BIEN – Basic Income Earth Network – NEWSFLASH 45, May 2007
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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, John Baker, Markus Blümel, David Casassas, Jurgen De Wispelaere, Sascha Liebermann, Claudia & Dirk Haarmann, Philippe Van Parijs, and Karl Widerquist.
This NewsFlash can be downloaded as a PDF document on our website www.basicincome.org
CONTENTS
1. Editorial
2. Events
3. Glimpses of national debates
4. Publications
5. New Links
6. About BIEN
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1. EDITORIAL
The next BIEN Congress shall be held in Dublin (IE) in 2008. In this perspective, the Executive Committee will meet with the local organizing team, led by Sean Healy (Conference Organizer), on June 15th, 2007. A report on this meeting will be made available in our next NewsFlash.
The Executive Committee
2. EVENTS
* GUADALAJARA (ES), 20-21 April 2007, Xth Congress of Philosophy “Philosophy and Politics Encounter the Challenges of 21st Century: Europe and the New Cosmopolitan Order”
Convenor: Society of Philosophy of Castilla-la-Mancha
The Conference was opened by Secretary of State of University and Research Miguel Ángel Quintanilla and included speeches by prominent Spanish-speaking political theorists like Fernando Vallespín, María José Fariñas, Amelia Valcárcel, Javier Muguerza, Juan José Tamayo and Ángel Gabilondo. Daniel Raventós (Red Renta Básica and University of Barcelona) gave a talk on “The Republican Philosophical and Political Foundations of a Citizens’ Basic Income”
Further information at http://sfcm.filosofos.org
* BUENOS AIRES (AR), 28 April 2007, “The Right to Existence beyond the Territorial Borders: A Basic Income Proposal also for Immigrants”.
This conference by Alex Boso (University of Barcelona and Secretary of the Spanish Basic Income Network) was organized by the “Centre for Philosophical Investigations” and the Argentinean Basic Income Network. Even though there are many recent studies on unconditional and universal minimum income schemes, they have not fully addressed the very pertinent process of international migration. The aim of the paper presented at this conference is to examine the normative justification of a Basic Income for immigrants as entitled members of a political community. Recent empirical evidence suggests that a Basic Income proposal for immigrants is not only possible but also desirable in order to resolve some of the more problematic aspects of international migration. Hence, in his presentation Alex Boso aimed at exploring both deontological and consequentialist arguments.
For further information: Àlex Boso, Departament de Teoria Sociològica, Filosofia del Dret i Metodologia de les Ciències Socials, Universitat de Barcelona, alexboso@ub.edu
* VIENNA (AT), 28 April 2007, Basic income conference
A conference on basic income was held at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna on April 28, with Margit Appel, member of the Austrian network, Benediktus Hardrop (Mannheim/Germany) and representatives of the Austrian Civil society. Margit Appel stressed that a basic income would give everyone more freedom to choose what to do in life. Whereas politicians are mainly pessimistic – they think that people would abuse their freedom and rather do nothing – persons in favour of a BI are optimistic that people would engage (politically, in their neighborhoods, in the social field,…) and would also choose to work (paid as well as unpaid work). Benediktus Hardrop (Germany) who has developed a BI-proposal based on taxation of consumption together with German CEO Götz Werner argued that such taxation would not lever poor people and inflation would not necessarily rise.
Other participants were Erhard Rauch (“European Association for the Promotion of Sustainable Development”), Gerhard Schuster from “Euro Vision” and Rahel Uhlendorff from the Berlin-based “Bürgerinitiative Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen”. About 150 participants took part in this event.
This event was organized by “Karl Julius Schröer-Zweig” and “Landesgesellschaft Österreich” der “Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft.
* CAPE TOWN (ZA), 2 May 2007, Roundtable Discussion on Basic Income
At the initiative of Ellen Rosskam, Visiting Professor at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell, USA), a well-attended roundtable discussion on basic income was held in Cape Town, South Africa on 2 May, 2007. The event was sponsored by the International Honors Program through Boston University, School of Public Health. Under the title “Can the Basic Income Grant play a role in sealing the leaks in South Africa’s social security net?”, the discussion was launched by Sibonile Khoza (Senior researcher with the Socio-Economics Rights project at the Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape), Sidney Kgara (Parliamentary Officer for the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union), Chance Chagunda (Researcher at SA Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office), and Keith Vermeulen (SACC Public Policy Unit).
