***If the Workshop is showing as fully booked please email michaelorton100@gmail.com and you will then be notified if a place becomes available***

• Want to see a fairer society, here in the UK and around the world?

• Feel like you’re constantly firefighting against things you don’t agree with?

• Fed up of media and politicians saying there is no credible alternative to austerity?

Anti-Austerity: But Pro What? is for you!

Everyone knows about austerity and its effects are all too evident. But austerity is part of a wider approach called Neo-Liberalism* which is based on five very short and easy to understand principles: free markets; small state; low tax; individual liberty; and big defence.

The aim of Anti-Austerity: But Pro What? is

to set out a concise, inclusive and easily understandable alternative to neo-liberalism’s five principles

As opponents of austerity and neo-liberalism, we need to do this because

• We have lots of policy ideas and evidence, and there’s lots of vital single-issue activism BUT
• We’ve not set it out in a short, simple, inclusive and collectively understood form

This will

• Help us work together more effectively
• Help us talk to others about our views
• Help us overcome divisions over small points of difference by focusing on bigger points of agreement
• Give us a stronger collective message which can be more quickly understood 
• Ensure that our diverse campaigning is all pushing in the same direction and supports each other’s efforts

At Anti-Austerity: But Pro What? we’ll have three great guests to get us thinking

Christine Berry Senior Researcher & Programme Manager, New Economics Foundation

Karen Leach Coordinator, Localise West Midlands   

Neal Lawson Chair, Compass 

and expert independent facilitator Andrew Lightheart will help us to 

• Work in groups to look at principles that guide and express our views
• Look at other people’s attempts at defining progressive principles
• Work through a process to set out our concise and easily understandable alternative to neo-liberalism’s five principles, and
• Plan next steps

Anti-Austerity: But Pro What? requires us to do politics differently. It means

 ► coming together on the basis of shared values and concerns (leaving our organisational, political and other labels outside)

► emphasising what we agree on (not points of disagreement)

► seeing co-operation and compromise as strengths (not weaknesses)

► being positive and focused (not just criticising, looking at negatives, discussing problems and being a talking shop!)

► being curious about different views, listening and ensuring everyone has their say

► and at all times acting with care, compassion and respect for all

What you need to bring…

+ Enthusiasm

+ Positivity

+ Determination and commitment to achieve the aim

+ Confidence and belief in ourselves as a group of people in the West Midlands able to do this!

This is a free event but donations to help with costs are greatly appreciated. If you are able to make a donation the suggested amount is £5 but less - or more - all really helps.  

 Thank you for your generosity!                                  

By booking a place for this event you will automatically be added to the West Midlands Politics of Networks email list and will receive notifications of future events. If you do not wish this to happen please contact michaelorton100@gmail.com

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*Anti-Austerity: But Pro What? is about setting out an alternative to neo-liberalism not talking about the neo-liberal approach itself and is based on the following understanding...

 Neo-liberalism is a simple but absolute belief in markets and competition as the drivers of growth, requiring market principles to permeate all aspects of life.

Neo-liberalism has five very short and easy to understand principles: free markets; small state; low tax; individual liberty; and big defence.

Neo-liberalism is sometimes referred to as 'Thatcherism', Reaganism' or 'the Washington Consensus'.

Neo-liberalism has gone through different phases: an early period of retrenchment under Margaret Thatcher called ‘roll-back’ neo-liberalism; a subsequent ‘roll-out’ or embedding phase i.e. New Labour governments from 1997-2010 had far greater concern with social justice but still adhered to core neo-liberal economics; subsequent to the 2008 economic crisis a new ‘roll-over’ period emerged with a strongly neo-liberal economic agenda based on austerity and further cutting of the welfare state.

The current government adheres very much to the five neo-liberal principles.

Neo-liberalism means an on-going policy prescription of privatisation, marketisation and dismantling of public provision.

Neo-liberalism isn't new - it's credited to work by Friedrich Hayek in the 1940s.

Hayek's argument in favour of classic free market economics ran counter to the post-war welfare state and it was not until the 1970s that politicians such as Thatcher adopted his approach to which in 1980 she (in)famously declared 'There Is No Alternative'.

Despite the many alternative policies, principles and manifestos from opponents of neo-liberalism, public and media opinion seems unable to recognise alternatives, because these are not set out in a succinct, easily understandable and broadly supported form.

If you're interested in more information about neo-liberalism check out the New Economics Foundation's great 'A Beginner's Guide to Neo-liberalism' podcasts by clicking here.

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Anti-Austerity: But Pro What? is a West Midlands Politics of Networks initiative supported by Compass, Equality West Midlands, Jubilee Debt Campaign Economic Justice Project, Localise West Midlands, Quaker Peace Hub Central England and Unlock Democracy Birmingham.