The event will be an opportunity to compare and discuss different analysis and approaches on issues regarding the basic income proposal, as described in three different recently published books.
The authors of these three books will be present:
Roberto Ciccarelli, author of “Forza lavoro. Il lato oscuro della rivoluzione digitale [Workforce. The dark side of digital revolution]” (Derive Approdi, 2018)
Giuseppe Bronzini, author of “Il diritto ad un reddito di base. Il welfare nell’era dell’innovazione [The right to a basic income. Welfare in the age of innovation]” (Gruppo Abele, 2017)
Sandro Gobetti and Luca Santini, authors of “Reddito di base tutto il mondo ne parla. Esperienze, proposte e sperimentazioni [Basic income, all the world talks about it. Experiences, proposals and experiments]” (GoWare, 2018)
Giuseppe Allegri (University of La Sapienza) and Giacomo Marramao (University Roma Tre) will also talk at the event. The meeting is organized by the Basic Income Network Italia.
The Italian branch of the Basic Income Network (BIN Italia) has written a plea about Guaranteed Minimum Income to the newly elected Parliament, still struggling to form a government.
Plea to the Italian Parliament (full text)
“May the Parliament listen to our society.
Guaranteed Minimum Income is something we can’t do without any longer.
Something that until a few years ago was confined to the scope of utopias and eccentricities of some activists, the guaranteed minimum income is now one of the main themes of the 2018 political and electoral debate. The material condition of millions of people, the economic difficulties of evergrowing population groups, the weight endured by generations of occasional workers and temporary employees, have drawn attention to the necessity for reform toward this direction.
Italy’s delay on this issue is now intolerable. It would seem reasonable to begin with prompts such as the 2017 european resolution that exhorted the member states to adopt a guaranteed minimum income policy, as defined in the 20 principles and rights of the European Social Pillar released on November 2017, in Göteborg, with the joint declaration by the European Union (EU) organs.
Among the 29 points of the European Social Pillar, is number 14: the right to an «adequate minimum income». The EU has been asking Italy for years to conform to supranational parameters on this matter, and so did recently the Council of Europe, denouncing the persisting lack of effective policies against social exclusion (in contravention of the European Social Charter article 30). Despite all this, the adoption of a guaranteed minimum income policy in our country seems far away.
Over the last years, propositions and calls have also come from large portions of society, campaigns and public initiatives. These have examined and integrated/absorbed the experiences of other european countries, the international debate and the experiments currently underway in many countries in the world.
From all these experiments, it’s clear that a guaranteed minimum income is much more than a benevolent bestowal. It’s an instrument to acknowledge and value personal histories, skills, abilities and aspirations, in the pursuit of a free and decent life.
We ask the Italian Parliament to take on the responsibility to begin, as soon as possible, a debate about the introduction of a guaranteed minimum income in Italy. At this point, and even more now, after the latest elections, this issue cannot be neglected. Millions have voted also to see this proposal put into practice.
We are aware that different approaches exist and that some of the political parties have already made their proposals official. But these differences can be overcome in a debate free of preconceived divergences, and a legislative process ought to be set in motion in this direction.
In order to have debate as wide and universal as possible, we believe it can be useful to begin with the draft law proposed by a citizens’ initiative. That proposition, written in 2013 and supported by a large coalition in civil society, was never examined by the Parliament. Also useful can be the 10 points of the Platform for a Guaranteed Minimum Income, drawn up by the Rete dei Numeri Pari.
These proposals can of course be improved, but we are certain that Italy can’t do without a Guaranteed Minimum Income any longer. Let’s begin with a Guaranteed Minimum Income as a first step toward a tangible universal welfare.”
The board of the Basic Income Network Italia – (BIN Italia)
A new research carried out for the European project PIE* News Commonfare, which involved three European countries (Croatia, Italy and Holland), has just been released.
In this research, several questions have been asked. How has the precarious workers lives have changed? Between unhappiness and potentiality, between fragility and autonomy, between self-exploitation and freedom? How did it turn out to be, under the blows of the crisis and also through the influence of technology? How have they perceived, and imagined to subvert, social and political difficulties?
The research offers an analysis of the transformations in the production system, of the transition between Fordism and post-Fordism era, the main changes in the labor market, the advent of mass precariousness, the transformation of welfare models and the new emerging (social) needs. Here lies a field research that also addresses the issue of how people, starting from their condition of necessity, build good practices, social cooperation and new forms of liberation. This research work represents the attempt to recount, compare and connect processes of community empowerment and autonomous planning paths, thereby re-establishing a “sense of the future”. It does so by reconstructing an existential perspective in a deeply changed environmental, material and subjective context.
