern to the that attempts thought anthropological in undergirds that divisibility viewa is substratum that the subject of dividing” divisible, “divided, this Raunig, unitarythe of For individual. 2016:23). (Raunig parts the concatenates and them” unifying and isolating of instead “affirms Though less emphatically embodied than a public assembly, the form of plural action that embodied than a public assembly, Though less emphatically (with its implication of transferability and anonymity) (with its implication of transferability and What happens when the transaction 2.

Judith Butler has crucially described as the “indexical force” of bodies that “require employ- bodies that of “indexical force” described as the Judith Butler has crucially unpay- a sense of a future that is not the future of as well as health care and food, shelter, ment, difficult work of articulating the the Rolling Jubilee accomplished the (2015:10), able debt” is usually concealed in the which of the debt obligation itself, more transitive embodiment “natural” which might appear The ritual of the transaction, transactions. abstraction of financial when performed in a is defamiliarized the assumed circulation of capital, in a culture based on but instead the dis- physical site, By environment I do not here mean a different environment. that the realm of finance I’m emphasizing With this shift, economy. cursive habitus of a specific tech- legal-contractual and accounting probabilistic, exists within a culture defined by uses of one in code, and that governing the use of these technologies is a presumed moral nologies, of a social excess that threatens to disrupt the calcu- which forgiveness is the feared contagion securities, In the secondary market for debt-backed lative surplus of circulating financial debt. and in within the virtual logic of a gift economy, Strike Debt performed the same transactions In this way, naturalized circulation. inadmissible, doing so they removed it from an invisible, to shift debts from what Niklas Luhmann calls finan- we might say that their actions attempted from a utilitar in other words, “interpersonal trust,” back into preindustrial “system trust” cial are partitioned and systematized to shape forecasts ian sphere in which masses of economic data patterns of behavior into the open and less cal- of the economic future according to predictable see that Strike But on further analysis we 2000:95). culable field of social obligation (Luhmann “dividuality” what Gerald Raunig calls the Debt’s financial performances preserve the discourses of social practice art (see Bruguera 2010; Bishop 2012; Helguera 2011; Jackson 2011; Jackson Bishop 2012; Helguera art (see Bruguera 2010; of social practice the discourses would “abolition”) that of (and the claims question of generosity it was the Crucially, 2011). the capacity of artists who questioned criticisms from those of the most vociferous draw some skep- In light of these lives of others. with the financial to mess around responsibly and activists of in staging spectacles succeeded Rolling Jubilee unquestionably we might say that the ticisms, the financial contract contaminating economic accountability, inside the circuits of forgiveness even if this giving could not lead of excess proper to the notion of the gift, with the social logic directly to mass-forgiveness. form of a financial contract? What occurs when a contract is handled in such a way as to cause What occurs form of a financial contract? of Strike friction between these two faces of contractuality? I contend that the initial actions their attempts to conjure the indebted as political Debt (and of the whole Occupy movement), came into full focus and took on as important as those attempts were, subject, tive debts, to then recompose these debts as visibly social, but still crucially defined by isolation to then recompose these debts as visibly social, tive debts, Debt’s actions enact what Randy Martin imagined as Strike So, and abstraction (Raunig 2016). private is “demonstrate that what was once considered to “social potential of the derivative” the Strike Debt’s pur In other words, (2014:4). public” deeply implicated in what we realize as the as Without going so far a hidden form of collectivism. chases demonstrate that finance contains inso- we might say that, circulating debt contracts hold society together, to say that anonymous, they do so through not all the time!), far as they do function and do not break apart (at least ethically integrated senses of how to constitute and their analogical consistency with our more reproduce publics. and What began and communicability with the procedure of restoring the activities of debt traders. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27September 2021

