As promised, the footage from US Uncut’s Saturday protests continues to roll in. I was on Democracy Now! earlier this morning to talk about the domestic protests and also the massive day of action in the UK where half a million people, including participants of UK Uncut, marched in the streets against the British austerity measures. The video of my interview, in addition to the excellent Johann Hari talking about the original UK movement, can be viewed here.
Here’s Boston’s Chris Priest talking about who is actually responsible for the national deficit. He then performs a satirical version of We Didn’t Start The Fire with lyrics tailored to rip into BoA’s dodging practices. A sample:
Wealth didn’t trickle down, everybody’s screwed now
Free ride only for the biggest of the banks
They’ve made it well known, they don’t want to pay for roads
Let me tell ya something bout’ our friends BofA:
Dead beats, tax cheats, Hiding money overseas
Take this piece of shit loan, rate it “triple A” please
Tape off Wall Street, “white collar crime scene”
Shut down, marked “Out of business temporarily”
“[Bank of America] pays less in taxes than you do, and that’s not cool.”
Arizona, Seattle, Boston, Ohio, Philadelphia and Cranberry Twp., Pennsylvania chapters also posted photos. Here’s a US Uncut activist from Wisconsin explaining why he wants Verizon, and all wealthy corporations, to pay their fair share.
Uncut Wisconsin from Patrick on Vimeo.
San Francisco’s chapter has posted photos and video of the protest on their Facebook page. Organizer Leslie Dreyer called the event “another successful and moving day of action.” She stresses the participants’ diverse range of ages (4-70), ethnicities and backgrounds.
Corporate tax dodging has proven to be an incredibly unifying issue, one that actually unites Republicans, Independents and Democrats. Even papa bear Bill O’Reilly recently teed off on GE, which didn’t pay any taxes in 2010 despite making a whopping $14 billion in profits. When was the last time O’Reilly and Progressive agreed on, well, anything?
Chicago’s William T. Shehan IV, a US Army veteran, explained that he feels it’s his duty to protest this practice of corporate tax evasion. “As a Veteran I swore to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Shehan’s written statement says. “The behavior of the corporations and elected officials has made it necessary for ‘We the People’ to alter or abolish our relationship with the aforementioned organizations, replace the elected officials, repeal unjust laws and to put in place safeguards to insure a secure future.”
