Public Roundtable: "Guaranteed Income as Economic Justice"

Sept. 29, 2022, 6-8pm, at the German Historical Institute Washington

Joint Event by the GHI, the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor (Georgetown University), and the Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy (University of California, Santa Barbara). Endorsed by the AHA.

Welcome: Axel Jansen (GHI)

Introduction: Alice O’Connor (Department of History, UCSB)

Moderator: Marcia Chatelain (Department of History, Georgetown University)

Discussants:• Mark Levinson (former Chief Economist, Service Employees International Union)• Premilla Nadasen (History Department, Barnard College)• Melody Webb (Executive Director and Founder Mother’s Outreach Network/DC Guaranteed Income Coalition)In recent years proposals for a guaranteed income have gained considerable traction in the United States, whether in the form of expanded child tax credits, cash transfers, or universal basic income. Especially notable has been the expanding array of experimental pilot programs in municipalities nationwide, with support from philanthropies, elected officials, and a now expanding network of practitioners, advocates, researchers, and community-based organizations. Drawing insights from history, law, labor, and policy, this roundtable will consider the significance of guaranteed income in past and contemporary economic justice organizing among low-income mothers, workers, and communities, and, more broadly, in ongoing struggles to elevate racial, gender, and intersectional equity as fundamental economic values.