Rob Carr of the Christian Socialist Movement previews our joint event at Labour Party Conference next week.

The Christian Socialist Movement is delighted to be co-hosting a now-traditional joint event with the Co-operative Party.

In this time of economic turmoil and financial uncertainty, now is the perfect time to examine our relationship with money, both at the international level of the City and more local level of day-to-day living.

On the Tuesday of Conference, the Co-operative Party’s Michael Stephenson will be chairing our event called “Credo and Credit – Relational economics for the street and the City”.

Stella Creasy MP, a Labour & Co-operative MP, will be attending to talk about her impressive broad-based grassroots campaign to combat the ‘legal loan sharking’ of companies like Wonga.com.

Ann Pettifor, of the New Economics Foundation, Advocacy International, and a founder of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, will be talking about why we should be doing things differently in the City. Ann is famed for correctly predicting the credit crunch and her work calling for the cancellation of 3^rd world debt.

Stephen Beer is CSM’s Political communication officer and works as an investments manager for the Methodist Church. He is also the author of the Fabians’ latest pamphlet on the economy.

People forget that the word credit comes from the root “credo”, meaning “belief” or “trust”. Credit should by definition be based on relationship. The effects of removing relationships from financial transactions are there for all to see, as lender is removed by many degrees from borrower. The subprime mortgage crisis crippled the world economy, but also points to the way forward.

This unbelievable line-up of speakers represents the prophetic voices who have been speaking up locally and nationally to say that another way is essential and possible.

The joint CSM and Co-operative Party event ‘Credo and Credit’ takes place on Tuesday 27^th September, 7:30pm at Friends’ Meeting House, 22 School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BT