Taiwan held its first-ever basic income march on Sunday, attracting over 100 participants to rally in front of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan. Current and former legislators joined the march led by UBI Taiwan, calling for greater discussion of a youth dividend and guaranteeing the right to a basic livelihood for all Taiwanese.
A prominent national legislator in Taiwan People’s Party, Tsai Pi-ru, gave a speech at the opening of the march in front of the Legislative Yuan. She said she attended because she wanted to show her support for Taiwan’s young people who are “bravely” speaking out. Tsai discussed the possibility of using a carbon tax and dividend as a step toward basic income.
“While participating in the basic income parade today, I saw young friends stand up. They are courageous to stand up for a new idea that is easily misunderstood,” she said.
National legislator from Taiwan People’s Party Tsai Pi-ru addresses the rally outside of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, Taiwan. Photo: Lin Yen Ting / UBI Taiwan 攝影：林彥廷 / 台灣無條件基本收入協會
UBI Taiwan informally began in 2016 and was formally established in 2018. In that time, the group has held three international conferences and produced multiple white papers analyzing methods for implementing basic income. Most recently, UBI Taiwan released a white paper advocating for an emergency basic income, meeting with legislators in early 2020 to discuss the possibility of including cash transfers in Taiwan’s stimulus measures.
The organizers said there were three main demands of the march: guarantee the right to basic subsistence, protect a sense of economic security, and prevent working families from being trapped in low-paying jobs.
As the global pandemic continues to rage on, Taiwan has not experienced a local transmission for over 200 days which allowed the rally to take place without restrictions. Nonetheless, march organizers said the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic created a new urgency for the basic income discussion in Taiwan. Despite expecting modest growth overall this year, Taiwan has experienced uneven effects from the global downturn which disproportionately harmed low-income families.
Marchers walk near Taipei Main Station in Taipei, Taiwan. Photo: Lin Yen Ting / UBI Taiwan 攝影：林彥廷 / 台灣無條件基本收入協會
Former national legislator and magistrate of Tainan county Su Huan-chih said at the march that promoting the basic income system will help young people increase their flexibility and opportunities in choosing jobs, and will also help the unemployed maintain their dignity.
The General-Secretary of Taiwan’s Green Party Rita Jhang said basic income “provides universal protection for every person, alleviating the plight of exploitation and overwork.” Jhang said Taiwan’s current social welfare system with strict conditions and qualifications is not well suited for the rapidly changing modern era.
“When people no longer have to worry about their basic necessities, they can make longer-term plans for their lives and they can engage in more creative and public welfare work,” Jhang said.
According to Tsai, many of the criticisms against basic income were made 30 years ago when Taiwan began implementing its early social welfare system. At the time, she said many were worried social welfare would bankrupt the government. But welfare is not the area where Taiwan’s government is wasting money, she said.
“The biggest problem is that the government wastes money to build a lot of large and improper construction projects and unused government buildings. These wasteful projects create debt and harm the natural environment,” Tsai said.
To help educate the public on the issues facing Taiwan, the rally included booths to educate the public on basic income, share real stories related to basic income and the global basic income movement, as well as an open space for the public to discuss questions about basic income and the future tech-driven economy.
Prior to the march, prominent basic income scholars from around the world sent their advice and well wishes to Taiwan including Sarath Davala, the chairman of Basic Income Earth Network. Davala said that he hopes the basic income march in Taiwan becomes an “example” for other countries in the region.
“The march that is being organized in Taiwan is a sign of how strong the UBI Taiwan movement has come to and it has the capacity to provide and influence the government to adopt this innovative system,” Davala said.
University of London Professor Guy Standing said in his video address to Taiwan’s march that the pandemic has shown “the resilience of society and the resilience of all of us as individuals will depend on the resilience of the weakest members of society.”
“Now is the moment for a basic income movement and a basic income system. Brave politicians must take this opportunity and usher in a better society,” Standing said.
A rally outside the Legislative Yuan kicked off Taiwan’s basic income march.Photo: Lin Yen Ting / UBI Taiwan 攝影：林彥廷 / 台灣無條件基本收入協會
For Tsai, Taiwan’s first basic income march was a starting point for a larger conversation about how to reimagine Taiwan’s society for the future. She discussed how basic income could help address the problems of Taipei’s high housing prices and the displacement caused by Artificial Intelligence, while encouraging greater risk-taking and entrepreneurship.
