Debtors All: Consumer Debt, Sharecropping, and the Political Possibilities of Indebtedness

• In Event: 40420 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6: Neoliberal Politics 1

Abstract

Americans live in a moment of mass indebtedness wherein consumer debt has doubled to $18 trillion since 2004 (Federal Reserve Bank of New York 2025). Calls for assistance for debtors–by way of student loan cancellation, medical debt forgiveness, eviction moratoriums, and other consumer relief–have reached unprecedented levels of popularity. Debtors, not just workers or the working class, might be a critical political group to mobilize in struggles for economic democracy and emancipation. This paper analyzes a historical antecedent, Southern sharecroppers and their unions in the Great Depression, in order to explore key players, demands, and dynamics in political struggle against indebtedness. In so doing, this paper focuses on the centrality of race in the creditor-debtor relation as well as sharecroppers' visions for alternative models for credit and economic democracy. The goal is to understand what kind of possibilities for solidarity and political or social movement might arise when we consider the historical origins and consequences of mass indebtedness.

Author

• Sofia Butnaru, University of Chicago