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Title: Interview with an anarchist re "violence" on U.K. anti-cuts demo Post by: gman on April 04, 2011, 04:38:18 PM Interview With an Anarchist (http://vimeo.com/21575286)
Title: Re: Interview with an anarchist re "violence" on U.K. anti-cuts demo Post by: gman on April 07, 2011, 04:48:24 PM While on the subject of taxes, which I just mentioned on another post - I thought it would be worth clarifying something Che says here for viewers outside the UK - when she refers to people questioning the targeting of HSBC, the Porsche showroom etc. because they are "not Vodafone" and pay their taxes, she's referring to a sweetheart deal that was made between Vodafone and HMRC (British equivalent of IRS) that let them off paying around £6 billion in taxes, money that of course could have paid for many of the vital services such as hospitals and libraries that are being ruthlessly cut by the very people who caused the financial crisis in the first place, and now want the poor to pay for it. Along with similar tax avoidance schemes by companies like Boots and TopShop, this inspired a loose organization called "UK Uncut" to occupy Vodafone shops and other tax avoiding corporations in civil disobedience (for which many UK Uncut activists were arrested and charged with criminal trespass at the same demonstration, despite having been assured by the police that they would not be arrested). So she's saying that regardless of whether or not they are blatant tax avoiders of the Vodafone ilk, all these corporations are exploiters and enemies of poor people, whether tax avoiders or not.
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