A celebration of the closing of the money production line - how much money will we have made to support the local causes featured on the bank notes and buy up predatory debt. Hopefully all of it! Join us for a post debate supper club with food by Hornbeam and carry on the hopeful conversation on the future of money and democracy. Performance and entertainment tbc asap.

At what point does debt begin to impact on our democracy?  A population increasingly oppressed by the rule of credit and forced into debt servitude is a population unable to think, act, create and organise. For the good of ourselves, our country and our world - what kind of alternative economy can we build to replace the current debt fuelled financial system? What is the best way to make banks work for the common good? Is it time for a global Jubilee? Does the blockchain hold any answers?

Featuring:

SARAH JAYNE CLIFTON, DIRECTOR OF JUBILEE DEBT CAMPAIGN - part of a global movement demanding freedom from the slavery of unjust debts and a new financial system that puts people first. Inspired by the ancient concept of ‘jubilee’, they campaign for a world where debt is no longer used as a form of power by which the rich exploit the poor. Freedom from debt slavery is a necessary step towards a world in which our common resources are used to realise equality, justice and human dignity.

DAVID GRAEBER is an American born, London based anthropologist and anarchist activist perhaps best known for his 2011 book ‘Debt: the First 5000 Years.’ He is professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. Graeber was a leading figure in the Occupy Wall Street movement and is sometimes credited with having coined the slogan “We are the 99 percent.”

JONATHAN BARTLEY. Co-leader of the Green Party.

NEW ECONOMICS FOUNDATION is a think tank that aims to help build a new economy where people are really in control. It was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working with q new model of wealth creation based on equality, diversity and economic stability.  Its programmes include work on housing, reform of the financial system, the future of work, democracy and devolution and climate and environment.

“…worthy work carries with it the hope of pleasure in rest, the hope of pleasure in what it makes, the hope of pleasure in our daily creative skill. All other work but this is worthless. It is slave’s work – mere toiling to live so that we may live to toil.” William Morris. 1885.

How do Morris’ writing on economy, society and the meaning of work resonate today? On the site of HSCB’s collective money printing action we hear from the man himself prompting a conversation around the realities of useful work versus useless toil today. We look for ways out of wasted time and lives of debt servitude be it through refusal, co-operation or universal basic income seeking out purpose, meaning, participation and community in the idea of work.

Featuring:

William Morris -reading excerpts from Useful Work v Useless Toil.

THE ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS run by artists Ruth Beale and Amy Feneck is an artistic project using the practice of self education to study economics, creating a framework for investigating social and cultural issues.  The Alternative School of Economics is a statement – that people who are not economists, can set up an alternative school to reclaim economics as a social, everyday tool .

SOPHIE HOPE is a lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London in the Film, Media and Cultural Studies Department on the MA in Arts Management. Her work is often developed with others through the format of devised workshops exploring subjects such as theories, histories and practicalities of cultural democracy, art and politics in the year 1984, physical and emotional experiences of immaterial work, stories people tell about socially engaged art commissions and the ethics of employability in the creative industries. Recent projects nclude: 1984dinners.net, manuallabours.co.uk with Jenny Richards, socialartmap.org.uk and criticalworkplacements.org.uk.

MARK HOOPER INDYCUBE. Mark founded the cooperative, indycube eight years ago. It helps independent workers by making it easier for them to work locally, and providing access to support packages. Working with Community Union, the small team at indycube is working towards coverage across the U.K., and 100,000 members. A background in accountancy and retail, Mark has held senior positions in large organisations before putting his effort into community projects, including a community radio station, Cardiff City Supporters' Trust, and the development of a local currency for Cardiff. An FRSA, he is also a trustee of the Bevan Foundation and a Town Councillor. Keen to develop locally focused solutions to deeply entrenched problems, his focus covers the Foundational Economy, identity economics, and how we grow social capital.

ORGANIC LEA CO-OPERATIVE 

The printing press was at the centre of William Morris’s studio, factory and social activism -  an instrument for the creation of both beauty and radical knowledge. In his home borough, HSCB’s participatory money printing builds on this legacy. Using traditional print processes and community participation we create handcrafted currency that sheds light on and questions our current debt fuelled system. In this century the power of the press is extended as social media and digital technologies such as blockchain open up new distribution and funding channels beyond traditional, often elitist and conservative models. This event explores cultural agency and examines tactile and technological applications of art as a meaningful and creative force in society - contributing to a toolkit for building a beautiful, provocative DIY uprising.

FEATURING:

JEREMY GILBERT. Professor of Cultural Rand Political Theory at UEL and has written widely on politics, music, and contemporary culture. Recent publications include the translation of Maurizio Lazzarato's Experimental Politics and the book Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism. He is editor of the journal New Formations and writes regularly for the British press and think tanks such as IPPR and Compass. He is an advisor to and participant in a range of ongoing projects such as The World Transformed and the New Economy Organisers Network and maintains a lifelong commitment to public education outside the academy, currently hosting Culture, Power, Politics, a series of free open seminars and lectures.