For further information : eerosskam@yahoo.com
* INNSBRUCK (AT), 5 May 2007, Congress “Security and flexibility”
This year´s annual congress of the basic income Austrian network took place in the city of Innsbruck in cooperation with the Green Party´s Academy. Basic income was discussed in the context of “security and flexibility”. Although the Green Party officially favours a means-tested scheme there was great openness among the participants regarding the potential of a guaranteed income to solve current social problems. The question of lacking participation of women in Austria´s society was at the center discussions. Three members of the Austrian network- Margit Appel, Manfred Füllsack and Dietmar Köhler – took an active part as experts
* KLAGENFURT / St. GEORGEN a. LÄNGSEE (AT), 11-14 May 2007, “BI – week” panel discussions, congress, workshops, round tables
In the Southern province of Austria, Carinthia, the debate on basic income is moving forward. On Friday, May 11th, two specific events took place. “I don´t want a job, I want a basic income” was the provocative title of a panel discussion organized by the Institute of Sociology of the University of Klagenfurt. For the Austrian network, Andreas Exner took part together with sociologist Armin Pongs, philosopher Alice Pechriggl and others. A BI grant would create new opportunities for freedom, yet it would remain within the borders of capitalism.
The congress: “Work without money, money without work” started in St. Georgen/Längsee near Klagenfurt in the evening of May 11th. Representatives of the Salzburg network against poverty, the Greens, the Chamber of Labor, the Catholic Social Academy of Austria (ksoe) as well as publicists from alternative media took part. The notion of “full employment” was heavily criticized by economist Schüssler (ksoe), Wölflingseder (alternative magazine “Streifzüge”) discussed the way unemployed persons are being treated by the AMS (Labour market agency), Moritz (women´s department of the Austrian labor chamber) showed how new forms of employment concern women, Buggler (anti-poverty network) criticized the federal governments plans for a welfare-reform (concerning social assistance). Barbara Lesjak´s (Greens) stated that in the long run the Greens would be in favour of a BI, but at the moment the party would only be capable to support a means-tested scheme.
On Saturday 12 May, four workshops followed. These experts participated: Werner Rätz (German BI-network), Susanne Dermutz (University of Klagenfurt), Wolfgang Stix und Clemens Schneider ( trade union – department called “work@flex”), Klaudia Paiha (Federal trade union), Maria Hintersteiner (representative of unemployed people) and Robert Buggler.
On May 14, Markus Schlagnitweit , director of KSOE (Catholic Social Academy of Austria) held a workshop in Carinthia on the differences between various schemes of basic income and between models of means-testes-schemes. He argued for a basic income from the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. On the same day a “Round table on BI” met for the second time in Carinthia. These events received good media coverage (“Kärnter Tageszeitung” and Carinthian Radio).
For further information, see www.grundeinkommen.at
* MADRID (ES), 21-23 May 2007, Seminar on “Human Rights, the Utopia of Excluded People”
Convenors: Bartolomé de las Casas Institute for Human Rights & Norberto Bobbio Chair of Equality and Non-Discrimination
This Seminar aimed to raise the question of the integration of all those social groups that had traditionally been disregarded by the discourse on human rights. The critical voice of these groups constitute, in present-day societies, a valuable tool for the articulation of an optimal political society in which human rights of present and future generations become real and fully effective.
Speakers will include J.C. Davis, Javier de Lucas, María José Añón, Isabel Fanlo, Christian Courtis, Domenico Rizzo, Rafael de Asís, Gregorio Peces-Barba and Daniel Raventós, who gave a talk on “Basic Income: The Material Basis of Citizens’ Existence”.
* LJUBLJANA (SI), 23-25 May 2007: Lectures and interviews on basic income in Slovenia.
Philippe Van Parijs’s What’s Wrong with a Free Lunch? was published a couple of years ago by Slovenia’s left-wing publisher Krtina (the first three letters KRT stand for “critical revolutionary theory”). At the initiative of Krtina, Van Parijs spent three days in Ljubljana giving lectures on basic income at Slovenia’s House of Culture (cankarjevega doma) in central Ljubljana and at the Social Science Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, and on “A Political Philosophy for the Left of the 21st Century” at the students-run Workers-Punks University in the squatted barracks of Metelkova’s alternative neighbourhood (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metelkova). He also gave extensive interviews on basic income to the national radio and TV, as well as to Slovenia’s main independent daily newspaper and to its main political weekly Mladina (http://www.mladina.si/dnevnik/98679/).
