Forum Grundeinkommen Offenes Forum zum Thema "Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen" * 14.05.2005: Die Administration dieses FORUMs wird ab heute von den Nutzern dieses FORUMs gestaltet. Siehe dazu im FORUM Beitrag in "Infos zur Nutzung des FORUMs". *
Dieses FORUM dient der Diskussion von Ideen zum BEDINGUNGSLOSEN GRUNDEINKOMMEN. Es war zuerst ein FORUM des "Netzwerk Grundeinkommen", Näheres: http://Grundeinkommen.INFO. Die Sprecher+..Innen des Netzwerkes betreiben seit April 05 eine eigene Mailingliste, Näheres: http://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/debatte-grundeinkommen.
* Die Nutzer dieses FORUMS haben sich trotzdem mit Mehrheit für die Beibehaltung dieses FORUMs ausgesprochen, das weiterhin wohl auch hauptsächlich das weitere Vorgehen von http://Grundeinkommen.INFO begleiten wird. * Das FORUM ist z.Zt. versuchsweise ÖFFENTLICH geschaltet. Es kann also JEDEr Beiträge lesen, die Dateien ansehen und auch downloaden. Die Dateien sind auch verlinkbar. Wer mitschreiben will, muss sich anmelden, auch mit Pseudonym. Die Berechtigung muss bestätigt werden. Bitte die Frage "Warum..." beantworten. *
Erstellt: 05.10.04, 11:05 Betreff: Fwd: BIEN NewsFlash 29, September 2004
----- Weitergeleitete Nachricht von philippe van parijs ----- Datum: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 08:36:55 +0200 Von: philippe van parijs Antwort an: philippe van parijs Betreff: BIEN NewsFlash 29, September 2004 An:
The Basic Income European Network was founded in 1986 in order to serve as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and to foster informed discussion on this topic throughout Europe. In September 2004 it expanded its scope from Europe to the world, and became the Basic Income Earth Network. _____
NewsFlash 29, September 2004
BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1000 subscribers throughout the world. Requests for free subscription are to be sent to . Items for inclusion or review in future NewsFlashes are to be sent to Yannick Vanderborght, BIEN newsletter editor, UCL, Chaire Hoover, 3 Place Montesquieu, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, . The present NewsFlash has been prepared with the help of Ayse Bugra, Sascha Liebermann, Annie Miller, Michael Opielka, Dani Raventos, Yannick Vanderborght, Karl Widerquist, Toru Yamamori. _____
CONTENTS
1. Editorial
2. BIEN's 10th Congress (Barcelona, 19-20 September 2004) 2.1. The Forum framework 2.2. Experimental prelude 2.3. Plenaries 2.4. Parallel sessions 2.5. Minister's conclusions 2.6. President's message
3. BIEN's 10th General Assembly meeting (Barcelona, 20 September 2004) 3.1. Finance 3.2. Revision of the statutes 3.3. Resolution on women's concerns 3.4. Recognition of national networks 3.5. Elections 3.6. Next BIEN congress
4. Other events * Mexico (MX), 3/9/04: Minimum Citizen's Income and human rights * Linz (AT), 17/9/04: Who will pay? * Berlin (DE), 12/1004: Second meeting of the German BI network * New York (US), 4-6/3/05: Fourth USBIG Congress * Instanbul (TR), 13-15/10/05: Protecting Society and Nature from the Commodity Fiction
5. Glimpses of national debates * Germany: "Freedom instead of full employment" * Japan: Basic income as a counter-blueprint * United States: The Green Party Convention endorses basic income
6. About the Basic Income Earth Network 6.1. BIEN's new statutes 6.2. BIEN's new executive committee 6.3. BIEN's international board 6.4. BIEN's recognised national networks 6.5. BIEN's life members
1. EDITORIAL
In Barcelona, BIEN made the most important - and risky? - move since it was founded in 1986. After being discussed at several earlier congresses, the proposal to turn BIEN into a worldwide network was unanimously approved at its 10th General Assembly meeting, on the 20th of September 2004.
To some extent, this was only an officialisation of what had been happening more and more in practice, with Brazil, the United States, South Africa, Canada and other countries feeding our network with news and publications. But it also constitutes an unprecedented challenge for our modest resources and for the coherence of a movement that will need to foster relevant thinking and effective action in the context of extremely different welfare states.
To address this challenge, a largely new committee was elected, with four members from Europe and four from outside. It is co-chaired by Eduardo Suplicy, member of Brazil's federal Senate, and Guy Standing, director of the ILO's Programme on Socio-Economic Security. The regional co-ordinators, specifically in charge of ensuring that the network spreads to more countries, are Ingrid van Niekerk (EPRI, Capetown) and Eri Noguchi (Columbia University, New York). Jurgen De Wispelaere (University College Dublin) is staying on as website manager. Karl Widerquist (Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford) has become BIEN's working paper editor, a function he was already performing for the American basic income network USBIG. David Casassas (University of Barcelona) is BIEN's new secretary, and Yannick Vanderborght (University of Louvain) its new newsletter editor.
