At the World Movement of Christian Workers (WMCW) meeting held in Germany in July of this year, as a result of analysis and reflection during the seminar, we agreed our plan of action: to move towards a just, fraternal and sustainable society. Among the conclusions, all of the movements agreed to launch a common action for a Universal Basic Income: a campaign of raising awareness and recognition, in which we want to declare the need for everyone to have enough to live with dignity and cover all basic necessities for them and their family.

Why a Universal Basic Income?

The first thing we have observed and confirmed in the analysis shared by delegates from different continents is the reality of the suffering of many families all over the world for not having the minimum resources to be able to live.

Situations of severe poverty and infringement of fundamental rights occur all over the world.  There are millions of families that still have not had the possibility of having a decent job and scrape by in the informal economy, based on exploitation and humiliation.  As such they have not been able to enjoy the goods and rights that, in other regions, are obtained with a job: salary, social protection, health. They are living in a permanent crisis.

We have also confirmed the situation of millions of families that, despite having work, fall into the cycle of impoverishment due to the precariousness of their jobs. Consequently, they lose basic social rights, especially housing, health or social protection. The global financial crisis has made this situation worse in many regions of the world.

The ILO highlights the situation that this worldwide crisis has provoked and the difficulties, if economic policies do not change, in generating millions of job positions in the coming years. In this context, employment, which in many regions of the world served as a mechanism for social inclusion and integration, now cannot conform to this role. The increase in precarious work is one of the consequences that neoliberal capitalism has imposed as its main way out of the alleged global crisis situation. The balance between capital and work is breaking down and this means the loss of protection of workers' rights that previously accompanied any worker.

Constructing a more just, fraternal and sustainable society – which has been the motto of our meeting – requires measures that specify, in a practical way, that all people can live with dignity in the most fundamental aspects of their lives. With our Christian identity, we believe it is necessary that the organisation of society recognises each person, his or her dignity, and the need to fully develop all aspects of him or herself.

The meaning and reach of the right to work was not only stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because it was thought that employment was a moral value that needed protection.  Rather, it also highlights the right to recognition and social inclusion: the right of every person to have a position and a significant occupation in a social group.  Today, employment does not fulfil this role. One has to find new ways of guaranteeing and creating the right to inclusion and social recognition, and the right to work.

Faced with growing unemployment and the impossibility of offering work to a large part of the population, basic human necessities cannot be covered by current economic policies, which are based on the creation of jobs. It is because of this that there exists the urgency and need for a political debate, where new ways in which people can cover the most basic and fundamental necessities are identified. When social protection measures of so many countries worldwide are failing, or when, in Northern countries, austerity policies result in true impoverishment in people’s lives, some basic incomes that enable the right to life are necessary.

What is Universal Basic Income?

It is in this context that a Universal Basic Income makes sense. According to the international network for Universal Basic Income, BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network), the novelty lies in that, unlike much of the existing aid in welfare systems, basic income is not conditional on the beneficiary’s accreditation of a situation of need or want. It is basic because it is an income from which other incomes can arise, coming from different sources. Furthermore, it is completely universal; it is given to everyone as if it were a right and it is unconditional, received simply by being a citizen.  This income would serve to grant all members of a political community a baseline recognition as citizens of that society, and it would be a way of valuing and recognising activities that are work but not employment.

Its vocation is to prevent the poverty and exclusion of millions of people. It is intended for each person, not the household or family. It would set in stone the right that everyone has, to receive a periodical amount of money from the State that covers their crucial needs without owing any compensation, independent of where they live, race or sex, and whether they work or not.  Thus, Universal Basic Income is among the income distribution measures aimed at overcoming social inequality. Public money would be in the hands of the citizens in the form of a Basic Income, something more effective than bailing out the banks.

The viability of this proposal is questioned by many political and economic sectors, given that basic income is the manifestation of a way of seeing society and politics.  In reality, it is no more than a way of redistributing wealth. It would be financed by redistribution of capital and increasing the tax burden, not to the workers’ incomes but to capital and financial transactions. In many parts of the world there are entities – the ILO, the UN itself – where Universal Basic Income is already on the political agenda.  In Europe, a proposal has already been made to the European Parliament, a popular legislative initiative in which a legal framework is requested for its application in the member states.

As Christian workers and members of WMCW, our mission, arising from our personal and community promise, is to provide concrete proposals that contribute to solving the problems of impoverishment of so many working families. We have to support the political, economic and legal reforms necessary for the economy to be subject to the imperative of the common good, by means of its orientation to the needs of the people, the creation of decent employment and the protection of people’s social rights. Universal Basic Income is a tool that can help millions of people who are unemployed, in precarious work, retired, etc. to escape this despicable situation.  To do this, it is important to get a profound debate about this initiative on the political agenda of the international community and across most of the world’s population, and to join however many networks and actions there are in this field. As Christian workers we want to show our willingness to contribute to the establishment of principles of social organisation where each family, each person, can live with dignity; with the dignity that God has wanted for each one of his sons and daughters.

Charo Castelló Co-president, WMCW.  18^th September 2013

Websites for more information:

http://basicincome2013.eu/ubi/es/firmar-la-iniciativa/

https://www.facebook.com/RentaBasicaUniversal

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