In this essay, Richard Swift – a former co-editor of The New Internationalist – answers the question, “In some Western countries, right-wing populism has been able to channel much of the anger caused by the financial crisis and its effect. Why has the Left been marginalized? How can this be overcome?”
“It might help”, Swift writes, “to offer some simple programmatic ideas that have some chance of gaining popular traction. What is particularly needed is a way to address people’s sense of insecurity in a meaningful way. One of these, simple and easy to understand, is the notion of a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) to provide for the basic needs of every person in the world”. Swift mentions several arguments in favour of basic income, and refers to basic income supporters Andrew Glyn and André Gorz.
The essay won the Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation, which annually recognizes an original essay that helps further socialist ideas in the tradition of Daniel Singer.
Full references: SWIFT, Richard (2012), ‘Preparing the ground: Left strategy beyond the apocalypse’, New Internationalist, June 2012, pp.29-35. See: https://www.exacteditions.com/exact/browse/386/1287
Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation: https://www.danielsinger.org/