RAYMOND WILLIAMS FOUNDATION  is a charity whose trustees aim to continue the writer and cultural theorist Raymond Williams’ 'Long Revolution’ and commitment to adult education and a learning society."I've often defined my own social purpose as the creation of an educated and participating democracy.”

OPTIMISTIC FOUNDATION – BANK JOB art, film, community and money makers.

JOE TODD. CO FOUNDER THE WORLD TRANSFORMED. An organisation hosting interesting, exciting and unexpected political events.

MAX DOVEY . Artist, researcher and producer exploring data, value, crpyto-currencies and blockchains and making installations/performances about the financializaton of data. He is an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures and organised a series of conferences called MoneyLab about interventions with finance.  He regularly writes for Open Democracy, Imperica & Furtherfield. His work has been performed at Ars Electronica Festival, Art Rotterdam & many U.K based music festivals.

RUTH CATLOW is an artist and curator working with emancipatory network cultures, practices, and poetics. She is codirector of Furtherfield, cofounded with Marc Garrett in 1996, an artist-led organization for labs, debates, and exhibitions around critical questions in arts, technology, and society. Furtherfield’s "Art Data Money" program seeks to develop new economies and a commons for arts in the network age, and to cultivate diversity in the blockchain development space. Exhibitions include The Human Face of Cryptocurrencies (2015) & NEW WORLD ORDER (2017) now touring internationally via the State Machines European collaboration. Catlow made the short film The Blockchain—Change Everything For Ever (2016) with Pete Gomes. She co-edited Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchainwith Torque Editions & Liverpool University Press (2017), commissioned the blockchain-based artwork Clickmine by Sarah Friend and devised the ongoing "DAOWO" workshop series with Ben Vickers (Serpentine Galleries) and in collaboration with Goethe-Institut London (2017– 2018). Catlow was named in a list of 100 women co-creating the P2P society by the Foundation for P2P Alternatives.

Hoe Street Central Bank (HSCB) occupies the former Co-Operative Bank in central Walthamstow, North London on a street that is also home to multiple estate agents. The area has seen house prices double since 2012 and astronomical rents drive people ever outwards. As the Bank of England rules on interest rate rises the speculative property bubble created by banks loaning to bricks and mortar floats precariously as the debt burden increases. This event looks at the current housing crisis, its foundations in debt and alternatives to this system.

Featuring:

JOE BESWICK OF NEW ECONOMICS FOUNDATION.  Joe heads up NEF’s thinking, research and campaigning on the housing crisis, and the fight for a fairer housing and land system. His work includes coordinating a national level campaign to stop the sell-off of public land, developing policies to boost the supply of genuinely affordable housing, and working with communities to fight for better rights for renters and put communities in control of local housing. Outside of NEF, he works with housing campaigns in London, including the London Renters Union and the Radical Housing Network. He has appeared on, or been featured in, the BBC, the Guardian, the Independent, Channel 4, the Mirror, New Statesman, the Evening Standard, Al Jazeera and Inside Housing magazine.

MICHAEL EDWARDS. Michael Edwards is UCL Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School of Planning. He work  on the relationship between property markets and planning. He is active on London planning  most recently supporting community groups in challenges to the 2009 and Draft Replacement London Plan.  He is founder member of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA) and of the Planners Network UK (PNUK).Michael Edwards is UCL Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School of Planning. He work  on the relationship between property markets and planning. He is active on London planning  most recently supporting community groups in challenges to the 2009 and Draft Replacement London Plan.  He is founder member of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA) and of the Planners Network UK (PNUK).

JESSIE BRENNAN is an artist whose practice explores the inter-relations between people and places, informed by their social and political contexts and a direct engagement with the individuals who occupy them. Her authored books include Regeneration! (2015) and Re: development (2016). She is a London Community Land Trust resident.

WALTHAM FOREST COMMUNITY LAND TRUST is being set up to build a sustainable, inclusive and affordable community of eco-homes in Walthamstow, E17. Join in the ideas session and be part of this exciting project. 

‘Bank Job: People Powered Money’ charts a journey into the seemingly complex world of economics. Knowledge is power and the financial and political elites know it. The language around the financial system is purposefully opaque and many feel disempowered and excluded. An overwhelming number of our current politicians and political pundits studied PPE at Oxbridge. It is time for a People’s PPE overcoming what has been described as a shameful civic empowerment gap. This event looks at economic and political education across the board from primary and secondary school curriculums to university courses and civic learning looking at what can be done to create a more democratic and critical civic education.