“The great changes in the world start from small places. The world is always changing, and our imagination needs to be liberated,” Tsai said.
UBI Taiwan Chairman Tyler Prochazka took the stage to discuss why he has advocated for basic income in Taiwan. Prochazka moved from the United States to Taiwan in 2016 under a Fulbright proposal of studying the feasibility of basic income in Taiwan.
“I truly believe there is a real possibility to implement basic income in Taiwan and open up the unrealized potential among Taiwan’s young people,” Prochazka said.
Even in a pandemic, basic income advocates are finding creative ways to bring attention to basic income. The Basic Income March organizers are partnering with an application to allow activists to march for basic income around the world and possibly set a record in the process.
With the goal of achieving 50 million steps, enough to “circumnavigate the globe,” this year’s march on September 19 is partnering with the WATT mobile application. Marchers can use the app now to start counting their steps to “express solidarity for the cause.”
At the same time, there are 35 cities organizing in-person basic income events around the world. For example, there are bike parades, street corner protests, and even interactive art installations in support of basic income.
WATT is described as “the world’s first platform for virtual marches and charity walks.” The application allows marchers to select a cause they believe in and count their steps for the cause on their mobile phone from anywhere in the world.
Income Movement co-founder Stacey Rutland said she felt there was a need for organizing grassroots energy in the United States around basic income, so she organized a march in October 2019.
“The first march was a huge success. Within six weeks we were able to get it up and running and have thirty cities across the globe participate,” Rutland said.
The success with the first march convinced Rutland that there was a “hunger” for basic income grassroots activism. However, with the rise of the pandemic, Rutland had to find new ways to organize demonstrations for basic income.
“The ability to physically march quickly went out the door, but the need for public demonstration was pretty significant because of the dire economic circumstances that people found themselves in,” Rutland said.
These circumstances allowed Rutland to look closer at digital options as she strived to create a “marriage of the digital world and the physical world.” This brought Rutland to connect with Kalyan Gautham, the CEO of WATT.
Gautham said his goal with making the app was to “digitize events of solidarity such as marches and charity works so that people from across the world can participate in these events without having to travel to a different location.”
WATT’s development started before the pandemic, but the app became far more urgent once social distancing restrictions became a reality.
On the app, marchers can share videos and pictures of themselves marching, while pledging a certain number of steps for the cause. This allows activists to plan a unified and continuous demonstration around the globe with clear data on the size and persistence of the marchers. Each participant can challenge others to take more steps and even create micro events within the demonstration.
After Andrew Yang dropped out of running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Rutland said it is important for basic income advocates to transition to a new stage of activism.
“The primary goal for 2020 from our perspective at Income Movement is to move from a single candidate movement to a long-term movement,” she said.
For Rutland, the pandemic has been a “horrific” experience for many low-income individuals in the United States around the world. She said a possible silver lining is that it has “brought to the surface for a lot of people the need to rethink how our economy works” so these long-standing issues can finally be addressed.
“What we hope is for the march to be something that’s fun, that’s exciting and that doesn’t feel like work but feels like a celebration while also creating an impact,” Rutland said.
Within the context of the wider Basic Income March, organized and executed on the past 26th of October, Toronto also saw a basic income manifestation. This was done simultaneously in other cities, such as New York, Amsterdam, Bogota and Seoul. Attendance was moderate, a few dozen people only, but the message conveyed was strong: that each citizen should receive an unconditional and regular amount of money, just in order to “have access to a certain level of comfort”, as Amélie Payette, one of the demonstrators, put it. Other people, at the venue, also referred to the “obligation to help prepare the future”, in the face of technological developments that are already displacing many people from the job market.
Also present at the demonstration was Alvin Tedjo, candidate to the Ontario Liberal Party leadership, who believes basic income can be what citizens need to cover their basic needs, in terms of nourishment and housing, and to fully participate in the economy. That, according to Tedjo, would allow people to “do their best to fulfill their potential”. Participants at the march also pointed to the fact that parents in Canada already receive a stipend, only conditional to them being parents of under-aged children (Canada’s Child Benefit). That, according to some, could one day amount to a basic income, if extended to the whole population.
The event has been covered by CBS News, shortly reported here.
