by Karl Widerquist | Mar 15, 2015 | News
The School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Tampere in Finland is organizing a master level course “Challenges of basic income as a new generation income insurance” in spring 2015. The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the philosophical, economic and socio-political aspects of BI and give an insight to the relevant research. The course languages are Finnish (Finnish lecturers) and English (foreign lecturers).
The course description and the program in English can be found at: https://www10.uta.fi/opas/opetusohjelma/marjapuuro.htm?id=28093 (below the Finnish description)
Tampereen Yliopisto
by Karl Widerquist | Mar 4, 2015 | News, The Indepentarian
The Commons Brooklyn -The Experimental Gourmand
Thirty-one people signed the attendance sheet at the first meeting of group of people attempting to start a political movement for basic income in the United States. Several more people attended without signing, and others followed and contributed to the meeting online. The meeting took place from 6:30 to 9:30pm at the Commons Brooklyn on February 26, 2015, at the close of the Fourteenth North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) Congress. The meeting began with all participants discussing their background and the history that brought them to the basic income movement. The group then split into several small groups, each discussing a different issue. Participants reassembled to bring their discussion to the whole group and to make some decisions.
The group chose not to name a leader or a leadership committee. It did not even pick a name for the new organization at this point. Instead, it created several committees and asked them to perform certain tasks. The group created the following committees:
- One committee will be in charge of legally chartering two groups. The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network, which has existed since 1999 without an official legal charter, will become a U.S. nonprofit organization—a so-called 501(c)(3). This means that it will be able to accept tax-deductible donations, but it will not be able to do overtly political work. The second organization (yet to be named) will be chartered as a social welfare organization or a lobbying group with a 501(c)(4) tax designation. This means that it will be able to do overtly political work, but donations to it will not be tax-deductible. The following members have so far joined the committee to charter the two organizations:
Steven Shafarman
CONTACT PERSON: Steven Shafarman <sshafarman@gmail.com>
Ian Ash Schlakman <ian@civsys.it>
Jason Burke Murphy <murphyjason@elms.edu>
Mark Witham <mwitham@basicincomeproject.org>
Eri Noguchi <en16@columbia.edu>
Dan O’Sullivan <danosully@gmail.com>
- A committee was created to organize the next meeting of the unnamed political group. The USBIG Network meets once a year at the NABIG Congress (which alternates each year between the U.S. and Canada), but the political group will meet more often. The committee hopes to organize the next meeting within 3 to 6 months. The committees within the unnamed political group will probably meet earlier via the internet. The following members volunteered to organize the next meeting of the unnamed group:
Mark Witham
CONTACT PERSON: Mark Witham <mwitham@basicincomeproject.org>
Jude Thomas <composerjude@gmail.com>
Diane Pagen <dianepagen@yahoo.com>
Ann Withorn <withorn.ann@gmail.com>
Dorothy Howard <dorohoward@gmail.com>
- The content creation committee is in charge of research, news reporting, social media presence, and media relations.
Jason Burke Murphy
CONTACT PERSON: Jason Burke Murphy <jason.burke.murphy@gmail.com>
Contact for people interested in the NewsFlash and BI News: Karl Widerquist <Karl@Widerquist.com>
Contact for people interested in improving the Basic Income articles on Wikipedia: Dorothy Howard <dorohoward@gmail.com>
Scott Santens <scott@scottsantens.com>
- The regional network committee will work on establishing local chapters of the group in cities and towns across the United States. The contact person for this committee is:
Kristine Osbakken <krissosbakken@gmail.com>
- Liane Gaile <liane.gale@gmail.com> and Ann Withorn <withorn.ann@gmail.com> agreed to be the contact people for the for working groups on women & Basic Income, basic income & the new economy, and basic income as an anti-poverty policy.
The organizers of this new group without a name put out a nationwide call to anyone who wants to get involved. If people would like to join one of the existing committees or propose a new committee, please email the relevant committee contacts and volunteer. If you don’t know which committee to contact, the two groups have two general contact people:
Contacts:
The unnamed political group: Jason Burke Murphy <jason.burke.murphy@gmail.com>
The USBIG Network coordinator: Michael Howard <michael_howard@umit.maine.edu>
The Following people signed the attendance sheet at the meeting:
Ann Withorn (right) and Diane Dujon (left)
Ann Withorn
Buffy Cain
Dan O’Sullivan
Diane Pagen
Dorothy Howard
Felix Coeln
Ian Ash Schlakman
Jason Burke Murphy
Jesse Alexander Myerson
Joel Cabrera
Johannes Ponader
Jude Thomas
Karl Widerquist
Kristine Osbakken
Leah Grace
Liane Gale
Mark Witham
Mary Bricker-Jenkins
Mary Bricker-Jenkins
Michael Bohmeyer
Michael Lewis
Mike Sandler
Mitchel Cohen
Peter Barnes
Ron Rubin
Scott Santens
Scott Simpson
Steven Shafarman
Eduardo Suplicy
Tristan Roberts
Tristan Mantel-Hoffmann
Victor Chudnovsky
The Fourteenth NABIG Congress
by Karl Widerquist | Mar 1, 2015 | News
Tonight at 6pm a group of citizens are gathering in Brooklyn to discuss whether the United States is ready to start a political movement for basic income. Discussion and interest in Basic Income—an unconditional cash income for all citizens without means test or work requirement—has taking off around the world. Other countries have increasingly active political movements for basic income. It’s time to discuss whether the Untied States is ready to start a similar movement.
