Debt and morality: When is it okay not to pay? - pt 1 : Andrew Ross
Channel: Debt Justice
Date: 2014-04-06

Andrew Ross speaks about "Debt and morality: When is it okay not to pay?" at the opening plenary session of the Life Before Debt Conference, on 29th March 2014 at SOAS. 
(Organised by Jubilee Debt Campaign) 
http://jubileedebt.org.uk/life-before-debt-conference-london-2014

This opening session examines the morality of debt repayment. Why, in the current neoliberal global economy, is debt repayment considered a moral absolute: more important than feeding families, teaching children, and providing healthcare and basic social protections?

This mainstream morality that 'debts must always be paid' obscures the irresponsible and exploitative profiteering by lenders and the deep structural economic injustices that force people and countries into the debt-poverty cycle in the first place.

We ask whether challenging debt slavery first requires us to throw off the mental chains of the current morality around debt. Do we need a new set of ethics around debt for the twenty-first century, grounded in a critical analysis of the structures and power relations that are the real drivers of the debt crisis and debt slavery?

Speakers: 
Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury; 
Njoki Njoroge Njehû, Daughters of Mumbi, Kenya; 
Andrew Ross, Strike Debt and author of Creditocracy;
Chair: Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Jubilee Debt Campaign

Plus: Alinah Azadeh, Burning the Books