UBI October update

Posted on October 30, 2024

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Dear UBI Friends and Supporters,

We hope our email meets you well.

Would you like to join us for another in-person UBI Lab Leeds meeting?

We will have a UBI Lab Leeds discussion and social gathering on Monday, 4th November, starting at 5.30 PM (17.30hrs) at the Arcadia pub (34 Arndale Centre, Headingley, Leeds LS6 2UE) (https://theeuropeanbarguide.com/arcadia-leeds/    ).

Please note this time we will meet on Monday not Tuesday because of Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night on Tuesday!

Our topics for discussion:

You are welcome to bring along friends!

We hope to see you on 4th November, 17.30hrs at the Arcadia.

Please find below some updates about UBI publications and events.

  1. Can Universal Basic Income really improve mental health? Recent UBI trials reveal that guaranteed income provides immediate mental health relief, but sustaining long-term benefits may depend on lasting economic security. You can read the article of Olivier De Schutter and Philippe van Parijs in Social Europe.
  2. Above article is partially based on the initial findings of the OpenResearch Unconditional Basic Income Pilot in the USA (Texas and Illinois). The University of Bath will offer a two-hour conversation with Dr. Karina Dotson and Dr. Elizabeth Rhodes who will present their initial results as the main researchers of this pilot. The webinar will take place on 13 November at 3 PM UK time. You can find the Zoom link and more information here.
  3. The University of Bath will organise a hybrid Winter School about Basic Income in the Global South from 4 to 6 November in Bath. This free winter school explores the multifaceted topic of UBI in the context of the Global South, providing an overview of the specific contexts, challenges, and outcomes of UBI pilots and experiments, as well as related and inspired policies and initiatives. You can find out more about the programme and register your interest here.
  4. Open Democracy has started to publish an interesting online series of articles and interviews about Basic Income:

Part 1 | Getting on with it

Part 2 | Widening the politically possible

Part 3 | Getting the policy mix right

5. Britain is a wealthy country, but its wealth is increasingly concentrated in few hands. While wealth inequality has remained fairly stable in relative terms over recent decades (with the richest 10% owning about 60% of the UK’s wealth), substantial rises in the value of assets have dramatically increased the absolute wealth gap between the richest and poorest households to a level that is second only to the USA, among OECD countries. As a result, wealth – or its absence – has a bigger impact on people’s lives than ever before, from their housing to their health. You can read and download the full report of the Fairness Foundation here.

6. Basic Income for Farmers (BI4Farmers)

is a grassroots campaign compiled predominantly of landworkers who advocate for a fairer and more sustainable food system.

BI4Farmers featured in Landworkers Alliance (LWA) ‘Landtalkers’ series. You can find the full story here.

Are you interested in an explorative conversation about the movement? You can sign up for their next online conversation which will be hosted by working group members Jas Tribe & Kevin McGrother on Thursday 14th November 7PM – 8:30PM.

7. Ireland – Basic Income

The Journal of Music published an article ‘Arts Council Funding Increased to €140m in 2025 Budget – Funding of €35m for the Basic Income for the Arts pilot also announced.’ This means that BI scheme is now funded beyond the end of its three-year pilot next August.

Green Party Minister Catherine Martin says she and her party would ultimately like to see “Universal Basic Income” implemented in Ireland – a policy of providing regular, unconditional payments to all citizens regardless of employment status or income level. You can watch a short video clip (2 mins) about the statement ‘Green Party would like to see “Universal Basic Income” in Ireland

8. The Northern Ireland Common Sense Basic Income (nicsbi) Party intends to contest Assembly Elections in Northern Ireland as a Political Party. Their constitutional aim is to unify the social and political spectrum of Northern Ireland by mainstreaming the theories of Common Sense and Basic Income. You can find more information on their website at https://www.nicsbi.co.uk/ .

9. Global Universal Basic Income

Our UBI Lab member and Campaigns and Operations Director at Equal Right, Patrick Brown, has published an informative and encouraging opinion piece on the Al-Jazeera website: A sustainable global universal basic income can be done. Here is how – We have developed a model that can provide a global UBI through a ‘cap and share’ scheme for fossil fuels that also tackles climate change.