For further information: Zalozba Krtina
* ZURICH (CH), 24 May 2007, Discussion on Basic Income with Dieter Althaus
Dieter Althaus is the Minister-President of Thüringen (one of Germany’s Lander), and has developed a model for financing a basic income of €600/month in Germany. At the initiative of BIEN-Switzerland, he came in Zurich to present his model and discuss it with a few experts.
For further information : http://www.d-althaus.de/ and http://www.revenudebase.ch/
* KASSEL (DE), 1-3 June 2007: Unconditional Basic Income: How? Financing models, implementation, and perspectives
This conference aims to supply essential information on the subject as well as comparing different approaches to questions such as tax-based financing, societal integration and advanced perspectives of a basic income. Concepts connected to the names of Dieter Althaus, Gotz Werner and others will be presented. Speakers shall include Dieter Althaus, Ronald Blaschke, Roland Duchâtelet, Kai Eicker-Wolf, Gerald Häfner, Sascha Liebermann, Reinhard Loske, Ulrich Morgenthaler, Christoph Strawe, Johannes Stüttgen, Götz Werner, Stefan Wolf, Birgit Zenker et al.
Full conference programme from: Kulturinitiative im Anthroposophischen Zentrum Kassel, Wilhelmshöher Allee 261, D-34131 Kassel
Tel: +49 (0)561 930 88 47; Email: kultur@az-kassel.de; www.az-kassel.de
*REGINA (CA), 6-8 June 2007: Economic Security for All in Saskatchewan: Weaving an Unbreakable Social Fabric.
This conference is organized by the Department of Justice Studies of the University of Regina (Saskatchewan, Canada) and the Regina Anti-Poverty Network. Themes and topics will include: re-establishing a strong social safety net, re-committing to the principle of universality in income support, health care, and access to education, ensuring a living wage for working people, moving toward a guaranteed annual income or “basic income” in Saskatchewan and Canada.
For further information: http://www.uregina.ca/arts/justice-studies/esc/index.html
* BRUSSELS (BE), 3 July 2007: Basic Income at the EU Parliament
“Basic Income. A concept for decent living and working conditions for everyone” (July 3, 2007, 9.30-13, European Parliament, Brussels). A seminar organized at the initiative of Carl Schlyter, member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Green Party, with the participation of Michael Opielka and Benedictus Hardrop (Germany), Lieselotte Wohlgenannt (Austria), Brigit Reynolds (Ireland), Loek Groot (Netherlands) and Philippe Van Parijs (Belgium).
For further information:
Sepp KUSSTATSCHER – MEP, Rue Wiertz 60 – ASP 08G108 B-1047 Brüssel
Tel: +32-2-28 45143; Fax: +32-2-28 49143
E-Mail: sepp.kusstatscher@europarl.europa.eu
www.sepp.kusstatscher.net
* BERLIN (DE), 4 July 2007: Basic Income from a Feminist Perspective
The Humboldt University in Berlin is organising a lecture series on Feminist Economics. In this framework, Ingrid Robeyns (University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands) will give a talk entitled “Revisiting Basic Income from a Feminist Perspective” (4th of July).
For further information: http://www.gender.hu-berlin.de/
*MANCHESTER (UK), 3-5 September 2007: Workshop on ‘Ethics, Work and Emancipation’
A workshop on ‘Ethics, Work and Emancipation’ is planned as part of the ‘Workshops in Political Theory’ Fourth Annual Conference that will be held at Manchester Metropolitan University, 3-5 September 2007.
The goal of this specific workshop is to explore the possibility of, and the difficulties associated with realizing, emancipatory or meaningful forms of work in contemporary capitalist societies. Papers are welcomed from researchers working in the disciplines of political, social, and economic philosophy/theory.
Key themes and areas of focus include:
* Basic income and work: What is the relation between meaningful work and the basic income literature? Is the call for a basic citizen income at odds with, indifferent to, or, instead, a support to the demand for meaningful modes of human productivity?
