Why debt rules our lives and how to resist it
DICTATOR DEBTS… PAYDAY LOANS… THIRD WORLD DEBT… AUSTERITY CUTS… THE EUROZONE CRISIS… STUDENT DEBT… VULTURE FUNDS…
Six years on from the crash, the ranks of those imprisoned by debt are swelling in the UK and across the world.
For years, millions of people in the global South have been trapped in poverty by the rule of debt. Now across Europe our public services are being slashed and our economies restructured to pay for bankers’ bailouts. In the UK, as prices outstrip wages, families are turning to payday loans to get through the month, students face a lifetime of debt and the NHS is locked into 30-year contracts with parasitic companies profiting from the public purse.
Debt is at the centre of a broken economic system that is hurting ordinary people everywhere.
This free day-long conference will hear from global movements on the frontline of debt resistance, investigate the pervasive role of debt in our lives today, and discuss what collective action we can take to break the chains of debt in years to come.
10am–6.30pm
Registration from 9.30am
School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Nearest tube: Russell Square
Speakers include:
- Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury
- Ann Pettifor, Director, PRIME and author of Just Money
- Andrew Ross, Strike Debt activist and author of Creditocracy: The case for debt refusal
- Costas Lapavitsas, Professor of Economics, SOAS
- Njoki Njehu, Daughters of Mumbi, Kenya and Africa Jubilee South
- Jihen Chandoul, Campaign to Audit Tunisia’s Debt
- Mohammed Mossallem, Drop Egypt’s Debt campaign
- Vicky Donnelly, Debt Justice Ireland
- Daniel Munevar, Colombian economist and member of the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM)
- Allyson Pollock, Professor of Public Health & author of NHS Plc
- Andrew McGettigan, Critical Education blog and author of The Great University Gamble
- Nick Dearden, World Development Movement
- Alinah Azadeh, Artist, Burning the Books
- Werner Bonefeld, University of York
- Ruth London, Fuel Poverty Action
- Dr Helen Mercer, University of Greenwich
- David Harvie, University of Leicester
- Katie Curtis, Children’s Society
- Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Jubilee Debt Campaign
- Carl Packman, author of Loan Sharks: The Rise and Rise of Payday Lenders
- Christina Laskaridis, Corporate Watch and Greek Debt Audit Campaign
- Dan Ozarow, Middlesex University and Argentina Research Network UK
- Emma Bryn-Jones, Zero-Credit UK
- Iolanda Fresnillo, Spanish Citizens Debt Audit Platform
- Jérémie Cravatte, CADTM Belgium
- Joel Benjamin, Move Your Money UK
- Spyros Marchetos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- and more…
A full programme for the day is now available here >>
11 responses to “Life Before Debt – 29 March 2014”