ANN PETTIFOR vs. the system

Today’s session with Ann Pettifor was fantastic, with some insightful questions from the POWER members.

I wanted to share a selected excerpt, on why we have to keep fighting for change.

“ What do we do as you walk into collapse? Do you just lie down and let it happen? Do you say sorry, it's too late. We've cooked the books. we've cooked the climate, and it's over. And I, like all of you often have that feeling of despair.

And yet I look around, and I see young people and babies and children that we brought into the world. And I feel we can't just say it's over, you know.

And at the same time, partly what we learn from history is that, you know, when you were heading into the 1930s, into the fascism of the 1930s, you must have felt the same despair, really. And so what did you do? Well, you began to work on an alternative plan and you put those ideas out there and they were just absolutely overwhelmed by reactionary responses and so on. I mean, in the case of Keynes, he was ridiculed by the state by the government. He was marginalized. He was laughed at. But he wrote a book, in which he argued his case, and that book is still in print today. It's the only economic textbook that has never been out of print. People read it.

I don't want to give up on hope. I don't want to give up on the progressive outcome. I don't want to give up on talking about those things. And I don't want to hand victory to the ones who have created these conditions. And I know who they are, I can name them basically. And I don't want to give them that victory. I want them to know that I'm a thorn in their side.

I'm not going to give up and I'm not going to hand victory to the powerful.”

Ann Pettifor vs. The System is a monthly online event with political economist, author and public speaker Ann Pettifor for members of POWER. Her book “The Case For The Green New Deal” was one of our inspirations in starting the project.