118 Christian Riley Nagler might benone, doingso withthe “force ofprescription” (85). In this sense, itisperformative Lazzarato imaginesthatdebtcarries theinscriptionofa “call,” itforecasts afuturewherethere obligations beyondorbehindthescrimofdebt: the foregoneconclusionofmarketsaturationbehavior, urgesustorediscoverourmaterial seems otherwisejustifiablygloomyabouttheglobaldissemination of “infinite” financialdebtas set thoseclaimsfree. is, theirprimaryfunctionisnottodelimitourclaimson eachother(andonourselves), butto deeper grooveofobligation. Promissorycontracts, between whosoever, aremadetobleed;that drawing downdeeperintothenightmareof “bad conscience” sinceitonlycreatesalargerand Forgiveness even, inhisanalysis, isonlyacontinuation, indeedatightening, ofsubordination, a authority, requireustorenderbackwhattheyhavecreditedus:life, theworld, civilization(71). those whocamebefore(whoare, forNietzsche, theanimatingforceofdivine), bytheir that theworldwillcontinuecanonlybeguaranteedbydivine. The ancestors, thedead, with whichthehuman-creaturemanufacturesitssenseofancestryandspiritualfaith; and idealizationofaccountingmethods. The IOU, forNietzsche, isthesocialseedoftradition ity thathasalwaysreproduceditself, inescapablyandunhappily, throughthepainfulrefinement is, theexternalizationofimpulseandaction, incarnatedincruelty, isthesubstrateofahuman- ment, Nietzscheattemptedtodescribeacorporealeconomy, oneinwhich “discharge” sentiments; itsrootsgomuchdeeperthanwemightimagine([1887]1989:60). With thisargu- rations ofthecreditor/debtordyadareenduringtracescausaprimahumanmoral relation inmaterialviolenceperformedonthefleshlybody. Hearguedthatthesocietalelabo- duction, ratherthantherealthing. developing them” (699). Inhisthought, theissuingofcreditismereperformancepro- tainable, particularlyinitsexcessivevariations;it “paralyzes theproductiveforcesinsteadof this sense, Marximaginedthatcapitalismwouldquicklyrealizedebtfinancingwasunsus- uration leftoverfromfeudalsocietyandwouldinevitablybesubsumedbyindustrialforms. In production, freeoflabor. Inhisestimation, thecreditor/debtorrelationwasanobsolete config- the basisofamysticalfantasythatproductivegrowthmightbeaccomplishedfreematerial alienated formofcommodities. ForMarx, theprincipleofincreaseviacompoundinterestwas value production, sothatsurplusremainsinvisible, asif “absorbed,” insteadofsurfacinginthe forms” ([1894]1909:547). Heclaimedithasthepowertoeffectivelyinvertnormalcourseof in whathecalled “void-capital” lenged. First, Marx medium ofcollectivedemands(Feher2013–2015:12). that 20th-centurylabormovementsturnedtheirliberallocusofalienation(thewage)intothe locus ofalienationforneoliberalsubjects(credit/debt)intoafocussolidarity, inthesameway requires “weighing inontheconditionsunderwhichcreditisallocated” bytransformingthe speculation towardtheaimof “challenging investorsontheirownturf.” This sortofactivism ties philosopherMichelFeherseesin “investee activism,” thatis, theadoptionofpractices uration ofthemselvesasdebtspeculatorshintedtowardstheyet-to-bediscoveredopportuni- judicially sanctionedbinarybetweencreditoranddebtor. Inthisway, StrikeDebt’sreflexivefig- This restorationservedasaclearandvividpedagogywhileitalsobrokedownthecrystallized, as morerecognizablepolitical, aesthetic, andrelationalperformancesbecameeconomicones. as livingbeings. (2011:162) and culture,” since neoliberalismhasrunupourdebttotheplanetaswell ourselves idarities andnewcooperation. We mustalsotakeintoaccounthowitpervades “nature The figureofthe “indebtedman” cutsacrossthewhole ofsocietyandcallsfornewsol- More recently, MaurizioLazzarato, whose analysisofdisciplinethroughmass-abstraction In contrast, Nietzsche, inOntheGenealogyofMorals, forcefullygroundedthedebtor-creditor To takeastepback, ithelpstolookatafewinfluentialideasofwhydebtmightbechal- — who wassensitivelyawareoftheaffectiverange, ofthesemanticnoise

— wrote that “usurious” interestwas “the motherofallcrazy

— that Strike Debt 119 - - - student, credit card, credit card, student, — would, according to Graeber, “relieve so much human suffer according to Graeber, would, —

A few years into the global financial crisis that began in 2007 the subject of debt took on global financial crisis that began in 2007 A few years into the real prom- “the ability to make jubilees to regain Graeber argues that we need these periodic along- Graeber himself would go on to serve as treasurer on Strike Debt’s board of directors a new valence with anthropologist David Graeber’s resuscitation of the historical impor David Graeber’s resuscitation a new valence with anthropologist many public lectures and in pub- which he spoke about in debt pardons, tance of periodic mass he this history, With the subject. would become his voluminous book on lished excerpts of what debt as essential to the (essen- Nietzsche’s developmental narrative of attempted to challenge of his 2011 book Debt: The On the last page of human civilization. tially violent) evolution First one that would affect “some kind of Biblical-style Jubilee: for he wrote that it is time 5000 Years of such festivals to Graeber, According (2011:391). and consumer debt” both international debt (82) “ritual destructions” These at regular intervals in human history. forgiveness have occurred to more systematic insurrection- and contracts have often served as preludes of financial records into reorganization of land own- extending and political hierarchies, ary overhaulings of social The taxation and the use of military power. ership and of class control through government idea of political revolt with that of religious redemp- notion of the jubilee brings together the is in a given society, the form accounting takes accounts,” “settling of suggesting that the tion, To enunciated body and the individual soul (83). the connective tissue between the collective which is to activate the ethical reserve of the social, structure accounting practices in new ways one must merely look implies that to know a society, This is to unleash the spirit of revolution. closely at how its subjects are taught to count. A contemporary wiping-clean of debt in its various forms (391). ises” sovereign municipal, medical, is not the essence that paying one’s debts is not ineffable, “that money as well as remind us ing” prescription the dual aim of such a ritual: the first is char Note in Graeber’s (390). of morality” of institutions with a direct effect on the ledger sheets and therapeutic, humanitarian, itable, blow a deconstructive is symbolic and enunciative, and on the livelihoods of people; the second a performance and sustaining economic conventions, to collective faith in supposedly necessary I will return nonessential. without foundation, that might reveal them to be curiously empty, He implies that “promise.” might mark Graeber’s use of the word but for now we to this later, social relations due in part to the entrenched- there is a deficit of authenticity in financialized to He argues for the necessity of returning ness of certain ideas about how value circulates. a sincere and communitarian construction of the a more primordial social contract based on promise . got it’s future — promise in its idiomatic sense as a generalized value: documentary American Studies department), NYU Andrew Ross (head of the side sociologist and war tax resister and Syracuse arts profes- lawyer Laura Hanna, Taylor, Astra filmmaker Gokey had earlier proposed the idea of a mil- Debt, Before joining Strike Thomas Gokey. sor a community lion-person pledge to default on loans followed by the collection of payments into He described the idea during a ses- escrow account as a sort of reverse KickStarter campaign. (ContactCon 2011) “participatory festival for ideas and action” a sion at the 2011 ContactCon, of ideas organized by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff as a setting for collective brainstorming Gokey’s idea was that a (Rushkoff 2011). innovation” “p2p value exchange and decentralized for reposses- large enough default would make the possibility of punitive action (bad credit ratings, at the same time that it would induce impractical, and other forms of social illegitimation) sions, a crisis of liquidity in the world financial market. and intimately embodied, but easily disembedded from social life. Debt bears a close kinship, bears a close kinship, Debt social life. disembedded from but easily embodied, and intimately and of interdependence to potential forms oppositional one, unstable and delicately though an sys- forecasts has been possibility that debt But the future level. care on the material sustainable deeper into debt of a social body falling the prospects appropriated and estranged; tematically living rather than a future of abstract relations but it’s future, an exponentially open reproduces ones (2011:31). Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27September 2021

