by Karl Widerquist | Dec 6, 2011 | News
On September 18th, 2011, the German Pirate Party gained 8.9 percent in their first participation in the Berlin state election and far surpassed the required five percent to receive representation in the state parliament. They finished in fifth place and received 15 seats. In their election manifesto they promoted an unconditional basic income as part of their economic and social policy. According to the Pirate Party, basic income should secure the existence of any citizen with permanent residence or unrestricted right of residence in Germany without any further requirements. Post-election polls have attributed much of the Pirate Party’s success to its social policy agenda.
The Pirate Party was founded in 2006 on the basis of a claim for internet freedom. Direct democracy and transparency have developed as further parts of its themes. Since its foundation the Pirate Party has been growing and participated in several German state elections as well as in the German federal election and European Parliament election in 2009. This achievement marks the first time the Pirate Party will participate in a state parliament.
Another party that participated in Berlin state election and stands for an unconditional basic income is the Socialist Equality Party (Partei für Soziale Gleichheit, PSG). Its candidate Christopher Vandreier underpinned the party’s claim for an unconditional basic income of €1.500 as a requirement for equal participation in society in an election broadcast shown during the election according to the World Socialist Web Site. The PSG got only 0.1 percent in the election and therefore clearly missed the required five percent.
Wolfgang Müller – BI News
For more information about Berlin state election, Pirate Party and Socialist Equality Party see:
https://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/pira-s10.shtml
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,787044,00.html
https://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/berl-s06.shtml
https://berlin.piratenpartei.de/ (German only)
https://www.gleichheit.de/ (German only)
https://www.wahlen-berlin.de/wahlen/BE2011/ergebnis/karten/zweitstimmen/ErgebnisUeberblick.asp?sel1=1052&sel2=0651 (German only)
https://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/pira-s10.shtml
https://falkvinge.net/2011/03/18/should-pirate-parties-include-the-swarm-economy/
by Yannick Vanderborght | Dec 4, 2011 | News
According to the press release of the Pirate Party from the December 3, 2011, the party argued about and adopted a resolution in support of Basic Income and minimum wages at its party convention in Offenbach.
After a debate, which took about two hours, the motion “Unconditional Basic Income and Minimum Wages” was carried by 66.9 percent and reached the necessary supermajority. The result shows the long, engaged and controversial discussion. Now the motion is part of the election manifesto for the next federal elections in 2013 in Germany.
The party understands the Unconditional Basic Income as: Insurance for the existence and social participation, as well as a guaranteed individual legal title without means test, compulsion to work or any other reward. Because its implementation will be a change of the paradigm in welfare policy, the launch of a public discussion beforehand is necessary. For that reason, the Pirate Party wants to fund an enquiry commission within the German Bundestag to workout new and evaluate existing models. One of the models should be elected by a national referendum. Until the implementation of an Unconditional Basic Income, the Pirate Party endorses a federal legal minimum wage.
According to GoogleNews more than 600 articles were published on this topic, including by leading nationwide newspapers. One of them, the Süddeutsche, spoke with Sebastian Nerz, the party leader, about Basic Income. He said, he was not convinced, even if he know, that it might be possible. But he wished, that the Party would have dealt with a more concrete model beforehand.
This article says further that Nerz is not alone with his opinion, because a few other members were concerned that the motion was too universal. On the one hand, it says nothing about the amount of the Basic Income (could be 500 or 2.000 Euro). On the other hand, it is not clear how to fund the scheme and which influence it would have on the political economy.
In another interview with Christian Engström, Member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Pirate Party, from the 15th November 2011 with EurActiv.com he was asked, which issues are especially important to be addressed on a supranational level and which issues are more relevant for the national level. He answered, that topics as a Basic Income, possession of soft drugs and free public transport, are more national and even regional issues of the German Pirates.
-Joerg Drescher
For articles on this topic go to:
Press release of the Pirate Party: https://www.piratenpartei.de/Pressemitteilung/piraten-sprechen-sich-f%C3%BCr-bedingungsloses-grundeinkommen-und-mindestlohn-aus
Article in the Süddeutsche: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/piraten-votieren-fuer-grundeinkommen-vage-statt-gewagt-1.1225882
Interview with Christian Engström: https://www.euractiv.com/infosociety/pirate-mep-expect-party-grow-interview-508952
by Yannick Vanderborght | Oct 20, 2011 | News
During the international week for BIG in September 2011 the local Basic Income Network in Hamburg Germany (www.grundeinkommen-hamburg.de) created a special performance they call “WordMob”. It means: words to be built in public by big mobile letters. The video shows the group spelling the words “BIG” and “human dignity”. It ends by asking “what kind of work would you choose if you’d get BIG?”
It can be found online at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i53m63yplRs
by Karl Widerquist | Sep 10, 2011 | News
Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen, a Facebook page in German, obtained its 50,000th follower in the summer of 2011. The page was created by Daniel Häni and Benjamin Hohlmann in Basel, Switzerland. The popularity of this site is just a small sign of the extent to which the BIG movement is taking off in German-speaking countries from the grass roots to the highest levels. Five of the six major parties in Germany have Basic Income factions. Dozens of members of the German Parliament have endorsed Basic Income. The national German BIG network is a large and growing organization, which has regular events often in cooperation with Swiss and Austrian groups. The German BIG Network will host the 2012 BIEN Congress in Munich. German-speaking countries have something that few other countries have: local Basic Income groups with regular activities in many German cities. Daniel Häni and Enno Schmidt founded a Swiss group in 2006 in Basel. They produced the documentary “Basic Income. A Cultural Impulse” (released in 2008), which is the most popular movie about BI in Germany and Switzerland.
The Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen Facebook is online at:
https://www.facebook.com/bedingungsloses.grundeinkommen.
For information (in German) about the German BIG network, go to their website:
https://www.grundeinkommen.de/
An English (dubbed) version of “Basic Income. A Cultural Impulse” is online at:
https://dotsub.com/view/26520150-1acc-4fd0-9acd-169d95c9abe1
CORRECTION: The original version of this article misidentified the page as being created by the German BIG Network
by Karl Widerquist | Sep 9, 2011 | News, The Indepentarian
Karl Widerquist (visiting associate professor of political philosophy, Georgetown University-Qatar, co-chair, BIEN, and editor, this newsletter) will speak on the Basic Income Guarantee in several Germany cities this fall. The tentative schedule is:
September 25. Eichstatt: University of Eichstatt
September 26. Treuchtlingen: FH Treuchtlingen
September 27. Hamburg: the Hamburg Basic Income Network
September 29. Cologne: BI Initiative in cooperation with the University of Cologne
September 30. Duesseldorf: University of Duesseldorf
Details about topics and venues will be released soon. For more information, contact Karl Widerquist <Karl@widerquist.com> or Dorothee Schulte-Basta <schulte-basta@grundeinkommen.de>.
