by Liam Upton | Jun 12, 2015 | News
A new organisation has been launched in Switzerland called the National Campaign for Unconditional Basic Income.
The new organisation aims to be a national co-ordinating body, allowing more efficient use of people, networks and resources to promote Basic Income. The founding of the group comes as federal elections and a national referendum on Basic Income approach next year.
Other Basic Income advocacy groups already exist and will continue to exist in Switzerland, such as Géneration-RBI (Romandie), BIEN-CH (nationwide) and Arbeitsgruppe Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen (Grisons) amongst others, however the new group will be a national co-ordination body, allowing greater co-operation and efficiency between groups. The group’s committee comprises members from different regions of the country.
The group will initially focus on communication and fund-raising to spread their message, including a leaflet which will be available shortly.
The group’s website is not yet online but it is possible to subscribe to the group here (Fr).
For further information, see:
Language: French
Ralph Kundig, “La campagne nationale pour le revenu de base inconditionnel est lancée”, BIEN-CH, 24 May 2015
by Kristine Osbakken | Apr 20, 2015 | Opinion
Have you ever thought of a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) for absolutely everyone? The 14th USBIG Congress held in conjunction with Canada BIG was just held in Manhattan, and a friend with frequent flyer miles got me there. Presenters from across the globe shared perspectives on how to equalize the obscene income gap and confront the unrelenting increase in job loss due to technology, robots, the chip.
In 2007/2008, Wall Street criminals were bailed out to the tune of trillions, while news reports began to predict no uptake in the economy till 2017. Who wasn’t aghast? Who determined such a forecast and weren’t there going to be new policies to get people back to work? Seems not. As much as we hear of declining unemployment, we know that such figures discount and dismiss the long-term unemployed. The ‘service industry’ promised us by Bill Clinton has resulted in millions of underpaid workers. The right has taken out the unions.
Last year, the Democrats in our own Minnesota legislature did not find it fit to vote sick leave a worker’s right, and came up with a minimum wage of, voila: $9.50 an hour. That’s compensation of about $20,000 a year, thousands less after deductions and next to nothing if you have to pay for day care. I made $20,000 a year in the mid 70’s as a teacher in Philadelphia. That’s approximately what I make 40 years later as a substitute teacher in ISD 709, but now with absolutely no bennies.
No wonder a Basic Income makes unprecedented political progress, and around the world. Sean Healy of Social Justice Ireland dramatized the scenario, showing a bar graph with the thinnest of lines representing the wealth of the bottom 20%, and bars and bars of wealth so high they couldn’t even fit onto the graph for the top quintile. Marshall Brain of North Carolina State and author of the 60 million hit website “How Things Work” envisioned a visit by extraterrestrial creatures who take note of: 10,000 nuclear missiles, massive poverty for billions, environmental destruction, gigatons of carbon in the air, extinction, burgeoning prisons, religious strife, war, disease, millions of dying children, mass surveillance, nations, racism/sexism/homophobia. Their conjecture: ‘humans appear to be insane. Hundreds own everything while billions starve.’ Brain isn’t sure that our species can agree on anything, so that in a few decades humans will be forced to totally yield to silicon intelligence. He sees BIG as a route out of this and to a rational existence.
Frances Fox Piven of CUNY: “welfare as we know it regulates the poor and is bent to keep people at the low rungs of society. And the US has been losing its low level programs.” (In Minnesota, ‘welfare’ stipends have not risen for 27 years, and if you’re a low-income worker, you’re denied a living wage and benefits.) “Human needs for caring for old and young cannot be met. Many work multiple jobs…we must have a political strategy and ally with groups who rally for improvements in unemployment insurance and social security. We must leave behind the old left ideas of full employment (wage slavery) and economic growth—global warming won’t permit either.”
Speaker Willie Baptist (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) talked about building a new poor people’s campaign because conditions in Watts are now found in all communities. Marion Kramer and Sylvia Orduno from Detroit Welfare Rights Organization explained the hell Michigan residents are experiencing. Automation took the good paying jobs with benefits, and now Marion’s son can’t even collect unemployment when he’s laid off from what part time jobs are available. Detroit’s water plan, developed in the 90’s and based on income, was never implemented. So that the water supply for 30,000 people was recently shut off. And when water is shut off, the MI government can take your children. What Kramer called ‘the beginning of fascism in Michigan’ includes the Mackinac Plan to sell off public assets, charter schools replacing public schools, the assault on public employees, and taxation of pensions. Orduno said potentially a quarter million people risk losing their houses because unaffordable water bills are being billed to their taxes. She expressed a bond with the people of Northern Minnesota over water issues, ours due to impending sulfide mining.
