Seven years on from the Great Crash, global debt levels are booming once again, and the power of finance to dictate people’s lives is deepening.
In Europe, the Greek people have been forced into another decade of austerity, at economic gunpoint, while reckless lenders get paid in full. In the UK, a generation of young people face a lifetime of debt if they want to go to university, with grants for the poorest set to be abolished. And the countries of the global South, after a few years of relief, are on course for a new debt crisis which threatens lives, livelihoods and basic public services.
Debt is not an accidental by-product of our broken economic system. It is a tool of control through which the rich exploit the poor for profit, and the power of elected governments to make decisions is curtailed.
This free event will hear the latest from campaigns and movements organising against unjust debt in the UK and around the world, and create space to plan collective action to break the chains of debt in years to come.
Saturday 14 November 2015
10am-6pm
Registration from 9.30am
St Luke’s Community Centre, 90 Central Street, London EC1V 8AJ
Speakers include:
– Ann Pettifor, PRIME Economics
– Bernard Anaba, ISODEC, Ghana
– Dr Marina Prentoulis, Syriza London and University of East Anglia
– Damon Gibbons, Centre for Responsible Credit and author of Britain’s Personal Debt Crisis
– Esther Stanford-Xosei, Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe
– Andy Storey, Afri – Action from Ireland
– Helen Mercer, People vs PFI and Drop NHS Debt
– Kofi Mawuli Klu, All-Afrikan Networking Community Link for International Development
– Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Director, Jubilee Debt Campaign
– Laura McFarlane-Shopes, Leeds Tidal
– Dr Kate Bayliss, School of Oriental and African Studies
– Clare Welton, Take Back the City
– Ewa Karwowski, Kingston University
– Isidoros Diakides, Greece Solidarity Campaign
– Jamie Griffiths, Debt Resistance UK
– Dorothy Grace Guerrero, global justice analyst and organiser
– Lauren Tooker, University of Warwick and Debt Resistance UK
– Areeb Ullah, King’s College London
– Maddy Evans, Economic Justice Project
– Callum Cant, National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts
View the full programme for the day >>
All the rooms are wheelchair accessible and free use of hearing loop is available on request.