by Kate McFarland | Nov 15, 2016 | News
One of BIEN’s newest affiliates, Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland, will hold its official launch on November 26, 2016, at the Pearce Institute community center in Glasgow.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will include a combination of lectures, panel discussions, and interactive workshops, with the keynote address delivered by Guy Standing, cofounder and honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network and Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
A detailed schedule and registration information are available at the event’s Eventbrite page.
Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland states that its mission is “to advance research and public education about the economic and social effects of Citizen’s Basic Income systems (defined here as schemes which guarantee an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to every citizen as a right of citizenship).”
Image: The Pearce Institute, CC-BY-SA-2.0 geograph.org.uk
by Kate McFarland | Nov 14, 2016 | News
The Nordic Conference on Basic Income Pilots was held in Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget), in Copenhagen from September 22 to 23.
The Alternative — a green political party that currently holds nine seats in the Danish Parliament — was the official host of the conference. BIEN’s Danish affiliate, BIEN Danmark, organized the event.
All 148 seats in the conference hall were filled for the two-day series of lectures on basic income pilots, which sold out in the preceding week.
BIEN co-chairs Karl Widerquist and Louise Haagh were among the presenters. Louise, who wrote a Basic Income News feature on the conference, opines that, overall, “the Nordic conference went some way to create a new platform for a more positive debate about BI in the wider society.”
Karl describes the conference as “exhilarating”: “People were there from all the Nordic countries, each of which has a very active movement for basic income. The idea is getting very close to the centers of power in several Nordic countries.”
PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHY
A professional film crew recorded videos of all presentations, panel debates, and Q&A sessions, which are compiled in the YouTube playlist Nordic Conference on Basic Income Pilots 2016:
On the first day of the conference, speakers included (in order of appearance), Guy Standing (BIEN co-founder and honorary co-president), Olli Kangas (Kela), Sjir Hoeijmakers (Vereniging Basisinkomen), Bjarke Friborg (the academic union Dansk Magisterforening), Anne Marie Frederiksen (consultant for the Danish municipality Aarhus), Torsten Gejl (MP for the Alternative), Nicole Teke (International Coordinator of the French Movement for a Basic Income), Karl Widerquist (BIEN co-chair), Niels Meyer (former Professor of Physics at the Technical University of Denmark), The Society Think Tank, and GiveDirectly.
The second day saw presentations from (again in order of appearances) Nanna Kildal (Research Professor affiliated with Uni Research Rokkan Centre), Thomas Boje (Department of Social Sciences at Roskilde University), Torsten Gejl (same one as before), Annika Lillemets (Swedish MP for the Green Party), Finn Sørensen (MP for the Red-Green Alliance), Louise Haagh (BIEN co-chair), Christian Engström (former Member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Pirate Party), and Martin Jordö (Swedish journalist and politician).
In addition to the series of lectures and debates, a special dinner was held at the end of the first day–featuring entertainment by the 14-member swing orchestra Zirkus. Zirkus was also responsible to creating a special trailer that was publicized in the week before the conference:
Commenting on Zirkus’s live performance, conference organizer Karsten Lieberkind (BIEN-Danmark) says, “This band is something special, both in terms of visual performance and music. I think everyone was in a state of amazement.”
IN THE PRESS
The Swedish online magazine Syre, which publishes content on social issues from a green-oriented viewpoint, printed a review of the Nordic Conference on Basic Income Pilots (in Swedish). Indeed, the conference was the magazine’s cover story for the month.
In addition to presenting a general summary of conference, the Syre review focused on participants’ views about the relationship between basic income and organized labor, soliciting opinions from Guy Standing and Malmö basic income activist Göran Hansson. The author also speaks to Thomas Boje about basic income and democracy, and Karl Widerquist about the rise of the recent basic income movement in the US.
Read Karsten Lieberkind’s English translation of the review here on Basic Income News.
REFLECTIONS FROM ORGANIZER KARSTEN LIEBERKIND
Torsten Gejl, MP for the Alternative and an enthusiastic supporter of the conference, has shared these words from Karsten (read Torsten’s full post here):
“To me, this conference is the culmination of not only the preparations for the conference itself but of a process, a gradual but inevitable change in the mindset of many people. maybe in society as a whole, a change in our conceptions of work and labour, that work is not synonymous with labour and that people contribute to society in all sorts of ways. It is about time that we recognize this as a fact.
“Also, it is the realization that people have a right to life, as stated in the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a civilized society, this must, at all times, be an unconditional, non-negotiable fact. And nobody, no individual, no group, no organisation, no society or state should ever be allowed to come between a person and his or her basic needs for survival. Thanks, Karl, for those words.
“And a final word about the Alternative. We may have slightly different views on how to approach the idea and implementation of an Unconditional Basic Income (Ubetinget Basisindkomst), but we most certainly agree on one point: that by trusting people you get so much more in return than you could ever get by exercising power and control.”
Karsten Lieberkind with Louise Haagh
Credit: Michael Husen, BIEN Danmark
As Karsten relates in communication with Basic Income News, the conference has resulted in new connections and correspondence between BIEN-Danmark and the Alternative.
Additionally, the event helped to inspire BIEN-Danmark to pursue efforts to engage labor unions:
“We have long enough been in the defensive about our cause when it comes to labour unions, so now is the time to be in the offensive as we have a program that will actually prepare labour unions for the future.”
Dansk Magisterforening (DM), the Danish Association of Masters and PhDs, is one national labor union that is open to the idea of basic income. As Bjarke Friborg, the co-chair of DM, explained in his talk at the conference, the union does not endorse basic income; however, DM has a positive attitude toward pilot projects and perceives a “shared agenda” between DM and the basic income movement.