FEATURING:

JOHN WEEKS. Professor Emeritus, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London and member of PRIME -  a network of macroeconomists, political economists and professionals from related disciplines who seek to engage with a diverse audience in order to de-mystify economic theories, policies and ideas.Author of 'Economics of the 1%: How mainstream economics serves the rich, obscures reality and distorts policy', Anthem Press. A major critic of "austerity" policies in the UK and on the continent, author of the Prime Economics pamphlet Pain, No Gain: the Austerity Scam.  

REEMA PATEL OF RSA’S CITIZEN’S ECONOMICS COUNCIL. The Citizens' Economic Council is a programme designed to give citizens a say on national economic policy, and influence over the future of the UK economy. They aim to build a stronger economic democracy in the UK through informed engagement and discussion. The key activity within this 2-year programme was the Council itself, in which a group of 54 citizens undertook a journey of economic inquiry to deliberate and innovate on economic policy.

CLARE BIRKETT OF ECONOMY 'Because as it turns out, no-one gets it'...In 2016 You Gov asked the UK public if they felt ‘politicians nd the media talk about economics in  way that is understandable and accessible and easy to understand.” Only 12% answered yes.  Economy asks is a campaign to reclaim what economics is really about – seven billion stories, the lives we lead, the choices we make. Economy asks campaign for understandable economics.They are a sister charity of Rethinking Economics, an international network of students, academics and professionals building a better economics in society and the classroom.

BETH MUNROE OF SHOUT OUT UK. Shout out are a multi-award winning independent youth news platform that provides young people with the tools necessary to engage in politics and a platform to shout out and be heard. Spearheaded by our Political Literacy Course – and supplemented by a host of different infographics, videos, articles, workshops and events – they are a one-stop-shop for political learning and enrichment.

HSCB’s public mint mimics and subverts money creation but what is money, how is it created and what alternatives to the current model of money creation might exist? This debate brings together ideas about new and alternative currencies from crypto to cashless systems based on moral accounting and exchange. It looks at how and if these work and how to push for a system of money creation working for and not against the people.

FEATURING:

BRETT SCOTT. Journalist, campaigner and the author of The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money (2013). He works on financial reform, alternative finance and economic activism with a wide variety of NGOs, artists, students and start-ups, and writes for publications such as The Guardian, New Scientist, Wired Magazine and CNN.com. He is a Senior Fellow of the Finance Innovation Lab, an Associate at the Institute of Social Banking and an advisory group member of the Brixton Pound. He tweets as @suitpossum.

DUNCAN MCCANN. Researcher at New Economics Foundation (NEF) and Research Fellow at City University. At NEF Duncan currently works on rethinking money, looking for solutions to our land and housing crisis, and the future of the digital economy and its impact on society. At City University he is working on the potential of Social Wealth funds to fund a citizen's dividend and fundamentally change the distribution of wealth in the economy. On money, Duncan works on creating a better understanding of national money systems and how they could be reformed as well as building the knowledge around community and local currencies and working with communities to develop them. Duncan is co-author of the book People Powered Money, he proposed ‘ScotPound’, a national complementary currency for Scotland, and worked for 2 years with the Positive Money campaign group.

SUE WHEAT, WALTHAM FOREST LETS. LETS is a scheme for local people to exchange skills, goods and services using an alternative currency unit, known in Waltham Forest as ‘Beams’. It’s a not-for-profit, community-based organisation, with members offering services and goods such as DIY, music lessons, alternative therapies, gardening, loan of tools and equipment, computing, cooking, giving lifts, allotment vegetables, dog-walking, sewing and lots more.

RACHEL OLIVER, POSITIVE MONEY.

To deal with the big social, economic and environmental challenges we’re facing today, we need to transform our money and banking system. Positive Money is a non-for-profit research and campaign organisation. Their goal is for a money and banking system that serves a fair, democratic, and sustainable economy. Rachel Oliver is their Head of Campaigns and Organising. She works to mobilise, grow and empower their 40,000 supporters and 30 local groups around the UK. At "What is Money", Rachel will talk about where money comes from in our economy, the privileged role commercial banks play in creating new money and deciding where it's spent, and how sovereign money creation would much better serve society and a fairer, more democratic, more sustainable economy.

DAVID SHEPHERDSON, HULLCOIN (via skype)- the world's first community loyalty point. Kaini Industries was established in April 2014 as a result of a piece of research undertaken by Hull City Council that explored how the disruptive technology underpinning bitcoin could used as a local currency to support communities in Hull affected by poverty. Hullcoin is a new way to unlock the hidden value in Hull’s economy. People who engage with charities and community groups across the city of Hull can earn Hullcoin by volunteering and undertaking activities that benefit themselves. Hullcoin can then be redeemed as discount at participating retailers.

Pop down and get shaken up a Bank Job cocktail by our team of star cocktail staff, head of alcohol supplies at the bank. Also come and meet the people we are celebrating on the bank notes and meet local councillor Tom Connor and director of Economy at the RSA Tony Greenham. It's going to be all go. First cocktail included in the £3 ticket. Go, go, go!