![SPAIN [Basque Country]: Two MPs of Basque Country have long been supporting Unconditional Basic Income](https://i0.wp.com/basicincome.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-26-at-11.17.13-AM.png?resize=1%2C1&ssl=1)
by Nick Yeretsian | Nov 9, 2016 | News
On September 25th, Elkarrekin Podemos, a new leftist party with basic income in its platform, won 15% of seats in Basque Parliament. The Socialist Party received 12%, and the centre-right Nationalist Party won a minority government with 37%. Earlier this year in the Spanish general election, Podemos won over a fifth of the seats in the Congress and over a twelfth of the seats in the Senate.
Out of the 11 Podemos MPs in Basque Parliament, two are especially worth note as long-time advocates of UBI.
Tinixara Guanche is a member of the Basque trade union, ESK, which has been fighting from its inception in 1985 for a unionism committed to both workers and socio-political activity. ESK, which defines itself as very participative and non-bureaucratic, has supported UBI since its first steps as a major political force. It continues to support UBI for three main reasons: (1) the redistribution of wealth, (2) equality between women and men, and (3) individual freedom.
ESK has initiated and assisted several UBI-related activities, such as the Popular Legislative Initiative which gave birth to the Basque social protection system. Initially, this Popular Legislative Initiative was actually for a UBI, however, after some parliamentary activity, it became what it is today. Furthermore, ESK supports a platform against social exclusion, advising people who receive social benefits in Basque Country.
Julen Bollain is a member of both BIEN and its Spanish affiliate Red Renta Básica. He has a degree in Business Management from the University of Basque Country, and studied for a year at Saint-Louis University with professors such as Yannick Vanderborght (co-author of L’allocation universelle, and editor of Basic Income: An Anthology of Contemporary Research). Julen is currently working on his PhD in Economic Integration, which hinges around UBI, under the direction of Jesús Ferreiro and Daniel Raventós (president of Red Renta Básica).
Julen Bollain says that he is confident that Basque Parliament has the political will to start a debate which will result in a referendum on UBI. The seating in Basque parliament makes it seem hopeful that something can be worked out, that is, if the MPs live up to their party’s name, “United We Can.”
For those who don’t know, Basque Country is an autonomous community in northern Spain with a population of over 2 million.
Written by Julen Bollain
Edited by Nicholas Yeretsian
Photos by Elkarrekin Podemos and Jago’s France
by Kate McFarland | Sep 18, 2016 | News
The fourth Forum des Idées Pour le Québec (“Forum for Ideas for Québec”) will take place at Champlain College from September 23 through 25. It will focus on social policies–including a special session devoted to the idea of a guaranteed minimum income (GMI) for Canada and Québec.
Organized by the provincial Liberal Party, Parti libéral du Québec, the Forum des Idées Pour le Québec is an annual nonpartisan gathering, featuring lectures and panel discussions on major social and political issues facing the province.
Philippe Couillard CC BY-SA 3.0 Asclepias
The head of the provincial government, Premier Philippe Couillard, will be present for the event. Couillard has made a promotional video for the event, which highlights its attention to the GMI.
The session on GMI, which is scheduled for September 24, will feature four highly prominent basic income researchers and advocates:
- Yannick Vanderborght, Professor at Université de Louvain and Université de Bruxelles, associate editor of Basic Income Studies and founding editor of Basic Income News.
- Jurgen de Wispelaere, a visiting researcher at the University of Tampere who has worked on the design of Finland’s basic income experiment and written extensively on basic income.
This session will be chaired by Jean-Marie Bézard, vice-president of the Forum Scientific committee and Director of Plénitudes, Prospective & Management.
Other issues to be addressed include poverty, inequality, pay equity, and coordinating social interventions across a territory.
Visit the event page for more information. Registration is limited, and typically sells out weeks before the event.
Two public discussions of guaranteed minimum income and universal basic income will take place in Québec in the following week (September 27 and 28).
Reviewed by Jenna van Draanen
Québec flag photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Mathieu Thouvenin
Thanks also to my supporters on Patreon
by Kate McFarland | Sep 8, 2016 | News
Event Announcement: BIEN’s 30th Anniversary
An event commemorating the anniversary of BIEN’s founding will take place on Saturday, October 1 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium–the location of BIEN’s first meeting 30 years ago.
The anniversary event has been organized by the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics at the Université Catholique de Louvain in collaboration with BIEN.
Participants in the conference that launched BIEN
About the Anniversary Event
The anniversary event will begin, after a short welcome, with tales of BIEN’s birth as related from several cofounders: Paul-Marie Boulanger, Annie Miller, Guy Standing, Claus Offe, and Robert van der Veen.
Two parallel sessions will take place in late morning: one on the history of basic income (featuring Pierre-Etienne Vandamme on “Voltaire before Paine”, Guido Erreygers on “Brussels 1848” and Walter Van Trier, BIEN’s first secretary, on the British interbellum period); the other on implementations of basic income (featuring Philippe Defeyt on an income-tax-funded basic income of EUR 600, David Rosseels on micro-taxes on electronic payments, and Karl Widerquist on sovereign funds).
In the afternoon sessions, Enno Schmidt, co-founder of the Swiss popular initiative on basic income, and University of Lucerne Research fellow Nenad Stojanovic will review lessons learned from the Swiss referendum campaign. Then, discussion will turn to basic income experiments of the past and future. Guy Standing will talk about his work on pilots in India. University of Tampere Research Fellow Jurgen De Wispelaere will discuss the upcoming experiment in Finland, and BIEN cofounder Alexander de Roo (now chair of the Dutch basic income network) will discuss those to come in The Netherlands.