120 Christian Riley Nagler emcee David Rees, 2012. (Photo by Stacy Lanyon) Figure 2. The People’s Bailout, sonal andsovereigndebt. monumental steelshapesandgraphitedrawingsarematerializationsofdifferentformsper tion toursofthesculptorRichardSerra’swork, actingasifitiscommonknowledgethatSerra’s somatic characterizationsofthedebttheyhold. Also, Thornton hasconductedmuseumexhibi- group “debt visualizations” inwhichparticipantsarepromptedtoarticulatevividlymaterialand Thornton, looselyaffiliatedwithStrikeDebtBay Area, hasbeenfacilitatingindividualand for publicizingandresistingthedebteconomy. Forinstance, since2009theartist/activistCassie

nized undertheDebt ity. These activitieshelpedtogrowandconnectaninternationalnetworkofactivistswhoorga- geometric formstoevokedynamic, collectivemobilizationagainstabackgroundofprecar ers thatappropriatedElLissitsky’suseofdiagonals, sansseriftypography, color, andbisected donations overthephoneandinternet Jerry LewisMDA LaborDay Telethon loss thatistax-deductibleforthebank). Speculatorswho buythisdiscounteddebtthenrepack- lators andcollectionagenciesatasubstantialdiscount, between 5and15centsonthedollar(a becomes whatiscalleda “nonperforming” loan. Itisthensoldonsecondarymarketstospecu- deemed riskyandpossiblyuncollectable, i.e., when thereisacertainamountofdefaultrisk, it receive theinterestandprincipalpaymentsfromanindividual’s debtstreams. When debtis cies likeSallieMaethatissueandmanagestudentloans. The contractsconfertherightto transferrable contracts, arepurchasedfrombanksandformerly federal(nowprivatized)agen- its programoflegitimatelybuyingwhatarecalled “packaged loanproducts.” These products, phants intheroom. between aestheticformalismandquantitativelogic. Ourminimalistidolsaretheeconomicele- ing butmaterial, mass, weight, andscale. The conceitrevealstheunspokencorrespondences which arecommonlyinterpreted(Krauss1986; Taylor 1997)asforcefullyexhibitingnoth- 3. From themiddleof2012toend2013StrikeDebtcollected justover$700,000for Crisis and Twenty First Culture Century For more about Thornton’s and others’ work on the subject of debt see Annie McClanahan’s Dead Pledges: Debt, Art Medium Specificity and Social Practice in the Work of Cassie Thornton” (2015); (2016). Strike Debt’s variety show and telethon, with monikerandwhocontinuedtogenerateartisticdirect-actiontactics 3 Thornton’s tours, ineffect, forceadebtnarrativeonSerra’sworks, (2016); Leigh Claire La Berge and Dehlia Hannah’s — a tuxedoedemceeandbankofonstageoperatorstaking — and Russianconstructivistdesignaesthetics;withpost- telethon performanceslikethe of mash-upiconic American Fugazi. The telethonwasasort Sonic Youth andGuyPicciottiof cians suchasLeeRanaldoof by famouslyanticorporatemusi- edy routines, andperformances thon featuring Bailout, raiser, theyorganizedThePeople’s debt resisters. As amajorfund- of afreelycirculatingmanualfor lives; aswelltheproduction resisting itsholdonpeople’s economy andthepossibilityof to fosterawarenessofthedebt ous iconicimagesandslogans included thedesignofvari- Strike Debt’sinitialactions and YatesMcKee’s Strike a varietyshowandtele- “Debt Aesthetics: speeches, com- - - Strike Debt 121 - the inadmissible”; “in to your partner, you will to your partner, — neither the guilty and trauma- — that is the problem; it is both together, that is the problem; it is both together, — on the large institutional scale and passive on the large institutional scale and passive — in a word, the future in a word, — as issuing —

