The 10th annual international Basic Income Week will be September 18 to 24.
Basic income organizations throughout the world have organized events and activities in honor of the advocacy and awareness week. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- In Canada, BIEN’s affiliate Basic Income Canada Network, is collecting answers to the question “How might a Basic Income Guarantee affect your life and/or your loved ones?” to compile and send to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other federal cabinet members. Responses will be sent during Basic Income Week.
- In Germany, political comedian and basic income supporter Anny Hartmann will deliver a series of performances of her routine “NoLobby is perfect!”. Basic Income Week advertises “Grundeinkommen inside!” in describing her solo show.
- BIEN’s Dutch affiliate, Vereniging Basisinkomen (VBi), is hosting a workshop on the first day of Basic Income Week, featuring talks by VBi chairperson Alexander de Roo, independent researcher Sjir Hoeijmakers (who was an advisor for the Dutch social assistance experiments), and others.
- In Melbourne, Australia, the Kevin Club will host “A Conversation About Basic Income”, in which supporters of the idea will gather to discuss the possibilities for basic income in Australia.
- Rutger Bregman will present his book Utopia for Realists in Oslo, Norway, where he will also join a panel discussion on basic income.
- In Denmark, Erik Christensen (Aalborg University) will hold a presentation of his new book, På vej til borgerløn (“On the way to basic income”) and, on the following day, debate “Basic Income: Emancipation or Cost-Savings Measure?” with Kristian Kongshøj, a postdoc in political science at Aalborg.
- In Brussels, Belgium, a debate will be held between representatives across the political spectrum–Liberals, Christian Democrats, Socialists, and Greens–who profess “a minimum of sympathy” for basic income. Although the debaters all claim to be sympathetic to basic income, one question at stake in the debate is whether these individuals of diverse political views are really talking about the same concept when they speak of “basic income”.
Interested individuals may subscribe the calendar on the official site of Basic Income Week to see new events as they are added, and interested groups may add new events to be seen.
Basic Income Week is independently organized and not affiliated with BIEN, although many BIEN affiliates choose to participate. (In fact, Basic Income Week defines ‘basic income’ in a stricter manner than BIEN; Basic Income Week’s definition, unlike BIEN’s, stipulates that a basic income must, by definition, be high enough in amount to “prevent material poverty and provide the opportunity to participate in society and to live in dignity”.)
Photo: “Globes” CC BY 2.0 Jayel Aheram
