In a full-blown blizzard, we joined a bunch of snow-shrugging protesters to close down the Brixton TopShop and Vodafone stores to highlight their owners’ tax-swerving activities.
Topshop is owned by multi-millionaire and ‘austerity advisor’ Sir Philip Green. Here;s his background:
Sir Philip Green is a multi-billionaire businessman, who runs some of the biggest names on British high streets. His retail empire includes brands such as Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Miss Selfridge and British Home Stores.Philip Green is not a non-dom. He lives in the UK. He works in the UK. He pays tax on his salary in the UK. All seems to be in order. Until you realise that Philip Green does not actually own any of the Arcadia group that he spends every day running.Instead, it is in the name of his wife who has not done a single day’s work for the company. Mrs Green lives in Monaco, where she pays not a penny of income tax.In 2005 Philip Green awarded himself £1.2bn, the biggest paycheck in British corporate history. But this dividend payout was channeled through a network of offshore accounts, via tax havens in Jersey and eventually to Green’s wife’s Monaco bank account.The dodge saved Green, and cost the tax payer, close to £300m. This tax arrangement remains in place. Any time it takes his fancy, Green can pay himself huge sums of money without having to pay any tax.Philip Green’s £285m tax dodge could pay for:The full, hiked up £9,000 fees for almost 32,000 students.Pay the salaries of 20,000 NHS nurses. [UKuncut]
Next stop Vodafone!
Vodafone swiftly shut up shop when they saw the protest heading their way!
Check out the full report here: Brixton Top Shop and Vodafone protests
Related posts:
Locate your local corporate tax-shirker with UK uncut mobile app
Brixton covered in snow – photos, Dec 18th 2010
Last remaining Brixton Prime Shop unit awaits its new owners – but will it be another phone shop?
Protests and parties planned as Clifton Mansions Brixton squat awaits eviction on 12th July 2011
Brixton car park awaits its fate
Brixton gets blander as balloons announce yet another bloody mobile phone shop
Brixton closes down as rumours of fresh trouble circulate
Cycooldelic Bike Hub, Brixton Road, Brixton – bicycle recycling for the local community
excellent pictures. i really like your blog. its great to have a local blogger covering the protests.
Fantastic photos and coverage. Great stuff! Wish I had been there!
Shame its total bollox & an urban myth these fuckwits are protesting about.
A large-scale action is planned for next Wednesday (26 Jan 2011) against the banks. The first thing to do is please tp send out the following tweet:
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Hit back at the banks: BANK RUN on Revenge Wednesday, 26 Jan 2011. Info at: tinyurl.com/bankrun2011 PLEASE FORWARD THIS
>>>
…and circulate the following info by any means possible…
BANK RUN ON REVENGE WEDNESDAY, 26 JAN
========================= ============
On Wednesday 26 January 2011, thousands of people in the UK will try to cause a bank run by withdrawing money from their bank accounts, in person, at high street bank branches.
The hope is that the movement will snowball.
Everyone is welcome. Just print out the form below, fill in your details, and take it to your bank, preferably around lunchtime, e.g. about 1pm. Even better, print out multiple copies and hand them round. Use email, Twitter, Facebook too.
When the first bank branch says it won’t pay out people’s money, let everyone know, using every means possible. Take photos. Use mobile phones, send tweets, get the journalists in on the picture. This movement is decentralised. It is what you and we make it.
Note that this idea was tried last December, after being suggested by Eric Cantona. Unfortunately it didn’t go very far, mainly because the organisers asked people to “sign up” online. We’re not asking you to sign up to anything. In particular, you do NOT have to give any personal details to anyone. The form below is just for giving to your BANK.
If you can only afford to withdraw 10 pounds, please do it. If you can afford to withdraw thousands of pounds, do that too. EVERY LITTLE HELPS. Banks cannot withstand everyone withdrawing even a tenth of what they’ve got in the bank. LET’S SEND THESE PARASITES A MESSAGE THEY’LL NEVER FORGET. It’s an open secret that they’re holding the country to ransom. Let’s kick ’em where it hurts.
This is the financial system’s MAJOR WEAK SPOT. That’s why the Dutch government is considering making it illegal to call for a bank run. Because they’re SCARED. In 2009 there was a bank run against a Dutch bank. This was considered to be a particularly unpleasant bank, which had been encouraging millions od Dutch people to get into debt who couldn’t afford it. People did a run against it, and it went bankrupt. How sad.
In Britain, you’d be hard pushed to name a bank which DIDN’T try to get people into massive debt they can’t really afford.
Here’s the bottom line: THE BANKS HAVE GOT IT COMING TO THEM.
So please take part. Spread the news. Distribute this leaflet. Print your own. Just do a little bit to help, and we’ll be strong and we’ll blast the damn banks like they’ve never been blasted before.
Please print the following, complete the details, and hand it to your bank around 1pm on 26 Jan 2011.
************************* *********
NAME: _________________________ _
ADDRESS:_________________ ____________
_________________________ _______
ACCOUNT NUMBER: ___________________
SORT CODE:____________________ __
NAME OF BANK:____________________ _
To: the Branch Manager
Dear Sir,
I wish to withdraw ____________ pounds from my account in cash, immediately.
Yours sincerely,
__________________ (signed)
************************* *********
Doesn’t this need to happen again this Saturday! Who is up for it? http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/actions/772