by Andre Coelho | Mar 6, 2015 | News
Picture from NABIG Conference (from live stream video)
There is a community of Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) supporters in the United States. To prove it, a small crowd of enthusiast and concerned citizens have got together in New York, the past weekend, to discuss BIG on the Fourteenth Annual North America Basic Income Guarantee Congress.
The event started on Thursday, the 26th of February, with a preconference public discussion at the Long Island City Art Center, followed by almost three days of a fulltime schedule conference, featuring 43 speakers and an audience of a similar size. These speakers formed a wide international panel of academics, city officials, government servants, union representatives, social movement activists, authors and even bank officials, not only from the USA, but also from Ireland, Brazil, Canada, Australia and Germany.
The live audience plus all those following the sessions online, through live streaming, listened to and actively participated in the discussion of a variety of subjects directly or indirectly related to BIG. The latter ranged from robotics and its influence on human society, to dealing with poverty, welfare programs, income distribution, BIG economical and social implications, labor transformations and also tax politics, human rights, social emancipation and involvement. Other important issues were addressed, like the failure of social assistance programs in the USA, corruption at charities, job
precariousness, and clues were highlighted as to how to introduce BIG into mainstream discourse and political discussions.
All along participants were encouraged to express their motivations, ideas and suggestions, in a thinking together kind of general environment, which culminated at an activist meeting at The Commons Brooklyn, moderated by Karl Widerquist and Steven Shafarman. At this meeting, held on the evening of March 1st, other activists like Scott Santens, Mark Witham, Jason Burke Murphy, Michael Bohmeyer and Mary Bricker-Jenkins were present, among other 24 who signed up for this encounter, which had the intent of starting a political movement for Basic Income in the United States. Although not named yet, this political movement is already working in BIG economy and social policy, establishing local BIG chapters, content creation (news and research media) and legally formalizing itself into two groups (a U.S. non-profit and a social welfare organization).
Picture from The Commons Brooklyn NABIG meeting (from live stream video)
More information at:
Karl Widerquist, “Brooklyn, NY: Report from the meeting to create a political movement for basic income“, Basic Income News, March 4 2015
“NABIG sessions“, Basic Income Project, March 2 2015
“BIGS Commons“, Basic Income Project, March 2 2015
by Karl Widerquist | Feb 24, 2015 | News
Those who can’t attend the Fourteenth North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) Congress in person can participate online in several ways. An independent group of bloggers from Basic Income Project, LLC will be covering the Congress. The broadcast will be live and accessible from Live.BasicIncomeProject.org during the event, and recordings will be available at that same address after the event has concluded.
Queensboro Bridge
There will also be a interactive live twitter feed to follow @USBIG hashtag #NABIG15, which will be used to connect the discussions of those both at the conference and unable to attend the conference. In addition, social media discussions will be congregated and made available via Storify throughout the Congress. Another way to participate from afar is to join the live Reddit feed, which will be continually updated, and monitored so that questions proposed from cyberspace can be relayed to the speakers in the room. This will connect the now 23,000 strong community of those interested in basic income on Reddit.
The easiest way for interested people who aren’t regular users of any of these sites to connect will be to watch the live stream of the conference at Live.BasicIncomeProject.org, and comment on it on the live Reddit feed.
The NABIG Congress an event page on Facebook will have links to all of these ways to connect to the Congress. USBIG website has the conference schedule, interested people are invited to check the times of the sessions that most interest them. The broad cast will occur at the following times
Thursday Feb. 26, 6:30pm-9 (all times in Eastern Time, United States)
Friday, Feb. 27, 8am to 7pm
Saturday, Feb. 28, 8am to 6:30pm
Sunday, March 1 8am to 1:30pm, and again 6-9pm that evening.
And of course, the discussion continues online.
The organizers especially invite off-site participants to join on Sunday evening for the movement meeting, “Are we ready to start a political movement for a Basic Income Guarantee in the United States?” March 1, 6-9pm.
NABIG Congress
by Karl Widerquist | Feb 9, 2015 | News
The Fourteenth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress (a joint even of U.S. and Canadian Basic Income networks) will take place in New York City Thursday, February 26 – Sunday March 1, 2015.
Most events will be held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Economic Association (EEA) at the New York Sheraton Hotel and Towers. The Congress will also involve free events including a public discussion Thursday, February 26 and a political movement meeting at the Brooklyn Commons on Sunday March 1.
