Dear UBI Friends and Supporters,
We hope our email meets you well.
Would you like to join us for an in-person UBI Lab Leeds meeting?
We will have a UBI Lab Leeds discussion and social gathering on Tuesday, 4th February, starting at 6.00 PM (18.00hrs) at the Arcadia pub (34 Arndale Centre, Headingley, Leeds LS6 2UE) (https://theeuropeanbarguide.com/arcadia-leeds/ ).
Our topics for discussion:
- Does economic growth or basic income generate social welfare and work for all?
- Any other topic: What are your burning questions about UBI?
You are welcome to bring along friends!
We hope to see you on 4th February, 18.00hrs at the Arcadia.
Please find below some updates about UBI publications and events.
- Reflecting on the Swiss Basic Income Referendum: A Conversation with Enno Schmidt
UBI Bath is organising a hybrid event on the Swiss BI referendum in 2016. You can find out more about the referendum in ‘Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters’ and ‘Switzerland’s voters reject basic income plan’.
In this event, Enno Schmidt as one of the architects of the Swiss Basic Income Referendum will talk about his experience and analysis. To date, Switzerland is the only country in the world where the citizens could decide in a referendum whether or not to adopt a basic income for all.
You can join the event online on Wednesday, 29 January 2025, from 3pm – 4:15pm here.
- Our UBI Lab member Angelina Kussy has written an article on ‘Rethinking Work, Building a Post-Growth Pathway: How to Crack the Dominant System Through Care’. She argues that ‘…The core of most of the problems of our societies nowadays is productivism, an obsession, religious and self-destructive fervor based on the believe that we need to work more to produce more, that the relentless efforts for the GDP are unstoppable and necessary. … ‘. The article challenges the ideology of Rachel Reeves and other Labour Party leaders that only economic growth can deliver a better society.
- Zack Polanski, deputy leader of the Green Party in England and Wales, has written an opinion piece in Big Issue ‘We all deserve more money. Let me prove why it’s time for universal basic income’. He proposes a basic income between £1200 and £1600 to meet basic human needs in the UK.
- Basic Income for Farmers (BI4Farmers / https://bi4farmers.square.site/ ) has published the report ‘Sowing the seeds of stability – the case for a basic income for farmers, farmworkers and food producers in the UK’. The authors argue for a BI to provide financial security for farmers with improved health and wellbeing and at the same time protecting nature from unsustainable farming practices.
- The next BIEN Congress 2025 ‘Basic Income & Solidarity Economy: New Horizons for Social Protection’ will take place from 27 to 29 August in the cities of Niterói and Maricá, located in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Maricá was the first city which has introduced a local currency, the Mumbuca, in order to pay a basic income and Niterói has followed with the Arariboia as local money. This will be a hybrid event and presentations can be made in person or online. The deadline for proposals of papers and other contributions is 18 February. You can find out more here.
- Local currencies have emerged as an innovative instrument not only for transferring cash, but also for promoting local development. You can find out more about the experiments in Brazil in the blog ‘Building Local Economies: How Rio de Janeiro’s municipalities are reinventing local development through cash transfers’
- In case you want to learn more about the positive effects of a local currency, an interesting film ‘Shillings from Heaven / Wörgl’s Miracle’ presents the story of a historical experiment (without basic income) in Wörgl (Austria) in the 1930s. The film (1hr 30min, German with English subtitles) explains how the mayor started a form of local money to revive the economy and the clash with the Austrian government and their Central Bank which wanted to keep the privilege of making money and regulate the economy. This happened just before the fascist takeover in Austria. It is a good film based on the economic teaching of Silvio Gesell. You can watch it here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uz4PRWr3ns).
- The conditional cash programme for poor families in Brazil called Bolsa Familia has led to a significant reduction in Tuberculosis rates among the recipients of the cash transfer. These important health benefits of the cash transfer have been reported in ‘Tuberculosis rates plunge when families living in poverty get a monthly cash payout’. You can read the open access study in Nature Medicine ‘Effects of conditional cash transfers on tuberculosis incidence and mortality according to race, ethnicity and socioeconomic factors in the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort’. Another study (2023) of cash transfer programmes in 37 countries reported significant reductions in mortality among children under five years of age and women: The effects of cash transfers on adult and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries.
- ‘We can’t believe you would just trust us’: why social assistance shouldn’t come with strings attached’ presents two large-scale policy experiments in India and Bangladesh where all residents of five urban communities received unconditional basic income plus participatory forms of community organising. According to the research team from Bangladesh, India and the UK the results of the trials are encouraging.
- You can vote till the end of January 2025 for a Motto to the 18th International Basic Income Week Mo-Su 15th-21st September 2025 #basicincomeweek18 at https://basicincomeweek.org/vote-your-motto-for-2025/ .You can choose up to three different favourite mottos.
- The Denver (USA) Basic Income Project has published a Playbook for Building a Guaranteed Income Program for Those Experiencing Homelessness.
- Steven Janssens is a Belgian filmmaker and engineer known for his diverse career as a director, editor, and trainer. He gained recognition for documenting Crazy Money (2020), a film capturing the Eight project in Busibi, Uganda, where residents received an unconditional basic income. You can read the interview of Steven Janssens about his motivation to advocate and promote UBI here.
- You may be interested in the interview of Scott Douglas Jacobsen with Guy Standing about Emergency Basic Income explaining implementation in different contexts, benefits and potential risks.
- If you know somebody who is interested to develop a doctoral thesis on Basic Income, the University of Antwerp in Belgium manages a research grant ‘Unravelling the Politics of Basic Income: How Responsive are Policymakers to Public Opinion?’ to which the successful applicant can contribute with her/his PhD. You can find out more here. The deadline for online application is 27 February 2025.
UBI Lab Leeds wishes you peace, happiness and health for the year 2025.
AND
We hope to see some of you on 4th February, 18.00hrs at the Arcadia.
In solidarity and
best wishes
reinhard on behalf of UBI Lab Leeds