BIEN – Basic Income Earth Network – NEWSFLASH 38, March 2006
www.basicincome.org
The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network. It expanded its scope from Europe to the Earth in 2004. It serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion on this topic throughout the world.

The present NewsFlash has been prepared with the help of Paul Nollen, David Casassas, Philippe Defeyt, Jurgen De Wispelaere, Sabrina Del Pico, Sandro Gobetti, Katrin Mohr, Daniel Raventos, François Rouvier, Ingrid Van Niekerk, Philippe Van Parijs, and Karl Widerquist.
Information about copyright
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CONTENTS

1. Editorial

2. BIEN 11th CONGRESS (November 2006): new deadline & new call for proposals

3. Call for papers and Essay Prize

4. Events
*BARCELONA (ES), 6-20 March 2006: 25th edition of the Course on Human Rights
*BARCELONA (ES), March-April 2006: 8th Series of Lectures on Economics of Education

5. Glimpses of national debates
*BELGIUM: BASIC INCOME PARTY VIVANT HAS A SENATOR
*FRANCE: PROMINENT GREEN FIGURE ADVOCATES BASIC INCOME
*GERMANY: BASIC INCOME MOVEMENT IS SPREADING THE IDEA ACROSS GERMANY
*GERMANY: BASIC INCOME NETWORK HAS AN ADVISORY COUNCIL
*ITALY: DEMONSTRATION FOR THE GUARANTEED INCOME
*ITALY: COUNCIL OF THE LAZIO REGION DISTRIBUTES FREE BOOK ON GUARANTEED INCOME SCHEMES
*SOUTH AFRICA: BASIC INCOME TO ERADICATE POVERTY
*SPAIN: BASIC INCOME AT BARCELONA’S SOCIAL WELFARE COUNCIL
*SPAIN: BASQUE PARLIAMENT DISCUSSES BASIC INCOME

6. Publications
*English
*French
*Italian

7. New Links
*”FUTURE WORK” by James Robertson
*INFOXOA RIVISTA (Italy)
*PAPER ON THE TRANSFER LIMIT MODEL
*BASIC INCOME AND A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

8. About the Basic Income Earth Network
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1. EDITORIAL

Due to unforeseen circumstances the organization which originally planned to host the Congress is not able to do so at this time. As member of BIEN’s Executive Committee and regional co-ordinator, Ingrid van Niekerk and her organisation have taken on the role of organizing the congress. Luckily they are based in Cape Town, and so everything remains the same (see NewsFlash 37). However, because there were problems with the original email addresses given in the call for papers, BIEN has now extended the deadline for proposal submissions and changed the email addresses. See below (section 2) for further details.

BIEN’s Executive Committee

2. BIEN 11th CONGRESS: 2-4 November 2006, Cape Town (SA): NEW CALL FOR PROPOSALS & NEW DEADLINE

The Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) is hosting the ELEVENTH BIEN CONGRESS on 2-4 November 2006 at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa. All information and forms are available on the website: www.epri.org.za (also accessible via www.basicincome.org).

Submit a Proposal: We invite proposals on all aspects of Basic Income and will endeavour to accommodate as many of the proposals outside the main theme or sub-themes as possible. Proposal Deadline: 15 July 2006. Final Paper Submission: 1 September 2006. To submit a proposal, download and complete the relevant form and email to papersbien@epri.org.za. All final papers received by the due date will qualify for the Basic Income Studies (BIS) Journal Essay Prize.
Convene a Panel: If you would like to propose a panel on a theme not listed below, submit a 300 word summary by 30 April 2006. Panels will be reviewed by 30 May. Your proposal should introduce the theme, justify its relevance for the broader goals of the congress and indicate who you would like to be on the panel. If accepted you will be asked to screen abstracts for inclusion in your panel and to work with the organizing committee in finalizing the conference programme. Abstracts must be submitted by 15 July and full papers by 1 September. To convene a panel, download and complete the relevant form and email to papersbien@epri.org.za.
Present a workshop/Poster Display: For this Conference we are adding another dimension to the proceedings. While the main focus of the Conference will be on the academic and formal papers presented in plenary and panel discussion sessions, we invite participants who wish to participate in a less formal manner to put forward proposals for the workshops/poster displays. To present a workshop, download and complete the relevant form and email to papersbien@epri.org.za.
Registration is R600 (€85, $100). Please download and return the registration form to registerbien@epri.org.za . Early-bird registration before 1 June 2006 will qualify for a 15% discount. Registration fees can be paid by using the paypal button on the website.
Please forward any questions to: infobien@epri.org.za