Featured speakers at the conference include Marshall Brain, futurist and author of How Stuff Works and Manna; Peter Barnes, environmentalist and author of Who Owns the Sky?, With Liberty and Dividends For All, and Capitalism 3.0; Ann Withorn, welfare rights activist and Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Boston, author of Serving the People: Social Services and Social Change and co-editor of For Crying out Loud: Women and Poverty in the U.S.; Jim Mulvale, Dean of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba and Vice-Chairperson of the Basic Income Canadian Network (BICN/RCRG), Mary Bricker Jenkins, Professor of Social Work, Temple University, and US Welfare Rights Union leaders, and forty other speakers.
Event Calendar:
Thursday, February 26, 2015
6:30pm to 9pm: Public Discussion: “New Possibilities for the Basic Income Movement”
Location to be announced
Friday, February 27, 2015
8am to 7pm: Sessions at the Sheraton Hotel, 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY
Evening: social event to be announced
Saturday, February 28, 2015
8am to 6:30pm: Sessions at the Sheraton Hotel, 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY
Evening: social event to be announced
Sunday, March 1, 2015
8am to 12:30pm: Sessions at the Sheraton Hotel, 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY
12:45-m-2:15: Lunch meeting: organizational meeting of the USBIG Network
6:00pm: Meeting: “Are we ready to start an activists movement for BIG in the United States?” We’ll chip in for pizza and drinks, but we’ll share the food and drink unconditionally with everyone who comes—without means test or any requirement to make a reciprocal contribution. We will discuss this question without any more specific agenda. Karl Widerquist will moderate the discussion, but will not lead the discussion or any effort that might come out of it. Location: Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Ave. Brooklyn, NY. This event is free and open to everyone.
For updated information on featured speakers, registration, and accommodations as more becomes available, visit the USBIG website: www.usbig.net.
Essential information:
Conference dates: Thursday, February 26 – Sunday, March 1, 2015
Locations: New York and Brooklyn, NY: The Sheraton Hotel and Towers, 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY, Hunter College, and the Brooklyn Commons
Organizing committee: Karl Widerquist <Karl@Widerquist.com> (organizer), Ann Withorn <withorn.ann@gmail.com>, Shawn Cassiman <scassiman1@udayton.edu>, and Jurgen De Wispelaere <jurgen.dewispelaere@gmail.com>
Website: USBIG.net.
by USBIG | Dec 19, 2014 | News
The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USIBG) Network has released a list of forty participants for the Fourteenth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress (a joint even of USBIG and the Basic Income Canada Network). The Congress will take place in New York City starting Thursday, February 26 – Sunday March 1, 2015. Most events will be held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Economic Association (EEA) at the New York Sheraton Hotel and Towers. The Congress will also involve free events including a public discussion at the Hunter School of Social Work on Thursday, February 26 and an activists meeting at the Brooklyn Commons on Sunday March 1.
Conference participants include:
- Alanna Hartzok, the Earth Rights institute, 2014 Democratic Nominee for Cognress
- Ann Withorn, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Boston, author of Serving the People: Social Services and Social Change
- Ashley Engel, University College Dublin
- Bill DiFazio, St. John’s University
- Brigid Reynolds, Social Justice Ireland
- Diane Dujon, University of Massachusetts Boston
- Diane Pagen, Rutgers University School of Social Work
- Eduardo Suplicy, former member of the Brazilian Federal Senate
- Eri Noguchi, the Association to Benefit Children
- Felix Coeln, the German Pirate Party
- Frances Fox Piven, the City University of New York
- Frederick H. (Harry) Pitts, University of Bath
- Ian Shlakman, 2014 Green Party Nominee for Congress
- James Green-Armytage, Bard College
- James Jennings, Tufts University
- Jim Bryan, Ryan/Bacardi Professor of Economics, Manhattanville College
- Jim Mulvale, Dean of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba
- Jonathan Brun, Basic Income Canada Network
- Jude Thomas, Freelance writer
- Jurgen De Wispelaere, McGill University
- Karl Widerquist, SFS-Qatar, Georgetown University
- Marshall Brain, author of How Stuff Works and Manna
- Mary Bricker Jenkins, Professor of Social Work, Temple University, and US Welfare Rights Union leader
- Michael Lewis, Hunter School of Social Work
