EDITORIAL: A Popular Legislative Initiative for a Guaranteed Citizenship Income in Spain

by | Nov 12, 2012 | Opinion

A Popular Legislative Initiative (PLI) for a Guaranteed Citizenship Income (GCI), already being presented to the network of notaries, and once to the Catalan Parliament, will start to collect signatures for the next 4 months.

Syndicalist and collective entities giving their support to the PLI will have to make an important effort in order to get at least 50,000 signatures.

The reasons of such an Initiative:

This PLI is the fruit of many months of preparation work, to be able to answer to the important crisis situation of the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). Its value is only 412 euros (far under the poverty threshold) that was brought under the Mas government, on summer 2011. It allows a right be subjective and comes to be linked to the budget’s disposition. It did not actualize, depending on Consumer Price Index (CPI), is unable to exceed International Money System (IMS) and was fixed to a maximum period of 5 years to perceive it. It puts aside people with “only” unemployment matters and not showing added social difficulties, having to live at the same place for 1 or 2 years to get it. Finally, the JSA was totally mutilated by Convergence And Union’s (CiU) government from right, and despite protestations from social organisms, the social services, syndicates and other agencies were integrated in the fiscal and financial measures Law approved on the 14th of March 2011 parliamentary session.

Consequences of such a measure:

Far from improving unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion situation of this summer 2011, the poverty rate was estimated at about 25% of the population. Nearly 32% of Catalans’ families have difficulty making ends meet. Tens of thousands persons don’t have means to live. The number of persons living in the streets, under bridges, or close to cash machines increased by 32%, and the median age of homeless people dead in the street last summer was 58 years old.

Effects researched by this Initiative:

These are reasons why the PLI for a GCI is very important in this period. Red Renta Basica [the Spanish Basic Income Network) has been present since the beginning in its elaboration. Without setting any Universal Basic Income, as defended by our association, we believe this PLI is necessary in those moments of important economic depression. The proposition considerably improves the JSA that Catalan’s government has left aside. The GCI is clearly higher than existing JSA in the different Autonomous Communities, first by its ability to get back a subjective right, second by its non-arbitrariness since it is an income with for value the level of a sufficiency income in Catalonia (about 600 euros), and finally by the fact it is given during the whole time while the recipient lacks income.

(translated by Florian Martinon)

News from Basic Income Studies

by | Nov 10, 2012 | Research

The next issue of Basic Income Studies (BIS) will be available soon. This academic, peer-reviewed journal has been in a period of transition. The new publisher is De Gruyter, which acquired the journals of bepress (including BIS) earlier this year. The editing of BIS is being passed from Karl Widerquist and Jurgen De Wispelaeare, who did an excellent job is this role since the inception of BIS in 2006.  The new editors are Louise Haagh (University of York, UK) and James Mulvale (University of Regina, Canada).

The past issues of BIS continue to be accessible at no cost at https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bis (by pressing on the “read content” button).

If you are involved in scholarly work on Basic Income, and would like to reach a broad audience of academics from many disciplines as well as policy experts and advocates, please consider submitting your manuscript to BIS.

Palma de Mallorca (Spain), 16-17 November 2012: 12th Symposium of Red Renta Basica

by | Nov 7, 2012 | News

The proposal for a universal basic income, namely an unconditional allowance to the whole population, first appeared several decades ago. The world-wide organisation, the Basic Income Earth Network consisting of 20 organisations from as many states, including the Kingdom of Spain, has been working in support of basic income for 26 years now. The basic income network (www.redrentabasica.org), the section of the Kingdom of Spain which was founded in 2001, is holding its Twelfth Symposium in the cultural centre Can Alcover, in the city of Palma de Mallorca, on 16 and 17 November. The symposium is organised by the Ateneu Pere Mascaro.

Does it make sense to talk about a basic income in a situation of economic crisis affecting ever greater numbers of people around the world, including the badly hit Kingdom of Spain? As some authors have argued, a basic income is even more desirable in an economic crisis than in boom times. More importantly, a considerable range of political organisations and some widely supported social movements, have begun to take an interest in basic income and, understanding what it represents, are incorporating it in their programmes. To give just one example, in the last elections in Galicia and the Basque Autonomous Community, at least three parties included it in their agendas: Bildu and EQUO Berdeak, in the Basque community, and the newly formed Anova, which performed successfully in the Galician elections, all champion the proposal in their programmes in different ways.

Moreover, the very large 15-M protest movement added basic income to its claims on its first anniversary in May this year. One of the big differences with regard to the founding programmes drawn up by the movement’s various assemblies in May 2011, was the condensation of its demands into just five points: 1) not one euro more to bail out the banks; 2) quality education and public health; 3) rejection of job insecurity and the “reforms”; 4) adequate, guaranteed housing; and, last but not least, 5) universal basic income.

For further details, please visit: www.redrentabasica.org