Finally, the conference will examine where the movement is heading next, with talks from Louise Haagh (BIEN co-chair), Stanislas Jourdan (co-founder of UBI-Europe), Roland Duchatelet (former senator and founder of Vivant), and Yasmine Kherbache (member of Flemish Parliament and, previously, chief of cabinet of former Belgian Prime Minister Di Rupo).
The event will conclude with reflections from two co-founders of BIEN, Claus Offe and Gérard Roland. They will be joined by political philosopher Joshua Cohen (UC Berkeley) and sociologist Erik Olin Wright (University of Wisconsin – Madison).
The anniversary event follows a two-day conference Utopias for our Time, which marks the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia. Some participants in the BIEN anniversary event will also be speaking at this preceding event. For instance, Erik Olin Wright is to deliver a keynote address on the theme of the future of democracy, and Wright and Philippe Van Parijs will contribute to a special session on the question “Should academics engage indulge in utopian thinking?”
For more information on both events, see the event page at Université Catholique de Louvain.
Prospective attendees can register online through September 20.
Scene from BIEN’s founding meeting
About BIEN’s Founding
In 1984, three young researchers linked to the Université Catholique de Louvain–Paul-Marie Boulanger, Philippe Defeyt and Philippe Van Parijs–formed a group called the “Collectif Charles Fourier” to explore what they had chosen to call “allocation universelle”.
First written documentation of the existence of BIEN
Two years later — fueled by the unexpected earnings from a essay contest, for an essay on the “allocation universelle” — the Collectif Charles Fourier organized a international conference to discuss the idea. The conference, which convened in Louvain-la-Neuve in September 1986, gathered 60 invited speakers from throughout Europe.
Its final session would mark the genesis of the Basic Income European Network. (The name, suggested by Guy Standing, was chosen in part for the “good pun” of its acronym.)
In 2004, BIEN decided to become an inter-continental organization, owing to an increase in interest from outside of Europe. Unable to part with the acronym, the group decided simply to brand itself with the name it has today.
Read more about the history of BIEN.
Basic Income News will be providing continuing coverage of BIEN’s anniversary event.
Stay tuned for videos, photographs, and remarks from the participants, as well as other comments and reflections from current members of BIEN’s Executive Committee.
Text reviewed by Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght.
Photographs and scanned document provided by Philippe Van Parijs.
by Kate McFarland | Jun 14, 2016 | News
A story that brought much excitement to Basic Income News six years ago may be winding to its end.
In 2010, Iran became the first country to pay a de facto basic income to its citizens–a policy that emerged as a byproduct of a pressing demand to reform the nation’s system of fuel subsidies.
At that time, the Iranian government determined that it would dedicate half of its oil revenues to government services and businesses, while distributing the other half in the form of unconditional cash payments to all citizens. The monthly amount was equivalent to about 40 USD, paid to heads of households.
Within a year, however, the government began facing difficulty in financing the subsidy program, and eventually resorted to asking comparatively well-off citizens to voluntarily opt out. As a result of the requests, about two-and-half million citizens began declining their subsidies, while 73 million retained them.
But these voluntary withdrawals from the program proved insufficient to halt Iran’s growing budget deficit–and, in January 2016, the government announced that it would remove an additional 3.3 million Iranians from the subsidy program, as determined based on an assessment of their financial situation. (For example, as the New York Times reported, one middle-class merchant was unenrolled after purchasing a car worth $7000.)
Finally, in April, the Iranian parliament approved a bill that will result in the loss of the cash payments to about 24 million citizens — nearly one-third of the population. The cuts will go into effect in September of this year.
For more about the recent cuts in the dividend, see:
Khatereh Vatankhah (Apr 26, 2016) “Outgoing Iran parliament moves to radically cut cash handouts,” Al Monitor.
For more on the history of the Iranian oil dividend, see these previously published columns in Basic Income News:
“IRAN: On the verge of introducing the world’s first national basic income” (Aug 12, 2010) by Karl Widerquist
“IRAN: Economic reforms usher in a de facto basic income” (Nov 9, 2010) by Yannick Vanderborght
“IRAN: Basic Income Might Become Means Tested” (Jan 18, 2012) by Karl Widerquist
“Iran’s Citizen’s Income Scheme and its Lessons” (May 21, 2012) by Citizens’ Income Trust
Image Credit: dynamosquito at flickr
by Karl Widerquist | Apr 9, 2016 | News
Former Brazilian Senator and long-time campaigner for basic income, Eduardo Suplicy received an honorary degrees from the Catholic University of Louvain earlier this year. The degree came for work as an “utopiste pour le temps présent” (utopian for the present). Also receiving degrees were Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales and architect Paola Vigano.
Suplicy’s acceptance speech is on line, including his famous rendition of “Blowin’ in the wind” by Bob Dylan. According to Philippe Van Parijs, who attended the event, “The rector’s speech made it sound as it the whole university was endorsing basic income, and basic income was the first item in the evening news, with Yannick Vanderborght and Suplicy briefly speaking in favour, and the bosses of the trade unions and the employers against.”
Video from this event is online at: https://www.uclouvain.be/633608.html (select the second of the four components in the top left corner).
