Ann Pettifor in Australia

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Ann Pet­ti­for is one of the hand­ful of econ­o­mists who pre­dict­ed and warned about the finan­cial cri­sis of 2007 well before it hap­pened. Ann first came to promi­nence when she led the Jubilee 2000 cam­paign to abol­ish the debt of the world’s 42 poor­est coun­tries. She was one of the 12 nom­i­nees for the Revere Award; some of her pre-cri­sis com­ments that were high­light­ed there were:

Remov­ing con­trols over the finance sec­tor paved the way for its rise to dom­i­nance, which in turn has led to a trans­for­ma­tion of the glob­al econ­o­my and increased insta­bil­i­ty.

 [One of] the con­se­quences for the glob­al econ­o­my [is an] enor­mous increase (or ‘bub­ble’) in the stock of finan­cial assets in rela­tion to the real econ­o­my, as mea­sured by GDP or the stock of phys­i­cal, human, and tech­no­log­i­cal cap­i­tal.

 There will be a col­lapse in the cred­it sys­tem in the rich world, led by the Unit­ed States

 Once default rates approach 1 per cent of the val­ue of the debt across the whole lend­ing spec­trum, the prof­itabil­i­ty of banks is called into ques­tion. If default rates reach 2 per cent, the prob­a­bil­i­ty of a finan­cial cri­sis ris­es appre­cia­bly.

Ann will be in Aus­tralia as a guest of the Search Foun­da­tion from ear­ly Sep­tem­ber. Ann is an excel­lent speak­er, as well as a seri­ous­ly well-informed ana­lyst, and her talks will be well worth attend­ing. For more details of her vis­it, please go to the Search web­site. For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact Bro­nisla­va Lee at the SEARCH Foun­da­tion on (02) 9211 4164 or via email at bron@search.org.au.

The fol­low­ing tour infor­ma­tion was copied from the Search web­site. If any of the links don’t work, please go to the orig­i­nal page and book from there:

Ade­laide

Pub­lic forum with Ann Pet­ti­for (UK) and Mark Hen­ley (Unit­ing­Care Wes­ley Ade­laide)
6.30pm, Thurs­day 1 Sep­tem­ber, Napi­er Lec­ture The­atre, Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide, $10/$5

Co-spon­sored by the SEARCH Foun­da­tion, the Don Dun­stan Foun­da­tion and the Con­ser­va­tion Coun­cil SA. Book online | Share on Face­book

Mel­bourne

Launch of “Bab­ble in the Bar”, Inau­gur­al Quar­ter­ly Trades Hall Gath­er­ing, with talk by Ann Pet­ti­for (UK)
6–7pm, Fri­day 2 Sep­tem­ber, Bel­la Union Bar, Trades Hall. Drinks pro­vid­ed.

Co-spon­sored by Vic­to­ri­an Trades Hall Coun­cil, SEARCH Foun­da­tion and the Nation­al Ter­tiary Edu­ca­tion Union. RSVP to bron@search.org.au or (02) 9211 4164 by Wednes­day 31 August.

Work­shop for union cli­mate activists and uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents
10am-noon, Fri­day 2 Sep­tem­ber, Jim Pot­ter Room, Old Physics Build­ing – G16, Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne, Parkville

The Nation­al Ter­tiary Edu­ca­tion Union is spon­sor­ing a spe­cial work­shop for its cli­mate activists and uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents on Fri­day morn­ing in South Mel­bourne. Active mem­bers of oth­er unions may also attend. For more infor­ma­tion or to RSVP con­tact bron@search.org.au or (02) 9211 4164.

Com­mu­ni­ty forum with Ann Pet­ti­for (UK)
2–4pm, Sat­ur­day 3 Sep­tem­ber, New Inter­na­tion­al­ist Book­shop, Trades Hall

Bris­bane

Pub­lic forum with Ann Pet­ti­for (UK) and Ian Lowe (Grif­fith Uni­ver­si­ty)
6.30pm, Mon­day 5 Sep­tem­ber, Pre­miers’ Hall, Par­lia­men­tary Annexe, Cnr Alice & William Sts. Sug­gest­ed dona­tion $10/$5.

Sup­port­ed by Sen­a­tors Claire Moore and Laris­sa Waters and QLD MP Evan Moor­head and co-spon­sored by the SEARCH Foun­da­tion, Queens­land Con­ser­va­tion Coun­cil and the Green Insti­tute. RSVP by 31 August to bron@search.org.au or (02) 9211 4164.

Work­shop for union del­e­gates
1–4pm Mon­day 5 Sep­tem­ber

The Aus­tralian Man­u­fac­tur­ing Work­ers Union (AMWU) is host­ing a spe­cial work­shop for union del­e­gates. Con­tact your union to ask if they are par­tic­i­pat­ing, or for more infor­ma­tion con­tact bron@search.org.au or (02) 9211 4164.

Syd­ney

Pub­lic forum with Ann Pet­ti­for (UK) and Arthur Ror­ris (South Coast Labour Coun­cil)
6pm, Thurs­day 8 Sep­tem­ber, Tom Mann the­atre, 136 Chalmers St, Sur­ry Hills. Sug­gest­ed dona­tion $10/$5.

Co-spon­sored by the SEARCH Foun­da­tion, Cli­mate Action Net­work Aus­tralia, Cat­a­lyst, Green­peace Aus­tralia-Pacif­ic, Aus­tralian Ser­vices Union, South Coast Labour Coun­cil, Insti­tute of Envi­ron­men­tal Stud­ies (UNSW), Soci­ety of Het­ero­dox Econ­o­mists, Insti­tute for Sus­tain­able Futures (UTS). RSVP by Mon­day 5 Sep­tem­ber to bron@search.org.au or 9211 4164.

Mak­ing the Boom Pay: If not now, when? Cat­a­lyst and Aus­tralia Insti­tute Con­fer­ence 
10am-4pm,  Thurs­day 8 Sep­tem­ber, fea­tur­ing Ann Pet­ti­for as one of the keynote speak­ers. For more details con­tact Cat­a­lyst on 8090 1177

Insti­tute of Envi­ron­men­tal Stud­ies and Soci­ety of Het­ero­dox Econ­o­mists cam­pus work­shop
3–4.30pm, Thurs­day 8 Sep­tem­ber, Aus­tralian School of Busi­ness room 220, UNSW, Kens­ing­ton. Free.

Plus spe­cial work­shops for union del­e­gates and NSW Par­lia­ment staff and MPs on Wednes­day 7 Sep­tem­ber
Con­tact bron@search.org.au or 9211 4164 for more infor­ma­tion.

Wol­lon­gong

Union and com­mu­ni­ty work­shop
9am-1pm, Fri­day 9 Sep­tem­ber, South Coast Labour Coun­cil Trade Union Cen­tre, 1 Low­den  Sq, Wol­lon­gong. Free.

The train­ing is open to all com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers in the region who are inter­est­ed in the Green Jobs project or the prob­lem of cli­mate change and ensur­ing the tran­si­tion is effec­tive. The half-day work­shop will be prac­ti­cal­ly-ori­ent­ed with a focus on engag­ing the com­mu­ni­ty on these issues. It will cov­er:

• How the tran­si­tion can be financed and be social­ly, as well as envi­ron­men­tal­ly, ben­e­fi­cial
• The roles of organ­ised labour and indus­try groups in devel­op­ing polit­i­cal momen­tum for change, and in the tran­si­tion itself.

RSVP required by Wednes­day 7 Sep­tem­ber to bron@search.org.au or (02) 9211 4164.