3. CALL FOR PAPERS AND ESSAY PRIZE

Call for papers : Journal Symposium on Wages Subsidies and Income Guarantees
Recently, many social scientists have been proposing policy to relieve poverty and encourage work. The US Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has inspired many to see wage subsidies as a solution to poverty. Edmund Phelps, for example, makes wage subsidies the centerpiece of the anti-poverty strategy laid out in his book Rewarding Work. He argues that the low-income people should be helped though the provision of wage subsidies to employers, giving them incentive to hire more workers and slightly higher than current wages. How well would an expanded wage subsidy scheme help the poor, and would it provide a desirable alternative to basic income? Michael Anthony Lewis and Karl Widerquist are proposing a journal symposium on this question for the Eastern Economic Journal. They are in need of several papers on wages subsides or on the relationship between wage subsidies and basic income. If you are interested, please contact the editors at Karl@Widerquist. com by April 20th, 2006. Please, indicate the specific topic for the article, and a timetable in which you can complete it. Proposals should also be sent to James Bryan: bryanj@mville.edu

Essay Prize: The Citizen’s Income Trust Essay Prize for 2006
The Citizen’s Income Trust invites entries for its 2006 essay prize. Entrants should be studying at a UK university during the academic year 2005/6 at undergraduate or graduate level. Essays should be in the fields of philosophy, political science, social policy, economics, or other social sciences; should be of up to 5,000 words in length; and should contribute to the current debate on the desirability and feasibility of a Citizen’s Income: an unconditional, nonwithdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship. Provided that at least one entry is of sufficient quality the winner will be awarded a prize of £500 and the winning essay will be published in the Citizen’s Income Newsletter.
Rules: A hard copy of the essay, along with the entrant’s name and address, should be sent to: Dr. Malcolm Torry, Director, Citizen’s Income Trust, P.O. Box 26586, London SE3 7WY, and an electronic version (in Word or Rich Text Format) either by disc to the same address or by email attachment to info@citizensincome.org. Confirmation that the entrant is studying at a UK university needs to be sent, signed by a faculty member. The closing date is 1st May 2006. No trustees, employees, or former trustees or employees of the Citizen’s Income Trust, or their relatives, may enter. The judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
For further detail about the Citizen’s Income Trust: http://www.citizensincome.org

4. EVENTS

*BARCELONA (ES), 6-20 March 2006: 25th edition of the Course on Human Rights
The Catalan Institute for Human Rights has held the 25th edition of its annual course on Human Rights. The course was addressed to people – students and professionals – interested in Law, Economics, Sociology, Political Science, and Social Work. Lectures have been given by professors with a great prestige both in Spain and abroad and took place from the 6th to the 20th of March at the Public Administration School in Barcelona. On March 15 the lecture given by Daniel Raventós, President of Red Renta Básica, was entirely devoted to Basic Income.
For further information, see http://www.idhc.org/esp/documents/PProg_Curs_DDHH_06.pdf

*BARCELONA (ES), March-April 2006: 8th Series of Lectures on Economics of Education
The Faculty of Pedagogy of the University of Barcelona organizes its 8th Series of Lectures on Economics of Education. The Series includes the following conferences:
Economic and social challenges of globalisation (7 March), by Aracadi Oliveres (Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and President of Justícia i Pau).
The right to existence: Basic Income (21 March), by Daniel Raventós (Professor at Universitat de Barcelona and President of Red Renta Básica).
The financing of education and the axes of educational policy: an applied analysis for the case of Spain and Catalonia (20 April), by Jorge Calero (Professor at Universitat de Barcelona and Member of Red Renta Básica’s Executive Committee).
For further information, see http://www.ub.edu/facpd

