Forging a Commons Charter…. & Acting On It with Guy Standing

Friday June 9th, 6.30pm

The commons belong to everyone in society and to everybody equally. They include the natural commons – the land, rivers, sea and seabed, and the air we breathe – as well as the social, civil, cultural and educational commons.

And yet our commons have been systematically depleted, through encroachment (and neglect), enclosure, privatisation, commodification and financialisation. The erosion has accelerated in the past forty years since the neo-liberal economics revolution associated with Margaret Thatcher, and ratcheted up in the period of austerity.

In this talk, economist Guy Standing, will argue that we need a new progressive politics that demands a revival of the commons and compensation for their loss. 

Following his talk and a break for food, we'll discuss one possible objective, a Commons Charter, and how such a manifesto for reviving common wealth might be achieved. 

Guy is Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London, a founding member and honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), and author of The Precariat, Plunder of the Commons and The Blue Commons.

Kairos, 1-6 Essex Street, WC2R 3HY

Doors open at 6.30pm for drinks, talk and discussion starts at 7pm with a break for a one-pot vegan supper.

£5 members, £10 non-members. Includes food.