Across the UK, as an austerity-minded government is cutting public services and social programs, a grassroots movement has sprung up to demand that the corporations, banks and superrich individuals who caused the global economic crisis in the first place pay their fair share of taxes. As Johann Hari reported in his recent Nation article, "How to Build a Progressive Tea Party," a group calling itself UK Uncut has occupied the storefronts of corporations and banks across the UK, demanding that these offenders pay their "membership fee for a civilized society.”
The Uncut movement, and Hari’s piece, have struck a chord with American citizens, and the newly-founded grassroots group US Uncut carried out its first actions this Saturday, February 26, at Bank of America locations across the country. (Why BoA? It received $45 billion in government bailout funds while funneling its tax dollars into 115 separate offshore tax havens.)
But this Saturday’s protests are just the beginning: check the US Uncut website for information on when and where protests will take place next and consider joining demonstrators to deman an end to the corrupt system that allows corporations to go untaxed while services and programs for low- and middle-income Americans are savagely cut. And if you participated this past weekend, The Nation wants your pictures and impressions. Submit your images to The Nation‘s Flickr group and your shots may be included in a slide show on TheNation.com. Here’s how:
1. Log in to your Flickr account (if you don’t have a flickr account, you can sign up for free.)
2. Join The Nation‘s flickr group by clicking "Join this Group" on our Flickr group page.
3. Add your images of US Uncut events to The Nation‘s group pool, and tag your images with the tag NatMagUSUncut. Be sure to include a description and location for the event so that we can include it in our slide show.
To let us know your written impressions, please use the comments field below. We’ll be carefully reading every single comment that’s posted and we’ll use many of the contributions in a demonstrator’s notebook culled from accounts of the actions from activists coast to coast.
Finally, read all of our coverage of the growing US Uncut movement, including, hopefully, your own contributions. And keep up with future actions by following US, Uncut on Twitter and/or joining its Facebook group.
