20

Commoning Against Debt

BY SILVIA FEDERICI
That micro-credit is producing misery is becoming com-

D
mon knowledge. Nevertheless, the program is expanding,
ebt, as David Graeber reminds us, has a long history. projected to reach 30 million people in Africa alone. “Good
Debtors’ revolts dotted the ancient world forcing the returns” on the money invested is only one of the motivations.
introduction of Jubilees. In modern times, debt has A further reason is the desire to bring under the control of the
become a key means of capital accumulation. Ubiquitous, it banks forms of subsistence that populations of women have
has taken on a new function, as the most general category created at the margins of the money economy. Debt sucks an
through which exploitation is organized. This pervasive use immense amount of surplus labor expended outside the wage
of debt is an attempt to change the architecture of capital ac- relation, while providing a means of experimentation with
cumulation by eliminating its most conflictual aspects and different social relations. Surveillance and policing are ‘inter-
allowing for self-managed exploitation. nalized’ by the community, and failure is
This is one of the objectives of the “finan- more burning since it is experienced as an
cialization of reproduction.” In the place of
“In modern times, debt individual problem and disgrace.
the capital-labor relation mediated by the has become a key means On this terrain the women of Egypt,
wage, banks and NGOs are dishing out to of capital accumulation. Bangladesh or Bolivia share the same
would-be micro-entrepreneurs the capital Ubiquitous, it has taken experience as indebted university stu-
that presumably will lift them out of pov- on a new function, as dents in the U.S.. In both cases the state
erty. They then recede, only to reappear and employers are eliminated as ben-
at the point of collection. Users of credit
the most general eficiaries of the labor extracted, and as
cards, student loans and micro-loans ap- category through targets of demands and conflict. In both
pear as possessors of “capital,” even if just which exploitation cases we have the ideology of micro-entre-
a few hundred dollars, presumably free to is organized. This preneurship, the individualization of the
invest it as they please and prosper or fail pervasive use of debt reasons for success and failure, the break-
as their industriousness allows. In this down of collective support and, not last,
scenario, as wages and jobs vanish and the
is an attempt to change the politics of guilt: hiding, self-imposed
lending/debt machine becomes the domi- the architecture of silence, avoidance of disclosure.
nant work relation, exploitation is more capital accumulation However, this curtain of fear and guilt
individualized and guilt producing. by eliminating its most is beginning to be lifted. Debt resistance
The functioning of this machine is best conflictual aspects movements are growing in different parts
seen in the organization of micro-credit, of the world. While in the United States
which the policy international agencies
and allowing for self- students and those fighting foreclosures
have promoted since the 1980’s as the managed exploitation.” have taken the lead, in the South resist-
favored means to capture the work, ener- ance has come from grassroots women,
gies, and inventiveness of the “poor” across the world. like the hundreds who in the summer of 2002 converged in La
Loans are generally lent to women’s groups. While each Paz and besieged the banks demanding a cancellation of their
member is responsible for repayment, the group polices any- debts. But the struggle against micro-credits is not waged only
one who defaults. This has proven to be such an effective through demonstrations. The main obstacle to the spread of
mechanism that even though the recipients are the poorest, micro-credits are the commoning activities women in rural
the rates of repayment have been the highest. areas and shanty towns are creating, as they are pooling
Equally important have been the strategies used in case resources, setting up communal kitchens, occupying public
of default. Banks and NGOs have engaged in an ethnography spaces where to conduct various forms of micro-trade and
of shame, studying how communities enforce their mores, urban farming, and forming community organizations to
which they then apply with a good dose of intimidation. address the problems of everyday reproduction. Through these
Home visits and vilifying methods are used to scare people activities and the solidarity networks they generate—which
into repayment. This further explains why rates are so high, parallel the solidarity economies developing across the United
despite the fact that few can claim any success with the capital States—the new debt economy is being resisted, while a new
borrowed. In fact, most loan recipients simply move from a society, based on the communalization of our reproduction,
smaller to a bigger debt, in a sequence often ending in suicide. is being created. ƒ