News on Basic Income in the U.S., April 17, 2000

Contents

1. Basic Income seminar in New York City
2. Canadian National Newspaper Discusses Basic Income
3. New book has two chapters on Basic Income
4. Links & other info

1. BASIC INCOME SEMINAR

Our informal group of Basic Income supporters will have its second seminar next month. Robert Harris, will discuss the failure of the guaranteed income movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and we'll all discuss the lessons for the new movement for basic income. Harris was Executive Director of the President's Commission on Income Maintenance Programs, 1968-1970, and worked on income distribution policy issues through the 1970s at the Urban Institute.

The seminar will be at a new location:

6:30pm Wednesday, May 24, 2000
at the Association to Benefit Children
419 E. 86th St. between York Ave. and First Ave.

I hope all of you who will be in the New York area at that time will be able to attend.

2. CANADIAN NATIONAL NEWSPAPER DISCUSSES BASIC INCOME

On March 28, Anthony Westell, a well-know columnist for Canada's largest national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, called for Canada's ruling Liberal party to take up Basic Income as a political issue in the next election, which could be held as early as this fall. He endorsed the basic income proposal outlined in Lerner, Clark, and Needham's book, "Basic Income: Economic Security for All Canadians."

3. NEW BOOK HAS TWO CHAPTERS ON BASIC INCOME

Michael W. Howard, associate professor of Philosophy at the University of Maine, Orono, has a new book out on self-managed market socialism with two chapters dedicated to basic income. He argues that economic democracy and basic income can be mutually reinforcing.

The following is from the publisher's website:

Self-Management and the Crisis of Socialism: The Rose in the Fist of the Present

By Michael W. Howard

$22.95 Paper 0-8476-8905-0
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
January 2000, 304pp

$65.95 Cloth 0-8476-8904-2
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
January 2000
304pp

While some conclude from the revolutions of 1989 that socialism is dead, interest in socialism continues because of persisting problems of contemporary capitalism. In this exciting text, Michael W. Howard offers critiques of liberal, communitarian, postmodern and some Marxist perspectives in order to develop a "left-liberal" defense of a model of self-managed market socialism that includes a basic income for all. Specific applications of his view include analyses of its implications for the global marketplace, the changing nature of workplaces, and media restructuring and ownership. This work is sure to be of interest to social scientists, public policy makers, and economists as well as to feminists, ecologists, and others concerned with how market socialism is relevant to their social issues.

Michael W. Howard is associate professor of Philosophy at the University of Maine, Orono. He is the author of numerous articles on Marxism and social justice.

4. LINKS & OTHER INFO:

The Basic Income European Network (BIEN) will have its next conference this fall in Berlin. BEIN also maintains a website and a newsletter promoting basic income in Europe and around the world. If you are interested in finding out more about it, see the BIEN website:

http://www.econ.ucl.ac.be/ETES/BIEN/bien.html

Britain's Citizens' Income Trust publishes a newsletter and maintains a website; both have news on basic income/citizen's income from the United Kingdom and around the world. See their website:

http://www.citizensincome.org/

Email:

citizens-income@lse.ac.uk

A lively email discussion group on basic income is up and running in Canada.

If you're interested contact:

Sally Lerner

The Australian Basic Income group, OASIS, publishes an email newsletter. Anyone interested in receiving a copy should contact:

Allan McDonald

If you have any news on basic income, please let me know. If you know anyone who would like to be added to this list please send me their email address or ask them to contact me. If you'd like to be removed from this list please email me.