Alaska was continually brought up as an example of BIG, with residents receiving yearly checks from oil revenues. Eduardo Suplicy, a former member of the Brazilian Senate, had pushed for and obtained passage of a bill that would ferret out implementation of a guaranteed income. The first stage was initiated as a stipend to the poor for enrolling their children in school. Suplicy urged us to sign a letter to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to resurrect the aging bill and get it off the back burner.
Recent articles on a Basic Income Guarantee have appeared in the pages of The Economist and the Washington Post and there’s a community on Reddit that is closing in on 25,000 subscribers. That’s not to mention the huge number of signatures collected for the European Citizen’s Initiative and the successful campaign for a Basic Income referendum in Switzerland.
In just the last few months, the momentum among political parties and leaders has also picked up. The Green Party worldwide has of course had Basic Income on its policy agenda for quite some time, but recently the general conference of the Liberal Party in Canada approved two motions towards a Basic Income, one in favor of a federal pilot program and one in favor of implementation. This is after the premier of the Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island, Robert Ghiz of the Liberal party, called for a pilot program for a Guaranteed Minimum Income in the form of a Negative Income Tax, and the leader of the provincial opposition party, the NDP, called for a similar Basic Income Guarantee.
Kristine Osbakken, Duluth, MN
krissosbakken@gmail.com
by Stanislas Jourdan | Apr 14, 2015 | News
The Podemos working group on basic income has started a procedure to bring basic income back to the party’s forefront proposals for the next general election. They need 37,000 signatures to trigger a binding internal referendum on the issue.
Last November, the Spanish political party Podemos released “An economic project for the people” which was a draft economic program for the next general election. Written by professors and party leaders Vicenç Navarro and Juan Torres, the document excluded basic income as an immediate proposal for implementation, viewing it instead as a long-term goal for the party. They propsed instead the introduction of a means-tested guaranteed minimum income more comprehensive than the current Spanish welfare system.
Although the official program for the next general election in December 2015 has not yet been adopted by the party, the publication nurtured doubts that basic income would not be a main proposal of Podemos in the future.
Disappointed by such development, Podemos Renta Basica, the party’s ‘circle’ working on basic income, has started a campaign to bring the idea back into the party’s electoral platform, ahead of the general election.
Podemos members can now sign an internal petition to support the initiative. If the petition collects the support of 37,000 members within 3 months, an internal referendum will be conducted among the full membership of the party. This vote will be binding, and could only be revoked by another referendum, meaning that unconditional basic income would become a permanent part of the Podemos program. So far more than 2,000 members have supported the proposal.
“We at Podemos Renta Basica consider the current proposals inadequate as an instrument of wealth redistribution to prevent and eradicate poverty. Only basic income can end social precariousness and articulate a new social and economic relationship with freedom.” the statement reads.
Podemos Renta Basica has increased its efforts to promote the concept. Notably, they have published a handbook (pdf) which offers an overview of the arguments for basic income and a proposal for its implementation in Spain.
After gaining 5 seats at the European Parliament, Podemos is seen as potential winner in the upcoming election. The party currently stands in third position in opinion polls, with about 20% intending to vote for their candidates.
Credit picture Mario Pais
by Citizens' Income Trust | Jan 25, 2015 | Research
The first issue of the Citizens Income Newsletter for 2015 includes news; editorials on “Predistribution,” “The necessity and the feasibility of a Citizen’s Income,” “Benefits sanctions,” and “Fair benefits;” a research note by Malcolm Torry entitled, “A feasible way to implement a Citizen’s Income;” an extended article by Anne Miller entitled, “The prospects for a CI scheme in Scotland after the Referendum on Independence held on 18 September 2014;” and reviews of the following books:
Marshall Brain, Manna: Two Visions of Humanity’s Future
Bob Deacon, Global Social Policy in the Making
Tony Fitzpatrick, Climate Change and Poverty
Bruce Nixon, A Better World is Possible
Fred Powell, The Politics of Civil Society
Julian Reiss, Philosophy of Economics
Paul Spicker, Reclaiming Individualism
Citizens Income Trust [UK], “2015 Issue 1,” Citizen’s Income newsletter, January 2015.
by Liam Upton | Dec 15, 2014 | News
The momentum behind Basic Income has been gaining ground for some time now, with more and more media attention including articles in publications such as The Economist and the Washington Post and a community on reddit that just passed 20,000 subscribers and is still growing. That’s not to mention the huge amount of signatures collected for the European Citizen’s Initiative and the successful campaign for a Basic Income referendum in Switzerland.
