BIEN | Testimonies
Testimonies
To celebrate BIEN’s thirtieth anniversary, a number of interviews were carried out with Executive Committee members and a variety of other people involved in the global Basic Income debate. The Executive Committee is planning to repeat the exercise at some point in the future.
BIEN Stories: Richard Caputo
Richard K. Caputo (Professor of Social Work) My colleague Professor Vicki Lens recommended that I check out the US Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network which was planning its first annual Congress for March 8-9, 2002 in New York City. Professor Lens was familiar...
BIEN Stories: Michael Howard
Michael Howard (Coordinator of US Basic Income Guarantee Network) I can remember the moment when I first took a keen interest in basic income. I was familiar with the idea, having spent a research leave at the European University Institute in Fiesole, when Philippe...
BIEN Stories: José A. Noguera
José A. Noguera (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, International Advisory Board of BIEN) I still remember quite clearly the first time I read something about the idea of a Basic Income (BI): it was back in 1991, when I was finishing my degree in Sociology in...
BIEN Stories: Martine Mary Waltho
Martine Mary Waltho (BIEN Life Member) - "My Basic Income Journey" I first came across the idea of a basic income when I was at university in 1984. There was an article in a magazine; it might have been the New Society. It was written by a man who used to be a...
BIEN Stories: Toru Yamamori
Photo taken by Stefan Pangritz at a solidarity meeting for the Swiss referendum in January 2014 in Basel. Toru Yamamori (Basic Income News editor) 1. Encounter to the idea My encounter to the idea of a basic income was around 1991-2. I was involved...
BIEN Stories: Hyosang Ahn
Hyosang Ahn (Permanent Director of BIKN) "Emancipation and Basic Income" The first time I encountered the idea of basic income was the summer of 2007. I was at the time the vice president of a small party on the left, rather imaginatively named the Socialist Party,...
BIEN is 30: Interview with Philippe Van Parijs
How has BIEN changed in the past 30 years? What have been its biggest challenges, most difficult times, and greatest successes? And what’s next?
An Interview with André Coelho
What made you become an activist for basic income, and devote so much time to it? A revolution is taking place here and now, and each person has a choice: to be an active part in that revolution (to work for it to succeed), to be a passive part in it (to let it...
An Interview with Dr. Kate McFarland (Part One)
Interview by Scott Jacobsen *Transcribed from informal Skype chat, content not quoted in full.* How’d you get an interest, and how’d you get involved, in basic income? There were two phases. My initial interest came from early on, when I was in my late teens. My...
An Interview with Tyler Prochazka
How'd you get an interest in Basic Income (BI)? My interest in BI started back around 2013 after reading a Reason article. It described how a BI would provide a much more efficient social safety net. It intrigued me at the time and over the next couple of years I...
Basic Income Interviews: Victor Lau
Victor Lau is a former leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan. He learned about basic income from the video Sex, Drugs and Democracy, and supports the policy to abolish poverty and eliminate the stigmatization of welfare.
Basic Income Interviews: Mar Velez
Mar Velez is an activist with UBI Portugal. In this interview, she talks about why she supports UBI and what it would do for Portugal.