5. GLIMPSES OF NATIONAL DEBATES

*BELGIUM: BASIC INCOME PARTY VIVANT HAS A SENATOR
Since March 16, 2006, Vivant, the Belgian political party led by BIEN Life-member Roland Duchâtelet, has is first Senator in the Federal Senate, Nele Lijnen. The introduction of a Basic Income is one of the keypoints of Vivant’s platform. The appointment of Nele Lijnen is in fact a cooptation made possible by the electoral partner of Vivant, the Flemish Liberal Party VLD (of ruling Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt). Nele Lijnen shall stay in the Senate at least until the next federal election in 2007. Among other things, in this short periode Nele Lijnen has decided to focus on:
*a basic income for the youth (until the age of 18) which is to be called a “freedom income”;
*an unconditional basic income for parents, in order to give one of the parents the possibility of staying home and taking care of the children and the household.
For further information: http://www.vivant.org/

*FRANCE: PROMINENT GREEN FIGURE ADVOCATES BASIC INCOME
The French Presidential Elections should take place in 2007. Within all political parties, the process of selecting candidates has already begun. Yves Cochet, one of the candidates within the Green Party “Les Verts”, holds a vigorous plea in favor of a “guaranteed income for all” as a way of reforming the French welfare state. “In front of the discontinuity of employment, the chances of the less well-off will be guaranteed by a sufficient, universal, unconditional, and individual basic income”, Cochet writes on his website.
For further details, see http://www.yvescochet.net/article.php?id_article=336

*GERMANY: BASIC INCOME MOVEMENT IS SPREADING THE IDEA ACROSS GERMANY
The number of conferences, lectures and discussions on basic income has been growing rapidly in the past few months due to the activities of the German Basic Income Network, the group “Freiheit statt Vollbeschäftigung“, as well as Goetz Werner, entrepreneur, professor, and prominent promoter of an unconditional basic income (see ” Guaranteed Income: The Way to the Future?”, Deutsche Welle, March 3, 2006)
The website of the German basic income network ( http://www.grundeinkommen.info/index.php?id=64) currently hosts no less than fourteen announcements covering the upcoming months. It regularily informs about basic income events taking place all over Germany and welcomes announcements to be published (please write to webmaster@grundeinkommen.de)

*GERMANY: BASIC INCOME NETWORK HAS AN ADVISORY COUNCIL
The German Basic Income Network has set up an academic advisory council which is to accompany the initiatives and projects of the network, give scientific advice and expertise on open questions in the basic income debate and promote the academic debate on basic income. Almost thirty scientists and experts from different disciplines have joined the council, among them the long-standing and well-known promoters of the basic income idea such as Philippe van Parijs, Claus Offe, and Michael Opielka as well as a range of younger researcher who have taken on the task of carrying on the academic debate on basic income. The council had its first meeting on March 11 at the University of Frankfurt. Presentations of the members research fields and interests in the basic income idea as well as the planning of future projects and initiatives were on the agenda. The council will meet regularily every couple of months and discuss open questions of the basic income debate. The next meeting will take place in Fall 2006.
For further details see http://www.grundeinkommen.info/index.php?id= 57

*ITALY: DEMONSTRATION FOR THE GUARANTEED INCOME
On January 27, 2006, more than 1.000 people took part in a demonstration in Rome to claim the right for a guaranteed income. Despite the fact that the demonstration took place during a working day (and in the rain), participants reached the head office of the local government in order to demand a meeting with some councillors and delegates of the Chairman of the region of Lazio. They got it. Vulnerable workers, students, squatters, and unemployed people took part in the demonstration and stopped in front of the local government building with their sound systems pumping music at high volume while chanting “we want a guaranteed income for everybody”. The demonstration came to an end with the political commitment by the local government to grant € 30 millions to start up the realization of a regional bill for a “social income”.
For further information, please contact the Infoxoa Rivista at infoxoa@infoxoa.org

