Upon entering the Eastside Arts Alliance in East Oakland, it’s clear that this a special kind of conference. On the welcome table is a stack of name tag stickers, the kind that usually read “Hello, My Name Is…” But these stickers read: “Hello, My DEBT Is…”
These badges are stuck onto the shirts of many of the seventy-some people here, filled in with dollar amounts or words like “terrifying.” They’re participating in something called a Debtors’ Assembly. It’s organized by Strike Debt Bay Area, the local chapter of a larger movement that came out of Occupy Wall Street.