Starting in the Autumn of 1988, which is when I started editing it, BIEN's newsletter was sent out three times a year in printed format and, from January 2000, six times a year in electronic format. Sixteen years and sixty three newsletters later, it is time for me to leave to a younger team this job which I never found easy to squeeze in among my other activities but which I always found worth the trouble beyond any doubt.
As a consequence of my retiring both as BIEN's newsletter editor and as its secretary, my daily involvement with BIEN will be considerably reduced, but my commitment to the movement and the cause is by no means diminished. I shall keep doing my bit to help out, starting with the little introductory book on basic income which I shall be completing in the coming weeks with Yannick Vanderborght. And I wish the new team as rewarding a job as I have had.
To face the unprecedented challenge of a worldwide network, it is more important than ever that you should all do your best to help, in particular by spontaneously providing relevant information, as suitably pre-processed as possible, to the new newsletter editor, and by becoming life members of the Basic Income Earth Network. Whether our expanded network will die, stagnate or thrive depends on the selfless commitment and reliability of a small team of volunteers but also on the active involvement of a great many of you across the world.
Philippe Van Parijs secretary of BIEN (1994-2004) newsletter editor (1988-2004)
2. TENTH CONGRESS OF THE BASIC INCOME EUROPEAN NETWORK "The Right to a Basic Income: Egalitarian Democracy" Barcelona (Spain), 19-20 September 2004
2.1. The Forum framework. BIEN's congress was embedded into a broader set of events, the sequence of four days organized by Catalonia's Institute of Human Rights, itself part of the five-month Forum Universal de las Culturas, whose organisation was coupled with the building of a gigantic conference complex next to the sea. This had some drawbacks, such as the compressing of our plenary and parallel sessions into fewer hours, but these were more than compensated by the substantive, organizational and financial benefits of fitting into a broader initiative on an extraordinary, instructive and controversial site.
2.2. Experimental prelude. The BIEN congress itself was preceded by an academic workshop on basic income experiments, organized by Loek Groot (Amsterdam), chaired by Robert Jan van der Veen (Amsterdam) and funded by the European Science Foundation. In the morning, American scholars (Maynard, Hollister, Widerquist) introduced a discussion on the lessons to be drawn for the future of basic income from the negative income experiments conducted in the 1970s in Canada and the US. The afternoon session was largely taken up by the discussion of an innovative research project by Axel Marx and Hans Peeters (Louvain). The "Win for Life" scheme set up by Belgium's national lottery gives winners, instead of a big one-off prize, a tax-free monthly basic income of EUR 1000 for the rest of their lives. By following up what happens to the winners, Marx and Peeters try to use this "natural experiment" to assess the impact a large basic income would have on people's lives. Obviously, this sort of research is useless if what we rare interested in is the macroeconomic impact or the overall redistributive effect of a basic income scheme, funding included. But providing an appropriate control group can be designed and studied, it can tell us more than intuition and anecdotes, for example, about the differential consequences of a basic income and a one-off stake on the behaviour of their beneficiaries, or more generally about the way in which income security impacts all spheres of life for different age groups or social categories.
2.3. Plenaries. Owing to health problems and/or electoral constraints, Nancy Fraser, Christine Boutin and Katja Kipping were unfortunately prevented from taking part in our plenary sessions. The reshuffling led to interesting exchanges on basic income and reciprocity with Angelika Krebs (Basel) and Stuart White (Oxford); on basic income, decommodification and child-friendly social policy with Gosta Esping-Andersen and Robert Jan van der Veen; and on the current state of discussion North and South with Claus Offe (Berlin, stepping in for Katja Kipping), Yoland Bresson (Paris, stepping in for Christine Boutin), Eduardo Suplicy (Sao Paulo), Ruben Lo Vuolo (Buenos Aires) and Ingrid van Niekerk (Capetown).
2.4. Parallel sessions. Sixteen parallel sessions made it possible for nearly seventy papers to be presented and discussed, including components of several doctoral dissertations in the making by young and enthusastic scholars. One particularly lively session, organized at the initiative of Phil Harvey (Rutgers University) and due to be published as a special issue of the Journal of Law and Urban Policy (www.jlup.org), staged a vigorous intellectual confrontation between uncompromising advocates of a right to subsistence through a right to employment secured by the government as employer of last resort (Martin Watts & William Mitchell, University of Newcastle , Australia) and uncompromising advocates of a right to subsistence secured through an unconditional basic income (Jose Noguera, Universitat autonoma de Barcelona, and Guy Standing, ILO), with Phil Harvey himself in a more conciliatory stance. Most contributions to the prallel sessions were made available to participants on a CD, and they can also be downloaded from http://www.basicincome.org.