*ITALY: COUNCIL OF THE LAZIO REGION DISTRIBUTES FREE BOOK ON GUARANTEED INCOME SCHEMES
“Reddito Garantito e nuovi diritti sociali” is the title of a new book promoted by the Councillor’s Office for Labour in the region of Lazio (Italy). It focuses on different patterns of social security in Europe, with a specific reference to the international and historical debate about basic income. It also looks at the transformations in the Italian labour market during the last years, with the rise of vulnerability and new poverty. The book, consisting of more than 200 pages, includes 5 main questions regarding basic income and related guaranteed income schemes: who are the recipients?; how much should the basic income be?; where should funds come from?; when and how should the basic income be granted?
The research includes MISSOC tables about European social policy, and highlights the fact that Italy and Greece are the only European countries where any kind of guaranteed income does not exist.
The book has been distributed for free since February 20, 2006. So far, 5000 copies of the book have been distributed all over the region of Lazio. On February 27, 2006, it was presented in the Hall of the Council of the region of Lazio.
More than 170 people including the secretary of the general trade union, members of social services associations as well as members of the network of social movements for the Guaranted Income took part in the event. The Councillor for Labour and the Councillor for Social Policies in the region of Lazio participate in the conference, too.
For further information, please contact sgobetti @regione.lazio.it or infoxoa@infoxoa.org
Online information about the book at http :// www.regione.lazio.it/web/lavoro/sito_ist/

*SOUTH AFRICA: BASIC INCOME TO ERADICATE POVERTY
Extending the basic income grant to all citizens and a halt on cutting personal and company taxes are some of the Budget 2006/07 proposals that a coalition of three civil formations, made up of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco), has made in a bid to eradicate poverty. Financing a universal basic income grant (Big) to all South Africans, they said, would require between R15-billion and R32-billion a year. A grant of around R100 per person a month would also boost economic activity, but it does not replace the need for job-creation, they continued.
Speaking at the release of the People’s Budget Campaign 2006/07 document on Wednesday, coalition representatives said government should use extra revenue from taxes towards poverty alleviation programmes as tax cuts mostly benefit the rich while depriving the government of the resources needed for sustainable growth.
(According to the online magazine business.iafrica. com, Wed, 08 Feb 2006)

*SPAIN: BASIC INCOME AT BARCELONA’S SOCIAL WELFARE COUNCIL
Barcelona’s Social Welfare Municipal Council was created in 1988 as a participatory consultative body for Social Welfare issues. Participants in the Council are political parties with representatives at the City Council, local social organisations, employer’s organisations, trade unions, universities, professional associations, and saving banks’ departments for social activities. Its President is Ricard Gomà, Councilor for Social Welfare of Barcelona’s City Council and plenary speaker at the Barcelona’s 2004 BIEN Congress. On March 15, 2006, Daniel Raventós, President of the Spanish Basic Income Network “Red Renta Básica”, met the “Permanent Committee” of the Social Welfare Municipal Council for a presentation of Basic Income as a tool for the renewing of social policy.

*SPAIN: BASQUE PARLIAMENT DISCUSSES BASIC INCOME
On January 31, 2006, the Parliament of the autonomous Basque Region gave approval to the following text:
“The Basque Parliament agrees to establish, within the framework of its “Work and Social Action Commission”, a Committee for the analysis and reflection on the different models of Basic Income that are being considered and their different implications in the economic, fiscal, formative, ethical and sociological domains. The purpose of this initiative is to stimulate the cooperation between proper public institutions and relevant social organisations in the updating and improvement of those social policies aimed to fight against poverty and social exclusion.
Vitoria-Gasteiz, January 31st 2006”.

6. PUBLICATIONS

*ENGLISH

FUNICIELLO, Theresa & PAGEN, Diane (2006), The Adventures of Carrie Giver: The Cost of Caring, New York: TR Rose Associates / Social Agenda Inc., 32 pages, ISBN 0-9777246-0-3.

The US-based Caregiver Credit Campaign stresses the importance and value of unpaid and under-paid care work inside and outside the home. It emphasizes the fact that when caregivers take time off paid work, remain out of the marketplace, or leave a paying job, it costs. Just as it costs to hire or pay an alternative such as daycare. The introduction of a true Caregiver Credit could basically serve as a starting point for a basic income, leading figures of the Campaign argue. They have now published a comic book in which a new heroine sets the nation abuzz, challenging ideas about mothers and other caregivers in US political, social, and economic life. This feminist career heroine will have politicians and hairdressers, women and girls, hardhats and female executives right along with caregivers re-thinking personal and social policy, including Social Security. “She will”, the announcment says, “be kicking butt in the name of hundreds of millions of people, especially mothers, who give care to the young and old alike each and every day.”
Respected American comic book artist Neal Adams (illustrator of Batman, Deadman, Superman, etc.) has provided the cover art in support for the book’s social justice message of helping unpaid family caregivers as they contribute to our economy and sustain our society.
For further information: http://www.trroseassociates.com/
To order the book (Cost per copy is $3.95 U.S. plus shipping), please call (00-1)212-755-4801, or write to email@trroseassociates.com

