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!