by Toru Yamamori | Mar 25, 2016 | News
[Witten by Hosang Ahn, co-organizer of the BIEN Congress 2016]
Basic Income Korean Network (BIKN, president: Namhoon Kang) held the joint press conference to demand that the next National Assembly should discuss and legislate the basic income scheme on the 16th March at the city center of Seoul. Nine organizations including BIKN and some candidates for the general election who set forth basic income policy as election promise participated in it. They are Basic Income Youth Network, Catholic Farmer Association, Labor Party, Green Party, Cultural Action, Alba (part time job) Union, Left Youth and Co-op Gajangjari (fringe) except Korean Network.
Lots of political and social issues have risen as the general election in April is coming, among which the most important one is how to give all people the economic stability. Junghoon Park, president of Alba Union said “today unemployment is normal and employment is exception for part time workers, so they should be given stable income, basic income guarantee to protect their rights as workers.” And Namhoon Kang insisted “basic income guarantee is a sole way which we, human beings could live and survive as humans under the economic system Al would change.” Under these circumstances, Green Party and Labor Party, small and extra-parliament parties in Korea, promise basic income scheme their major policies, and some politicians in office interest in it.
Basic income guarantee has been just an idea in Korea up to recently, but now many consider it as a concrete means to overcome economic crisis and to give people material condition as they understand that other policies cannot work. Korean Network is going to organize various events to promulgate basic income idea and to make effort to institutionalize it.
Namhoon Kang, president of BIKN, speaking at the Joint Press Conference
by Guest Contributor | Mar 8, 2016 | Opinion
By Liane Gale and Ann Withorn
for the Basic Income Woman Action Group (BIWAG)
Since 1909, International Women’s Day has been a day for recognizing women’s economic, political and social achievements. Yet over the past century, March 8 Women’s Day celebrations have revealed tensions between feminists, socialists and anarchists about the meaning of women’s roles in society. Feminists saw full equality through equal participation in the polity as the major way women would gain power. Socialists argued that full inclusion of women as workers within a self-aware proletariat was the way for women to achieve solidarity, and therefore power. Anarchists envisioned women’s liberation as based on learning new ways of living and loving, so that a new way organizing society would become possible.
Today, we view the Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) as a means to transcend such historic differences. BIG offers a way for women to achieve basic economic security outside of the labor market. It firmly denies that only certain activities done outside the home and community should be rewarded, much less be the chief source of one’s respect and social value in society. With a meaningful basic income as a secure base for living, women everywhere should be more able to live a life without fear, and of their own design.
If basic income could fundamentally change the lives and fates of women and girls, and with it the fate of humanity, then why is this not widely discussed in the community? One case in point is the appeal by Martha Beéry to the national media agency in Switzerland to invoke bias towards male views in a panel on basic income on national television in 2012 that only included men. The decision was in her favor, but the inclusion of women’s points of view in regards to basic income has been slow both in mainstream and social media. Despite this, recently we have seen a welcome surge of contributions about the economic and social realities of women, that often offer basic income as a solution to some of the disadvantages women face.
These analyses include calls to elevate the value of care work and other contributions to society (such as community work), which are underpaid or not paid at all, and as a result do not elicit much respect by a society which largely equates money-making abilities with importance and status. Organizations, such as the Care Revolution Netzwerk, that is active in German-speaking countries, Mothers at Home Matter from the UK, and initiators and supporters of the “Leap Manifesto: A Call For a Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another” are all grassroots efforts to change the current narrative. With the Basic Income Woman Action Group (BIWAG), we strive to contribute to this international effort. To that end, we are facilitating national and international conference calls with interested members and maintain a BIWAG Facebook Group.
The program of the 15th Annual North American Basic Income Congress in Winnipeg, Canada (May 12-15) is especially attentive to women’s concerns and to enhancing women’s roles in the movement. More than half of the planning committee members are women. Dr. Felicia Kornbluh, professor of Gender Studies, writer, welfare rights advocate and member of the Vermont Commission on Women, will give a keynote on “Two, Three, Many Precariats: Basic Income and the Fight for Gender, Class and Disability Justice”. Two other keynotes will also be given by women. At least sixteen panel presentations and speakers will be directly addressing links between basic income and women. In addition, three BIWAG sponsored roundtables will allow serious time for discussion of “Women’s Roles within the Basic Income Movement”, “Basic Income and the Care-Centered Economy”, and “Basic Income’s Role in Ending Violence Against Women.” A panel on the Color of Poverty and speakers from the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg will also bring much immediacy to the event.
The 2016 theme of International Women’s Day includes the goals of ending all forms of discrimination and violence against all women and girls everywhere, and we believe that a basic income would be a firm step into the direction of a more humane world for all.
To learn more about BIWAG or to get involved, please join our Facebook group or contact us at withorn.ann@gmail.com or liane.gale@gmail.com.
Recent contributions on women and basic income, and closely related issues and causes:
Nicole M. Aschoff, “Feminism Against Capitalism,” Jacobin, February 29, 2016.
Allissa Battistoni, “Why Women’s Work is Key to a Just and Sustainable Future,” Feministing, August 6, 2015.
Alyssa Battistoni, “Why Establishing a Guaranteed Income for All Can Help Prevent Environmental Catastrophe,”, Alternet (reprinted from Jacobin), February 19, 2014.
Madeleine Bunting, “Who Will Care for Us in the Future? Watch Out for the Rise of the Robots,” The Guardian, March 6, 2016.
Petra Buskins, “‘Flexibility’ Won’t Stop Women Retiring In Poverty,” New Matilda, October 30, 2015.