On this note it’s useful to look at the work of Elie Ayache, a Lebanese financial engineer Ayache, of Elie On this note it’s useful to look at the work “a regime both of the public and capitalism is In Deleuze’s terms, To those who don’t have an insider knowledge of the workings of financial markets, it was of financial markets, of the workings have an insider knowledge those who don’t To Nearly every large financial world it is a foregone conclusion. capitalist Western But in the This schism between the average individual’s understanding of debt and its financial- sum,” he writes “everything is legal, except for little blunders; what is more, everything is pub- except for little blunders; what is more, “everything is legal, he writes sum,” In the specific case of debt mar (Deleuze and Guattari 2009:37). yet nothing is admissible” lic, This is or of any asset. the unstable value of debt, we might say that what is public is kets, track and understand this volatility and seek to Investors common but specialized knowledge. and absorptive on the scale of the individual. markets based on a Deleuzean philosophy of con- who has proposed a new theory of financial or understanding between the framings of frames the difference in knowledge Ayache tingency. difference as the obligations financial large-scale and debts individual) (conventional, small-scale differential represents different ways of con- This temporal between the past and the future. “If you owe only the writes: Ayache the other’s desire. structing value over time as the object of the risk the enterprise, the action, growth, nor the amoral finan- tized debtor hoping to make good and work things back into equilibrium, cier strategizing infinite growth with others’ resources and unrecognized mirroring between them It is the relentless their strange interdependence. an epistemology of uncanny self-contradiction. that constitutes the schizophrenia of capitalism, perhaps a revelation, or a sort of scandal, that debt is traded this way, that its value fluctuates that its value fluctuates is traded this way, that debt of scandal, or a sort perhaps a revelation, or sold many times and that it is bought rights to collect it, on who possesses the depending debtor’s the contract, original the of sanctity supposed the affect knowledge this does How over. lot of people didn’t “A Debt: board president of Strike to Laura Hanna, According promise? be bought for pennies on the dol- that their debts could were on fire sale, know that their debts (in Buczynski 2012). not by them” just lar, survives by issuing bonds (insti- and national government state, every municipal, corporation, sometimes bundled traded, where they are global securities market, tutional debts) on the the In fact, of risk and future solvency. and priced according to various estimations together, known and better-understood is 30 times larger than the more popularly debt securities market between these two homol- can note here the difference in semantics We stock (equities) market. trace of what financial writer The pair bears the and taking on debt. issuing bonds ogous actions, - “elab in the words and terms take on, where “reversification,” and critic John Lanchester calls meanings contrary to what they might communicate context of large-scale finance, orate ritual” the same process of indebti- In this case, (2014:22). to the average person using common sense fication is figured as active and agential if you owe him if you owe him the past, By contrast, never go bankrupt and you will never stop. In other words, (2010:344). chances are you will default” scale-dependent sum of money, a fixed, a com- as a memory, “average individual” by the the same process is on the one hand conceived by “zero-state”; and on the other, the calls Ayache pulsive reparation and even a fetish for what a compulsive a dream of infinite growth and ceaseless activity, as a fantasy, the finance world, The finance (the threshold of loss) as its goal or limit. futurity that does not recognize the zero does not recognize a conceived and maintained in a metaphysics of ceaseless motion, world, the Ayache, For between loss and gain. positive, qualitative difference between negative and whereas for the “petrified view of probability” is a conventional idea of debt (as a state of loss) (345). “things keep happening and time unfolds as a perpetual differentiation” financial agent “special delirium” institutional function speaks to what Deleuze and Guattari referred to as the half of this binary It is neither of financial capitalism (2009). age and sell it again hoping to profit, whereas collectors attempt to collect the full amount of the full amount attempt to collect whereas collectors profit, it again hoping to age and sell and repossessions. shaming tactics often through aggressive with its interest, the debt along Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27September 2021

122 Christian Riley Nagler j ture inthecirculatorycycleofdebt:beforeitreachedspeculatorsandcollectors, tomakethese political formsofrepression” (37). in theeconomic, inwhichlibidoinveststheeconomic is awayofsidestepping “ideology” infavorofrevealing “the mannerinwhichdesireisalready is alreadypublicbeingadmittedpublically.” This strategy, accordingtoDeleuzeandGuattari, ing touncoverillegalityandgreedinthefinanceworld, wewoulddobetterto “makesurewhat nomic andfinancialmechanisms”;insteadoftryingto “publicizewhatisprivate,” insteadoftry- its seeming intractability. mind; andfinancialinstitutionsassembletherhetoricaltechnologicalmeanstoemphasize tain amountatacertainrateofinterest)remainsstable, alegallybindingpromise, atleastin exploit itbybuyinglowandsellinghigh. Yet theindividualdebtor’sobligationtopay(acer it changinghands. Inaddition tobeingacleverwayofleveragingresourcesbymimicking the demanding itsrepayment, noone toreportitsdefaultcreditagencies, andnoone tokeep cally andpoliticallycharged cruciallyagential)words “abolished,” since therewasnoone collect onit. The debt wasthen “forgiven,” orinthegroup’s strategicallychosen(histori- offered atextremediscounts. After buyingthisdebt, theplanwastosimply “fail” totradeor and medicaldebt, sincetherightstocollectonthesebundles ofnonperformingloanswere abyssal anddecadentrelinquishmentoflegitimatefinancialobligations. financial world;also, itcouldserveasaneditorialflashpoint forconservativeswhofearedan of elementsforabusinesspressonthelookoutaccessible “people-centered” copyaboutthe as theirnovelphilanthropycouldbeframedahumaninterest story, avaluablecombination ondary debtmarketallowedtheirstorytofunctionasaready-made exposé, atthesametime Journal toTheNation, and storiesinvariousnewsoutletsacrossthemediaspectrum donations wouldmultiplybenefitsfordebtors. The members ofStrikeDebtsecuredinterviews ple gaveinordertoparticipatetheradicalityofgesture, withtheknowledgethattheir offered variousgiftstodonors, suchascopiesoftheDebtResistors’ Operations Manual,- mostpeo live telethonsandsubsequentlyonarollingbasisthroughtheirwebsite. Though StrikeDebt understanding ofthevolatile, “liquid” characteroffinancialvalue. ket, thentheycouldleveragetheimplicitprivilegesofthosemarketactors, privilegesbasedon were totakeup(oroccupy)thefunctionalroleofdebtspeculatorswithinsecuritiesmar the pricevolatilitythatkeepsspeculationalive. StrikeDebtwageredthatiftheythemselves (popular) maintenanceofdesireforstableidentitiesvalue, evenwhile “the market” runson reveals theextenttowhichpopularimaginationof “the economy” isdependentuponsome would doso. Loanswould then cease tobeoffered andthefinancialsystem would collapse.fear This in themedia, hasbeenthefollowing:ifpeopleknewtheydidn’t have topay back theirloans, nobody pay legitimate. The mainargumentinoppositiontoStrikeDebt’stactics, obsessivelyrepeated appear. And wemightconsiderthatitisthisintensityofdesiremakestheirobligationsto particular typeof “instrument” itis. and theyrarelysufferunqualifiedlosses. Anylevelofriskinanassetcanbeutilizedasthe assets balance sheetsfitintoabroadspectrumofinsured, hedged, diversified, andfederallybacked the prospectofdemandingbackallwhattheysupposedlylendout the pointofviewtheirinnerworkings, financialinstitutionscanbesomewhatblaséabout unctures “admissible” andthustorevealastrangedifferentialin “economic libido.” From The RollingJubilee’snovelmovewastointervene, legallyandpublically, atapivotaljunc- Deleuze arguedthat “if theleftwasreasonableitwouldcontentitselfwithvulgarizingeco- The initial$700,000wastranslatedintomorethan$31million inpurchasedstudentloan The $700,000indonationscollectedtoinitiatetheRollingJubileecamethrough Individual debtorsontheotherhand, maydesirenothingmorethantoseetheirdebtdis- — they allowthehighly “securitized” and “diversified” marketsystemtoworkforthem, Huffington Post,. andAlternet Their practicedtalkingpointsaboutthesec - — haunts theeconomicandnourishes — from Forbes andTheWallStreet — the loansontheir - - Strike Debt 123 - interest interest That the very same market That the very

