Anti-cuts group will demonstrate against public service cuts and HSBC’s tax avoidance at bank branches nationwide.
On Saturday 21st March, activists across the country will come together to transform their local HSBC branches into live crime scenes in a stand against tax avoidance and public sector cuts.
This action comes in the wake of the HSBC tax avoidance scandal, in which the bank enabled 7000 UK citizens to avoid on over £20 billion worth of earnings by holding it in offshore accounts. Incidentally the Conservative party received donations of over £5 million from these same HSBC clients and in the past few weeks George Osborne declared that it was ‘not his job’ to prosecute tax dodging corporations.
Despite the government’s reluctance to seriously confront tax avoidance, they have been pernicious in their attempts to claw back money from frontline services. In the last 5 years we have experienced cuts of £21 billion to our healthcare, education, and welfare services, to name a few. If the Conservatives win the upcoming election, we will be looking at further cuts of £12 billion. These numbers are not efficiencies; they represent a very real impact on people’s lives and the ruthless dismantling of our welfare state.
UK Uncut is a grassroots movement taking action to highlight alternatives to austerity. They believe this tax avoidance is theft. The public are losing out on an estimated 19 billion pounds each year (according to tax expert Richard Murphy) from corporate individuals and companies which could be spent on squeezed public services.
Sam from UK Uncut said
“David Cameron’s millionaire government have unleashed devastating and brutal austerity on the British public. At the same time they’ve let big banks like HSBC who caused the financial crash pocket billions by dodging tax and helping others do the same. The cuts to our vital public services are a political choice, not an economic necessity. This is daylight robbery on the greatest scale. We’d like to extend an invitation to all outraged members of the public to join us in showing HSBC for the criminals they are this Saturday.”
People will be asked to meet at 11am at a central London location to be confirmed. They are asked to dress up as their favourite detective or a tax dodging robber and following in the vein of past UK Uncut protests it will be creative and non-violent.