But in the last few months, the momentum among political parties and leaders, which will be the focus of this article, has also picked up. The Green Party worldwide has of course had Basic Income on its policy agenda for quite some time, but in February of this year, the general conference of the Liberal Party in Canada approved two motions in favour of Basic Income, one in favour of a federal pilot programme and one in favour of implementation. Though good news, the leader of the LPC, Justin Trudeau, has yet to mention the policy and the party have not campaigned on the issue in by-elections which took place this year. They are however leading in current opinion polls, but not by enough to achieve a majority government.
Robert Ghiz of the Prince Edward Island Liberal Party
This is after the premier of Prince Edward Island province, Robert Ghiz of the Liberal party, called for a pilot programme for a Guaranteed Minimum Income, a form of Negative Income Tax and the leader of provincial opposition party, the NDP called for the similar Basic Income Guarantee. The Liberal Party and NDP came first and second respectively in a recent opinion poll in the province.
Meanwhile in Québec province, the minister for Employment and Social Solidarity in the recently elected Liberal provincial government, François Blais is a supporter of Basic Income, calling it the ‘way of the future’, though his government does not have any plans to introduce the policy.
Moving on from Canada, in Spain as a reaction to dissatisfaction with regular politics, a new party called Podemos was formed this year, considered by many to represent the ‘Indignados’ mass protest movement which sprang up in 2011. This party has called for Basic Income as one of its platforms. An opinion poll in September placed Podemos as the most popular party in Spain for the first time. With elections due in less than a year, there is a real possibility they will be elected as the largest party. Unfortunately, the party left Basic Income out of it’s first economic document published recently, though there is still the chance that they will once again pick up the Basic Income idea before the general election.
But that is not the end of political moves towards Basic Income. In the Netherlands, at their party conference, opposition party D66, approved a policy to conduct a Basic Income pilot programme if elected into office. In response to the increased discussion about Basic Income, the Prime Minister from the VVD party came out opposing the policy. D66 is currently the second or third most popular party in the Netherlands according to the most recent opinion polls, with an election due no later than 2017.
The D66 conference where a proposal for a Basic Income pilot project was adopted
In Finland, during a debate in parliament led by the Centre Party and Left Alliance, the Centre Party leader also called for Basic Income pilots. The Left Alliance and Green League parties in Finland already had Basic Income as part of their platforms. In the debate, a number of MPs expressed support for Basic Income pilots, including the current Prime Minister, Alexander Stubb. The Centre Party is currently the most popular party in opinion polls, with an election due next year.
And in New Zealand, the recently elected leader of the Labour party and new leader of the opposition, Andrew Little has come out in favour of a Universal Basic Income, saying in a radio interview that he would like this to be a focus of policy for the party. Little has a difficult task ahead of him however, Labour in New Zealand have lost the previous four elections, losing vote share on each occasion.
The policies discussed by nearly all of these parties and politicians is Universal Basic Income. While a Negative Income Tax was almost passed in the USA by the Nixon administration, there has never been such a level of support for its sister policy Universal Basic Income, with parties who support either pilot programmes or implementation ahead in the polls in three different countries with the furthest election being just over 2 years away. For the first time in decades, a Basic Income which would end poverty and guarantee true freedom and dignity for all has made real progress in the political arena.
For more information, see:
Liberal Party of Canada, “97. Basic Income Supplement: Testing a Dignified Approach to Income Security for Working-age Canadians“, Liberal Party of Canada, February 23 2014
Liberal Party of Canada, “100. Priority Resolution: Creating a Basic Annual Income to be Designed and Implemented for a Fair Economy“, Liberal Party of Canada, February 23 2014
CBC News, “Guaranteed livable income plan possible, Ghiz confirms”, CBC News, April 04, 2014
NDP Prince Edward Island, “Basic Income Guarantee should go to Committee, NDP Prince Edward Island, May 06 2014
Yannick Vanderborght, “QUEBEC, CANADA: Minister of Employment for the provincial government reiterates his support for basic income”, Basic Income News, July 17 2014
Language: Spanish
Podemos, “Documento Final del Programa Colectivo [Final Document of the Collective Program]”, Podemos, May 27 2014
Language: Dutch
Jelmer Luimstra, “D66 pleit voor nieuw onderzoek naar een basisinkomen [D66 calls for new research into Basic Income]”, de Volksrant, November 4 2014
Johanna Perkiö, “Finland: the opposition leader proposes basic income pilots“, Basic Income News, October 9 2014
Radio New Zealand, “What policy changes will Andrew Little usher in?”, Radio New Zealand, November 19 2014