GLYN, Andrew (2006), Capitalism Unleashed. Finance, Globalization and Welfare, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, 234p. Author’s address:

The latest book by Oxford economist Andrew Glyn is a well-documented critical account of the development of globalized capitalism in the last few decades. Its final chapter, “Welfare and Income Inequality”, sketches a gloomy picture of the recent growth in inequality throughout the industrialized world, while stressing that inequalities grew most in the countries that were initially most unequal, and that more egalitarian institutions, as in Scandinavian countries, are consistent with sustainable economic performance. Moreover, following Richard Layard’s analysis, he notes that GNP growth, as standardly advocated on the left no less than on the right, has led to little, if any increase in the average level of happiness. It follows that top priority in the rich countries should be to establish “the basis for a new balance between work and other activities”. How? “the most innovative policy suggestion to encourage moves in this direction is the proposal of a Basic Income”. Such a proposal, Glyn argues in the final pages of his book, “would involve a recasting of elements of the welfare state in an egalitarian direction which would be extremely worthwhile”. It is politically feasible, Glyn believes, providing it takes the form, initially at least, of a “participation income”, and it is economically feasible, not only because it can be expected to be introduced at a pretty austere level but also because the sort of discouragement of formal work it involves helps reduce various kinds of negative externalities. For egalitarians, this is far better and goes far deeper than merely defensive strategies. It offers “a much more fundamental reorientation of priorities for society as a whole”.

HAARMANN, Claudia & HAARMANN, Dirk (2005), The Basic Income Grant in Namibia Resource Book, Windhoek: Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia, June 2005.

This resource book is compiled in order to inform policy makers and civil society players about the background and the details of the proposal for a basic income in Namibia. Its first section documents the launch of the Basic Income Grant coalition in Namibia. The second section explains the concept of a “basic income grant”. The third section introduces the key passages of the findings and recommendations made by the government appointed Namibia Tax Consortium. The fourth and fifth sections provide relevant results stemming from social and economic analysis, and the final section by M. Samson and I van Niekerk calculates the costs of the Basic Income Grant and its various financing options.
The PDF version of the book can be downloaded at http://www.cdhaarmann.com/

McKAY, Ailsa (2005), The Future of Social Security Policy: Women, Work and a Citizen’s Basic Income, London: Routledge, 272p., ISBN 0415344360. Author’s address:

Current debates concerning the future of social security provision in advanced capitalist states have raised a citizens’ basic income (CBI) as a possible reform package: a proposal based on the principles of individuality, universality and unconditionality which would ensure a minimum income guaranteed for all members of society. Implementing a CBI would consequently entail radical reform of existing patterns of welfare delivery and would bring into question the institutionalized relationship between work and welfare. Ailsa McKay’s book makes a contribution to the CBI literature by examining the proposal from a feminist economics perspective. Gender concerns are central to any deabte on the future of social security policy, in that state intervention in the field of income redistribution has differential impacts on men and women. By drawing attention to the potential a CBI has in promoting equal rights of freedom for men and women It is argued that a CBI has the potential to promote equal rights of freedom for men and women this book serves to open up the debate to incorporate a more realistic and inclusive vision of the nature of modern socio-economic relationships.

MURRAY, Charles (2006), In Our Hands. A Plan to Replace the Welfare State, Washington, DC: AEI Press, 203p., ISBN: 0-8447-4223-6.

