by Will Wachtmeister | Aug 25, 2015 | News
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People’s_Party_for_Freedom_and_Democracy#/media/File:VVD.svg
A local branch of the powerful Dutch liberal party VVD has issued a strongly worded rejection of the proposed basic income pilot project for the city of Utrecht.
The VVD’s Utrecht spokesperson on work and incomes Judith Tielen writes that she is responding to questions from the public about the city’s “ridiculous experiments” and gives seven reasons why her party opposes the basic income pilot: poor experiment design; costs; the moral need for benefit recipients to reciprocate; the reasonable nature of current conditionality; the risk of increased “hammock-based” welfare scrounging; the primacy of national over local legislation as well as a general claim that basic income doesn’t solve anything but actually creates more problems.
The intervention by the VVD, whose leader is Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, illustrates the lines of attack that basic income opponents will take when the Utrecht initiative is debated by local politicians in September [2015] and more generally, as basic income continues moving up the national political agenda.
Language DUTCH:
Judith Tielen “7 redenen waarom de VVD het ‘experiment basisinkomen’ in Utrecht afkeurt”, VVD Utrecht website, 11 August 2015
by Will Wachtmeister | Aug 24, 2015 | News
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_International#/media/File:Metro.svg
The francophone Métro newspaper in Canada has run an in-depth article promoting a universal basic income in its careers advice section.
The article by job-market and study-choice expert commentator Mario Charette provides a rundown of pro-BIG arguments, including widespread automation, stagnant wages in jobs that are crucial for society and the foregone family benefits of shorter working weeks.
The article’s main finishing argument is that an unconditional basic income would make studying more fulfilling as students would no longer be forced to choose courses based solely on income prospects, which Charette says is increasingly happening in the United States.
Language FRENCH:
Mario Charette, “Un revenu minimum garantit la liberté” Journal Métro (Canada), 11 August 2015.
by Will Wachtmeister | Aug 23, 2015 | News
From: https://www.patreon.com/missbdwalsh?ty=h
Musician Miss Bridget Walsh has taken the so-called BIG pledge and is lending her artist’s platform to the promotion of basic income.
The New Zealand-born artist who is described as an international “ambassador for positive change” is now actively promoting unconditional basic income throughout the world.
Miss Bridget Walsh is well-known for her stint as front-woman of UK band The Electric Swing Circus and is the founder of a growing global creative community called INDHE.
For more information on Miss Bridget Walsh’s initiatives see:
Miss Bridget Walsh “#INDHE #MUSIC #COLLECTIVEIMPACT #POSITIVECHANGE” Patreon crowdfunding page, accessed 12 August 2015.
by Will Wachtmeister | Aug 23, 2015 | News
The IIPPE’s upcoming Annual Conference at the UK’s Leeds University features an in-depth basic income presentation by longstanding anti-poverty activist professor Ann Withorn. For more information and registration please visit the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy website.
The abstract of Withorn’s conference contribution, which will take place at 11AM on 9 September, followed by additional conference details can be found below.
ABSTRACT
Finding Solidarity Within Precarity–Lessons from the US Welfare Rights Movement Regarding the Role of Universal Basic Income
This presentation will open discussion around three interconnecting questions:
- What does it mean to consider our current global economy as increasingly defined by “precarity” and to accept the “Precariat” as the “new dangerous class”? (Guy Standing, 2011, 2014)
- What do the experiences of people within the US Welfare Rights Movement teach us about theories and strategies for addressing a range of problems associated with economic insecurity? (Willie Baptist and Jan Rehmann, 2011)
- How does the current movement for a Universal Basic Income Guarantee have the potential to build solidarity and counter the economic and affective consequences of precarity?
Ann Withorn (right) with Diane Dujon
This presentation grows out of my 40+ years of anti-poverty activism and writing — as well as from my recent work to achieve a Universal Basic Income in Massachusetts and the US. The basic premise is that precarity is growing across many sectors of society in the US and the world — far beyond those who have been traditionally labeled poor or especially “vulnerable to poverty”. I presume that, by acknowledging our shared precarity, people today may be more able to demand recognition as legitimate members of society who are equally deserving of society’s common resources.
I will present examples of how women and men in the Welfare Rights struggles from 1966 though 2015 have claimed their rights to economic assistance and full social acceptance while struggling with their highly stigmatized status as members of the “lumpen precariat”. I will explain in some detail how my contacts with local activists both showed me the deep scariness generated for individuals, families and cultures by precarity, and offered a concrete way people within the Precariat can fight these fears: by seeking solidarity through a Basic Income for all. My goal is not only to deepen our shared knowledge but to engender a commitment to action grounded in such knowledge.
EVENT INFORMATION:
IIPPE Conference 2015, Rethinking Economics: Pluralism, Interdisciplinarity and Activism, University of Leeds, UK, September 9-11, 2014. Conference registration: https://iippe.org/wp/?page_id=2655. For more information on Ann Withorn’s presentation at the conference, contact her at withorn.ann@gmail.com.
by Will Wachtmeister | Aug 21, 2015 | News
Juli Okropiridse heads the Wien anders electoral list. From: https://wienanders.at/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Profil_small_Juli.jpg
A left-leaning alliance is contesting the upcoming elections in the Austrian capital of Vienna with unconditional basic income at the very top of its twelve-point electoral program.
The so-called Wien anders coalition – consisting of communists, pirates, environmentalists and independents – expects to gain local representation by passing the five percent threshold at the city and district council elections on Sunday 11 October [2015].
Wien anders is calling for a guaranteed minimum income as a first step towards full universal basic income that would also immediately provide better, more meaningful lives for the city’s 400,000 people who are in, or are at risk of, poverty.
Language GERMAN:
Wien anders, “Wahlprogramm: 12 Punkte für ein anderes Wien.” Wienanders.at, 8 July 2015