Liane Gale and Ann Withorn, “Basic Income Women Action Group”, Google Hangout, hosted by Marlen Vargas Del Razo, Living Income Guaranteed, Streamed Live, August 23, 2013.
Claire Cain Miller, “How Society Pays When Women’s Work is Unpaid,” New York Times, February 22, 2016.
Helen Ninnies, “As Rental Prices Rise, Women Stay in Bad Relationships to Survive,” Broadly, February 20, 2016.
Vanessa Olorenshaw, “Mothers at Home Matter and the Politics of Mothering – When Maternal Care is Taboo and Politicians Have No Clue,” Huffington Post U.K., March 17, 2015.
Meera Lee Patel: “Idea: All Work Deserves Pay,” Fast Company, January 20, 2016.
Ina Praetorius: “The Care-Centered Economy: Rediscovering What Has Been Taken for Granted,” e-book published by Heinrich Böll Stiftung, April 7, 2015.
Judith Shulevitz: “It’s Payback Time for Women,” New York Times, January 8, 2016.
by Toru Yamamori | Mar 1, 2016 | Opinion
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greece prime minister, recommends Swiss people to vote ‘yes’ for UBI at the national referendum scheduled on 5th June.
Varoufakis, who’ve recently made his support for UBI clear in the interview published for the Economist, calls ‘yes vote’ for the UBI referendum in the recent two interviews.
In the video interview with the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, the Greek economist argues that the future picture of technological progress would be either the Star Treck version that the progress can make us equal and free or the Matrix version that the progress enslaves us.
In another interview with Swiss newspaper “Tagesanzeiger“, the translation of which is available here, he says:
Because Switzerland is doing so well, it is ideal for experiments with the basic income. But don’t forget, in spite of the wealth, the quality of life is decreasing. What good is a well-paid job if you are scared to lose it? This constant fear paralyzes people and makes them ill. Switzerland should see the basic income as an investment in the future.
Varoufakis will be one of speakers for the UBI event on 4th May in Zurich, Switzerland.
by Andre Coelho | Feb 2, 2016 | News
In two weeks time, on the 15th and 16th of February, a major Conference about Basic Income will be held in Lisbon, Portugal. This is the first event of its kind in Portuguese territory, with this magnitude, organized by Grupo de Estudos Políticos, the political party PAN (Pessoas, Animais e Natureza), Movimento Rendimento Básico Incondicional – Portugal, Grupo de Teoria Política – CEHUM, and IHC (Instituto de História Contemporânea).
This initiative stemmed from PAN’s own ranks, after having elected its first congressman ever onto Portuguese Parliament. Basic Income was part of the party electoral programs since 2011, it was time to get it out in the open and push forward its public discussion through this conference. For that ending, PAN forged alliances with Basic Income activists in Portugal, namely through Movimento Rendimento Básico – Portugal, and political research groups such as Grupo de Estudos Políticos, Grupo de Teoria Política – CESUM and IHC.
Earlier last year, PAN had already organized a brief forum on Basic Income, featuring Roberto Merrill and Pedro Teixeira as speakers. However, this event failed to spark enough attention to kickstart public discussion. That did not discourage the party’s activists, who take the Basic Income concept to heart. So that will to promote a wider public discussion on the Basic Income issue has developed into a solid organization. Now, that purpose is clearer and many others have joined in, such as international activists and researchers Sjir Hoeijmakers and Jurgen De Wispelaere, who will bring fresh last-minute information and insights on Dutch and Finnish Basic Income situations, and contribute with frameworks on the politics and sociological aspects of Basic Income.
Credit to: Diário Digital
Portuguese activists will also be present as speakers, such as Miguel Horta and António Dores, the former presenting and explaining a possible financing scheme for Basic Income implementation in Portugal, and the latter exploring the sociological issues around Basic Income in Portugal. Other authors and activists like André Barata, Renato Miguel do Carmo and José Neves will also participate. International experiences on Basic Income will also be referred and discussed, by André Coelho and Dario Figueira. André, editor of Basic Income News presents BIEN and a general overview on Basic Income activism worldwide, while Dario, a member of Movimento Rendimento Básico – Portugal with connections to Brazil, will present the Brazilian experience of the Recivitas Project. A few other interventions are scheduled, namely from civil society organizations such as labor unions, social development associations (Oikos) and catholic church related groups (Liga Operária Católica).
On the 15th, the conference will be held at the Portuguese Parliament, where representatives from other political parties will be present. Only socialists in power PS and leftists Bloco de Esquerda have accepted the challenge so far, remaining in silence all other leftwing and rightwing parties, such as PCP (communist party), CDS-PP (rightwing liberals) and PSD (rightwing social democrats). Here, presentations and discussions will be framed more as a meeting, to favor closer exchange and interaction. Next day, conference sessions will take place at Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, in a more typical conference arrangement, with several speakers and moderators conducting the flow of information and interaction with the audience.
More information at:
Language: Portuguese
Movimento Rendimento Básico – Portugal website.
Political party PAN – political priorities.
by Karl Widerquist | Jan 28, 2016 | News
The deadline for the call for proposals for the 16th Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress has been extended to February 29, 2016. The 16th BIEN Congress: “Social and Ecological Transformation and Basic Income” will in held in Seoul, Korea, 7–9 July 2016. It is organized by the Basic Income Korean Network (BIKN). The BIEN Congress is the oldest and largest conference on Basic Income in the world, having had one meeting every two years since 1986. The organizers invite people from all over the world to make a proposal and participate in the Congress.
The full call for proposals is online at: https://bien2016.org/en/call-for-papers/
For more information go to: https://bien2016.org/en/
Proposals should be sent to: bien2016.callforpapers@gmail.com by 29 February 2016.
Contact the local organizing committee at contact@bien2016.org.
