BOOK LAUNCH: Privatising humanity by Kate Bayliss

Kate Bayliss in conversation with Adrienne Buller

PRIVATISING HUMANITY is a powerful exposé of how finance turns our basic human needs into assets. We have entered a new era of turbo‑charged financial extraction. Having amassed huge reserves, global finance capital is seeking out fresh areas for profitable investments. Virtually all aspects of our lives are now targeted by someone seeking to make a profit. Kate Bayliss shows how wealthy investors, including asset managers, target our essential services. When it comes to investments in these sectors, shareholder profits are funded by us, the end‑users and tax‑payers who simply wish to meet our basic human needs for water, warmth and shelter. We have no alternative but to pay into these structures that often generate massive returns for investors and dysfunctional systems for society.

Unpacking the details of these processes in three sectors in the UK – water, energy and housing – Bayliss exposes the harmful consequences of this model, which is contributing to deepening inequality. Kate will be joined in conversation by Adrienne Buller, author of The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism.

As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please contact shop@housmans.com and a free ticket will be made available. If you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. For early collection or delivery contact the shop (postage £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.

Doors open at 18:45, event starts at 19:00.