by Toru Yamamori | Aug 17, 2015 | News
Nico Hammann collected around 5,000 signatures for the Swiss basic income initiative helping it succeed in collecting the more than 100,000 signatures that were needed to force a national referendum on the issue. The initiative submitted the signatures to the federal parliament in Autumn 2013 and the referendum will take place in Autumn 2016.
Hammann sadly passed away 1st May 2015. Enno Schmidt, Hamman’s friend and fellow activist, has made an obituary film: ‘…For Nico’. The language is German subtitled in English. Here are some extracts of Hamman’s words from Schmidt’s film:
“I’m a trained natural-stone tiler, and worked on building sites as a construction worker, as polisher. Then I got sick, suffered a hernia and was fired immediately. I had to find something new. This brought me to industrial building maintenance – I cleaned air-duct and was mobbed. I saw how badly people are treated, and labour laws simply misused. …When I started fighting back, I had a severe heart attack…….Then I came across Basic Income Guarantee.”
“One can’t point to someone and say: ‘Hey, you’re on welfare, and I’m not!'”
“But when they laughed and pointed at us, saying ‘These people and their crazy ideas!’, that just motivated me to collect more signatures. I wanted to show: ‘hey, things can be different! There are other ways.'”
by Toru Yamamori | Aug 15, 2015 | News
Paul Mason, the award-winning economics editor of Channel 4 News, argues in favour of a basic income in his new book entitled PostCapitalism: A guide to our future, published in 30th July 2015 by Allen Lane, London.
Neoliberalism is broken, Mason argues, and we have the chance to create a new global economy which he calls ‘Postcapitalism’. He gives three reasons why this is possible: information technology is reducing the need for work; the abundance of information goods is undermining the market-based pricing mechanism which relies on scarcity; collaborative production is rising.
A basic income play a key role in Mason’s argument for the transition from capitalism to post-capitalism. Implementing it could ‘socialize the costs of automation’ by formalizing ‘the separation of work and wages’, while subsidizing ‘the transition to a shorter working week, or day, or life’.
What makes Mason’s argument unique among the many other existing arguments for a basic income, is that a basic income will be possible only during the process of transition and will disappear when the transition to post-capitalism is completed.
‘The ultimate aim is to reduce to a minimum the hours it takes to produce what humanity needs. Once this happens, the tax base in the market sector of the economy would be too small to pay for the basic income. Wages themselves would increasingly be either social – in the form of collectively provided – or disappear. So as a postcapitalist measure, the basic income is the first benefit in history whose success measure is that it shrinks to zero.’
Although Mason referred to a basic income in his contribution to the Guardian several months ago, this book locates a basic income in his wider perspective on history and the current state of capitalism as well as his design for future.
by Toru Yamamori | Aug 13, 2015 | News
The Basic Income Project, LLC recently launched the ‘Basic Income Hashtag Campaign‘, a new application for putting a basic income hashtag banner on a Facebook profile photo.
Mark Witham, the organization’s project lead, says: “I am working on building a socially responsible digital currency which has a basic income built into it. I built this banner campaign to help promote basic income as a whole to help spread the idea.”
This application is being launched in time for the basic income week, international campaign which is planned for September.
Witham is also on the board of the first U.S.-based nonprofit, Basic Income Action, and on a USBIG committee.
On the Basic Income Project, LLC, see this video interview to Witham.
by Toru Yamamori | Aug 9, 2015 | News
Seongnam city is considering implementing a ‘Youth Dividend’, based on the idea of a basic income. If it happens, it will be the first case in Korea.
The city（성남시 城南市）is located about 20 km south from the centre of Seoul, and has a population of around 980,000 in its 142 square kilometers of land.
The mayor, Lee Jae-myeong (이재명) has been keen for poverty reduction. With his initiative, the city considers an introduction of a ‘Youth Dividend’. Although the idea is inspired by a universal and unconditional basic income, the detail of a ‘Youth Dividend’ is not decided yet. The city commissioned to an external agency for research on feasibility of implementation of it last June.
*This news is written based on the following news and information from some Korean Friends including Smila Youhyung Park (스밀라): https://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2015/06/19/0200000000AKR20150619178800061.HTML
The image of map is from https://www.seongnam.go.kr/EN/
by Toru Yamamori | Aug 8, 2015 | News
Jeremy Corbyn, front running candidate to be the next Labour Party leader, has recruited Richard Murphy, an advocate of basic income, to draft his economic policy.
Corbyn, a 66-years-old MP, not especially prominent in Westminster politics, has recently gotten tremendous media attention on account of his unexpected initial success in getting support for his candidacy for Labour Party leader, coupled with mainstream Labour politicians’ panic reaction against precisely this (Tony Blair, for one, has advised Corbyn supporters to get a heart transplant).
Although Corbyn himself hasn’t spoken on basic income yet, there have been some speculations as to whether he could possibly support the idea — namely: ‘Why Anti-Austerity Needs The Basic Income: SNP, Jeremy Corbyn?’ and ‘Universal Basic Income: How the Labour Party could stand up for workers, help the poor and be pro-business’.
Richard Murphy, Tax Research UK
It is good news for basic income supporters that Richard Murphy is involved in drafting Corbyn’s economic policy.
Murphy, an economist at Tax Research UK, is also an advocate of basic income and co-author (with Howard Reed) of ‘Financing the Social State’ (pdf), which recommends the implementation of basic income in the U.K. This policy paper was published in 2013 by the Centre for Labour and Social Studies.
Corbyn hasn’t published his detailed economic plan other than providing a brief outline. Despite this, The Daily Mail, The Times, to cite a few, have already termed it the derisory ‘Corbynomics’.
Will basic income be included in ‘Corbynomics’ (which I am using the term without ridiculing tone)? Will Corbyn win the Labour Party leader contest? We will know by the autumn. The party’s internal vote will begin Friday 14 August and close on Thursday 10 September, with the results being announced on Saturday 12 September.
Credit Picture: CC Chris Beckett
*Minor editing for a link and for responding one of comments below on 10th August