10. The planned Basic Income pilot in Catalonia (Barcelona) was put on hold because of disagreements between the governing political parties in Catalonia. Now it has been decided that the Office of the Pilot Plan to Implement the Universal Basic Income of the government of the Generalitat de Catalunya will continue its work during the next legislature, following an agreement between the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC). The agency, responsible for the design, deployment and evaluation of a pilot plan for universal basic income will now work in the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion. You can find more information in English here.

11. South Africa

The Social Policy Initiative (SPI) has published a Social Security and SDGs Policy Brief. The policy brief outlines SPI’s proposed UBI model and its potential to uplift the most vulnerable, especially black African women, and fast-track the country’s progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SPI has also published a press statement on 17 October to commemorate ‘INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY BY SUPPORTING THE CALL FOR A UBI’.

12. ‘Pope repeats call for Universal Basic Income’ and higher taxes for billionaires. In the article he condemned the “culture of winners,” which is an aspect of the “culture of waste.” This practice, often based on exploiting people or nature, or benefiting from financial speculation, tax evasion, or organized crime, leads some to arrogantly despise so-called “losers.” The Pope warned that this attitude of “looking down on others with indifference or contempt” fuels violence. You can read the full article here.

13. You can read an interview with Daniel Chandler about his Voltaire Lecture 2024 and book Free and equal’. He explains the ideas of the humanist philosopher John Rawls and the importance of a Basic Income so that every citizen has food to eat, clothes to wear, a place to live – in other words, that they can meet their ‘basic needs’ and have a sense of purpose and individual meaning.

14. A petition in the State of Hamburg (Germany) received more than 95,000 signatures to hold a state referendum about a Basic Income pilot financed by the state of Hamburg. The referendum is likely to be held during the next General Election in 2025. You can find out more (in German) here. There is also an English report on the FRIBIS website ‘Hamburg tests Basic Income

15. Canada:

Leaders from across the food bank and food security sector are calling on political parties and candidates running in the 2025 federal and provincial elections to support a basic income in Canada to give people a fighting chance of escaping poverty and living with dignity. You can find more information at the website ‘Put Food Banks Out Of Business’

Household food insecurity, the inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints, is a serious public health problem in Canada. PROOF is an interdisciplinary research program studying effective policy approaches to reduce it. PROOF has published the document ‘Food insecurity: A problem of inadequate income, not solved by food’

16. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

In 2021 the Belgian organisation Eight World vzw started an Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) pilot project in a village in an artisanal mining zone in Maniema province of DRC. Individual beneficiaries received cash directly via a mobile money system. Each adult received 20 USD per month via her/his phone, for two years, and each child in the village received monthly 10 USD during the same period. The beneficiaries were free to decide how to spend the money. For several key indicators such as housing, food consumption and health substantial improvements were observed in the UCT village in comparison to the control village. You can read the final report about the pilot here.

17. Ethics of Basic Income Piloting

As a consequence of growing support for Basic Income (BI) in recent years there has been an exponential increase in the number of pilot experiments of unconditional cash transfers across all parts of the world. However, there has been little discussion of the ethical considerations of such experiments. This report is the outcome of a workshop whereby BI piloters came together to discuss such ethical considerations, share case studies, and begin to formulate general principles to guide ethical BI experiments. The paper discusses the ethical considerations and concludes with some general principles: to do-no-harm, maintain respect, dignity, and agency; mitigate power inequalities, promote trust and transparency, and ensure substantive unconditionality. You can read the report here.

18. Business Insider has published an informative article ‘The basic income myth: cash discourages work’.

19. What would you do, if you received Euro1000 each month?

Dutch UBI supporters have developed a game in Dutch which can be downloaded at https://demaandrond.nl

Finally we hope to see you at the Arcadia next week,

In solidarity and

best wishes
reinhard on behalf of UBI Lab Leeds