4 perhaps paving the way for other unex- perhaps paving the way — at the same time that it humanizes the idea of exchange. The personal The it humanizes the idea of exchange. at the same time that —

However, the abstracted flows of what Arjun Appadurai calls “global financescapes” pose “global financescapes” Appadurai calls Arjun the abstracted flows of what However, debtors another obstacle the Rolling Jubilee faced was the issue of contacting On this note, Here I refer to Marcel Mauss’s classic anthropological theory of the gift. Mauss theorized that systems of gift giv- gift of systems that theory theorized anthropological classic Mauss gift. the of Mauss’s Marcel to refer I Here self- on based exchange of ideas that and solidarity cruciallysocial of constitutive are receiving and ing or impersonal “utility” were fragile deviations from the near-universal human propensity for redistribution of of redistribution for propensity human near-universal the from deviations fragile were “utility” impersonal or created always giving gift that time same the at welfare, social “total” for concern ritualized a on based resources including thinkers, social many influenced have ideas These 2000). [1925] (Mauss reciprocity to obligation an - recu not is that energy social excess that to referred share” “accursed the of notion whose (1991), Bataille George the in rooted is (2011) debt of theorization Graeber’s David system. economic conceived narrowly a into perable unexam- of holding simultaneous the by structured are societies human that postulate methodological Maussian (uneasily) coincides debts” one’s back pay must “one that idea the case, this in moralities”; “contradictory ined that proposition the with disagreed however, Graeber, 2007). [1967] (Mauss evil” are “debtors that idea the with debt. of form a generated inescapably gift the To understand this further, it’s worth considering the various obstacles the Rolling Jubilee the Rolling Jubilee the various obstacles it’s worth considering further, understand this To 4. mechanisms could function in their customary context as predation and in another context as in another context as as predation and their customary context could function in mechanisms a peculiar plasticity of function reveals benefaction, pected interventions reception of the boon is what accomplishes the transfer of the asset from a capitalist-economic is what accomplishes the transfer of the reception of the boon sphere. sphere into a gift-economic debt trad- For instance, to the social logic of the gift (1996:34). certain inherent challenges the identity In this system, an anonymous electronic accounting system. ing operates through rate of payment (temporality). is defined by two factors only: risk and of the individual debtor They could being purchased. never know beforehand whose debt was Strike Debt could So, debt is traded according to quan- since Also, actions to individuals in need. their “target” not products consisting of various into financial “bundled” and tranched, tities that are parsed, to buying bundled portions of many individuals’ they were limited arrays of risk probability, $300.00 of anoth- $25.00 worth of one person’s debt, Any specific bundle might contain debts. quantities mixed according to a logic ordained by the and so on; $1,500.00 of another’s, er’s, there was no way of forgiving the So, market for risk. demand for hyperdiversification in the this constraint might be said to limit the affec- In certain ways, whole of a single person’s debt. of the to reduce the anecdotal communicability a gift, conceived as “forgiveness” tive power of are coded since the citations of the individual There is no possibility for full absolution, action. this constraint though, In another sense, the system. and scattered or decentralized throughout The desire performance Strike Debt was engaged in. is an essential factor in the sort of financial discovered and it has only to be the financial markets, for collectivity is already modeled within debt in these purchases becomes the basis for previ- The random sampling of reappropriated. absolution of any individual is contingent upon the The complete ously unimagined solidarities. or upon the total collapse of the system. absolution of the whole multitude, Debtors to let them know their debt was being forgiven. once their debt had been purchased, any- especially if it might have in arrears may not pay attention to mail communications, They retreat into a state of what Stefano Harney and thing to do with their delinquent debt. the discounted status of their debt is partly defined Indeed, (2013). “fugitivity” Fred Moten call Strike this, Because of to notices and warnings. by the fact that they have been unresponsive to send them and notification letters as holiday gifts, Debt decided to package their forgiveness at Christmastime.

came up against during the few years it was in operation. First, it was important that the for it was important First, years it was in operation. during the few came up against as a gift. and received by someone, could be framed, given debt presumably exclusionary logic of the financial system, it said something about the nature of the about the nature it said something of the financial system, exclusionary logic presumably economy.” “debt the idea of a promise that undergirds circulating Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27September 2021