The Commons Brooklyn
Everyone is welcome to attend this meeting and take part in this discussion. All points of view are encouraged. It will be an open discussion with no pre-set agenda and no list of speakers. We’ll be using an open format that gives everyone opportunities to participate actively, equally.
Anyone who can’t be there in person is invited to participate online. A live video stream will be broadcast by the Basic Income Project. Text of the discussion will be posted on Reddit and Twitter. Online comments on Reddit and Twitter will be monitored and read aloud to the meeting, so that people can participate in the meeting even if they can’t be present.
Let’s get together; talk it over; and see what happens.
We’ll have pizza and drinks. We’ll take up a collection to pay for them, but they’ll be distributed unconditionally—even to those unwilling or unable to contribute to the costs.
Time & date: 6:00pm, Sunday March 1, 2015
Location: The Commons Brooklyn, 388 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217 (easy to get to by subway from the rest of New York City)
Contacts:
By email: Karl Widerquist <Karl@widerquist.com>
By phone: Michael Lewis, USBIG Committee, +1(646) 270-0911
Directions: from Google Maps
Online:
Video: the Basic Income Project.
Interactive text: Reddit and Twitter.
BIG Congress
by Karl Widerquist | Feb 28, 2015 | News
On 5 February 2015 the Manitoba Institute for Policy Research of the University of Manitoba hosted an event entitled “Working towards a Basic Income for Manitoba and Canada”, as part of its Policy, Pizza & a Pint Series.
Evelyn Forget -the Winnipeg Free Press
The session featured Evelyn Forget (Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba), Jurgen De Wispelaere (Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University), and Jessica Dumas (Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce, Winnipeg). The evening’s programme was moderated by Shannon Sampert, Perspectives and Politics Editor, Winnipeg Free Press.
Videos of the session can be found at:
Part 1 – Evelyn Forget: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4HCLPjyQaQ
Part 2 – Jurgen De Wispelaere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCtLn2B3f98
Part 3 – Jessica Dumas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8WI76tolEA
Part 4 – Moderated Questions with Shannon Sampert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArATeDX5vpc
Jessica Dumas
The basic (guaranteed) income model of economic security for all has been gaining attention in policy circles across Canada. This model would provide a minimum income for all Manitobans and Canadians instead of the government’s current piecemeal approach to social assistance and income support programs.
The panel reviewed Manitoba’s experience with basic income through the ‘Mincome’ pilot project based in Manitoba in the late 1970s, and discussed its potential for implementation in the current climate.
by Karl Widerquist | Feb 24, 2015 | News
Those who can’t attend the Fourteenth North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) Congress in person can participate online in several ways. An independent group of bloggers from Basic Income Project, LLC will be covering the Congress. The broadcast will be live and accessible from Live.BasicIncomeProject.org during the event, and recordings will be available at that same address after the event has concluded.
Queensboro Bridge
There will also be a interactive live twitter feed to follow @USBIG hashtag #NABIG15, which will be used to connect the discussions of those both at the conference and unable to attend the conference. In addition, social media discussions will be congregated and made available via Storify throughout the Congress. Another way to participate from afar is to join the live Reddit feed, which will be continually updated, and monitored so that questions proposed from cyberspace can be relayed to the speakers in the room. This will connect the now 23,000 strong community of those interested in basic income on Reddit.
The easiest way for interested people who aren’t regular users of any of these sites to connect will be to watch the live stream of the conference at Live.BasicIncomeProject.org, and comment on it on the live Reddit feed.
The NABIG Congress an event page on Facebook will have links to all of these ways to connect to the Congress. USBIG website has the conference schedule, interested people are invited to check the times of the sessions that most interest them. The broad cast will occur at the following times
Thursday Feb. 26, 6:30pm-9 (all times in Eastern Time, United States)
Friday, Feb. 27, 8am to 7pm
Saturday, Feb. 28, 8am to 6:30pm
Sunday, March 1 8am to 1:30pm, and again 6-9pm that evening.
And of course, the discussion continues online.
The organizers especially invite off-site participants to join on Sunday evening for the movement meeting, “Are we ready to start a political movement for a Basic Income Guarantee in the United States?” March 1, 6-9pm.
NABIG Congress
