Evan Davis

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Manchester International Festival - Are We Powerless?: Evan Davis

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many, they are few

THE MASQUE OF ANARCHY, PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

The closing lines of shelley’s rallying cry to the protestors of St Peter’s Field seem as relevant today as they were in 1819. But almost two centuries on, the ‘few’ belong to a new global financial elite, and the ‘many’ are struggling to define the nature of their dissent.

Can protest have an impact on the world’s financial powers? Are we simply victims of the financial crisis? Or, given the benefits that the global economy has delivered for so many of us, are we too complicit in the system to equate ourselves with the valiant protestors of Peterloo? Five years on from the crash, what demands should today’s many be making? Do we have the power to bring about change?

Economist and broadcaster Evan Davis chairs a panel of leading thinkers in their fields for a discussion of these issues, incorporating a question-and-answer session with the audience.