124 Christian Riley Nagler Christian Nagler) http://rollingjubilee.org/assets/docs/debt-buy-agreement_06.pdf. (Screenshot by Figure 3. A redacted contract from one of Strike Debt’s Purchases, 2012. however, allowstheacttofunctionas atransgression norms ofthetransactionritual. That itdoessopubliclyandwithadifferentapparent The StrikeDebt501(c)4reiterates thebehaviorofanormativedebtspeculatorandhonors Butler’s theorizationofperformance aspotentiallybothnormativeandtransgressive(1990:275). of felicityinthistypefinancial exchange. Inthisway, thisperformanceaccords wellwith tion tomanyformsofprotestand resistance formative” contradistinc - ([1962]1975). That is, thedebtpurchasesactuallydosomething —in praised forintegratingwhat Austin referstoasthe “constative” withwhathecallsthe “per with WordsThings . First, andmoresimply, StrikeDebt’s actionsintheRollingJubileewere imbricated rationalities. Rolling Jubilee’spardonsperformashuttlingofvaluebetween incompatiblebutmutually missible worldoffinancialtransactionsbackintotheprivate/admissible sphereofdesire. one sphereintoanother. In thecaseofRollingJubilee, themovewasfrompublicbutinad- transfer thattheasset(debt)undergoessuchamultiplication of value. formed, aninactivitythattransferredtheassetfromtransaction togift;anditisonlyinsucha reted themawayunderasortofmoral-conceptualmattress. Itwastheirinactivitythatper 2016). Inanotherway, theirbehaviorwasclearlyirrational. They satontheirinvestments, fer and ideology, andforvoluntarilygivingcommunityfundstothefinanciers(Smith2012;Graeff ics tookissuewiththetacticforbeingtoocapitalistic, forplayingtoowellintomarketlogic a colossalgainforanytypeofinvestment. Infact, manyStrikeDebtactivistsandothercrit- ing anicheinthemarket, andfacilitatingaroughly10-foldincreaseinthevalueoftheirassets, circulate) broughtthepublicinadmissibilityoftheiroperationstosurface. doing waslegalandpublic, yetthisnewfactor(theintentiontoforgiveratherthancollector to revealnamesoridentifyinginformationaboutthesellers. Again, whattheseinstitutionswere institutions willingtosell, theywererequiredtosignnondisclosureagreements, promisingnot ing upthephone, failingtoreturncallsandemails(StrikeDebt2012). When theyfinallyfound Debt 2012). According totheirpublicstatements, tradersatSallieMaeweremostwary though theypossessedthefundsandlegalstatustopurchasedebtproductslegitimately(Strike was difficultforStrikeDebttofindfinancialinstitutionsthatmightagreedobusiness, even purchases wouldnotonlyfunctionastransactionsbutalsoinstancesofpublicspeech. So, it out, whomtheyweredealingwith(agroupofactivistsandartists);awarethatsuch Here itmighthelptorecallJ.L. Austin’s analysisofperformativeutterancesinHowtoDo To putthisanotherway, wecouldsaythatactsofvaluationarealways translationsfrom In onesense, StrikeDebtacted “vulgarly” likecannyandefficientfringe-financiers, exploit- — by conformingtothe(quiteprecise) conditions — and itistreated assuch, quietly, by tions knew, orcouldeasilyfind possible. These financialinstitu- as transparentlyandpublicly and wereattemptingtodoso oriented nonprofitinstitution) pices oftheir501(c)4(politically cial institutionsundertheaus- buy debtbundlesfromfinan- work. They wereattemptingto cumspect occupationalnet- an entrenchedandhighlycir traditional economicactorin Strike Debt’svisibilityasanon- 2009) incapitalistregimes, was bility” (DeleuzeandGuattari inadmissi- Deleuze’s “public cle, whichpointsdirectlyto Another, crucialobsta- intention, — - - hang- - - Strike Debt 125

— - trillion which repro- — a few million in the face of a a few million wrote that promises are particularly wrote that promises — a promise, like Don Juan’s to his many lovers a promise, — ) that operate differently, or asymmetrically, according to whether they or asymmetrically, to apologize) that operate differently, and

tion commits us to another assertion, one performance to another performance. (Austin one performance to another performance. tion commits us to another assertion, [1962] 1975:51) “I apologize”) is substan- or “I bet” (or “I promise” Austin claims here is that to say What Secondly, and more importantly, we can understand Strike Debt’s financial performance in we can understand Strike importantly, and more Secondly, conflict- one that splits the promising subject morally into promise, “unhappy” An extremely - This com “I promise and I ought not.” say The purpose of a contract is defeated if we One asser It is a self-stultifying procedure. to it. mits you to it and refuses to commit you : Words Things with it might help to look back at a vivid passage from How to Do Here, “he promises, asked to do something may say [A]n anxious parent when his child has been if he is really to have “I promise” must still himself say Willy but little Willy?” don’t you not arise at all in general with verbs that are Now this sort of asymmetry does promised. [1962] 1975:63) (Austin not used as explicit performatives. We might note here how the morally defeated promise engenders a sort of circulation. One promise engenders a sort of circulation. might note here how the morally defeated We to this as the Literary critic Shoshana Felman refers performance leads to another performance. illocutionary force of seduction voice/ are voiced in the first-person present tense or in any other combination of grammatical in his search for linguistic criteria that separate performatives from constatives, Austin, tense. to that criterion (63). “nearest thing” concludes that these special verbs represent the The lat- “I promised.” for that matter or, “he or she promises” tially different from saying whereas ter utterances are mere reports of activity and do not constitute actions in themselves, the performativity (and in the case That is, the former is close to a true performative utterance. utterance is not transferable across persons or across the binding-ness) of the of the promise, including the quantity of debt that is never sold at a discount on the secondary market, they on the secondary market, of debt that is never sold at a discount including the quantity will We debt crisis. is not a solution to the said that Rolling Jubilee have always “We claimed: that highlight to conduct debt purchases collected by Rolling Jubilee continue using the funds (Rolling Jubilee n.d.). debt system” different aspects of the Austin to the idea of the promise. terms of what it does connect an inner intention to an They attempt to utterances. revealing types of performative troubles the notion of any abso- The promise across time and uncertainty. external situation, (the inner intention) is essen- in that one of the primary conditions lute condition of felicity, of the external event not necessarily measurable by the accomplishment tially unknowable and Interestingly, ([1962] 1975:50). “more or less happy” promise can only be A that is promised. contractual- Austin’s performative terms, In “contract.” Austin often refers to the promise as a as a primordial basis for of foundational sociality, despite its Enlightenment connotations ity, contaminated with the structural ambivalence is an implicitly unstable social form, agreement, of the promise. displaces and reproduces itself: ing external and internal obligations, we might ask the question: does the circulation of At this point duces itself endlessly (1980:8). bear some circulation and volatility of the debt contract, “inadmissible” including the capital, or self- engendered by the self-contradicting, kinship or parallelism to this abyssal performative splitting promise? perhaps not analysis of certain verbs (all of which, Austin’s extended This passage occurs amid exchange: to bet, represent actions that are key operations in the world of financial surprisingly, to promise, financial institutions. At the same time, Strike Debt’s documented purchases serve a pedagogical purchases serve a Debt’s documented Strike same time, At the financial institutions. and debt market is about what the secondary statements They are thickly descriptive function. campaign the of the Rolling Jubilee from the beginning In fact, about what it does. narratives In dimensions. work above its functional this aspect of their activists highlighted Strike Debt 2012) that the tactic 2012; Salmon Ackerman 2012; Henwood criticisms (Ross and response to massive sum of debt compared to the was inadequate Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27September 2021

