Founded in June 2016, and currently in its preliminary organizational phase, National Campaign for Basic Income (NC4BI) is a Political Action Committee supporting basic income policy initiatives at the local, state, and national level.
NC4BI advocates for the abolition of poverty, and supports only policies that are “progressive” in the sense that these policies will improve the position of the majority of individuals and especially of those who are currently the most disadvantaged. Beyond that, NC4BI will continue to seek a basic income that secures participation, without exploitation, in culture and society.
Prior to the creation of NC4BI, the only major US-based basic income organizations — the US Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) and Basic Income Action (BIA) — were not constituted to engage directly in lobbying or other direct political action. The mission of USBIG is to promote discussion of basic income, including the organization of an annual North American Congress on the topic. Similarly, BIA is in the process of incorporating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, a status which imposes legal limitations on its ability in participate in political activity.
NC4BI is distinct in that it is designed to be able to engage in direct political action (it will be set up as a 527 organization under the US tax code) — and with the specific aims of building political coalitions to influence elections and policymaking.
Founding members of NC4BI include Steve May (Vermont Basic Income Exchange); Jason Burke Murphy (member of the USBIG and BIEN co-ordinating committees); Michael Howard (coordinator of USBIG and co-editor of Basic Income Studies); Liane Gale (organizer of BIG Minnesota and co-organizer of the Basic Income Women Action Group); and Kate McFarland (editor of Basic Income News and member of the Executive Committee of BIEN).
To keep up-to-date with the activities of the National Campaign for Basic Income, follow its Facebook page.
All supporters of Basic Income in the United States are invited and encouraged to join NC4BI. In addition to liking and following the organization on Facebook, potential members may email contact@nc4bi.org for information about NC4BI and how to become involved, or contact one of the founding members directly: Liane Gale (liane.gale@gmail.com); Michael Howard (michael.howard@umit.maine.edu); Steve May (smaydirect@yahoo.com); Kate McFarland (mcfarland.309@osu.edu); Jason Murphy (jason.burke.murphy@gmail.com).
Image Credit: Russell Shaw Higgs (via flickr)
An earlier version of this post used the acronym ‘NCBI’ rather than ‘NC4BI’. ‘NC4BI’ was since chosen as the official acronym of the organization.