* The concept of emancipatory/meaningful work
* The historical genesis of the concept of work
* The ethics and morality of meaningful work
*The politics of meaningful work
*Work and the economy
Organizers: Keith Breen (Queen’s University Belfast), Ruth Chenoweth
(Royal Holloway College). If you are interested in presenting a paper in this workshop, please contact Keith Breen (k.breen@qub.ac.uk).
For further information, see www.hlss.mmu.ac.uk/pap/events/wpt
* BASEL (CH), 5-7 October 2007, Second German-speaking Basic income Congress
“Unconditional and securing everone´s needs! Basic Income as a human right” is the title of the second German speaking congress to be held on October 5-7, 2007, in the Swiss city of Basel. Several panels as well as various workshops will take place, dealing with the following questions:
o Basic Income as a human right
o Concept(s) of”labor”/”work” and the “idea of man”
o Social security system – Labour as the centre of traditional models
o How European social security systems could be changed with regard to BI
o Workfare / atypical work / Working poor – which impact do this new forms of work have on the idea of BI
o How to finance a BI
All workshops and discussions will pay attention to the Gender dimension.
Among the experts invited are Anne Alex, Margit Appel, Ronald Blaschke, Alex Demirovic, Wolfgang Engler, Andreas Exner, Maria Hintersteiner, Nicole Lieger, Ueli Maeder, Dagmar Paternoga, André Presse, Harald Rein, Klaus Sambor, Franz Segbers, Aji Sirmoglu, Peter Ulrich, Mag Wompel.
This international congress is organized by the BI-networks of Switzerland, Austria and Germany together with “Attac Deutschland”, “Inhaltsgruppe Grundeinkommen – Attac Österreich” and “Attac Schweiz”.
For further details: www.grundeinkommen2007.org
* BARCELONA (ES), 22-23 November 2007: 7th Symposium of Red Renta Básica and Third Seminar of Emerging Human Rights
Convenors: Red Renta Básica (RRB-XRB) & Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya (IDHC)
Apart from opening and closing plenary sessions (definitive programme will be published in due course), the Symposium will include 8 panels on the following issues:
1) Human Rights and Basic Income
2) Women and Basic Income
3) Labour Market, Right to Work, and Basic Income
4) Basic Income: Financial and Economic Issues
5) Rights of Immigrants and Basic Income
6) Normative Justifications of Basic Income
7) Basic Income and Social and Political Actors
8) Right to Basic Assets Security (water, food and energy) and Basic Income
Languages of the Symposium: Spanish and Catalan
A provisional list of the papers that will be given can be found at http://www.nodo50.org/redrentabasica/textos/index.php?x=612
More information can be found at http://www.nodo50.org/redrentabasica/textos/index.php?x=564
3. GLIMPSES OF NATIONAL DEBATES
* AUSTRALIA: LABOUR MP AND LEADERSHIP CANDIDATE ENDORSES BASIC INCOME
USBIG reports that John McDonnell, an Australian Labour MP, has recently endorsed basic income. McDonnell has been an MP for the Australian Labour Party since 1997. He is leading a campaign demanding a democratic election for the party leadership and an open debate about the policies that a Labour Government should implement. He is also considered a more left-oriented member of the party who has resisted the party’s rightward “New Labour” movement. His leadership campaign has endorsed establishing social rights to a Citizen’s Income along with affordable housing, free education, childcare, healthcare, and care in older age. The next Labour leader may be poised to become the Prime Minister of Australia in the next general elections.
For further information: http://www.john4leader.org.uk/.
* CANADA: LIVABLE INCOME AS SOLUTION TO POVERTY
USBIG reports that the Canadian National Council on Welfare Report (Winter 2007), entitled “Solving Poverty: Four cornerstones of a workable national strategy for Canada”, mentions the so-called “Guaranteed Livable Income” as part of a solution to poverty on pages 16-18, concluding that it merits “further attention.” The report is available as a PDF on http://www.ncwcnbes.net/en/home.html
* GERMANY: BASIC INCOME ON FRONT PAGE OF GERMANY’S N°1 WEEKLY
On April 12, 2007, the front page of the German quality weekly Die Zeit had as its main title: “Basic Income: the dream of money without work”, and inside a very long article by Zeit journalist Kolja Rudzio drawing on the pleas for an unconditional basic income by businessman Götz Werner (at a level of EUR 800, possibly rising to EUR 1500 per person and per month) and by the President of the East-German Land of Thüringen, the Christian-Democrat Dieter Althaus (at a far more modest level). The article is written with some sympathy for the idea, which is presented as a reaction to the failure of the German version of workfare (“Harz IV”) to put the long-term unemployed back to work, and it quotes at length the Hamburg “market-liberal” economist Thomas Staubhaar, who argues that the idea makes economic sense and should be taken seriously. However, it concludes on a sceptical note. It is possible to extend parental leave allowances, to take child care years into account in determining pension rights or even to have sabbaticals fostered by the state. “True this is less enchanting than the grand social utopia of income without work – but it is real.”
