dgi – ann pettifor – 11 14 26

dgi events – from dgi – who gets to be human series

[https://davidgraeber.institute/who-gets-to-be-human-ann-pettifor-nd-alaa-abd-el-fattah/]:

Who Gets to Be Human: between Ann Pettifor, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, And Nika Dubrovsky

nika dubrovsky.. dgi – ann pettifor – 3 12 26.. et al.. dgi – aleksandar matković – 11 5 26 (for alaa) et al..

Event date: November 14 / 2026

Discussion between Ann Pettifor, Alaa Abd el-Fattah and Nika Dubrovsky at the David Graeber Institute

The conversation between Ann Pettifor and Alaa Abd el-Fattah opens our new series of talks, Who Gets to Be Human?, exploring how the very idea of human rights is affected by the new political and economic landscape we are entering.

In the 1990s and 2000s it was argued that without democracy, there could be no economic freedom, and therefore no economic prosperity. It would be interesting to discuss the relationship between democracy and debt dependency. Can democracy exist in societies where the vast majority of people are debtors and a small minority are creditors?

They will also explore what the debt dependency of countries in the Global South on those in the Global North means for human rights and democratic political systems.

Ann Pettifor is a political economist, author, and one of the leading voices on debt, finance, and economic justice. She is the director of the advocacy organization PRIME (Policy Research in Macroeconomics) and was a key figure in the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which successfully pushed for the cancellation of debts of the world’s poorest countries. Her latest book, The Global Casino: How Wall St Gambles with People and the Planet was published in January, 2026. Earlier in 2019 Verso published The Case for the Green New Deal.

notes/quotes from 75 min video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tGRnBobB2o]:

nika: who get to be human.. idea is to explore how our understading.. human rights changing .. on human rights and econ freedom going together.. but what happens when not equal econ.. when entire countries are entrapped in debts

2 min – alaa: you can never talk about human rights w/o talking about econ power.. this is always how it’s presented.. as if they’re separate..

to me ness.. both are cancerous distractions to the dance..

to me.. need to let go. of rights ness.. of any form of m\a\p.. and try as econ ness bachelard oikos law via a sabbatical ish transition et al

10 min – ann: on 1956.. talk about a revolution.. destroyed here.. egypt quite pivotal to fin system..

11 min – ann: but want to go back to question of debt.. because i’m slightly conflicted about the question of debt.. 1\ damn good thing.. humanity’s capacity to make promises and repay in future which enables us 2\ govt of britain had large debt .. used it to fin wars and to develop britain industrially.. bonds et al.. jane austen novels always envious.. so have to see double sided nature of debt..

oi.. whales capacity

13 min – ann: but the really big problem for ie: egypt/africa.. is that the debt is denominated in the us dollar.. makes sustainability impossible.. it’s that imbalance that turns debt into something quite fatal.. so question is.. what can we do about this.. but no doubt in my mind that debt has had rev impact

debt has always (ever since that day) been fatal

graeber violence/quantification law et al.. any form of m\a\p.. killing us softly with same song (aka: not legit rev)

14 min –

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