Positive Money Newham at the Redbridge Green Fair

Positive Money Newham had a wonderful afternoon at the Redbridge Green Fair on Sunday 29th May. It was a great opportunity to engage directly with a diverse, local community of people who were very receptive to our message – namely that a change in the monetary system is fundamental if we are to restore fairness and stability to our economy and free ourselves from an excessive reliance on debt.

The issues most on people’s minds were housing affordability, mortgage debt and the risk of another bank crisis, which are all strong Positive Money themes.

There was a lively debate about the intersection of environmental objectives and those of Positive Money. What’s green about Positive Money? Won’t it just make the industrial economy work better, increase growth rates and in the end be bad for the environment? That’s too pessimistic. For one thing a policy of increasing the money supply by spending new debt-free money on projects which benefit the whole country could include billions on renewable energy and conservation measures. Also a fairer, less debt-ridden Britain may be more fertile ground for a movement towards a less materialistic society with lower consumption and waste.

One thing for sure is that the current system demands the creation of ever more debt to fund the repayment of existing debt and interest charges. That is a recipe for non-stop, unbalanced and damaging growth of the worst kind.

So the environmentally-concerned should take an interest in the Positive Money agenda and indeed similar policies are already part of the Green Party platform.

Thank you to the organisers of the Fair who did a fantastic job to create such a well-run event with a brilliant family atmosphere. We’ll be back next year!

Report by James Baker, Positive Money Newham