Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 11:08:07 -0400 From: "P. K. Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: New List on Workfare MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII The moderator is Tim Rourke. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Workfare-mincome is a fairly new list that was started by people concerned about the perversion of social welfare into forced labor that is generally called workfare. The exact focus of the list continues to evolve but most subscribers are interested in strategies that can stop workfare, which means considering what the alternative to workfare is. Social programs seem to go through three stages; 1) The punitive stage of workfare, work houses, and work tests. 2) The welfare entitlement stage that gives people something to survive on, but still sees unemployment as temporary. Assistance usually inadequate and comes with demeaning means tests. 3) The highest stage of evolution, of simply giving people enough to live on and letting them do as they please with their own time. In different countries it is called Mincome, Citizen's income, Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI), and Basic Income. The question is then how to stop the regression to workfare and engineer the progression to mincome? Many subjects touch on it, from Community Work against Institutionalised Poverty, to Labor and Civil Liberties Law, to the techniques and aims of Public Opinion Polling. It is a moderated list, but no submission will be refused unless it is clearly out in orbit. This is no longer a list for people who have nothing better to do with their time and who want to have pointless debates. It is for serious anti-poverty activists who want to exchange useful information and experience about how to effectively combat workfare in their own communities, and to turn it into adequate incomes for all people. The list is fairly international, with eight countries represented, but the bulk of subscribers presently are in Ontario, Canada. Try this list out. Unsubbing is even easier that subbing. To subscribe go to http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/Workfare-Mincome or e-mail the moderator at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
