By IRNA,
London : UK Uncut, the direct action group, says that its campaign against banks is becoming worldwide after coordinating protests in Britain and the US over the weekend.
‘It’s become a global issue, proving people can work across borders to tackle issues like corporate tax avoidance and cuts to services,’ said UK Uncuts spokesman Daniel Garvin.
“The actions have hammered home the link between the crisis caused by the banks and the cuts to our essential services. The movement has gone international,” Garvin said.
In Britain, protests were held last Saturday in over 40 banks, including state-owned, RBS, NatWest and Lloyds, when crèches, classes and youth clubs were set up, while in America, there were more than 50 under the umbrella of US Uncut, set up just three weeks ago.
Tim Jones, co-founder of UK Uncut, said the banks’ ‘tax avoidance, reckless banking, and unjust cuts’ have become ‘international problems that need international action by ordinary people’.
‘This international day of action will be one of many to make governments around the world stand up to the banks and make them pay for their crisis, and to ensure the super-rich stop dodging tax,’ Jones pledged.
Previous protests in Britain have targeted dozens of branches of Barclays Bank, which recently admitted it paid just £113m tax in the UK in 2009 on reported profits of £11.6bn, as well as multi-nationals accused of tax avoidance.
UK Uncuts, set up less than six months ago, organising days of actions largely by mobilising people using Twitter, Facebook and texts.