126 Christian Riley Nagler (Oliver 2016). regulations; buthewascareful to admonishdebtors “pay backyourdebtsifyoucanafford it” of Oliver’s critiquewasthatthefringeofconsumerdebtindustrysimply neededstricter broader socialmovementagainst financializationoflivesandlivelihoods. Moreover, thethrust The show’s producerswantedtodownplaytheradicalityofgesture, decouplingitfromany able forourjournalismtobeassociatedwithOccupy Wall Street” (Weiner andHanna2016). show’s producerswerequestionedaboutthisomissiontheyreplied: “it mightlookquestion- curiously madenomentionofStrikeDebt’s earliercampaign;accordingtoHanna, whenthe tioned themaboutthedetailsoftheirmethodsandintentions. Inthesegment, however, Oliver researcher fortheshowhadreachedouttohergroupmonths earlierandhadthoroughlyques- member ofherstudioaudiencein2004. According toStrikeDebtcofounderLauraHanna, a ture the “largest giveawayintelevisionhistory,” overtakingOprah’s giftof afreecartoevery translated into$15millionofdelinquentconsumermedicaldebt. Oliverpronouncedhisges- had formedadebt-buyingagencyandpurchased$60,000 onthesecondarymarket, which the unethicalpracticesofsecondarydebtmarketcollectionagencies, Oliverannouncedthathe Weekthe televisionpersonalityJohnOliveronhisHBOshowLast Tonight . tion. First, theideaofStrikeDebt’s debtforgivenesscampaignwastakenupinMay2016by unstable characterofthedebtcontract, toitsstructuralimpermanenceandpoliticalrevisability. in USstudentloansand$2.7trillionmedicaldebt. Itwasmeanttobringattentionthe tens ofmillionsdollarsdebt, thisisaminisculefractionofthecurrenttotal$1.3trillion beginning ofalargercampaign. Eventhoughtheymanagedtoleveragetheirdonationsinto sincerity time. The felicityoftheperformance Austin’s “he promises. Don’tyou Willy?” tion, suchasabankruptfor-profit college, thereiscynicismallaround, ofthevarietyweseein sincerity (ontheoneside)andcynicismonother. Inthecaseofafaultyeducational institu- mance revealstheideologyembeddedinbeliefthatfinancialcontractsareheldplaceby in speculationandanonymitybutonsolidaritythegift. StrikeDebt’stransactionalperfor identity ofthepromiser/debtor, establishingaprecedentfortransferabilityofidentitybased not destabilized thiscrystallizedasymmetrybypositingitsownideaofthefluidcirculation its pursuit. Lastofall, wecanconsiderthewaythatStrikeDebt’sRollingJubileesuccessfully where thereisalsoanimpliedasymmetrybetweenthepresumedpossessionofknowledgeand creditor. We mightask, aswell, howthisasymmetryfunctionsintheterritoryofeducation, ble identityofthepromiser/debtorandconventionalizedhyperfluidityfinanceworld/ classical speechactanalysishasshownistheconstructedasymmetrybetweensupposedsta- technologies ofspecializedcontracts(futures, options, spreads, andswaps). What Ihopethis and nonpersons, inadditiontothewayitisactivelydistributedacrosstimebycognitive ulative root)isenabled, viathisinstrumentoftransferability, tocirculateamongvariouspersons (its) origininthewayspokenutterancesare” signature” pairingiswhatallowsthewrittencontract nonperformative secondpersontotheembodied, inscriptive “I” ofthesignature. This“hereby/ ise”). This instrumentistheconventionof “hereby” (“youherebypromise”), whichlinksthe constative secondperson(“youpromise”)andthebinding, performativefirstperson(“Iprom- porarily bywhat Austin referstoasan “instrument” thatineffectbridgesthegulfbetween agreements” (57). Inaformalcontract, thisnontransferabilityofintentionisoverwrittentem- tity ofthespeakingsubject. In conclusion, thesplitlegacythatRollingJubileehashadsinceitendeddeservesmen- It’s worthnotingthatStrikeDebt’sRollingJubileewasconceivedfromthestartasmere We might pauseheretoconsiderhowoftenandfluidlytherelatedverbbet(thespec- An exceptionarises, however, earlierin Austin’s textaroundthecaseof “formal orlegal — can onlybeconstitutedinasingularmomentofspeechandthroughthestableiden- — leaving asidefornowtheaforementionedproblemof (63).

