Showing posts with label Arcadia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arcadia. Show all posts

Monday, 6 December 2010

Tax justice becomes a movement

As we blogged on 30 November, tax justice has taken to the streets.


After years of painstaking research and lobbying by the Tax Justice Network, ably supported by PCS - whose members work, and are increasingly being cut from, HM Revenue and Customs - the campaign now has a movement to further raise its profile and popularise it: UK Uncut, which has branded the campaign 'Big Society Revenue & Customs'.

On Saturday 4 December there was, according to the BBC (though there's a better write-up in the Morning Star) actions in 21 towns and cities across the UK, including Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton, York

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said:

"People are rightly angry that the government is targeting the most vulnerable in our society with massive cuts in spending and yet it appears to be very relaxed about rich and powerful tax dodgers.

"We have campaigned for two years for action to be taken to tackle the billions of pounds in tax lost to our economy every year because wealthy individuals and organisations avoid paying what they owe.

"The moral and economic case, particularly at a time when we are told action needs to be taken to bring down the budget deficit, is unarguable."


This video shows how unarguable these campaigners - shutting down Oxford Street Top Shop - know the case to be, and there's some great photos and reportage from harpymarx.



And you really know a campaign has caught the zeitgeist when even the Daily Mail begins highlighting further corporate tax avoiders to protest against!

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Tax justice takes to the streets




Yesterday, Top Shop in Oxford Street became the latest target on the high street as protesters blockaded the store as part of the campaign for tax justice.

Protesters blockaded the store chanting "Philip Green, national thief, pay your tax or we won't leave!" and "Philip Green's taxation could pay for Education". There's good reason to target Top Shop, whose owner is Sir Philip Green (knighted under New Labour and brought into government by the coalition).

A previous target was of course Vodafone and its missing £6 billion, as exposed by Private Eye.

Tax justice campaigner Richard Murphy also makes a good case for taking an interest in the tax paid by Marks and Spencer on his TaxResearch blog, under the title 'Knickers to Tax'.

Another potential target I'd suggest should be Boots, which has relocated its headquarters to Switzerland - presumably for the nicer views ...

Either way, it means protesters this weekend scouring the High Street for blockading opportunities, shouldn't struggle for legitimate targets.