America’s population is wealthier than any in history. Every year, the American government redistributes more than a trillion dollars of that wealth to provide for retirement, health care, and the alleviation of poverty. But the USA still have millions of people without comfortable retirements, without adequate health care, and living in poverty. Only a government can spend so much money so ineffectually, Murray argues. The solution is to give the money to the people.
This is the “Plan to Replace the Welfare State”, a radical new approach to social policy advocated by Charles Murray, the well-known author of “The Bell Curve” (1994) and “Losing Ground” (1984). In his new book Murray suggests eliminating all US welfare transfer programs at the federal, state, and local levels and substituting an annual US$10,000 cash grant to everyone age twenty-one or older. In Our Hands describes the financial feasibility of the Plan and its effects on retirement, health care, poverty, marriage and family, work, neighborhoods and civil society.
Murray argues that his Plan is financially feasible, and uses detailed analysis to argue that many goals of the welfare state–elimination of poverty, comfortable retirement for everyone, universal access to health care–would be better served under the Plan than under the current system. Murray also challenges the Left to confront their own rhetoric about the disadvantaged: why not give real resources and responsibility to them?
The most provocative chapters of In Our Hands discuss the broader impact of the Plan on all Americans, rich and poor alike. Murray thinks that the advanced welfare state strips life of the raw materials that give human existence weight and consequence. Murray presents his reasons for thinking that the Plan, by reclaiming those raw materials from bureaucracies and returning them to individuals, will revitalize the instruments through which life takes on meaning: family, vocation, and community.
In Our Hands has been reviewed by “The Economist” on March 25th, 2006. According to The Economist, “Mr Murray has never held either high office or an academic position. Yet he has done more to provoke serious debate on subjects ranging from welfare to IQ than any of the million or so members of American academe, and more to produce changes in America’s welfare state than any of the army of professional politicians. (…) It would be foolish to underestimate Mr Murray’s ability not just to stir debate but to steer policy: 12 years after “Losing Ground” was dismissed as the work of a wild-eyed fanatic, Congress had passed the welfare reform act.”
Publisher’s website: http://www.aei.org

NUTI, Domenico Mario (1995), “The Economics of Participation”, Eminent Scholars’ Lectures Series, 11, Islamic Development Bank & Islamic Research and Training Insitute, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Author’s address: nuti@dep.eco.uniroma1. it

The purpose of this study by Italian economist D.M. Nuti (University of Rome “La Sapienza”) is to investigate alternative institutions for combining labour and capital in productive enterprises in a market economy. It includes a discussion of James Meade’s defence of basic income.

*FRENCH

DECLERCK, Patrick (2005), Le sang nouveau est arrivé. L’horreur SDF, Paris, Gallimard, ISBN 2-07-077461-9, 86p.

In the conclusion of this short essay on homeless people, the author advocates a big-bang in social policy: a guaranteed basic income should be introduced, he writes, and promoted as a fundamental human right.

ZIN, Jean (2006), L’écologie politique à l’ère de l’information, Maisons-Alfort: Editions Ere, 117p., ISBN 2-915453-15-2

Green activist Jean Zin has been a prominent figure of the basic income debate within the French ecologist movement. In 2000, he has launched EcoRev’, a magazine which mainly focuses on “Revolutionary Ecology”. This new book is a collection of essays written by Zin between 1993 and 2005. In several passages, he insists on the revolutionary character of basic income, especially if it is introduced at a sufficiently high level (around 600 Euros per month). He sees it as a true alternative to waged labour. Zin also reminds his readers that basic income has never been endorsed by mainstream political parties or trade-unions in France (“conservative forces”, according to the author), with the exception of “AC! Agir Ensemble Contre le Chômage”, the main unemployed organization.
An electronic version of the book is available for free at http://www.editions-ere.net
Author’s website: http://jeanzin.free.fr

*ITALIAN

GOBETTI, Sandro & al. (2006), Reddito Garantito e nuovi diritti sociali. I sistemi di protezione del reddito in Europa a confronto per una legge nella regione Lazio, Rome, Assessorato al Lavoro, Pari opportunità e Politiche giovanili della Regione Lazio, 214p.

This book has been published by the Councillor’s Office for Labour of the region of Lazio (Italy), and distributed for free. It focuses on different patterns of social security in Europe, with a specific reference to the international and historical debate about basic income. A bibliographical section includes many references to publications by BIEN members.
For further details, see the “Events” section above (NewsFlash 38).
See also online information about the book at http://www.regione.lazio.it/web/lavoro/sito_ist / ;
or contact sgobetti @regione.lazio.it or infoxoa@infoxoa.org

