[van-announce] Discussion on Guaranteed Livable Income - Victoria

[announcements at resist.ca]

Discussion on Guaranteed Livable Income - Victoria

food & bus tickets provided.

BACKGROUND
One in five people in BC and one in eight Canadians does not have enough
money to meet their basic needs. (Federal government study, Times Colonist,
May 26, CanWest News, Eric Beauchesne)

There is ample health research that shows that poverty takes years off
people's lives and is a main determinant of health. Simply put, poverty
makes people's lives miserable, makes people sick and then puts them in an
early grave. It is especially devastating for the world's women who make up
70% of the world's poor. The statistical evidence of this is overwhelming.
This is a health emergency that must be addressed by the immediate
implementation of a guaranteed income.

"We must create full employment or we must create incomes. The solution to
poverty is to abolish it directly. [with] the guaranteed income." Martin
Luther King, 1967, Chaos or Community.

The market system cannot function with full employment. Economists describe
how unemployment is needed to keep wages down and workers 
"flexible"; they
call it the NAIRU, the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment.

"Everybody, including the NDP, boast about their ability to create more
jobs. But they don't want full employment. Capitalism can't work without
people quarreling for the privilege of working for the boss."
Steve Brodie, an organizer of the unemployed from the 1930's.

"Fewer working: Unemployment rise heartwarming for economists."
Headline in the Financial Post of Aug. 5, 2000.

The market system also cannot function without women's unpaid work. The
'solution' of full employment does not recognize that those raising young
children are working at a very labour intensive job.

Given that full employment is impossible, we need a guaranteed income to
stop people from living and dying in poverty.

Why is there not a movement to save people's lives by providing people with
a universal guaranteed income at a level high enough to meet people's basic
needs?
Come to this meeting & discussion.

GUEST PRESENTER:
Matt Fair author, artist and creator of the 6 CD audio collage called "The
World Owes You a Living."

This audio collage is the result of a 20 year project collecting sound-clips
from CBC radio and other sources, interviews as well as a straight from the
horse's mouth portrait of neo-liberalism. It is a dramatic expose and
fearless critique of the work ethic.
More information is available at the web site:
www.theworldowesyoualiving.org

Organizers will give an overview about guaranteed livable income (GLI):
* what it is, why it is urgently needed now.
* how full employment is an impossible 'solution' to poverty.
* how our economic system destroys our health, the environment and our
communities.
* how a GLI can be a transition to create an rational economy based on
health & sustainability.
* what are the objections to a guaranteed income.
* other countries that have a basic income movement.

This is meeting #4 in a 6 part meeting series organized to respond to the
emergency of poverty in BC. Reports from all the meetings will be available
at the end of the series.

The next two meetings will be June 5 and June 12 at the same time and
location.
Proposed topic for June 5 is the connection between jobs and the
environment: is full green employment at decent wages possible?

Victoria Anti-Poverty Coalition
Box 8441 Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1
250-388-9181
apov at acts.bc.ca

Status of Women Action Group
Box 8484 Victoria BC V8W 3S1
(tel) 250-383-7322 (fax) 388-0100
swag at pacificcoast.net



Where
1709 Blanshard St. (near Fisgard) Victoria
When
Thursday, 29th of May 2003 from 1:00 PM until approximately 3:00 PM

For more information
apov at acts.bc.ca
250-388-9181


This event is being organised by Sponsored by the Victoria Anti-Poverty 
Coalition and Status of Women Action
  

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