Summarizing the upshot of the Nordic Conference on Basic Income Pilots, Karsten says, “I think the most important thing that came out of this conference is that we have established very good and friendly connections with both DM and the Alternative, based on mutual respect and recognition. Also, it has strengthened the ties between the Nordic basic income movements to the benefit of future cooperation.”
Thanks to Karsten Lieberkind for information and input for this article.
Article cover photo: Christiansborg Palace CC BY 2.0 Kristoffer Trolle.
by Kate McFarland | Nov 13, 2016 | News
Jacobin editor Peter Frase has published a new book, Four Futures: Life After Capitalism, in which he envisions the collapse of capitalism due to growing scarcity (owing to climate change) and increasing automation of labor.
Frase describes and analyzes four possible post-capitalist futures (as the name might suggest): communism, rentism, socialism and exterminism.
While many problems and potential solutions are discussed in the book, universal basic income is among them (the potential solutions, that is, not the problems). As a reviewer notes, “[UBI] is rapidly becoming a core plank of contemporary progressive thought and is another key point of the book: Frase hammers the point in relentlessly. A universal basic income offers a solution, or at least a useful aid, to many of the problems his future worlds might face, and it emerges in some form in all of his futuristic scenarios” [1].
Frase has previously written about UBI in Jacobin. His “Curious Utopias” (May 2013) surveys the issue of whether a UBI is properly described as “utopian”. In “Ours to Master” (March 2015), he maintains that a UBI could protect workers against a loss of income due to automation while allowing us to “realize the potential of a highly developed, post-scarcity economy” and “break the false choice between well-paid workers or labor-saving machines”. Four Futures delves further into these topic — and many others.
One of the most popular left-wing political journals in the US, Jacobin is distributed to an audience of about 400,000 per month online and 6,000 per quarter through its printed magazines. Four Futures is published by Verso Books — “the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world” — as part of its Jacobin series.
Peter Frase (2016) Four Futures: Life After Capitalism, Verso.
[1] Hans Rollman (October 21, 2016) “Pondering Life Post-Capitalism in ‘Four Futures‘” Pop Matters.
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
Image: “escaping the dome” CC BY 2.0 yumikrum
by Kate McFarland | Nov 12, 2016 | News
Canadian journalist Roderick Benns, publisher of the progressive news site Leaders and Legacies, has devoted much of the past two years to interviewing experts on basic income–with a focus on the possibility of a basic income in Canada.
On the basis of the material accumulated in this time, Benns has now produced a 290-page book on basic income, Basic Income: How a Canadian Movement Could Change the World, which is now available for purchase through Amazon.
Featuring scores of interviews and articles with prominent Canadians, including federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May, Senator Art Eggleton, and retired Senators Hugh Segal and Michael Meighen, there are also interviews with MPs Scott Brison and Dan Blaikie, as well as big city mayors like Calgary’s Naheed Nenshi and Edmonton’s Don Iveson. Benns also interviewed researchers, academics, educators, and medical doctors, along with average Canadians — to get them to imagine what their lives would be like under a basic income guarantee.
In addition to writing for Leaders and Legacies, Benns assists with the communication efforts of BIEN’s Canadian affiliate, the Basic Income Canada Network.
Announcement:
“New book on Basic Income by Leaders and Legacies publisher released” Leaders and Legacies (October 24, 2016).
Book:
Roderick Benns (2016) Basic Income: How a Canadian Movement Could Change the World, CreateSpace Independent Publishing.
by Kate McFarland | Nov 11, 2016 | News
The 2016 Global Action Summit, convening November 14-15 in Nashville, Tennessee, will include a panel on issues such as automation, the future of work, and universal basic income.
The annual summit of the Global Action Platform brings together corporate and nonprofit leaders, government officials, academics, and other invited guests for a series of keynote lectures and panel discussions. This year, 400 invited guests will take part in discussions on the theme of “scalable, sustainable solutions for abundant food, health, and prosperity.”
Of particular note to Basic Income News is a panel on the topic “Life in a Post-Employment Society”, whose participants include two prominent figures in the basic income movement (see short video clips below): Jim Pugh, who co-founded the Universal Income Project and The Basic Income Podcast, and freelance UBI writer Scott Santens. Completing the panel are M. Douglas Meeks, Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University, and Michael Tanner, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Tanner has previously expressed skepticism of universal basic income, despite acknowledging potential advantages over the current state. More recently, he moderated a high-profile basic income forum with Charles Murray and Andy Stern.
During this panel, corporate advisor Bob Castro will moderate a discussion of ways in which governments or other institutions can help individuals and society cope with a world with fewer opportunities for employment. Panelists will address such topics as the feasibility of a universal basic income and possibilities for finding personal meaning outside of jobs.
The 2016 Global Action Summit will take place November 14-15 in Nashville, Tennessee, and the “Life in a Post-Employment Society” panel will be held on the afternoon of Monday, November 14.
The conference’s keynote speaker is journalist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria, who will offer a forecast of the effect of the election of US President Donald Trump on food security, health, and prosperity. Zakaria himself recently moderated another high-profile basic income debate, between pro-UBI Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes and anti-UBI New York Times columnist Eduardo Porter.
A complete schedule of other panels and events at the Global Action Summit is available at this page: https://globalactionplatform.org/pages/view/global-action-summit.
Note that registration is open only to participants and invited guests.
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
Photo CC BY 2.0 Steve Jurvetson