* SLOVENIA: PRESIDENT COMES OUT IN FAVOUR OF BASIC INCOME
Janez Drnnovsek, Slovenia’s President since 2002 after being its Prime Minister from 1992 to 2002, has a blog on which he expresses his personal views (http://janezd.blog.siol.net/), including, on several occasions, his sympathy for a universal basic income. Along the same lines, he also intervenes in his personal capacity on other blogs. Here is, for example, a commentary he published on http://www.gibanje.org/ on 6 May 2006:
“One of [the interesting suggestions you are making] is for example the idea of a universal basic income. The idea is to guarantee a basic income to everyone, irrespective of who or what he is, and of whether or not he is working. To guarantee to every citizen and eventually to every person a decent level of subsistence conforms to the aims of the Movement for Justice and Progress [the civil society movement founded by Janez Drnovsek in 2006 in his personal capacity]. This should be the final goal of a well balanced and just society. Just think what a huge change it would be if suddenly every citizen enjoyed the possibility of guaranteed subsistence. There would be no more lamentation about being unemployed and marginalized. Up to a point everyone would be equal – up to the kevel of the universal basic income. Beyond this, there would be differences, different incomes as a function of work performed and resources managed. The incapacity to survive, this sword of Damocles, would no longer be hanging above our heads. We would be more relaxed in our relationships and we may even produce more than we are producing now. The state is already allocating substantial resources to a range of social expenses, and the increase in public expenditures required may not be very big. On the other hand, the system would be more transparent, simple and possibly just.”
* UNITED NATIONS: BASIC INCOME PROPOSAL IS “GOOD PRACTICE MODEL”
In February 2007, Bishop Zephania Kameeta of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) had discussed basic income during his presentation at the 45th Session of the UN’s Commission for Social Development in New York. The recently released Chairman’s Summary report highlights basic income as a ” good practice model ” : ” There are several good practices relating to full employment and decent work “, the report states. ” A family stipend programme – the Bolsa Familia – provides small cash transfers for 11 million low income families and has the long run goal of poverty reduction through increases in human capital among poor families. In another case study, early strategies had produced limited effects on curbing unemployment and limited sustained benefits for the poor. A recent proposal for a basic income grant for all had emerged as a good practice model for alleviating poverty, and for empowering the poor to improve their livelihoods. Under the proposal, a monthly cash grant would be issued to each citizen up to pensionable age. ” In addition, the report points to the importance of social protection and cash transfers in poverty reduction and development.
For further information: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/csd/ and cd.haarmann@gmx.net
* UNITED STATES: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ENDORSES BASIC INCOME
In the latest USBIG Newsletter (issue 44), Karl Widerquist reports that Republican Presidential Candidate Tommy Thompson has endorsed basic income – at least in a foreign country. On his campaign website (http://www.tommy2008.com/), the former Wisconsin Governor calls himself “the reliable conservative in the 2008 presidential race.” The first reason he gives is, “Tommy Thompson is the father of welfare reform.” Thompson has a good claim to that title. Since 1996, welfare reform, also known as “workfare,” replaced conditional cash support for single mothers with work requirements, sometimes for less than minimum wage, without providing daycare. The plan was modeled on an earlier Wisconsin program initiated by then governor Thompson. Workfare is usually motivated by the belief that poor people have a responsibility to take whatever jobs are offered, even if they have substantial childcare responsibilities.
Thompson is literally the last American one might expect to endorse basic income. And yet he has not only endorsed it, he has made it a major initiative in his campaign. He has discussed it in numerous interviews and speeches and at the Republican presidential debates. He hasn’t endorsed basic income for the United States, but as part of his strategy to win the war in Iraq. The basic income element in Thompson’s Iraq strategy is that one-third of Iraqi government oil revenues will be reserved for a fund to provide every Iraqi with a small income guarantee modeled after the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF).
