Feminist Guaranteed Livable Income #BasicIncome
Asian Women for Equality is part of the growing feminist-led movement to establish a Guaranteed Liveable Income. Learn more and join the fight for a fair, healthy and dignified life.
pictou statement
For millennia women’s work, along with the free gifts of nature, has provided most of the true wealth of our communities. Women’s work has been central to individual and collective survival. In all our diverse communities women can be seen to work on the principle that everybody is entitled to economic and physical security and autonomy and a fair share of the common wealth.
Women in every community, context and racial group are still denied our rightful political power over the economics governing these communities and our world. To paraphrase “A Women’s Creed,” for thousands of years men have had power without responsibility while women have responsibility without power. This situation must change.
Learn more about GLI
A discussion on why we need a guaranteed liveable income (GLI).
Could a guaranteed livable income create healthy societies and save the planet?
Presentation at BIEN Congress
A public conversation on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with Senator Kim Pate and Dr. Evelyn Forget
Guaranteed Livable Income and Sustainable Futures
A 2nd public conversation in Montreal - October 17, 2018
(La version française suit.)
Join us for the second annual panel discussion in Montreal on guaranteed livable income, hosted by the Asian Women for Equality Society on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
Today’s globalized economic system relies on our labour, and leaves many of us in poverty. Oil extraction, mining, and ‘fast fashion’ are among the industries that benefit the 1 per cent at the expense of the 99 per cent, and simultaneously promote overconsumption that has contributed to climate change and to the destruction of whole ecosystems. It is a system that exploits the vulnerable, and deepens inequalities based on sex, race, and class.
Activist Cindy L’Hirondelle argues that a Guaranteed Livable Income challenges the neoliberal assumption that people ought to work to survive, and allows us to carry out life-sustaining dignified work. She describes guaranteed income as being “necessary to our physical and social health and the health of our planet.” Such a policy might even change our aspirations - from that of material gain or survival, to allowing us to devote our time and energy toward activities that are beneficial to our communities.
Could a guaranteed livable income create healthy societies and save the planet?
Our panelists tasked with addressing this question include:
Rob Rainer - Basic Income Canada Network
Cathy Orlando - Citizen's Climate Lobby Canada
Cherry Smiley - Nlaka’pamux and Diné feminist
Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI, also known as Basic Income) is becoming increasingly recognized as a viable avenue toward economic justice and ending poverty. Last year, “The End of Poverty: Getting Basic Income Right in Canada” brought together leading voices in research and policy on implementing basic income here in Canada. The event featured Professor Evelyn Forget, Senator Kim Pate as well as community organizations that included Asian Women for Equality, Revenu de Base Quebec, Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle (La CLES), End Poverty Now (McGill Chapter), Mouvement contre le viol et l'inceste, and The Independent Women for Equality McGill.
Join us for our second annual panel discussion on GLI as we delve into what reducing poverty through this policy approach could mean for sustainability and environmental justice, and how this relates to advancing Indigenous rights, women’s rights and racial equality.
Presentations will be in French and English. Simultaneous interpretation will be available.
Venue is wheelchair accessible.
Le revenu de base et les futurs durables (Guaranteed Livable Income and Sustainable Futures)
Joignez-vous à nous pour la deuxième table ronde annuelle à Montréal sur le revenu de base, organisée par l’Asian Women for Equality Society à l'occasion de la Journée internationale pour l'élimination de la pauvreté.
Le système économique mondialisé d'aujourd'hui repose sur notre travail et laisse nombre d'entre nous dans la précarité. L'extraction de pétrole, l'exploitation minière et la «fast fashion» comptent parmi les industries qui profitent le plus aux 1% les plus riches au détriment des 99% restant·e·s, en favorisant la surconsommation qui a contribué au dérèglement climatique et à la destruction d'écosystèmes entiers. C'est un système qui exploite les plus vulnérables et approfondit les inégalités fondées sur le sexe, la race et la classe.
L'activiste Cindy L'Hirondelle soutient qu'un Revenu de base remet en question l’hypothèse néolibérale selon laquelle les gens devraient travailler pour survivre, et nous permettrait également d’accéder à un travail décent couplé à un salaire viable. Elle décrit le revenu de base comme étant « nécessaire à notre santé physique et sociale, et à la santé de notre planète ». Une telle politique pourrait même libérer nos aspirations - hors du gain matériel ou de la survie - pour nous permettre de consacrer notre temps et notre énergie à des activités qui sont bénéfiques pour nos communautés.
Un revenu minimum garanti pourrait-il créer des sociétés plus saines et sauver la planète ?
Nos panélistes chargé·e·s de traiter cette question sont:
Rob Rainer - Basic Income Canada Network « Réseau Revenu de base Canada »
Cathy Orlando - Citizens Climate Lobby Canada « Lobby des citoyens sur le climat Canada »
Cherry Smiley - Nlaka’pamux and Diné feminist
Le revenu de base (aussi connu sous le nom de « revenu minimum garanti ») est de plus en plus reconnu comme une voie viable vers la justice économique et la fin de la pauvreté.