The desire for freedom and autonomy among precarious generations clearly emerges, and with it the need for a new era with new rights based on guaranteed income.
1. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM AND THE PIE CONDITIONS
1.1. DIMENSIONS OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGE OVER THE LAST DECADES
1.1.1 THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL AND PRODUCTIVE TRANSFORMATIONS
1.1.1.a The Italian context
1.1.1.b The Croatian context
1.1.1.c The Dutch context
1.1.2 LABOUR MARKET AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION
1.1.2.a The Italian Context
1.1.2.b The Croatian context
1.1.2.c The Dutch Context
1.1.3 DIMENSIONS OF THE CRISIS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF WELLFARE POLICIES
1.1.3.a The Italian Context
1.1.3.b The Croatian context
1.1.3.c The Dutch Context
1.2 THE PIE CONDITIONS: RISK OF EXCLUSION, THE EXPERIENCE OF PRECARIOUSNESS AND UNCERTAINTY OF SOCIAL SUBJECTS
1.2.1 THE EFFECT OF PRECARIOUSNESS ON THE NEW POOR
1.2.1.a The Italian context
1.2.1.b The Croatian context
1.2.1.c The Dutch context
1.2.2 THE MULTIDIMENSIONALITY, THE TRANSVERSAL NATURE OF POVERTY, AND THE PERCEPTION OF RISK
1.2.2.a The Italian context
1.2.2.b The Croatian context
1.2.2.c The Dutch context
2. THE CHALLENGE OF NEWLY EMERGING NEEDS AND WELFARE STATE SYSTEM
2.1.a The social protection system, measures available in Italy
2.1.b The social protection system, measures available in Croatia
2.1.c The social protection system, measures available in Netherlands
2.2 PEOPLE EMERGING NEEDS
2.2.a Emerging needs in Italy
2.2.b Emerging needs in Croatia
2.2.c Emerging needs in Netherlands
3. OVERTURNING THE PIE CONDITIONS: STORIES AND EXPERIENCES OF COMMUNITIES
3.1 BOTTOM-UP WELFARE: NATURE AND IMPACT OF GRASSROOTS PRACTICES
3.1.a Bottom-up Welfare in Italy
3.1.b Bottom-up Welfare in Croatia
3.1.c Bottom-up Welfare in the Netherlands
3.2 GOOD PRACTICES: STORIES OF REPRODUCIBLE AND EFFECTIVE EXPERIENCES
3.2.a Experiences in Italy
3.2b Experiences in Croatia
3.2c Experiences in the Netherlands
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ANNEXES
ANNEX 1: THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM, MEASURES AVAILABLE IN ITALY
ANNEX 2: THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM, MEASURES AVAILABLE IN CROATIA.
ANNEX 3: THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM, MEASURES AVAILABLE IN THE NETHERLANDS
*PIE (Poverty, Income, Employment) – Commonfare is a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation programme under grant agreement No 687922
Universal basic income. A radical rethinking of work, well-being and freedom. This is the title of the meeting that took place within the Festival of Journalism held in Perugia on April 13th, 2018. From 2 pm at the Teatro della Sapienza, Alessandro Gilioli de L’Espresso magazine interviewed Guy Standing from BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network).
As an introduction to the meeting, a question was asked:
Can we create a fairer society by providing a guaranteed income for all citizens? What would this mean for our health, wealth and well-being?
Basic income is rooted in the idea that all citizens have a role in generating the wealth currently enjoyed only by a few. Faced with the increasing precariousness in all areas of work, an emerging disaffected mass class and signals of political instability, basic income is an issue around which to build new progressive policies, to redefine citizens’ relationship with work and the community in which they live. Guy Standing, an economist who has been for many years a leading figure worldwide in research on basic income, illustrates what we can learn from the pilot projects on basic income undertaken in various parts of the world, what the effects are on the economy, on poverty and on work, and why many of the arguments against basic income can be overcome.
The Network Rete dei Numeri Pari organized the event called “I love dignity. Guaranteed minimum income. What it is and how to build an instrument against inequality, mafia and poverty” in the past 14th and 15th of February, 2018.
Among many speakers, Sandro Gobetti, Giuseppe Allegri and Giuseppe Bronzini, from Basic Income Network Italia, shared their thoughts with the audience. Below can be watched a video of the speeches, recorded on February 14th and edited by Radio Radicale.