- Michael Howard, University of Maine
- Michaelann Berwitz, activist
- Mimi Abramovitz, Hunter College
- Oliver Heydorn, The Clifford Hugh Douglas Institute for the Study and Promotion of Social Credit
- Paul B. Siegel, the World Bank
- Peter Barnes, author of Who Owns the Sky?, With Liberty and Dividends For All, and Capitalism 3.0
- Preston Smith, activist
- Roy Morrison, Greater Boston Capital Partners
- Seán Healy, Social Justice Ireland
- Sid Frankel, University of Manitoba
- Stanley Aranowitz, the City University of New York
- Steve Pressman, Monmouth College
- Suezanne Bruce, activist
- Valerie J. Carter, University of Maine
- Willie Baptist, the Poverty Initiative
Calendar:
Thursday, February 26, 2015
7pm to 9pm: Public Discussion: “New Possibilities for the Basic Income Movement”
Hunter College, room to be announced
Friday, February 27, 2015
8am to 7pm: Sessions at the Sheraton Hotel, 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY
Evening: social event to be announced
Saturday, February 28, 2015
8am to 6:30pm: Sessions at the Sheraton Hotel, 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY
Evening: social event to be announced
Sunday, March 1, 2015
8am to 12:30pm: Sessions at the Sheraton Hotel, 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY
12:45-m-2:15: Lunch meeting: organizational meeting of the USBIG Network
6:30pm: Activists Meeting: “Are we ready to start an activists movement for BIG in the United States?” We’ll chip in for pizza and drinks, but we’ll share the food and drink unconditionally with everyone who comes—without means test or any requirement to make a reciprocal contribution. We will discuss this question without any more specific agenda. Karl Widerquist will moderate the discussion, but will not lead the discussion or any effort that might come out of it. Location: Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Ave. Brooklyn, NY
The Brooklyn Commons
Everyone attending the events at the Sheraton must register with the EEA and pay their registration fee (all events outside the Sheraton are free and open to everyone). Anyone who registers as a USBIG participant can register for the EEA members’ price of $110 without paying the EEA’s membership fee—saving $65. All registered attendees of the NABIG Congress are welcome to attend any of the EEA’s events.
For updated information on featured speakers, registration, and accommodations as more becomes available, visit the USBIG website: www.usbig.net. For more information about the Eastern Economics Association Annual Meeting, visit the EEA website: https://www.quinnipiac.edu/eea/41st-annual-conference/.
Essential information:
Conference dates: Thursday, February 26 – Sunday, March 1, 2015
Locations: New York and Brooklyn, NY: The Sheraton Hotel and Towers, 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY, Hunter College, and the Brooklyn Commons
Organizing committee: Karl Widerquist <Karl@Widerquist.com> (organizer), Ann Withorn <withorn.ann@gmail.com>, Shawn Cassiman <scassiman1@udayton.edu>, and Jurgen De Wispelaere <jurgen.dewispelaere@gmail.com>
Website: USBIG.net.
The Brooklyn Commons
by Karl Widerquist | Dec 1, 2014 | News, The Indepentarian
Alanna Hartzok, a long-time support of Basic Income, received 37% of the vote in the Congressional election for 9th Congressional District in Pennsylvania. She received the Democratic Party nomination for Congress earlier this year, and finished second in voting to the Republican incumbent, Bill Shuster.
Hartzok is Founder and Co-Director, Earth Rights Institute and author of The Earth Belongs to Everyone. She is a researcher, an activist, a prominent supporter of land value taxation. She has been a regular contributor to the North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress for the last decade, and she has written about basic income, usually using the term “Citizens Dividend,” which is a basic income financed by resource and rent taxes.
Hartzok’s campaign website lists 14 fundamental policies and guidelines to help us establish economic democracy, including, “7. Establish a PA Sovereign Wealth Fund similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund and like in Alaska distribute “citizen dividends” to directly share natural resource super profits from our commonwealth of natural resources.”
For more information about Hartzok and her campaign see:
David Wenner. “Alanna Hartzok, Bill Shuster: Results are in from 9th Congressional District in Franklin County.” PennLive, November 04, 2014.
Alanna Hartzok. “Citizen Dividends and Oil Resource Rents: A Focus on Alaska, Norway and Nigeria.” Wealth and Want, February 2004.
See also her campaign website.
The Alanna Hartzok Campaign