2.5. Minister's conclusions. In his intervention at the concluding plenary session of the Congress, Catalonia's Minister of economic affairs Antoni Castells, from the Catalan socialist party, emphasized that a universal basic income was an idea that could only be congenial to people committed to both equality and freedom. He restated the commitment of Catalonia's current left-of-centre government coalition to "move forward towards the redefinition of the existing minimum insertion income (RMI) into a basic income for all citizens". This commitment does not entail, however, that a basic income scheme will be put into operation during the present legislature. The daily newspaper El Pais (21 September 2004) echoed the event.
2.6. President's message. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was invited by Catalonia's Institute of Human Rights to take part in the final plenary session, common to the five congresses it co-ordinated on "emerging rights". Because of an important meeting of heads of states held at the same time at the UN in New York, he could not attend, but faxed a message that was read out at the opening of the session and ended as follows: "Last year, we created the Family Grant Programme (Bolsa Familia), which is already transferring income for five million Brazilian families who live in extreme poverty. By the end of 2006, over eleven million families will benefit from the programme. In this perspective, it is appropriate to note that, at the beginning of this year, in Brasilia's Palacio de Planalto, in the presence of one of the co-founders and secretary of the Basic Income European Network Philippe Van Parijs, I promulgated Law n°10.835, approved by Brazil's National Congress, which instituted in our country a basic income of citizenship. This law is an initiative of the valorous comrade who is today there with you, ladies and gentlemen, our Senator of the Republic, Eduardo Suplicy, and it will be gradually implemented from 2005 onward, at the discretion of the Executive Power, with priority given to the neediest, as is already the case today with the Family Grant. I wish to close by wishing you all a full success in this conference, which will certainly contribute to the progress of the struggle for the realization of a basic income for all the inhabitants of the Earth."
3. TENTH MEETING OF BIEN'S GENERAL ASSEMBLY Monday 20 September 2004, 6:30 p.m. at the Forum Universal de las Culturas, Barcelona The meeting was chaired by Guy Standing, co-chairman of BIEN.
3.1. Finance a. Financial Overview 2002 - 2004 The accounts were prepared by Alexanderde Roo, treasurer
Total Revenues in 2002 - 2004 EUR 2.454,04 ( 25 Life Memberships) EUR 865, 54 (Combined BIEN membership at 9th BIEN congress) EUR 190,55 (Interests of both accounts) EUR 44,21 (Rest of Collective Charles Fourier) _________ EUR 3.554,34
Total Expenditure in 2002 - 2004 EUR 690,69 (Travel costs for EC meeting 25/10/03 in Barcelona) EUR 39,43 (Costs of both accounts) EUR 0 (No costs for the BIEN Newsletter, emails + Website) _________ EUR 730,12
Our financial situation is sound. EUR 13.482,66 in positive [+ 3671 relative to September 2004]. The accounts are approved.
b. BIEN Permanent Fund It is proposed that out of the amount currently in BIEN's accounts, EUR 10.000 should be invested on a long-term basis, with the interests serving to give BIEN's committee a secure minimum income. This proposal is both "philosophically" in the spirit of the safest way of funding a basic income, and pragmatically congruent with the reliance on the one-off payment of a life membership fee. The General Assembly unanimously approves this proposal, which will need to be operationalised by the new executive committee. This BIEN Permanent Fund can be enhanced by further gifts. In particular, the new committee could create a status of "benefactor", whose contribution, overand above the life membership fee, couldbe paid into this fund.
3.2. Revision of the statutes
In accordance with BIEN's statutes, proposals for revising the statutes were circulated to all members of BIEN in mid-August. This prompted various proposals for amendments. These were discussed, along with the original proposals, at a preparatory meeting of the executive committee and representatives from the national networks held in Barcelona on the eve of the congress. The following slightly amended proposals were submitted to the General Assembly.
1. Change the name of the association from "Basic Income European Network" into "Basic Income Earth Network". The proposal is approved by a majority of 39 in favour and 2 against.
2. Change Article 1 into "BIEN's aim is to serve as a link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income, i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement, to stimulate and disseminate research and to foster informed public discussion on this topic throughout the world." The proposal is approved unanimously.
3. Change Article 4 into "BIEN's Executive Committee consists of not less than five and not more than eight members who between them hold the following offices: conference organizer, chair, secretary, treasurer, fund raiser, newsletter editor, web manager and regional co-ordinator. They are elected individually by the General Assembly for a two-year term. The Executive Committee can co-opt other people for specific tasks, but without voting rights. It meets at least once a year at the Secretary's initiative. Within the limits set by the decisions of the General Assembly, it takes any action it judges useful to the pursuit of BIEN's purposes." The proposal is approved unanimously.
