by Sandro Gobetti | Apr 12, 2016 | News
Credit to: BIN Italia.
A conference has been held in Milan to exchange ideas on policies to combat poverty, such as the introduction in Italy of a minimum and guaranteed income. It took place on Wednesday, March 2nd at Degrees Hall on the Via Conservatorio.
Through the first part of the conference, which consisted of talks on the topic, and a final round table, researchers, teachers and experts presented and discussed policy at the national and regional level, with particular attention to political obstacles to the introduction of anti-poverty policies such as a guaranteed minimum income. The initiative is part of a new focus in Italian political debate, towards the introduction of national measures that have positive effects on social inclusion by reducing economic inequality.
The conference was sponsored by the departments of Political Science and Social Studies of the State University, and the Sociology department of the Catholic University, in collaboration with Easycare Foundation.
Program:
9:00 am – POVERTY AND MINIMUM INCOME AFTER THE GREAT RECESSION: HAS SOMETHING CHANGED?
Chair: Matteo Jessoula, University of Milan
- The minimum income schemes in the European periphery during the crisis(Manos Matsaganis, University of Athens Economics and Politecnico di Milano)
- Towards a national minimum income scheme in Italy: the political role (Ilaria Madama, University of Milan)
- Minimum income trials in Italy: from Social card to the experiments of the SIA (Daniela Mesini, Institute for Social Research)
- The regional minimum income schemes: an alternative?(Marcello Natili, University of Milan)
- The Lombard case, from the proposal to the law on an income for autonomy(Rosangela Lodigiani, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan)
11:15 am – Coffee break
11:30 am – Debate
THE MINIMUM INCOME IN ITALY: WILL IT BE THE RIGHT TIME?
Chair: Paul Graziano, University of Padua and the European Social Observatory
SPEAKERS
Giulio Gallera, Councillor of autonomy Income, Regione Lombardia
Elena Lattuada, CGIL Lombardia
Cristiano Gori, Alliance against poverty in Italy and Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan
Sandro Gobetti, Campaign for the Dignity Income – BIN Italia
Raffaele Tangorra, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy
Tito Boeri, President INPS
For more information click here
by Stanislas Jourdan | Feb 4, 2016 | News
Long-time supporter of basic income François Blais has been appointed back as Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity and tasked to work on Guaranteed minimum income.
As a consequence of a ministerial reshuffle, François Blais has been displaced from the ministry of Education back to Québec’s Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity.
Blais had previously been appointed Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity after the April 2014 General Election in Canada’s province. One year ago he was appointed to the Ministry of Education.
“Minister François Blais will work on the improvement of our income support instruments in the direction of a guaranteed minimum income, a field in which he has strong expertise,” Québec’s Prime Minister Philippe Couillard explained in a statement to the press.
“I am serious about it” said Couillard in an interview. “We look at what other countries are doing like in Finland. I find the idea very seductive.”
“On the one hand it simplifies the State, on the other it maintains people’s dignity. The combinaison is excessively interesting.”
Blais is BIEN member since the 1990s. He investigated the concept while holding the post of Professor of Political Science at Laval University, Québec City. In 2002 he co-wrote a book entitled Ending Poverty: A Basic Income for All Canadians, and he reiterated his support for basic income when he joined the government in 2014.
“A perfect political storm”
The ministry reshuffle may indicate a change of direction for the liberal government led by Couillard. Blais’ predecessor Sam Hamad has been pushing a reform which would involve more sanctions to unemployed people who would refuse job opportunities. The bill has sparked a lot of criticism among anti-poverty group and leftist parties in Québec.
“It’s the perfect political storm and Quebec is in the unique position to lead what could be the most fundamental change in western social policy since the introduction of medicare.” comments Peter Wheeland on CultMontreal.com.
Blais’s reappointment however does not make unanimity. In particular, the Left-Independentist and pro-basic income party Québec Solidaire expressed its concerns with the return of Blais to the Ministry for Social Affairs. Blais himself was heavily criticized during his first mandate as Minister for pushing cuts in social benefits.
by Toru Yamamori | May 17, 2015 | News
Leon Schreiber, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin, argues BIG as ‘silent revolution’.
Leon Schreiber, “Small Yet BIG: The Basic Income Guarantee,” The Huffington Post, 23 April 2015.
by Josh Martin | Feb 15, 2015 | News
Natalie Bennett, leader of the recently resurgent UK Green party, spoke at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on Friday to a packed room of 100 or more students. She began by giving a half hour stump speech covering a number of the Green party’s major policies, including proposing a living wage, stopping tax inversion, being smarter with food production, and addressing the issues surrounding the environment. In this monologue she also spent a few minutes outlining the value of a universal basic income. During her time discussing the basic income, she outlined its ability to free people from undesirable jobs and labeled it a long-term plan of the Green party.
After her policy speech, she took questions from the audience for another 45 minutes. I (Josh Martin) am a Masters student at LSE, and I was able to ask the very first question to her. I first mentioned the Patrick Wintour article in the Guardian that mistakenly conflated the Citizen’s Income Trust’s revenue neutral basic income scheme with the Green party’s plan for a basic income, and then asked whether or not she would, in fact, prefer a revenue neutral scheme or one set at a higher level that would probably require increased taxes or another form of funding. In response, she first reiterated the Green party’s policymaking process where any members can put forward policy proposals, so she is not solely responsible for Green party policy. She thus was unable to directly answer my question, but she noted that a Green party basic income costing scheme will be published in March for consultants to revise. However, she stated that the basic income will not be a part of their 2015 election manifesto; she did not see it as a part of the Green party’s five year plan, but rather as a longer-term policy.
Due to the Wintour article and the other negative press that surrounded the UK Green party’s support of a basic income in recent weeks, it was refreshing to hear Bennett discuss the basic income unprompted in her brief policy speech. Even though the Greens will not include the basic income in their manifesto this year, it seems they still support it seriously enough to develop a costing plan this year.
by Karl Widerquist | Sep 3, 2014 | News
The NYC Climate Convergence will hose a conference entitled, “Building a Broader Climate Movement: Universal Basic Income and the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy,” at 7:00pm, Thursday, September 11, 2014, in The Commons Brooklyn, 388 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11217.
This is a free build-up event for the NYC Climate Convergence (www.convergeforclimate.org), a series of events and actions that will take place 9/19-9/21. See the website for registration and details.
Convergenceforclimate.org
Since the economic collapse of 2007-2008, calls for a universal basic income (or “Social Security for All”) have resurfaced in major outlets for the first time since the 1970s. While many of the voices calling for a UBI have come from outside established social movement groups, the UBI has tremendous potential to link the disparate movements of the left. It also may present a way of beginning to address perhaps the most urgent problem of our time–climate change.
Speakers:
Alyssa Battistoni is PhD student in political science at Yale University and an editor at Jacobin magazine.
Benjamin Kunkel is a founding editor of n+1 magazine and the author of Utopia or Bust. His play Buzz will be staged this fall in Brooklyn.
Michael Lewis is a social worker and sociologist on the faculty of the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. He’s interested in quantitative methods, public policy, and poverty and is the co-author of Economics for Social Workers and co-editor of The Ethics and Economics of the Basic Income Guarantee. Other articles he’s written have appeared in a number of peer-review journals.
Time & Date: 7:00pm, Thursday, September 11, 2014
Location: The Commons Brooklyn
388 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11217
Host: NYC Climate Convergence
More information: https://www.facebook.com/events/283099725223819/
