This past Saturday, hundreds of activists disrupted business-as-usual at Bank of America locations in cities across the country. The coordinated actions were the first for US Uncut, a new grassroots organization dedicated to exposing corporate tax cheats and bringing attention to the tax loopholes they exploit. To explain how US Uncut evolved out of the original UK Uncut, The Nation’s Johann Hari joined US Uncut’s Ryan Clayton on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann. Hari says that UK Uncut was born out of the UK government’s massive cuts to public services which coincided with corporations still partying, as Hari says, like it’s 1997.

"Liberals here were as demoralized as liberals are in the US," Hari says from London. They were "feeling angry and impotent." But as Hari reported in is Nation article, "How to Build a Progressive Tea Party," the Uncut idea spread all over Britain, and as people began to take action they started having a tremendous impact on the debate. Faced with budget-slashing politicians in Wisconsin and across the country, will US Uncut be able to start a real anti-austerity movement in America?

—Kevin Gosztola