4. Change Article 5 into "BIEN's International Board consists of all present and former members of the Executive Committee and of representatives from relevant organizations whose list is determined by the General Assembly. It meets to take decisions within the competence of the General Assembly that cannot wait until the latter's next meeting. Its chair is appointed for a two-year term by the General Assembly." The proposal is approved unanimously.
5. Drop the old Article 6 ("Advisory council. BIEN's Advisory Council comprises a number of eminent people who are prepared to lend their names to support BIEN. Its members are expected to read papers published in BIEN's name, and to give advice relating to BIEN's public image.") The proposal is approved unanimously.
6. Provisional appendix to the statutes: "Make all current life members of BIEN members of the newly defined network." The proposal is approved unanimously. (The status of benefactor, which does not confer any specific right, is left up to the discretion of the new committee.)
7. In addition, it is proposed to add another appendix to the statutes in order to facilitate the creation of the "BIEN Permanent Fund" (see point 1b above) and the call for benefactors: "In the event of BIEN being dissolved, the remaining assets will be transferred to a recognized charity with a related purpose, to be determined by the General Assembly." This proposal is approved unanimously. However, the new committee must investigate the best way of giving BIEN a firmer legal status, which may be needed anyway to create its "permanent fund". New statutes that satify the legal requirements will then need to be submitted to the next meeting of the General Assembly.
3.3. Resolution on women's concerns The following proposal for a resolution was presented to the General Assembly by Annie Miller on behalf of an informal group of women members of BIEN that met earlier in the day: "I. Resolve to increase from here forward the participation by women in BIEN, not only from the academic sector but from all areas where we can find potential allies. To that end, to have more women in plenary sessions as speakers, and to provide for a share of financial resources to encourage participation by both specific speakers, and low income women from the larger population. II. To have a plenary session at the next BIEN congress that is devoted to Basic Income and caregiving. III. To create an office within the executive committee of Women's Representative." The General Assembly fully agrees with the general intention behind this resolution. However, in light of the discussion, Annie Miller proposes to drop points I and II and to amend point III into "To create a Women's Office within the executive committee". The amended version is approved with 17 votes for, 8 against and 18 abstentions. This entails that the function of "women's officer" is added to the list in Article 4 of the statutes as modified above (point 2.3). One member of the committee to be lected will therefore need to be women's officer (whether or not in conjuction with another function) or the committee will have to coopt a non-member to handle this function. Those who feel that this change is not adequate are invited to send alternative proposals in time to be circulated one month in advance of the next General Assembly meeting.
3.4. Recognition of national networks Three more European national networks circulated a written presentation before the congress: * Austria: Netzwerk Grundeinkommen und sozialer Zusammenhalt (founded in October 2002, co-ordinator: Magit Appel, www.grundeinkommen.at) * Germany: Netzwerk Grundeinkommen (founded in July 2004, spokespersons: Ronald Blaschke, Katja Kipping, Michael Opielka, Wolfram Otto, Birgit Zenker, www.grundeinkommen.de) * Denmark: Borgerlønsbevægelsen (founded in January 2000, http://www.borgerloen.dk, president: Jørg Gaugler, , contact person: Per Sørensen, ). In addition, now that the statutes have been modified to make BIEN worldwide, a presentation of three more networks is improvised during the congress: * Argentina: Red Argentina de Ingreso Ciudadano (founded in March 2004, president: Ruben Lo Vuolo, www.ingresociudadano.org). * Brazil: Rede Brasileira de Renda Básica de Ciudadania (founded in September 2004, co-ordinator: to be determined). * United States: U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) (founded in December 1999, contact: Karl Widerquist, www.usbig.net) Given the closeness of their objectives to BIEN's and their "ecumenical" character, all of these networks are unanimously recognised by the General Assembly. There are now eleven recognised national networks (the others are the British, Dutch, Irish, Swiss and Spanish). One essential task of the new committee will be to foster the creation of more national networks throughout the world.