— perform to perform — which Austin saysis “not tetheredto (61). In asegmentabout - Strike Debt

127

were — deregulated the system and deregulated the system — Figure 4. VW bus outfitted to display the ashes of student debt documents, documents, debt student of ashes the display to outfitted bus VW 4. Figure by (Photo 2015. Chile, Santiago, Fritas.” “Papas aka Tapia artist by Francisco Francisco Tapia) Francisco Giorgio Jackson, Camila Vallejo, and Karol Cariola Vallejo, Camila Giorgio Jackson, — with advisory help from the Chicago school economists with advisory help from

—

In the spring of 2014, Chilean artist Francisco Tapia, who goes by the name Papas Fritas, goes by the name Papas Fritas, who Tapia, Chilean artist Francisco In the spring of 2014, would investi- Tapia By day gate the financial situation and life struggle of a single Then in the evening, student. he would destroy the documents related to that partic- like “Every night, ular debt. I burned the docu- a ritual, ments that detailed the debt.” (Franklin 2014) University of Minnesota Press. - a locus of wider resis as indebtedness” “collectivize to to Strike Debt’s campaign In contrast has been remarkably successful the student movement in Chile promising, and more Lastly, opened it up for the rapid expansion of for-profit schools (Franklin 2013). schools rapid expansion of for-profit opened it up for the an expensive from the Universidad Del Mar, burglarized $500 million worth of debt contracts Tapia stole the After beach resort town of Renaca. university located in the exclusive for-profit before burning them. he brought them home and reviewed them one by one, documents, then installed the ashes in Tapia a traveling exhibition built into a which toured the streets of van, broad- Valparaiso Santiago and casting the message of debt According to Chilean resistance. the act did not tech- lawyers, nically erase all records of the but it did expo- students’ debts, In 2014). nentially increase the transaction costs involved in prosecuting the cases (Franklin system to act made it nearly impossible for the university to use the judicial Tapia’s essence, act as another more radical method of occu- Tapia’s could think of We recover its investments. in the words of their crit- universities are, If for-profit “moral other.” pying the position of the then we of students who believe in the future promised by education, “stealing the dreams” ics, can steal the contracts that bind those dreams to their thieves. elected to seats in Chile’s national Congress. Chilean universities are the most expensive and Chilean universities national Congress. elected to seats in Chile’s Before the mid-1970s the on average and adjusted for income. world, class-stratified in the but the Pinochet accessible, in Chile was publicly operated and widely higher education system regime tance, Oliver’s show reified the social necessity of debt circulation, while condemning its odd condemning its while debt circulation, the social necessity of show reified Oliver’s tance, show ultimately with which Oliver’s be marked in the method contrast can also This abuses. and organization, it over to a charitable purchased: they turned medical debt they handled the about their radical transparency to Strike Debt’s As opposed to mention this on air. neglected the service of new forms of debt traders in occupation of the role and their long-term methods, temporary grant of relief. Oliver’s spectacle posed itself as a of solidarity and resistance, In 2011 of higher education. issues of student debt and the privatization in uniting around the and two years later the country, of students occupied universities across hundreds of thousands activists three prominent student References Minneapolis: Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. 1996. Arjun. Appadurai, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 by guest on 27September 2021

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130 Christian Riley Nagler http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/suppl/10.1162/DRAM_a_00722 To view supplementalmaterialsrelatedtothisarticle, pleasevisit Wong, Alia. 2017. “What aNew Trump Administration CouldMeanforFor-Profit Colleges.” TheAtlantic, Weiner, Sophie, andLauraHanna. 2016. “Debt ResistanceLite:JohnOliver’sStunt.” TheBaffler, 10June. Vogl, Joseph. 2015. TheSpecterofCapital. Palo Alto, CA:StanfordUniversityPress. Taylor, Mark. 1997. “Learning Curves.” InTorqued Ellipses, editedbyLynne CookeandKarenKelly, 47. Sullivan, Teresa A., Elizabeth Warren, andJayLawrence Westbrook. 2000. TheFragile MiddleClass: Strike Debt. 2012. “You arenotaloan.” Accessed 1June2014. http://strikedebt.org. Smith, Yves. 2012. “Why Occupy Wall Street’sRollingJubileePutsBorrowersatRisk.” NakedCapitalism, Salmon, Felix. 2012. “The DeliciousnessofRollingJubilee.” Reuters US. 13November2012. Accessed Rushkoff, Douglas. 2011. “The Evolution Will beSocialized.” Shareable.com. 7February. Accessed 12May Ross, Andrew, andSeth Ackerman. 2012. “Strike DebtandRollingJubilee: The Debate.” Dissent, 13 -for-profit-colleges/538578/. 31 August. Accessed 9October2017. www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/julian-schmoke Accessed 12October2017. www.thebaffler.com/latest/john-oliver-debt-resistance-lite. New York: DIACenterforthe Arts. Americans inDebt. NewHaven, CT: Yale UniversityPress. -borrowers-at-risk-to-politicize-debt-issue.html. 2 December. Accessed 1June2014. www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/12/strike-debts-rolling-jubilee-puts 2014.1 June http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/11/13/the-deliciousness-of-rolling-jubilee/. 2014. www.shareable.net/blog/the-evolution-will-be-socialized. November. Accessed 1June2014. www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/strike-debt-the-debate.