A lot has happened since the launch of the Gower Initiative last October and we are keen to tell you what we have been doing. However, just before we embark on our update we’d just like to let you know that we have a number of events coming up and you will find details of them further down the newsletter which also contains some very important information.
We are now a fully-fledged non-profit organisation registered at Companies House and are very enthusiastically getting on with the task in hand!
We have appointed an advisory board whose nomination will allow us to draw on the vast body of knowledge and expertise that has been accumulated by them over decades. You can see who they are here.
As part of the on-going development of GIMMS’ objectives, we launched our new database of academic MMT research material. It is a work in progress and can be accessed through Zotero, which is a free, open-source reference management package. It aims to offer a one-stop shop for those wishing to extend and improve their knowledge. To check it out follow the link here.
It is gratifying to note that support for our online presence is also growing both on social media and our website. We have 2187 followers on Twitter, over a thousand on Facebook and our website has had 113,000 hits so far. It makes a good beginning to what we hope will grow into an important voice for MMT in the UK.
In February, as part of its goal to develop international contacts the GIMMS team went to Berlin for the first European International MMT Conference. It was a brilliant opportunity to meet so many passionate and enthusiastic people who share the same objectives to raise awareness of how money works in the real world. More than a hundred delegates attended from across Europe and further afield and the programme was both interesting and thought-provoking. It proved to be the perfect opportunity not only to share ideas and experiences but also plan for a future in which MMT sits at the heart of public understanding and debate and forms the basis for developing public policy and decision making at government level. There were sessions on finance, housing, employment, poverty and climate breakdown. A common theme running through the conference was how MMT activists could work together to create a community, organising and collaborating across borders.
Delegates also had an opportunity to attend a performance of the film PIIGS which is a documentary film investigating the causes and effects of austerity imposed by the EU on its subject countries. If you haven’t seen it we can recommend it. You can watch a short clip here or rent the full movie for £3.00
May was a busy one!
GIMMS was delighted to welcome Bill Mitchell, Warren Mosler and Martin Watts to our event in Birmingham in May following the very successful launch of their jointly authored book ‘Macroeconomics’ in London earlier in the year. There were over a hundred people present and many people took advantage of the Macmillan stand to buy a copy of the book which is now in its second reprint.
If you didn’t yet get to see the video you can find it by following the link here. It’s well worth a watch.
The following day GIMMS travelled back to London to support Charith Gunawardena with a jointly organised event ‘Local Government Funding: Challenging the Status Quo’ at which Bill Mitchell was the key speaker. Local government has suffered especially from austerity as cuts to local government funding made difficult decisions inevitable. The aim was to challenge the established narrative, bring an alternative understanding of how the economy works and identify a full range of policy options available to government to help local government finances.
The long weekend ended brilliantly with our Training the Trainers session in London led by Bill Mitchell which was also a great success. Participants gained some top tips on teaching the basics of MMT and framing. The video of the event is now available, and you can watch it here.
One of our objectives from the beginning was to create a series of local networks and since October we have been successful in bringing people together across the country. Already we have had meet ups in London and Nottingham and the most recent in Abergavenny. In Abergavenny, the venue was perfect and over 20 people came. Some were new to MMT and others seasoned supporters. Along with videos, there was enthusiastic and friendly discussion around the table, and we hope that people left the event with a sense of growing purpose as MMT starts to break through the smoke and mirrors about how money works.
Our special thanks go to Simon and Pennie who worked very hard to make the event a success along with Simon’s wife and mother who produced an excellent lunch!
The GIMMS team sincerely hope that from small acorns we can grow productive MMT trees!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Manchester and Leeds
We have two social events coming up next month in Manchester and Leeds and we have speakers for both. If you want to join us please follow the links (here for Manchester) and (here for Leeds) to register and be quick as space is limited.
Brighton
Some of you may already know that we are organising a fringe meeting at Labour Conference in Brighton on September 23rd. The event is aimed at debunking the myths around government finances, explaining what the Job Guarantee is and how a Green New Deal can be paid for.
We are delighted to welcome once again Professor Bill Mitchell who will be our speaker. He was to be joined by Chris Williamson MP who as I am sure you will know is the only MP in the UK to speak openly about MMT and has been proactive in sharing MMT insights among his constituents and more widely. However, due to an unknown individual contacting the Minister of the Methodist Church venue to bring to her attention what we know are false allegations against him we are sorry to say that this is no longer the case and Chris will not be speaking at the event.
Despite appealing to the Church to reconsider their decision not to allow Chris to speak, we felt we had no other option but to make a choice. Having searched without success for an alternative venue at such short notice and following a great deal of discussion and personal distress we have taken the difficult decision to go ahead. We are painfully aware that this may cause some unease amongst our supporters however we hope that you will understand our reasons. GIMMS was set up primarily as an educational organisation aiming to raise awareness of modern monetary realities in the UK with a view to challenging the economic narratives which have done so much damage. However, whilst we share left-wing values we also took the decision at the organisation’s inception to remain politically non-aligned. We also wished to honour our invitation to Bill Mitchell to speak at our event and make the best use of his short time in the UK.
Whilst we are indeed very disappointed and upset by this turn of events there are plans afoot for Bill to join Chris, a much valued MMT advocate in the UK, on a fringe platform elsewhere on the same day. We are, however, not in a position to give any details at the moment as the logistics are currently being worked out.
We hope that this will not be too much of a disappointment to those of you who were looking forward to hearing Chris speak.
However, the event will still take place at the Dorset Gardens Methodist Church and Bill Mitchell will be our keynote speaker discussing the macroeconomics behind a Green New Deal and the Job Guarantee in the context of the climate crisis, and the restructuring of the global economy onto a green path to ensure our survival. The event is open to everyone.
Tickets are free but you will need to register here.
LONDON
On the 24th September GIMMS will be hosting a second opportunity to join us for another training session in London at Springer Nature near Kings Cross. This will be a follow up to our earlier training event and will look specifically at how to discuss the Job Guarantee and the Green New Deal. So, if you’d like to join us you can register here. Tickets are free.
Watch this space for notifications about further events and if you’d like to get involved or have any thoughts for further socials in other parts of the country then we’d be pleased to hear from you. We are also always looking for guest writers for our MMT Lens so if you have an idea and want to make a contribution please get in touch.
With all our best wishes and thank you for your on-going support.
Prue, Sara and Claire