3.5. Elections
a. Election of BIEN's Executive Committee for 2004-06 In accordance with article 4 (revised) of the statutes, the following eight people have been elected to form BIEN's executive committee: Guy STANDING (Director of the Social and Economic Security Programme, International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland) and Eduardo SUPLICY (Federal Senator, Sao Paulo, Brazil) as co-chairs (37 for and 1 against) David CASASSAS (Universidad de Barcelona, Spain) as secretary (unanimity) Yannick VANDERBORGHT (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium) as newsletter editor (unanimity) Jurgen DE WISPELAERE (University College Dublin, Ireland) as web site manager (unanimity) Ingrid VAN NIEKERK (Economic Policy Research Institute, Cape Town, South Africa) as regional co-ordinator (unanimity) Karl WIDERQUIST (Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, UK) as working paper editor (unanimity) Eri NOGUCHI (Columbia University, New York), as regional co-ordinator (22 votes vs 9 for Teresa Funiciello as womens's officer and 5 abstentions) The committee will decide which member will take on the functions of conference organiser, treasurer, women's officer and fund raiser. It can also co-opt members without voting rights.
b. Need for clarification of the election rules for the Committee Our statutes, both before and after revision, require committee members to be elected individually and a number of functions to be allocated, but they do not stipulate a rigid list of positions. This has the advantage of allowing flexible adjustments to new needs and priorities as well as to the competences of the people willing to serve. But it requires the election procedure to be clearly specified in a way that combines the possibility of presenting a coherent slate and the openness to candidates. In the future, before each election of a new Committee, the Committee will need to submit to the General Assembly a precise proposal, consistent with the statutes, as to how the election is going to proceed.
c. Election of the chair of BIEN's international board for 2004-06 In accordance with article 5 (revised) of the statutes, Philippe Van Parijs has been elected chair of the International Board (unanimity)
3.6. Next BIEN congress The Assembly was not ready to make a final decision as regards the location of the next BIEN congress. Four options were mentioned. The Committee will decide as soon as possible. * Porto Alegre: The World Social Forum of Porto Alegre may make room for a public panel on basic income (January 2005). But this would of course not be a BIEN congress. * Dublin: The Irish network does not have the resources to organize a worldwide congress in 2006. Given the broadening of BIEN, it is in any case desirable to have the next conference outside Europe. * Sao Paulo, September 2006, seems the most promising option. The newly recognized Brazilian national network will explore this possibility, jointly with co-chair Eduardo Suplicy. * Istanbul: might provide an alternative.
4. OTHER EVENTS
MEXICO (MX), 3 September 2004: Ingreso mínimo ciudadano y derechos humanos A symposium on basic income and human rights organized at Mexico 's National University (UNAM) by the Mexican Academy of Human Rights and Spain's basic income network. Speakers included María Julia Bertomeu (Universidad de la Plata, Argentina), Jesús Roberto Robles Maloof (Academia Mexicana de Derechos Humanos), Antoni Domènech y Daniel Raventós (Universidad de Barcelona). For further information: or , www.amdh.com.mx.
LINZ (AT), 17 September 2004: Wer soll das bezahlen? A panel discussion between experts and politicians on an unconditional basic income and models for funding in. With the participation of Sascha Liebermann (Dortmund), Josef Wöss (Vienna) and representatives of several Austrian political parties. For further information: www.ith.or.at/konf/zeitpl_2004.htm or
BERLIN (DE), 12 December 2004: Second meeting of the Netzwerk Grundeinkommen Founded in early July in Berlin, Germany's basic income network will meet again in Berlin in December, hosted this time by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, the foundation linked to Germany's Green party which also hosted the memorable closing party of BIEN's 2000 Congress. For further information: www.grundeinkommen.de or
NEW YORK (US), 4-6 March 2005: Fourth Congress of USBIG: "The Right to Income Security" The Fourth Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) will be held in conjunction with the Eastern Economic Association Annual Conference in New York City from Friday 4 March to Sunday 6 March 2005. This wil be first meeting USBIG as a national section of the Basic Income Earth Network and will include addresses by Eduardo Suplicy, co-chair of BIEN and Philippe Van Parijs, chair of BIEN's International Board. Proposals are welcome on topics relating to the Basic Income Guarantee or to the current state of poverty and inequality. They should be sent to by 7 November 2004. For further information : www.usbig.net or contact .
ISTANBUL (TR), 13-16 October 2005: Tenth Polanyi conference The theme of the Tenth International Karl Polanyi Conference will be "Protecting Society and Nature from the Commodity Fiction". Paper proposals are invited around a number of subthemes, including "Work, Poverty and Social Exclusion", "Entitlements for Social Participation" and "Responsibility, Agency and the Future of Social Policy". The local organizers would particularly welcome basic income related proposals. Proposals (with abstract and CV) are to be sent to Ayse Bugra (Social Policy Forum, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, or ) by 15 December 2004.
