Dear Andrew,

One of the things Occupy has been criticized for — and I’ll admit, I’ve been one of the critics — is a lack of focus on strategy or organizing. The debt campaign seems like a real effort to grapple with those problems — to figure out how the movement can expand its numbers and strength so it might force some material changes to the social balance of power. Occupy is often tarred as the mountain that birthed a mouse, all spectacle and no substance; and there’s been more than a kernel of truth to that critique in the past.

But Strike Debt shows that there’s a real will among many activists to create something serious and lasting. To me, the greatest point in its favor is that it’s based on the fundamental principle of mutual aid — the motive force behind every successful mass movement.