The SOAS Development Studies Department and the Progressive Economy Forum hosted a Book Launch for The Blue Commons by PEF Council member Guy Standing on October 11th at SOAS University London.
The Blue Commons is an urgent call for change, from a campaigning economist responsible for some of the most innovative solutions to inequality of recent times. From large nations bullying smaller nations into giving up eco-friendly fishing policies to the profiteering by the Crown Estate in commandeering much of the British seabed, the scale of the global problem is synthesised here for the first time, as well as a toolkit for all of us to rise up and tackle it.
The oceans have been left out of calls for a Green New Deal but must be at the centre of the fight against climate change. How do we do it? By building a Blue Commons alternative: a transformative worldview and new set of proposals that prioritise the historic rights of local communities, the wellbeing of all people and, with it, the health of our oceans.
Guy Standing has held professorships at Bath, London and Monash universities, was a programme director in the UN’s International Labour Organization and has advised many international bodies and governments on social and economic policies. He co-founded the Basic Income Earth Network and is now its co-president. He is author of the bestselling The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen and Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth.
The book launch was chaired by PEF Founder and Chair Patrick Allen and Professor Zoe Marriage of SOAS Department of Development Studies
Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell was the discussant.