5. GLIMPSES OF NATIONAL DEBATES
GERMANY: "FREEDOM INSTEAD OF FULL EMPLOYMENT" The initiative "Freiheit statt Vollbeschäftigung", which first came into the open by advocating an unconditional basic income on large posters stuck in the Frankfurt underground system in December 2003, is now getting a fair amount of press attention. On 2 September 2004, the left-liberal national daily Frankfurter Rundschau printed an article by Sascha Liebermann on "Freiheit der Bürger statt Arbeitszwang" (Freedom of the citizens instead of forced labour), while the green-leaning "tageszeitung" (TAZ) published an interview with him under the title "Arbeitslosigkeit ist eine Folge unseres Erfolges" (Unemployment is a consequence of our success). The group at the core of the initiative was also invited to address the German building industry association, the youth organization of the Green Party in Dortmund, and Frankfurt's "Wahlalternative Arbeit und Soziale Gerechtigkeit" , a left-wing "electoral alternative work and social justice". An invitation by the Trade Unions to address a congress in Waldbröl, a small village in Sauerland, was subsequently withdrawn. The group is planning a second poster campaign in the Frankfurt underground for October 2004, as a counter-offensive to "Hartz IV", the government's tough social policy reform package. For further information: Sascha Liebermann,
JAPAN: BASIC INCOME AS A COUNTER-BLUEPRINT Japan has hardly been the country most receptive to basic income so far. But some interest can now be detected. In 2002, a first book was published by Professor Shuji Ozawa, a Marxist economist. Under the title "Welfare Society and Social Security Reform: New horizon of Basic Income" it is largely based on the writings of André Gorz and on Tony Fitzpatrick's synthesis of the contemporary debate. In a number of articles published since 2002, Toru Yamamori, a lecturer in social policy who is spending 2004-05 at Cambridge University's Capability and Sustainability Centre, has been discussing basic income in connection with Esping-Andersen's theory of "decommodification", Van Parijs's Real Freedom for All and Toni Negri's Empire. In 2002, Taro Miyamoto organized a workshop about basic income and workfare at Ritumeikan University (Kyoto), probably the first workshop on basic income in Japan, with contributions by Taro Miyamoto (on the Swedish situation), Tamiko Tsuru (on the French situation), Shuji Ozawa and Toru Yamamori (about basic income). Recently some of these people and others were given opportunities to talk about basic income in the context of governmental advisory committees, the business community, Trade Unions and citizen's social movements. Basic income is beginning to arouse interest as a counter-blueprint against workfare, which has become increasingly popular in Japan lately. For further information: Tori Yamamori , http://pessoa.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ymmrhp/publications-e.html.
UNITED STATES: THE GREEN PARTY CONVENTION ENDORSES BASIC INCOME The Green Party National Convention met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 25-27 June 2004 and adopted a new platform including the plank: "We call for a universal basic income (sometimes called a guaranteed income, negative income tax, citizen's income, or Citizen Dividend). This would go to every adult regardless of health, employment, or marital status, in order to minimize government bureaucracy and intrusiveness into people's lives. The amount should be sufficient so that anyone who is unemployed can afford basic food and shelter. State or local governments should supplement that amount from local revenues where the cost of living is high." For further information: Steve Shafarman
6. ABOUT THE BASIC INCOME EARTH NETWORK
6.1. BIEN's new statutes
The rough outline of these Statutes was adopted by BIEN's General Assembly meeting in Antwerp on 24 September 1988. The exact phrasing was approved by BIEN's Executive Committee meeting in Brussels on 5 December 1988. The name of the network and articles 1, 4 and 5 were modified by BIEN's General Assembly meeting in Barcelona on 20 September 2004.
1. Purpose. BIEN's aim is to serve as a link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income, i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement, to stimulate and disseminate research and to foster informed public discussion on this topic throughout the world.
2. Membership: Individual membership of BIEN is acquired by payment of the membership fee. It covers subscription to a regular Newsletter and confers voting rights at BIEN's General Assembly. Corporate membership is acquired by payment of a higher fee. It includes a subscription to the Newsletter and voting rights for one delegate.
3. General Assembly: BIEN's General Assembly is its sovereign body. It comprises all BIEN's individual members and no one else. It meets on the occasion of BIEN's regular international conference. It elects the Executive Committee, decides which organizations are to be represented on the International Board, approves the accounts, determines the membership fee, modifies the statutes on the basis of proposals sent to members at least one month in advance, and considers any other matter submitted to it by the Executive Committee. All decisions are taken under the simple majority rule. No proxy votes are allowed.
4. Executive Committee: BIEN's Executive Committee consists of not less than five and not more than eight members who between them hold the following offices: conference organizer, chair, secretary, treasurer, fund raiser, newsletter editor, web manager, women's officer and regional co-ordinator. They are elected individually by the General Assembly for a two-year term. The Executive Committee can co-opt other people for specific tasks, but without voting rights. It meets at least once a year at the Secretary's initiative. Within the limits set by the decisions of the General Assembly, it takes any action it judges useful to the pursuit of BIEN's purposes.
