BEE Norway was founded in October 2012. This as a nationwide party-politically neutral organization to inform the population in Norway about basic income, as well as get basic income on the political agenda and promote basic income in Norway.
The organization is associated with the global basic income network Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), the European network Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE) and the Nordic network for the introduction of citizens' wages UBI-Nordic.
BIEN Norge also participated in the creation of the European network Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE) in 2014. Anja Askeland helped create the network and served as a board member. In addition, BIEN Norge has been active in the start-up of the Nordic network UBI-Nordic, which started in 2016.
Guaranteed basic income, often called borgerløn in Norwegian, is a financial benefit to all residents of a society, conceived as an unconditional and universal basic income that is paid regardless of social status and is high enough for those who receive it to live a life of dignity and with the opportunity to participate in society. It must be individual, paid regularly and in the form of money, which can be freely used for whatever one wants.
BIEN Norway is working to create a pilot project for basic income in Northern Norway. Due to centralization and a long period of under-prioritisation, Northern Norway has challenges with emigration, an older population and fewer children, which is a recipe for doom for the region in the broadest sense. The problem is that these things work together and seem mutually reinforcing. It gets harder and harder and life can get very complicated.
A basic income would be able to secure the income of everyone who lives in the north, thus making it more attractive to move north and stay. Power and freedom will be returned to the individual, because they will experience increasing control over their own lives. A basic income can therefore help to democratize the big decisions that have to be made.
Many pilot projects have been carried out around the world, including in Finland. A favorable time to introduce basic income in Northern Norway is in connection with the election campaign for the upcoming county and municipal elections on 11 September. There are large areas and relatively few people, which can make the threshold lower for getting political support for a trial project in the north.
Bien will invite the members to participate in the Karlsøy Festival and facilitate various workshops open to everyone to explore and design the pilot together, so that they end up with a concrete and reasoned proposal that can be presented. Among other things, they want to get the participants to think about how basic income can affect their lives individually and how the introduction of basic income can affect the situation and dynamics in Northern Norway.
As part of this, they want to present and invite you to experiment and test it digital trust-based currency Circle, which is specially developed for local communities and acts as a complementary currency. Circle is developed by a group associated with the basic income and cryptocurrency community in Berlin. It has an inherent basic income element. As a result of the individual's participation in the system, new circles are created, which the participants then receive in their digital wallet. .
The results of the workshops on the basic income pilot will be presented at a separate event at the Mayor's Office in Tromsø on 7 August 2023. We will invite politicians who are candidates for the municipal council in Tromsø and the county council in Tromsø, as well as the NAV manager in Tromsø. They will have the opportunity to comment on and debate the proposal we come up with at the Karlsøy Festival.