#WomenDemand Guaranteed Livable Income
On May 1, 2021 women at several locations around BC will simultaneously drop large banners reading #WomenDemand Guaranteed Livable Income. Suzette Cullen, resident of Denman Island and one of the women preparing for the action says: “This is a very good time to speak up and speak out and try to do something about the horrible inequalities in our society. During this pandemic we have seen government actually support people that need it. We want to see it continue. I think Guaranteed Livable Income can create long-lasting positive effects for women and us all.”
MayDay Action Around BC
Look for banners in Quesnel, Kelowna, Burnaby, Chase, Surrey, Vancouver, Denman Island, Sunshine Coast #womendemand Guaranteed Livable Income
Why a Guaranteed Livable Income Now?
Women of BC demand a feminist Guaranteed Livable Income, following the Pictou Statement. This Guaranteed Livable Income is provided individually and unconditionally to all and set at a rate that, along with robust public programs, enables all in BC and Canada to live a dignified and autonomous life. As governments talk of economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, we insist on women’s entitlement to better than a return to "normal". Women require monumental, urgent change, including here in BC.
Women already experience a “motherhood penalty” due to lower pay, fewer advancement opportunities, and smaller pensions. During the pandemic, women have been forced back into the home to provide the free labour necessary to men’s jobs at the expense of their own paycheques, savings, and career opportunities. Women have lost the most paid work and that paid work is least likely to come back. Single mothers have not experienced any recovery or needed respite since the economic “recovery” measures promoted in 2020 and the economic boom in many industries. Women need a new route to security and wellbeing. Guaranteed Livable Income can provide it.
Women are concentrated in low-paid work that lacks proper health and safety regulations. During the pandemic, many women have been forced into the role of essential workers needed to sustain society still without proper pay and safe working conditions. Women need a new way to organize against this exploitation. Guaranteed Livable Income can provide it.
Women who were poor at the start of the pandemic are poorer now and women are the majority of the world’s poor. Without adequate incomes, it is harder for women to leave violent husbands and employers. Without adequate incomes, women are more likely to turn to prostitution and pornography to sustain themselves. The pandemic has revealed these pressures and led to the rise of new venues for profiting from women’s bodies. Maintaining women in poverty means maintaining women’s inequality. Women need an alternative. Guaranteed Livable Income is a vital step.
Much of our existing economic system has undermined and devalued social and natural relationships that women have built and rely on for wellbeing. The pandemic has revealed that access to the natural world and the capacity for community building and political organizing are vital to sustaining us all. Women need to be able to build and sustain our valued social and natural relationships. To do this we need to be able to share in the real wealth of our world. We need access to those most important of resources: money, time, and a sense of security. Guaranteed Livable Income is a vital step.
We have a chance to do more than just recover from the pandemic. We have an opportunity to reinvent and build the society we want to live in. Let’s build a life sustaining culture in which we support women’s wellbeing and freedom, sharing our common wealth without exploiting it by instituting a Guaranteed Livable Income.
Women are concentrated in low-paid work that lacks proper health and safety regulations. During the pandemic, many women have been forced into the role of essential workers needed to sustain society still without proper pay and safe working conditions. Women need a new way to organize against this exploitation. Guaranteed Livable Income can provide it.
Women who were poor at the start of the pandemic are poorer now and women are the majority of the world’s poor. Without adequate incomes, it is harder for women to leave violent husbands and employers. Without adequate incomes, women are more likely to turn to prostitution and pornography to sustain themselves. The pandemic has revealed these pressures and led to the rise of new venues for profiting from women’s bodies. Maintaining women in poverty means maintaining women’s inequality. Women need an alternative. Guaranteed Livable Income is a vital step.
Much of our existing economic system has undermined and devalued social and natural relationships that women have built and rely on for wellbeing. The pandemic has revealed that access to the natural world and the capacity for community building and political organizing are vital to sustaining us all. Women need to be able to build and sustain our valued social and natural relationships. To do this we need to be able to share in the real wealth of our world. We need access to those most important of resources: money, time, and a sense of security. Guaranteed Livable Income is a vital step.
We have a chance to do more than just recover from the pandemic. We have an opportunity to reinvent and build the society we want to live in. Let’s build a life sustaining culture in which we support women’s wellbeing and freedom, sharing our common wealth without exploiting it by instituting a Guaranteed Livable Income.
BC Women's AllianceWe are a women-only, feminist coalition of groups and individuals around BC. We are part of the global movement of women fighting for women’s liberation. We reveal, record and fight the forces working against women.
Contact us at info@bcwomensalliance |
Feminist Leadership Across CanadaMany groups in Canada (and beyond) have been campaigning for decades for Guaranteed Livable Income, and there have been several trial programs of basic income in Canada.
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The hallmark of a free and democratic life is a free woman
Asya Abdullah, Kurdish organiser striving in coalition for stateless democracy