5. International Board: BIEN's International Board consists of all present and former members of the Executive Committee and of representatives from relevant organizations whose list is determined by the General Assembly. It meets to take decisions within the competence of the General Assembly that cannot wait until the latter's next meeting. Its chair is appointed for a two-year term by the General Assembly.
Appendix: 1. All life members of the Basic Income European Network on 20 September 2004 become life members of the Basic Income Earth Network. 2. In the event of BIEN being dissolved, the remaining assets will be transferred to a recognized charity with a related purpose, to be determined by the General Assembly.
6.2. BIEN's new executive committee
Co-chair: Eduardo SUPLICY , Federal Senator, Sao Paulo, Brazil Guy STANDING , director of the Social and Economic Security Programme, International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland Regional co-ordinators: Eri NOGUCHI , Columbia University, New York, USA Ingrid VAN NIEKERK , Economic Policy Research Institute, Cape Town, South Africa Secretary: David CASASSAS , Universidad de Barcelona, Spain Newsletter editor: Yannick VANDERBORGHT , Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium Website manager: Jurgen DE WISPELAERE , University College Dublin, Ireland Working paper editor: Karl WIDERQUIST , Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, UK
6.3. BIEN's international board
BIEN's International Board meets to take decisions within the competence of the General Assembly that cannot wait until the latter's next meeting. Its chair is elected by the General Assembly. In addition to the current members of BIEN's Executive Committtee, it includes:
Former members of BIEN's Executive Committee: Alexander de Roo Edwin Morley-Fletcher José Noguera Claus Offe Ilona Ostner Steven Quilley Robert J. van der Veen Philippe Van Parijs , chair Walter Van Trier Lieselotte Wohlgenannt
Representatives of national networks: Ruben Lo Vuolo for the Red Argentina de Ingreso Ciudadano (AR) Magit Appel for the Netzwerk Grundeinkommen und sozialer Zusammenhalt (AT) N for the Rede Brasileira de Renda Básica de Ciudadania (BR) Jørg Gaugler for the Borgerlønsbevægelsen (DK) Michael Opielka for the Netzwerk Grundeinkommen (DE) John Baker for BIEN Ireland (IE) Loek Groot for the Vereniging Basisinkomen (NL) Daniel Raventos for the Red Renta Básica (ES) Bridget Dommen for BIEN Switzerland (CH) Malcolm Torry for the Citizen's Income Trust (UK) Michael Lewis for USBIG (US)
6.4. Recognised national networks
ARGENTINA: Red Argentina de Ingreso Ciudadano Founded in March 2004 www.ingresociudadano.org. President: Ruben Lo Vuolo
AUSTRIA: Netzwerk Grundeinkommen und sozialer Zusammenhalt Founded in October 2002 www.grundeinkommen.at Coordinator: Magit Appel
BRAZIL: Rede Brasileira de Renda Básica de Ciudadania Founded in September 2004 Provisional co-ordinator: Eduardo Suplicy
DENMARK: Borgerlønsbevægelsen Founded in January 2000 www.borgerloen.dk President: Jørg Gaugler
GERMANY: Netzwerk Grundeinkommen Founded in July 2004 www.grundeinkommen.de Spokespersons: Ronald Blaschke, Katja Kipping, Michael Opielka, Wolfram Otto, Birgit Zenker
IRELAND: BIEN Ireland Founded in March 1995 Coordinator: John Baker Equality Studies Centre University College Dublin Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland Tel.: +353-1-716 7104, Fax: +353-1-716 1171
NETHERLANDS: Vereniging Basinkomen Founded in October 1987 (initially as "Werlplaats Basisinkomen") www.basisinkomen.nl Coordinator: Grietje Lof Wagenaarstraat 184 1093 EB Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel.: +31-020-6852712
SPAIN: Red Renta Basica Founded in June 2001 www.redrentabasica.org President: Daniel Raventos or Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat d'Economiques Departament de Teoria Sociologica i Metodologia de les Ciencies Socials Avda. Diagonal 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain Tel.: +34.93.402.90.51, Fax: +34.93.322.65.54
SWITZERLAND: BIEN Switzerland Founded in September 2002 President: Pierre Hérold c/o Jean-Daniel Jimenez 39, rue Louis-Favre 1201 Geneva Tel.: +41 22 733 41 09 or +41 78 847 47 56
UNITED KINGDOM: Citizen's Income Trust Founded in 1984 (initially as "Basic Income Research Group") www.citizensincome.org Director: Malcolm Torry Citizens Income Trust, P.O. Box 26586, London SE3 7WY, United Kingdom. Tel.: 44-20-8305 1222 Fax: 44-20-8305 1802
UNITED STATES: U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) Founded in December 1999 www.usbig.net Coordinator: Karl Widerquist
6.5. BIEN's life members
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. To join them, just send your name and address (postal and eletronic) to David Casassas , secretary of BIEN, and transfer EUR 100 to BIEN's account 001 2204356 10 at FORTIS BANK (IBAN: BE41 0012 2043 5610), 10 Rond-Point Schuman, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. An acknowledgement will be sent upon receipt.