Joignez-vous à nous pour notre deuxième table ronde annuelle sur le Revenu de base, pour analyser ensemble ce que la réduction de la pauvreté pourrait signifier pour la durabilité et la justice environnementale, et comment cela est lié à la promotion des droits des Autochtones, des droits des femmes et de l'égalité raciale.
Les interventions seront en français et en anglais. L'interprétation simultanée sera disponible.
Le lieu est accessible aux fauteuils roulants.
Réservation requise ! Veuillez cliquer sur le lien Eventbrite ci-dessus pour réserver vos places.
The End of Poverty - Gagner un Revenu de Base au Canada
A public conversation on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with Senator Kim Pate and Dr. Evelyn Forget
How should Basic Income Policy be designed and implemented to benefit everyone?
Following the success of last year’s Creative Conversation About Basic Income -- which brought together local Montrealers, artists, researchers, and advocates, and was organized in partnership with Revenu de Base Quebec and the University of the Streets Café at Concordia -- this year brings leading voices in Basic and Guaranteed Livable Income conversations together in Montreal to advance the discourse about ending poverty in Canada.
Our goal is to dig deeper into issues raised last time by inviting speakers directly implicated in some of the hardest questions: How do we design basic income for prisoners, refugees, new immigrants, and non-status residents? How does basic income address violence against women and systemic racism? How does basic income work with the existing fight for a livable minimum wage? What would the overall impact be on existing social services, on black market labour, on the cost of living, on our mental health, and on the environment? How do we pay for it, and how does it change us?
Let's raise big questions and have a wide open conversation together on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
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Une conversation publique sur la Journée internationale pour l'élimination de la pauvreté avec Sénateur Kim Pate et Dre Evelyn Forget.
Une traduction simultanée de l'anglais au français sera offerte!
Comment la politique de revenu de base doit-elle être conçue et mise en oeuvre pour que tous en bénéficient?
Après le succès de l'événement Creative Conversation About Basic Income de l'an dernier -- qui a rassemblé des montréalais, des artistes, des chercheurs et des défenseurs, et organisé en partenariat avec Revenu de Base Québec et L'université autrement: dans les cafés -- cette année nous amenons les principaux discours dans les conversations de revenus habituels et garantis à Montréal pour faire progresser le discours sur la fin de la pauvreté au Canada.
Notre objectif est de creuser davantage dans les questions soulevées lors de la dernière discussion en invitant les orateurs directement impliqués dans certaines des questions les plus difficiles: comment concevrons-nous des revenus de base pour les prisonniers, les réfugiés, les immigrants et les résidents sans statut? Comment le revenu de base traite-t-il la violence à l'égard des femmes et le racisme systémique? Comment le revenu de base fonctionne-t-il avec la lutte existante pour un salaire minimum? Quel serait l'impact global sur les services sociaux existants, sur la main-d'oeuvre du marché noir, sur le coût de la vie, sur notre santé mentale et sur l'environnement? Comment payerons-nous cela et comment cela nous change-t-il?
Soulevons ensemble les grandes questions et discutons ensemble lors de la Journée internationale pour l'élimination de la pauvreté.
Guaranteed Livable Income as the way forward to Abolishing Prostitution
Presented at the 15th BIEN Congress 2014 – Montreal, Canada
The 15th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network, “Re-Democratizing the Economy,”
Montreal, Canada, June 26-29, 2014.
By Sarah M. Mah, Yuly Chan (Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution)
ABSTRACT
Re-democratizing the economy must surely include everyone in an egalitarian world. The overwhelming reality is that women are often left out of democratic processes and pushed to the margins of society while our labour and our bodies are used to drive so-called economic development. Prostitution is one example of such an institution, which disproportionately violates the rights and freedoms of poor women of colour.
Normalizing the sex industry threatens to privatize women’s safety and increase exploitation of women’s poverty. The government’s apparent withdrawal from enhancing women’s democratic and civic participation denies women’s economic security. A Guaranteed Livable Income has the potential to impact the sexualized racism of prostitution on Asian women and women of colour. We will discuss its provision as the way forward to the abolition of prostitution, for the sake of advancing women’s equality and economic security.
The Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution was an intervenor in Canada v. Bedford, a Supreme Court of Canada case that considered the constitutionality of some laws on prostitution. The Court decision struck down the laws and sent the issue back to the Parliament to modernize Canada’s approach to the danger that prostitution poses to women.
Parliament is now considering a Bill that accurately identifies male demand as the source of danger to women, recognizing that prostitution abrogates women’s equality and human dignity. Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution proposes that a comprehensive Guaranteed Livable Income is the necessary corollary to Bill C-36 to enhance women’s full access to Charter Rights.