The Tax Enforcement Society

December 5, 2010

1–2 minutes

If you’re rich enough you can get out of paying tax by putting your assets in the name of your beloved and buying them a big house in Monaco or some other dodgers’ haven. That’s what Philip Green who owns Topshop, Burtons and Dorothy Perkins has done. I’ve discussed doing the same with Mrs Mac but she’s persuaded me that it might make me a bit of a scumbag. She also, rather hurtfully, pointed out that I’ve never given her a £1.2bn dividend or managed to duck paying £285 million in tax.

The lead item on Channel 4 News last night was a report on protests which happened in several cities. A movement seems to be springing up demanding that these people be held to account.

Thanks to Richard for the photos and video of the Manchester demo and toThe Gabber for its footage of the action in Oxford Street.

8 responses to “The Tax Enforcement Society”

Mark P

December 5, 2010 at 6:25 pm

As regular visitors to this blog will know I wasn’t entirely convinced that the student demos and occupations were the tactic to win against tuition fees. I advocated instead mass, militant and targeted canvassing in the 57 Lib Dem consitituencies to build the pressure on the MPs to vote against .

I still think that was the right tactic but I admit I underestimated just how mediated our society has become. 24 hour, multi channel TV plus the web and social networking means direct action can have an impact unimaginable a decade or so ago.

And likewise this excellent action against Philip Green. As a dyed in the wool cynic I went down to Oxford Street filly prepared not to be impressed. But the action was brilliant. Vibrant, targeted, non-violent. Seeing Polly Toynbee in the frontline against the Top Shop security will live with me for a long time.

Nobody likes a tax dodger, even the Daily Mail coverage was quite sympathetic. The rrade unions are way behind on this. A-B demos just don;t cut it any more, this kind of action does. But they’re under-resourced. The unions with all due humiility should approach UK uncut and ask what they can do to help. Printing up the flyers they don;t have the funds to give out to the thousands of curious shoppers wondering what was going on. inning a press advertising campaign exposing what Philip Green et al are doing would be another.

This is a highly mediated politics of protest, situationist in all but name, and it has the potential to burst through the media firewall. Fantastic!

Mark P

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Jodley

December 5, 2010 at 8:05 pm

Of course, there is no contradiction between occupations, demos and and direct actions and also putting massive pressure on LibDem (and other) MPs. In fact, it is the wave of student unrest that is putting on the pressure.

At a General Assembly of 300 or so at the Cambridge Occupation today, the need to lobby MPs hard was raised. And people will go away from that meeting and do just that. It is one of a number of tactics. Diversity is strength, and we are not spreading ourselves too thin by doing ‘all of the above’. We are many, they are few.

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johng

December 5, 2010 at 11:16 pm

Its incredible how quickly all this is happening. Many of us were concerned about what seemed a shrinkage of activist networks. Now they seem to be multiplying so quickly that its hard to keep track. All sorts of assumptions need challenging, not least the kind of institutionalised pessimissim usually represented by Mark P.

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china!h

December 6, 2010 at 4:20 am

Not that Johng,again the petty squables.Let our youth get organized although through a educational institution the uni!s.Like to see more from the real disenfranchised, our youth of wasted forgotten unemployed.

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Mark P

December 6, 2010 at 5:31 am

No pessimism here JohnG. Targeting Philip Green in this way might just have the potential to burst through the firewall of hopelessness about the deficit. Now is the moment, keep it local, tageted and non-violent. Don;t wait until 26 March for an ineffective A-B demo, get the unions tp pur resources now behind these actions, not to take over but to support with publicity. Personally, I couldn’t be more optimistic but windows of opportunity on the left we have a terrible habit of slamming in our own faces!

Mark P

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Duncan

December 6, 2010 at 1:17 pm

Fair play to Mark P for admitting he was probably mistaken in his approach, not something you see people do often!

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Mark P

December 6, 2010 at 5:58 pm

Thanks Duncan, most generous (or comradely if you insist).

Too many leftists of a variety of red tinges stick to the line come what may.

I admit I regret the failure to target the Lib Dem MPs with mass and intensive canvassing of their constituencies. But I also entirely underestimated how a combination of 24 hours news TV channels and the net have transformed how a media savvy campaign can break through the firewall of hopelessness.

This is nothing to do with tired old debates about militant vs moderate forms of action. Its about understanding what is appropriate when.

In essence the students have already won. Whatever the vote on Thurs the Lib-Dems have been successfully portrayed as both treacherous and inept. It is unlikely they will recover.

And at the same time the UK Uncut tax avoiders campaign gives a new target. But what is desperately needed is for the union lefts to forget about waiting until the 26 March, another festhised A-B demo of near certain minimal impact. Resource the actions outside Topshop et al. Nobody likes a tax dodger, there is a window of opportunity for a wave of public anger to sweep the country.

Mark P

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Jane Kelly

December 6, 2010 at 6:49 pm

Great slogan by the flash mob:
“You marketise our education/We educate your market”
Plus Polly Toynbee!!

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