Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

UK Uncut 'Big Society Bail-In' starts this Saturday @Barclays

uk uncut | 16.02.2011 13:08

Here are some details.



Hello everyone,

UK Uncut have added a second strand to the anti-cuts campaign. This
Saturday will see the very first national day of action by the 'Big
Society Bail-in' team

Here is a video giving an example of what you can do and how
 http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/

IN LONDON there are around 7 actions already planned. Join one, or start
your own.

OUTSIDE LONDON: actions are springing up from Scotland to Devon, join one
or list your own action in your town.

BE CREATIVE AND DARING!

Our website has leaflets and other resources.

GOOD LUCK! email,  ukuncut@gmail.com if you need any help.

>>>> The Call-Out <<<<<<

Look through the newspapers this month and two points will become
immediately clear. First, the government is cutting, privatising and
changing the very nature of social security and public goods that were won
through the 20th century. Every aspect of what was fought for by
generations seems under threat – from selling off the forests, privatising
health provision, closing the libraries and swimming pools, and scrapping
rural bus routes.

Second, the banks are doing just fine. February is bankers' bonus month;
Barclays announces their gifts to themselves on the 15th, with its chief
executive, Bob Diamond, expecting £9m just for him. While RBS is due to
transfer its £900m bonus pool into the pockets of high-earning bankers on
the 25th. These bonuses should make the disgrace of the MPs' expenses
scandal look like chicken feed and are another demonstration of just how
much we really are not all in this together.

The two, of course, are linked. Because it was our broken banking system,
with its greed and reckless gambling, that caused the crash. The National
Audit Office has reported that at its peak, the amount of support provided
to the banks reached nearly £1tn. In 2009 alone, £131bn of public money
was spent keeping the banking industry afloat – and taxpayers continue to
spend money supporting the banking system. But instead of asking the banks
to pay for their crisis, it is the public who were asked to support the
banks that are now being made to pay a further price.

The £2.5bn so-called "raid" on the banks is a levy of around 0.075% of
their balance sheets. That's pathetic. Since 2007 and the Northern Rock
crash, it's been abundantly obvious that the banking system is unjust to
the core: from exorbitant bankers' bonuses to gambling on debt, from
massive tax loopholes to holding the country to ransom with their threats
of moving to Zurich. Before the crisis, after the crisis, it's as if we've
learned nothing: the banks still serve themselves, not the public.

Over the past four months UK Uncut has grown from a meeting in a pub to
hundreds of high-street acts of protest against tax avoiders, highlighting
the £25bn dodged in taxes every single year by some of the most wealthy
individuals and profitable corporations. Combine this clamping down on tax
avoidance with truly tough action on the banks and you've got a genuine
alternative to the cuts agenda. It is simply a lie to say that the only
way to reduce the deficit is to sacrifice essential public services, which
support some of the poorest in our society. There is an alternative, but
the government doesn't want to talk about it because they have got the
same agenda as the banks: making the poor pay the way for the rich.

This is an outrage and it has to be stopped. UK Uncut has launched the Big
Society Bail-In. On 19 February we will be targeting Barclays, and on 26
February we will turn to RBS. Civil disobedience is back in Britain, and
it is on your local high streets. Just like with Vodafone and Topshop,
anyone can get involved, because tax-avoiding corporations and banks have
put their outlets and branches everywhere. Every time a library is closed,
every time a hospital is privatised, there's somewhere nearby where people
can protest – your friendly local high street.

Together, we're going to change those high-street branches into schools,
libraries, gyms and forests. We're going to show that it's our society
that is too big to fail, not our broken banking system. It's going to be
fun, but it's also going to be hard work, because this isn't just about
Twitter – it never was. It's about on the street, grassroots,
getting-in-the-way politics, the same politics that won women suffrage,
defeated the poll tax and could stop the cuts.

It's about telling your friends, your co-workers, your children, your mum.
It's about knowing why our welfare state is being attacked and targeting
the right people in response. Everyone should do what they can do to make
this happen. Come on the UK Uncut protests this month, and also make sure
you're taking to the streets on 26 March. Let's make the banks pay for
their crisis.

uk uncut
- e-mail: ukuncut@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.ukuncut.org.uk

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Barclays bonuses show up bank levy — £3.5 billion.
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech