UNITED STATES: Meet BIMA, the new Basic Income organization in Massachusetts

Welfare rights and anti-poverty activists Ann Withorn, Jason Murphy, and Diane Dujon have just started a Basic Income (BI) organization in Massachusetts, the immediate goal of which is to build a Basic Income Movement in Massachusetts. Using the acronym BIMA, the organization started functioning in July and is already present online with a website and Facebook page. A formal Founding Meeting is planned for this November, in the Dorchester/Roxbury area, Massachusetts.

Starting out with a small group of activists, including but not limited to the founders mentioned above, the organization intends to initiate its activity by creating a database of supporters, who may or may not be directly involved in the group’s work. This reach-out effort aims to speak about Basic Income to other community or movement groups, and producing BI-related literature for local newsletters and events, including how BI can be implemented in Massachusetts.

BIMA also plans to host a workshop at the Center for Popular Economics this summer, speak at the and at the . Joining in with Survivors Inc. to revive local newspaper Survival News is also part of BIMA’s further actions to spread the word about BI. BIMA will also develop efforts to push for a BI for Massachusetts, starting by creating a strategy for a Massachusetts Legislative Initiative.

According to its founders, BIMA defends BI as a full blown anti-poverty proposal, not only aimed at those currently poor but also at removing fear of poverty from all. In their view, the only way to actually achieve that is for a significant number of poor people to get involved from the beginning, joining efforts with activist groups dedicated to anti-poverty, labor, and community work. For BIMA, including those who have actually suffered socioeconomic insecurity in their lives is the only way to keep the movement going, keeping up the push for a Basic Income.

More information at:

BIMA website at https://basicincomema.wordpress.com/

BIMA Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Basic-Income-MA-BIMA/729327107177594?fref=ts