Thompson’s plan is rather far from implementation, however. To introduce it, the U.S. would have to be continuing its involvement in Iraq two years from now, when a president Thompson would take office. At that point the U.S. will have been at war for nearly six years. Even then, Thompson could only recommend the plan to the Iraqi Parliament, which is formally recognized by the U.S. government as the sovereign government of an independent country. If the whole of Thompson’s plan is adopted, United States would likely remain at war in Iraq for four more years while we find out whether the military elements of his plan work.
According to Widerquist, this shows that framed in the right context, basic income can have a great appeal even to work-ethic conservatives, and it demonstrates the growing appeal of the APF precedent. The APF is so obviously successful, so popular, and so cost-effective that it appeals even to the father of workfare. Much of the motivation for workfare has been popular American resentment against people who receive direct government payments. But there is little resentment in America for people who receive property income whether or not they work and whether or not they received their property through work. The APF makes some part of Alaska’s oil revenues into part of the personal property of every Alaskan. It’s theirs; they own it. It is quite natural to infer that if it is right for every Alaskan to own a share of their oil, then perhaps every Iraqi should own a share of their oil too.
* NAMIBIA: BASIC INCOME RECEIVES SUPPORT FROM LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION
The Lutheran World Federation has held its Council Meeting and 60th Anniversary Celebrations in Lund, Sweden from 20-27 March 2007. During the meeting, the Council deliberated on the issue of poverty and made recommendations, singling out the Basic Income Grant proposal in Namibia as a role model for the other churches. According to the Press Release of the LWF (issue 16-2007), “The Council expressed its support for initiatives by member churches to address poverty in their own contexts, and recognized especially the work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia in the coalition to promote the establishment of a ‘Basic Income Grant’ in Namibia. It encouraged the LWF member churches to consider the potential for such an initiative in their relevant contexts.”
For further information:
Rev. Dr. Claudia Haarmann & Rev. Dr. Dirk Haarmann, Project Directors – Desk for Social Development, Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN), P.O. Box 5069, Windhoek, Namibia
Email: cd.haarmann@gmx.net
web: http://www.cdhaarmann.com/
4. PUBLICATIONS
*DUTCH
Vereniging Basisinkomen (2007), Terugblik op 15 jaar Vereniging Basisinkomen, Special issue of Vereninging basisinkomen nieuwsbrief, 48 , april 2007, 27p.
On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, The “Association Basic Income” (Vereniging Basisinkomen in Dutch) – officially recognized by BIEN – has published a special issue of its newsletter. Among other texts, it includes an interesting account of a panel discussion held in Utrecht on January 19, 2007, between three of the most prominent basic income advocates in the Netherlands: Greetje Lubbi (former leader of the Union of Food Workers, which was the main institutional support of basic income during the eighties), Paul de Beer (one of the founding fathers of the Association, currently Professor at the University of Amsterdam, http://www.pauldebeer.nl), and Robert van der Veen (Political philosopher at the University of Amsterdam, and one of the leading theorists on basic income). Whereas Robert van der Veen and, to a lesser extent, Greetje Lubbi, remain cautiously optimistic regarding the prospects of basic income in the Netherlands, Paul de Beer is much more negative. He even suggests that basic income supporters should go for what he calls the “fridge strategy”: one should give priority to more modest reforms, and forget about basic income for a while (hence the suggestion of putting the idea “in the fridge”). This special issue also includes a thorough interview with Saar Boerlage, green activist and former head of the Association Basic Income.
*ENGLISH
CARTER, Valerie J. & HOWARD, Michael W. (2007), ‘Income inequality’, in G. L. Anderson & K. G. Herr (eds.), Encyclopedia of activism and social justice (Vol. 2), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 733-737.
This entry makes reference to basic income, both nationally and internationally, as one possible solution to the problem of income inequality.
CITIZEN’S INCOME TRUST (2007), Citizen’s Income Newsletter, Issue 2, 2007, available at http://www.citizensincome.org/resources/newsletter%20issue%202%202007.shtml
This issue of the CIT’s Newsletter includes a report on the BIEN Conference held in Cape Town (by Karl Widerquist), and a report on the latest USBIG Congress (by Annie Miller).