7. NEW LINKS

*”FUTURE WORK” by James Robertson
“Future Work: Jobs, self-employment and leisure after the industrial age” was published in 1985 (Temple Smith/Gower, 220pp), and is out of print. The full text is now available free from James Robertson’s website (in pdf format).
The message of this book was that world society was in the early stage of a ‘great transformation’ of the kind that has occurred from time to time in history, affecting every aspect of human life. One of its outcomes could be a liberation of work, taking further the earlier progressions from slavery to serfdom, and then from serfdom to employment – all three of which have involved most people working for a minority superior to themselves.
As that liberation takes place, more and more of us will work more freely under our own control than conventional employment has allowed. We will do what we see to be our own good, useful and rewarding work – for ourselves, other people and society as a whole. How relevant are those ideas in 2006? Have they been by-passed by the economic orthodoxy of Thatcherism and Reaganism, by the collapse of state-based communism and socialism, and by the unstoppable ‘progress’ of globalised capitalism over the past twenty years?
In his 2006 Preface, Robertson answer No, they haven’t been by-passed. Quite the reverse. The world situation now makes the book’s ideas and arguments even more relevant than when it first came out, the author argues.

*INFOXOA RIVISTA (Italy)
The Italian magazine “Infoxoa”, which recently became a BIEN Life-Member, devotes a whole section (” Reclama Reddito”) of its website to basic income. It includes several texts in Italian about BI and related topics, which have been published in different issues of the magazine.The authors of the texts range from economists and sociology researchers to members of political collectives that are engaged in building campaigns to reclaim basic income as well as acting a concrete opposition to the growing precariousness of our lives.
See: http://www.infoxoa.org

*PAPER ON THE TRANSFER LIMIT MODEL
A paper (in German) by FISCHER, Ute L., RICHTER Erich & PELZER, Helmut on “The Transfer Limit Model to finance an unconditional basic income. Potentialities and Limitations”
has been posted at http://www.uni-ulm.de/uni/fak/zawiw/content/forschendes_lernen/gruppen/fl/buergergeld/literatur
This newest paper seems particularly important for BIEN members, as it describes how to use the model in every state of the EU and beyond.
English abstract:
Recently we have reported on a “Transfer Limits Model” (TL Model) developed in order to finance an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI, Pelzer and Scharl 2005). The calculation was based on data material collected to our disposal by the German Federal Statistics Office where it had been extracted from the Income and Consumer Sample Survey (“EVS”) on the distribution of gross income in Germany in 1998 (DM). In this way we were now provided with an updated file yielding the respective figures from the year 2003 in Euro. In the present article we are supplementing the 1998 calculations with the data from 2003. Our results confirm what we have already demonstrated on the basis of the 1998 data: Considering the income distribution in 1998 and 2003 the financing of a moderate UBI would have been principally possible in that period of time. Furthermore we recommend the TL Model to its favourable application in course of inserting a UBI project to the European Social Model currently discussed in the EU Commission.
About the authors:
Ute L Fischer is from the Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät der Universität Dortmund,
Erich Richter und Helmut Pelzer are from the Zentrum für wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung (Zawiw) der Universität Ulm.

*BASIC INCOME AND A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
A conference paper by Roy Morrison on “A Basic Income Grant and a Sustainable Future” is now available. Please write to the author at r.morrison@iamnow.net
Abstract: A Basic Income Grant (BIG) or Negative Income Tax (NIT) in the 21st Century is an important part of an ecological turn. The BIG or NIT is a sign of necessary things to come. It is more than a social welfare or aggregate demand maintenance measure. A 21st century BIG or NIT can become a key social and economic support for a sustainable social order. In a sustainable society, the pursuit of human ends, separated from the monetary and material, replaces the maximization of consumption and production as the center of our lives.
Roy Morrison is an energy consultant ( www.rmaenergy.net) and writer in Warner N.H. He is a Director of the Mink Hills Center for Sustainable Development, Henniker, NH, USA.

8. ABOUT THE BASIC INCOME EARTH NETWORK

Co-chair:
Eduardo SUPLICY, Federal Senator, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Guy STANDING, Director of the Social and Economic Security Programme, ILO, Geneva, Switzerland

Further details about BIEN’s Executive Committee and International Board can be found on our website, as well as further details about the Recognised National Networks (http://www.etes.ucl.ac.be/BIEN/BIEN/Recognized_Networks.htm).

Newsflash 38