David Keil and I attended the Green Rainbow Party Convention in Worcester on Sat. May 30th this past weekend.
The first speaker was Jason B. Murphy professor of philosophy at Elms College who explained the idea of a Basic Income Guarantee. The website for Basic Income Guarantee US says this: "The Basic Income Guarantee is an unconditional, government-insured guarantee that all citizens will have enough income to meet their basic needs." Groups of this sort have organized in Europe (BIEN) and Britain (CIT) . USBIG was formed in Dec. of 1999 to promote discussion of the idea. Already the state of Alaska has been issuing oil dividends to its residents every year.
Jason Tait, Communications Director from the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance gave a brief and entertaining overview of campaign finance basics for those involved in campaigns. He managed to inject humor into his talk which is quite a challenge when discussing campaign finance.
Another presentation to the whole group was by Rosemary Wessell, who gave a well informed and power point presentation of the anti-fracking pipeline movement in MA and how to push back on pipelines with all of the regulatory agencies involved.
A delicious vegetarian lunch was served downstairs and in the afternoon there were candidate speeches, voting and the workshops.
I attended a workshop by Claire Schaefer-Duffy and Paul Ropp of the Center for Non-Violent
Solutions. In it they talked about how they teach this program in the schools. Through grants from several Worcester foundations they were able to provide 30 weeks of 1.5 hour instruction in an after school program at a very culturally diverse school, Sullivan Middle. They previewed the models and programs they used and engaged participants in a game that encourages cooperation among the players-Crossing the River.
The first speaker was Jason B. Murphy professor of philosophy at Elms College who explained the idea of a Basic Income Guarantee. The website for Basic Income Guarantee US says this: "The Basic Income Guarantee is an unconditional, government-insured guarantee that all citizens will have enough income to meet their basic needs." Groups of this sort have organized in Europe (BIEN) and Britain (CIT) . USBIG was formed in Dec. of 1999 to promote discussion of the idea. Already the state of Alaska has been issuing oil dividends to its residents every year.
Jason Tait, Communications Director from the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance gave a brief and entertaining overview of campaign finance basics for those involved in campaigns. He managed to inject humor into his talk which is quite a challenge when discussing campaign finance.
Another presentation to the whole group was by Rosemary Wessell, who gave a well informed and power point presentation of the anti-fracking pipeline movement in MA and how to push back on pipelines with all of the regulatory agencies involved.
A delicious vegetarian lunch was served downstairs and in the afternoon there were candidate speeches, voting and the workshops.
I attended a workshop by Claire Schaefer-Duffy and Paul Ropp of the Center for Non-Violent
Solutions. In it they talked about how they teach this program in the schools. Through grants from several Worcester foundations they were able to provide 30 weeks of 1.5 hour instruction in an after school program at a very culturally diverse school, Sullivan Middle. They previewed the models and programs they used and engaged participants in a game that encourages cooperation among the players-Crossing the River.
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