KORNBLUH, Felicia (2007), The Battle for Welfare Rights: Politics and Poverty in Modern America, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 978-0-8122-4005-4. Author’s address:
This book by Felicia Kornbluh (Department of History, Duke University, USA) concerns the debate over the guaranteed income in the U.S. in the 1960s, and the grassroots movement for welfare rights that was largely responsible for moving the basic income agenda forward. It also includes a chapter on President Nixon’s Family Assistance Plan of 1969-1972, which draws on extensive archival evidence that has not been used previously to explore this elite legislative and bureaucratic effort to create a minimum income in the United States.
*GERMAN
HÄNI, Daniel & SCHMIDT, Enno (2007), “Geld Macht Glücklich. Grundeinkommen und Öko-Wirtschaft verwandeln die Welt”, Anthroposophie im Dialog Info 3, issue 4, April 2007, www.info3.de
This special issue of the Magazine of the German Anthroposophic movement focuses on the basic income debate, and includes an interview with Dieter Althaus, Minister-President of the Länder Thuringen and a prominent basic income advocate.
KUMPMANN, Ingmar (2007), “Armutsbekämpfung durch Einkommensumverteilung. Zu den Zielen und Finanzierungsproblemen eines Grundeinkommens”, in: Berliner Debatte Initial 18(2), 2007, pp. 28-37. (Address: Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle, Ingmar.Kumpmann@iwh-halle.de)
A succinct presentation of the main arguments for basic income, as regards both the fight against poverty ad access to meaningful employment, and a plea for gradual implementation, taking financial constraints and local circumstances into account.
MEYER, Joseph (2007), Um-Denken. Das Bedingunglose Grund-Einkommen, V.o.G. VIVANT Fraktion im Parlament der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens, ISBN 978-3-86712-013-5, 63 p.
This short essay by Joseph Meyer, a member of the small basic income focused political party Vivant (founded by BIEN Life-member Roland Duchâtelet) and political actor in the German-speaking region of Belgium, includes a presentation of a basic income model with a “new monetary system”, partly inspired by the writings of Joseph Huber. A French version will be available soon.
Author’s address: j-meyer@gmx.net
WERNER, Götz W. (2007), Einkommen für alle. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2007, 220p.
No one in Germany has done as much to make basic income the subject of a broad debate as Götz Werner, born in 1944, the wealthy boss of dm, a Karlsruhe-based drugstore business employing over 20.000 workers in nine countries. He himself locates his plea in the anthroposophical tradition, as articulated by his mentor, the business consultant Benediktus Hardorp (see the latter’s 1984 downloadable essay on the separation of work and income http://www.dreigliederung.de/essays/1984-01-002.html, which draws itself extensively both on Rudolf Steiner’s work and on Robert Theobald’s 1964 Manifesto on the “Triple Revolution”).
But the strength of Götz Werner’s plea stems from his conviction that productive activity is far better fostered by making them free than by subjecting them to an obligation to work. We should become, as he likes to put it, “a society of freelancers”, in which each is enabled to develop himself or herself against the safe background of guaranteed subsistence. Such a society will be more productive than one that hunts a minority of work-shy people and tries to put them to work at great expense. It will give both employees and employers the benefits of greater flexibility. And it will have no difficulty funding even a fairly generous basic income, using for this purpose a much increased value added tax (as in the parallel basic income proposal made by the Belgian business man Roland Duchatelet and the party he founded in 1997), while scrapping income tax and social security contributions.
In brief: a fair dosis of pragmatism whose effectiveness was proven by Werner’s successful business career, combined with impressive communicative skills and put to the service of a vision captured by the excerpt that features on the blurb of his book: “The dignity and the freedom of man entail the right to say no. This freedom is possessed only by those to whom subsistence is guaranteed. Hence, the demand for an unconditional income rests on the central foundation of our Constitution: the dignity of man is inviolable. An income is a civic right.”
Götz Werner set up a web site to support his basic income initiative, which carries texts by him in German,English, French and Spanish: http://www.unternimm-die-zukunft.de. There is an Audio book that presents his arguments: Götz W. Werner, Das bedingungslose Grundeinkommen. Vision und Wirklichkeit: Ein Vortrag des dm-Gründers, Freiburg: Audiobuch Verlag, 2007, 82 min.
