Dear UBI Friends and Supporters,
We hope you are enjoying the good weather, although it may be too good for this time of the year.
- Would you like to join us for the next in-person UBI Lab Leeds meeting?
We will have a UBI Lab Leeds discussion and social gathering on Tuesday, 6th May, starting at 6.00 PM (18.00hrs) at the HEART (Headingley enterprise and arts centre) not the Arcadia pub. (HEART, Bennett Road, Leeds LS6 3HN) (https://heartcentre.org.uk/).
We will have another discussion about the book ‘Unconditional Freedom – Universal Basic Income and Social Power’ by David Casassas. The book has first been published in Spanish in 2018 and in 2024 Pluto Press published an English version (https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745348636/unconditional-freedom/ ).
We may discuss the topic of ‘Degrowth versus Postgrowth and their link to UBI’ in view of a Degrowth event in Leeds in May. Please also propose your own burning topics related to UBI!
You are welcome to bring along friends!
- DEGROWTH – ECONOMIES AS IF PEOPLE AND PLANET MATTERED
What exactly is it? Can it help us tackle the polycrises of our age?
What does it mean for policy makers, researchers, entrepreneurs and activists?
Book launch and conversation with Anitra Nelson and Vincent Liegey
Where? School of Geography, University of Leeds, Level 7 Foyer (entrance on Chancellors Court, near Sustainability Garden)
When? Tuesday May 20th 16.30-18hrs (4.30-6pm). All welcome. No need to book. Refreshments provided
Hosted by The School of Geography and the Sustainability Research Institute, Faculty of Environment, University of Leeds
In this public lecture we are delighted to host leading degrowth thinkers Anitra Nelson and Vincent Liegey. They will introduce their new handbook on degrowth and engage in a conversation with Leeds based academics and practitioners on the usefulness and uses of degrowth as an idea and tool for change.
The Routledge Handbook of Degrowth takes stock of degrowth as a concept and movement of increasing significance for addressing inequities and unsustainabilities today. Contributors explain the context for degrowth’s significance, elaborate on its diverse history, and detail its unique approaches and practices. Degrowth stimulates various debates and its the handbook outlines the challenges of degrowth’s potential futures. This 35-chapter handbook, edited by Anitra Nelson with Vincent Liegey as the editorial adviser, has 55 expert contributors.
For more information contact: Paul Chatterton p.chatterton@leeds.ac.uk and Richard Baernthaler R.Barnthaler@leeds.ac.uk - In connection with the above talk, you may be interested in this document about post-growth finance ‘By disaster or design’. The way we do business and the way we live our lives is ingrained in a “growth at all costs” mindset. But those “costs” are the very systems that keep us alive. It’s time for finance to take a new path.
- Real effects of Basic Income
A pilot organised by the Civil Society Organisation ‘Mein Grundeinkommen‘ has just been completed in Germany. The pilot project followed 122 people for three years who received an unconditional sum of €1,200 every month. The control group included a further 1,580 people who did not receive any money. You can read about some of the findings in English: https://www.pilotprojekt-grundeinkommen.de/en
Some results have been published in this preliminary paper ‘Cash Transfers, Mental Health, and Agency: Evidence from an RCT in Germany’.
You can read an interview with two researchers on the UBIE (Europe) website ‘Debunking the Social Hammock Myth: German Basic Income Experiment Shows Remarkable Results’
and a CNN report ‘A German experiment gave people a basic monthly income. The effect on their work ethic was surprising’.
- UBI Lab Food
You may want to read the newest Blog post ‘Nourishing our Nation with a UBI’. Two key messages:
Empowering agency: UBI would put power back in the hands of food citizens, allowing them to access healthier, affordable food, and support independent food businesses.
Holistic well-being: Food isn’t just about nourishment; it’s also about joy. UBI would allow individuals to make food choices that support their mental and emotional health, without shame or stigma.
In light of the Sustainable Farming Incentive application closure, colleagues at BI4FARMERS ask for support in co-signing an open letter to Daniel Zeichner, the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, urging the government to provide more stable income for agricultural workers and explore a Basic Income for Farmers to enable food producers to not just survive but thrive. Please do read their open letter here and consider adding your support.
- Equal Right (ER) has started a new pilot project, Unconditional Cash for Climate Justice (‘UC4CJ’), which provides cash transfers to climate activists in Tuvalu, a nation of several islands in the Pacific Ocean and on the frontline of climate devastation. This pilot intends to demonstrate the impact of unconditional cash for climate justice and allow climate defenders to continue their vital work. You can read an update about this exciting project in BIEN’s UBI Times. You can support the project through a donation to Equal Right.
Equal Right organised a competition on their Cap & Share Policy. The winner is Clara Tomé Colomer. Her proposal, “Fashion Commons” tackles overproduction, textile waste, and the fossil-fuel dependence of the fast fashion industry by capping garment production and redistributing revenue to climate justice initiatives, whilst supporting regenerative agriculture, biodegradable materials, and fairer wages for garment workers through unconditional cash transfers.
Patrick Brown, director of ER, has proposed in two blogs ‘Los Angeles Wildfires Show Us Why We Need a UBI for Climate Justice’ and ‘How a Global Universal Income Could Help Poverty & the Planet.
- Helen Hester and Will Stronge from the Autonomy Institute have written a book introducing and intervening within an area of theory and politics called ‘post-work’. Will Stronge explains the origin of the book ‘Post-work: What It Is, Why It Matters and How We Get There’ in a blog here. It includes a chapter on Unconditional Universal Income. David Frayne, Author of The Refusal of Work (2015) writes ‘the book is a call for fresh forms of political intervention in a world where work is not working’
- BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network) has submitted inputs to the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights for the Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth. You can read the submission here.
- You can watch ten video recordings of the BIEN congress 2024 ‘Reclaiming the Future: Basic Income and Socio-Ecological Transformation’ here.
- The Basic Income Definition working group meets on 5 May, 12-13.30hrs, to discuss ‘Design by Definition – deconstructing the definition to decontextualise Basic Income’. You can find the Zoom link to join the session here.
- USA
Oakland Resilient Families – A Guaranteed Income Pilot
UpTogether, the City of Oakland, and Oakland Thrives partnered to provide 600 Oakland families with $500 per month for 18 month with no conditions. You find out about the pilot here and read the evaluation report ‘The American Guaranteed Income Studies: Oakland, California’.
Santa Fe LEAP
The pilot provided a monthly guaranteed income of $400 per month, for one year, to 100 Santa Fe, New Mexico, Community College students who were age 30 or under, the primary caretaker to at least one child, and with an income of less than 200% of the federal poverty line. You can read the evaluation report ‘The American Guaranteed Income Studies: Santa Fe, New Mexico’.
- Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) conference
In the USA will take place on 17 and 18 June 2025 in Washington DC. This will probably be an in-person event. If you are interested, you can register here.
- Finally this is not about UBI but it is still very important for our future:
‘The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet’ by Brett Christophers
The author argues: Why the market will never solve the Climate Crisis
Recent technical advances mean it is typically cheaper to produce electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuels. Yet, around the world, the transition to green energy is happening too slowly if it is happening at all. The problem is rooted in the absurdist nature of capitalist priorities: saving the planet on which our lives depend is not sufficiently profitable.
You may like the following quote of the US American writer Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
“Labor, n. One of the processes by which A aquires property for B.”
We hope to see you on 6th May, 18.00hrs at the HEART in Headingley.
In solidarity and with hope
best wishes
reinhard on behalf of UBI Lab Leeds