DEBT RESISTANCE UK

Debt affects all of us, whether it’s personal, local council, or national: we are implicated in this system which makes the majority poor and powerless and keeps the 1% in power.

Debt is a tool to uphold the status quo, part of a system that distributes wealth from the majority and public to the super-rich. Austerity measures, introduced under the excuse of bank bailouts, are a key example: while our public services are being cut, the majority of us is getting poorer and more indebted.

Through audits, assemblies, conferences, research, publications and any means necessary, Debt Resistance UK (DRUK) is dedicated to challenging the narrative of debt as inevitable and apolitical.

Our aims are:

• to inspire, educate and agitate with other movements to overcome neoliberalism and its debt-grip on us all
• to shine a light on predatory and exploitative lending practices
• to raise awareness of how to resist debt dependency and challenge financialisation in practice and on an ideological level
• to help people feel comfortable to talk about debt: financial matters are not too difficult for us to understand
• to build strength in numbers to actively resist and oppose illegitimate and oppressive debt at all levels: as debtors, we have collective power
• to research and organise for a financial system where debt is not a form of power and exploitation
• to truly democratise finance and the delivery of public services

Because the debt economy is only part of the wider problems of the system we live in, we find it crucial to connect and collaborate with other people and groups. We work towards a world which rejects all forms of oppression and use consensus processes in our work.