Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Neil Young, Audio Slave, Pink (If you haven’t seen the concert video of her song “Dear Mr. President, by all means check it out. It’s all over the web. Trust me, it’s better than Stephen Colbert at the correspondents’ dinner.), Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam…David Sirota.

David Sirota? Absolutely. David has written an album of protest songs. It’s called Hostile Takeover. And a fine album it is. You should buy it, read it and, hopefully, get as indignant and fired up as David is. The songs are great. It’s a concept album, so they work together nicely too.

But as Elizabeth Warren and others have pointed out, there is a problem.

The problem is not enough protest movement to go with these great “albums.”  That’s not a criticism of David’s book.  Each chapter has solutions as well as a critique.  But still,  we are all searching for the critical mass that gives coherence and power to addressing the problems that David skillfully describes.  Unlike the 60’s,  when stars and celebrities like Harry Belafonte,  James Baldwin,  Peter,  Paul and Mary,  Joan Baez,  Marion Anderson,  and others were drawn to the movement,  it’s now almost like it's the celebrities who are trying to create the movement. 

Of course social movements are unpredictable.  Almost by definition they come out of nowhere—even when they are the product of quite a lot of planning as with the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  These days we see this illustrated with the stunning—if still yet to become focused—demonstrations by immigrants. 

So I won’t be surprised if I am surprised by some mass resistance that comes out of the blue.  And when it does,  it will give politicians and pundits alike something to respond to instead of the other way around. 

In that spirit,  I’d also like to take the opportunity of plugging David’s book to do a little pump priming.  Here’s a concrete suggestion:  David—please lobby for my idea of “Fight-Back Debt Counseling Centers.”  Your appearance at AFL-CIO headquarters for your official book launch at 7:00 PM on Tuesday,  May 9 would be an especially appropriate place to do so. 

What’s a Fight-Back Debt Counseling Center?  Well,  I think that’s something TPMcafé readers and others can work together to flesh out.  But as I roughly envision them,  they would be somewhat like the draft counseling centers that played such a crucial role in building opposition to the war in Viet Nam.  Trained counselors would give advice to clients about their debt burdens and how to cope with them.  They would help individuals cope with overbearing collection agencies and credit card companies who have broken even their own rules in applying their ever expanding and ever more draconian menu of late fees,  penalties,  escalating interest rates etc. 

But they would do more than that—much more.  Fight Back Debt Counseling Centers would organize the unorganized and empower the powerless.  They would litigate and demonstrate.  They would serve to overcome the isolation that people feel—the sense that “I-am-all-alone,” in my fight with Citibank,  the bankruptcy court  or whoever.  I think that sense is broader and deeper than we realize.  My guess is that there isn’t an hour that goes by that scores if not hundreds of Americans aren’t staring at a credit card bill or their student loan statement or,  for that matter,  their paycheck,  poised for the kind of epiphany that David describes when being jerked around by an airline at the beginning of Hostile Takeover. 

Why bring this up at the AFL-CIO?  Two reasons.  First,  if unions aren’t about bringing together the individually abused into a collective force for—dare I use the expression,  the common good—then who the heck is?  And as with traditional,  “20^th century,”  workplace questions,  21^st century debt is a great equalizer.  It is an issue around which white, black, brown,  men,  women,  GLBT,  fundamentalist Baptists,  Roman Catholics, latte drinking,  crushed by student loans young Episcopalians and older citizens whose pensions just got cut in half can all unite.  It also lends itself to problem-solving and hope,  not just fear and anger.  And unions more than any other institution have the know-how,  the resources and the infrastructure, including union halls and union members,  to make this happen. 

The second reason is that the AFL-CIO has something else.  It has the Union Privilege Credit card.  With some not-that-far-out-of-the-box thinking,  Union Privilege can put together a genuinely attractive and non-profit (or very low profit),  package of debt consolidation financing and traditional credit counseling that can work hand-in-hand with the more political and activist fight-back aspect of the Fight-Back Debt Counseling Centers. 

Like Bruce’s song in New Orleans says,  time to stand up together to get the man to “pay-me-my-money down.”  If not now,  when? 

Bottom line—if this idea makes sense to you,  terrific,  let’s refine it.  If it doesn’t,  that’s fine too.  Let’s develop some alternatives around taxes,  jobs and the other issues David describes.  The important thing is let’s treat Hostile Takeover as a catalyst for translating alienation and isolation into organizing and action.