James Meade (+), Gunnar Adler-Karlsson (SE), Maria Ozanira da Silva (BR), Ronald Dore (UK), Alexander de Roo (NL), Edouard Dommen (CH), Philippe Van Parijs (BE), P.J. Verberne (NL), Tony Walter (UK), Philippe Grosjean (BE), Malcolm Torry (UK), Wouter van Ginneken (CH), Andrew Williams (UK), Roland Duchatelet (BE), Manfred Fuellsack (AT), Anne-Marie Prieels (BE), Philippe Desguin (BE), Joel Handler (US), Sally Lerner (CA), David Macarov (IL), Paul Metz (NL), Claus Offe (DE), Guy Standing (CH), Hillel Steiner (UK), Werner Govaerts (BE), Robley George (US), Yoland Bresson (FR), Richard Hauser (DE), Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy (BR), Jan-Otto Andersson (FI),Ingrid Robeyns (UK), John Baker (IE), Rolf Kuettel (CH), Michael Murray (US), Carlos Farinha Rodrigues (PT), Yann Moulier Boutang (FR), Joachim Mitschke (DE), Rik van Berkel (NL), Francois Blais (CA), Katrin Toens (DE), Almaz Zelleke (US), Gerard Degrez (BE), Michael Opielka (DE), Lena Lavinas (BR), Julien Dubouchet (CH), Jeanne Hrdina (CH), Joseph Huber (DE), Markku Ikkala (FI), Luis Moreno (ES), Rafael Pinilla (ES), Graham Taylor (UK), W. Robert Needham (CA), Tom Borsen Hansen (DK), Ian Murray (US), Peter Molgaard Nielsen (DK), Fernanda Rodrigues (PT), Helmut Pelzer (DE), Rod Dobell (CA), Walter Van Trier (BE), Loek Groot (NL), Andrea Fumagalli (IT), Bernard Berteloot (FR), Jean-Pierre Mon (FR), Angelika Krebs (DE), Ahmet Insel (FR), Alberto Barbeito (AR), Ruben Lo Vuolo (AR), Manos Matsaganis (GR), Jose Iglesias Fernandez (ES), Daniel Eichler (DE), Cristovam Buarque (BR), Michael Lewis (US), Clive Lord (UK), Jean Morier-Genoud (FR), Eri Noguchi (US), Michael Samson (ZA), Ingrid van Niekerk (ZA), Karl Widerquist (US), Al Sheahen (US), Christopher Balfour (AND), Jurgen De Wispelaere (UK), Wolf-Dieter Just (DE), Zsuzsa Frederic Jourdin (FR), Daniel Raventos (ES), Andres Hernandez (CO), Guido Erreygers (BE), Alain Tonnet (BE), Stephen C. Clark (US), Wolfgang Mundstein (AT), Evert Voogd (NL), Frank Thompson (US), Lieselotte Wohlgenannt (AT), Jose Luis Rey Perez (ES), Jose Antonio Noguera (ES), Esther Brunner (CH), Irv Garfinkel (US), Claude Macquet (BE), Bernard Guibert (FR), Margit Appel (AT), Simo Aho (FI), Francisco Ramos Martin (ES), Brigid Reynolds (IE), Sean Healy (IE), Maire Mullarney (IE), Patrick Lovesse (CH), Jean-Paul Zoyem (FR), GianCarlo Moiso (IT), Martino Rossi (CH), Pierre Herold (CH), Steven Shafarman (US), Leonardo Fernando Cruz Basso (BR), Wolfgang Strenmann-Kuhn (DE), Anne Glenda Miller (UK), Lowell Manning (NZ), Dimitris Ballas (GR), Gilberte Ferrière (BE), Louise Haagh (DK), Michael Howard (US), Simon Wigley (TR), Erik Christensen (DK), David Casassas (ES), Paul Nollen (BE), Vriend(inn)en Basisinkomen (NL), Christophe Guene (BE), Alain Massot (CA), Marcel Bertrand Paradis (CA), NN (Geneve, CH), Marc Vandenberghe (BE), Gianluca Busilacchi (IT), Robert F. Clark (US), Theresa Funiciello (US), Al Boag & Sue Williams (AU), Josef Meyer (BE), Alain Boyer (CH), Jos Janssen (NL), Collectif Charles Fourier (+), Bruce Ackerman (US), Konstantinos Geormas (GR), Pierre Feray (FR), Christian Brütsch (CH), Phil Harvey (US), Toru Yamamori [147].
-- ----- Ende der weitergeleiteten Nachricht -----
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