It’s already February and it seems an age since our last Newsletter in August last year. A lot has happened since then including a general election – the consequences of which will continue to play out for some time yet.
In the meantime, the GIMMS team will continue with its educational project to change the way people understand money and, through its MMT Lens, challenge the global economic system which has had such a damaging effect not just on the lives of UK citizens but also globally. We have some exciting events coming up; more news on that later in the newsletter.
In September and October last year, the team had a very busy two weeks travelling between Brighton, London, Manchester, Leeds and Newport in Wales for a variety of events at which we had the pleasure to meet lots of enthusiastic and lovely people.
At the Labour Conference in Brighton, we were delighted to welcome once again Professor Bill Mitchell. He combined his presentation aimed at debunking the myths around government finances and how money works with a clear explanation of how such an understanding could be used to shape the solutions to the pressing economic, social and ecological issues that the planet faces to enable the vital shift of the global economy onto a Green pathway. If you missed it, you can watch it here.
Before leaving for London, Bill attended another event organised by the former MP and MMT supporter Chris Williamson at which he made another presentation to a packed house and a welcoming audience. It is the grassroots approach that we hope will foster an appreciation of the powers open to a sovereign currency-issuing government to address the big challenges linked to climate change and social inequity. Such events are an important opportunity to open up a conversation.
Having whizzed back to London, GIMMS and Macmillan books co-hosted an opportunity to join Bill Mitchell for a second MMT training session. Our thanks go to the staff at MacMillan Education for allowing us to hold the event at Springer Nature and the lovely buffet they put on. The event was videoed but due to unforeseen circumstances, there has been a delay in completing the edit. Once this has been done, we will post it up on our website and let you know.
Following the London event, our next ports of call were ‘oop north’ where Alan Hutchison and Phil Armstrong gave fascinating and engaging talks about MMT in Manchester and Leeds at our two social gatherings. We were delighted to welcome Alan and Phil as Associate Members last year and appreciate their support for our project including being our resident speakers!
If you didn’t already know, Alan has an informative website ‘Matches in the Dark’ which is well worth a look. Phil is a strong advocate of the need for pluralism in economics. He has spent the last 38 years teaching economics and business and believes that MMT provides powerful insights into the way the economy works and how progressive economic policy can be put into practice.
We are delighted to announce as a result of the talk in Leeds that a small MMT group has now been set up to promote MMT locally. We are a very small organisation with a very big project and it’s really important that we use all the resources available to get the message out and that includes YOU our supporters. So, if you think you could help do get in touch @ email hidden; JavaScript is required
Our next big engagement was at the Green Party Conference in Newport, Wales in October where we had a stand and also organised a fringe event at which Phil Armstrong took a very creative and informative look at how money works and how a Green New Deal and Universal Basic Services could be delivered.
We were very encouraged by the large audience which packed the room and equally heartened by people’s interest in the subject. People were keen to listen and ask questions afterwards and indeed our stand got lots of interested visitors throughout the Conference. If you missed it, you can see the recording of the event here.
GIMMS UPCOMING EVENTS
GIMMS is planning a number of events in the next month or so:
Professor Bill Mitchell will be joined by Professor Steve Hall at two events in London and Manchester. At a time of great change and political, social and environmental uncertainty both nationally and globally, it is even more vital to challenge the economic orthodoxy which has informed the political agendas of successive government both on the right and the left for decades. The aim of both events will be to explore the potential for developing effective communication strategies to engage the public in a much-needed conversation about modern monetary reality and its connection with the daily lives of working people and their families. Do join us for what will be both an informative event and an opportunity to explore what comes next.
For tickets follow the links
London 20th February
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gower-initiative-for-modern-money-studies-seminar-tickets-88843075029
Manchester 21st February
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gower-initiative-for-modern-money-studies-seminar-tickets-88853917459
We are also delighted to announce that Bill Mitchell will be in London on 22nd February. As part of his MMTed initiative, he will be holding an MMT Masterclass which will cover basic MMT concepts. It will be an academic-oriented presentation with the aim of advancing educational goals as a priority.
Tickets are limited so if you want to join Bill don’t delay get your tickets today.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mmted-masterclass-tickets-88855464085
And last, but not least, we have an event in Northampton on March 28th at which GIMMS’ Associate Member Phil Armstrong will be exploring the question of how government pays for its spending and showing how we can address the climate crisis, provide essential universal basic services and tackle poverty and inequality by a better understanding of how money works.
For tickets follow the link:
Further events are being planned in Oxford, London and Bristol later in the year and we will keep you informed once the dates are confirmed. But in the meantime, if you’d like to host a gathering of your own, GIMMS would be happy to give what support it can in terms of advertising, providing a speaker or other help so please do get in touch @ email hidden; JavaScript is required.
WEBSITE NEWS
Our website has had nearly 190,00 hits since our launch and in January we had an average of around 500 hits per day. We have added a new fact sheet on the Green New Deal at https://gimms.org.uk/fact-sheets/green-new-deal/; a pdf version of the fact sheet is available at the bottom of the webpage.
We now also have a donate button on the site, so if you are able to make a donation, however small, to cover our costs we would be appreciative. We are a non-profit organisation and we are all unpaid volunteers. We rely on donations to continue our work, including website costs, event costs and travel expenses.
You can make your donation here.
Finally, we’d like to thank you all for your continuing and growing support and hope to have the pleasure of meeting you at one of our future events.
With all our best wishes
Prue, Sara and Claire
The GIMMS Team