Götz Werner is also a popular guest on TV programmes, most recently on 20 May 2007, together with Michael Opielka, Hans-Olaf Henkel and Thomas Druyen, on ZDF’s night-time discussion programme:
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/inhalt/28/0,4070,5515164-5,00.html
WERNER, Götz & PRESSE, André (eds.) (2007), Grundeinkommen und Konsumsteuer – Impulse für Unternimm die Zukunft : Tagungsband zum “Karlsruher Symposium Grundeinkommen: bedingungslos”, Karlsruhe: Universitätsverlag Karlsruhe,
ISBN: 978-3-86644-109-5, http://www.uvka.de/univerlag/frontdoor.php?source_opus=186
This book edited by Götz W. Werner and André Presse collects papers on Basic Income and Consumption-Tax. Some were presented to a symposion hosted in february 2006 by Götz W. Werner, Professor at the Interfacultative Institute of Entrepreneurship at the University of Karlsruhe and also Founder and CEO of DM-Drgustores, and above all one of the most active advocats of a basic income in Germany. The papers explore different aspects related to basic income and its impact on political communities: aesthetic and artistic perspectives (Bockemuehl and Schmidt), freedom of citizens and democracy (Liebermann, Eichhorn/ Presse), achievement ethics resp. intrinsic motivation (Lenk) and taxation-system. Benediktus Hardorp who has argued for a consumption tax for about 40 years points out the relation between consumption tax and the economy. Haeussner/ Presse, Strawe and Meemken add further arguments. Strengmann-Kuhn argues for a flat-tax on income to finance a UBI. Pelzer/ Fischer present a very fundamental model of how income taxation could be shaped to finance the UBI. Helmut Pelzer has worked on this question for more than 20 years and has revised his model which is also helpful for the transition from income to consumption taxation together with Ute Fischer (member of the group “Freedom, not Full Employment”).
5. NEW LINKS
* BASIC INCOME IN JAPAN
Shuji Ozawa, Professor of social policy at Kyoto Prefectural University, has published a short article advocating basic income (May 18, 2007 issue of the ASAHI SHIMBUN). See the English version at
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200705180089.html
* GERMAN BASIC INCOME PANEL ON YOUTUBE
Videos of the basic income debates held at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, 14. Juli 2006, are available on http://www.youtube.com/ (in German). They include talks by Ulrich Oevermann, Georg Vobruba, Philippe Van Parijs, and Götz W. Werner. To find them, search for “Grundeinkommen in der Diskussion”.
* WEBSITE DEVOTED TO GLOBAL JUSTICE AND BASIC INCOME
The website www.development4all.org proposes various sections discussing basic income in an international perspective. * CHARLES MURRAY TALKS ABOUT BASIC INCOME Charles Murray, the right-libertarian author of “In Our Hands : A Plan To Replace The Welfare State” (2006), discussed basic income on BBC Radio 4 in April 2007. The talk is downloadable in RealPlayer at http://www.vivant.org/site/fileadmin/DocEN/News_items/2007/talking_politics.ra * INTERVIEW WITH GÖTZ WERNER IN ENGLISH One of the numerous interviews with Götz Werner, currently the most prominent advocate of basic income in Germany, is available in English (translation of an interview published in Die Welt on April 25, 2007) http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/22/18419551.php * GERMAN WEBSITE PROVIDES INFORMATION IN SPANISH The German group “Freiheit Statt Vollbeschäftigung” (“Freedom, Not Full Employment”) has translated its “Frequently asked questions” section into Spanish. See http://www.freiheitstattvollbeschaeftigung.de/es/faq/index.htm * DISCUSSION FORUM ON BASIC INCOME IN CANADA (QUEBEC) A discussion forum (in French) on basic income has been successfully launched on http://www.politiquebec.com by Benoit Guillette. All participants are welcome. See section “Revenu minimum garanti (RMG)” at http://www.politiquebec.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=18 6. ABOUT THE BASIC INCOME EARTH NETWORK Co-chair: 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. MEMBERSHIP All life members of the Basic Income European Network, many of whom were non-Europeans, have automatically become life members of the Basic Income Earth Network. B(I)ENEFACTORS: BIEN’s Life Members: BIEN’s NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1000 subscribers throughout the world. The items included in BIEN NewsFlashes are not protected by any copyright. They can be reproduced and translated at will. But if you use them, please mention the existence and address of the Basic Income Earth Network (including its web site www.basisincome.org) and the exact references of the events or publications concerned. Thank you.
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