UKUNCUT: Big Society Bail-In: Barclays 7+ Actions
February 19, 2011 11:00
Published:
February 14, 2011 18:24
by
uncutter
On Saturday 19th February, the Big Society Bail-In will be targeting branches of Barclays bank in Central London, turning them into libraries for the day. We’ll be having poetry readings, story time (like the story of Bob, the fat cat CEO of Barclays who is getting an £8m bonus this year on top of his £1.35m salary) and educating people on the actions of the banks and the ways in which they can and should contribute more to repairing the damage caused by their negligence and greed.
So bring a good book, signs, banners and flyers, balloons, cakes and sweeties, a loud voice and as many people as possible. Make yourself heard, engage with the public, stay safe and have fun.
The meeting place is the middle of Soho Square, just off Oxford St. It's just round the corner from Tottenham Court Road tube station on the Central and Northern lines (or ten minutes walk from Oxford Circus or Leicester Square stations)
We’ll be meeting at 11am, then moving onto a nearby branch of Barclays. Once there we’ll be turning the bank into a library, showing the government what the ‘Big Society’ really means.
For more info on the Big Society Bail-In, see http://ukuncut.org.uk/blog/what-is-a-bail-in and here
For details of other london actions scroll down...
Places:
The Big Society Bail-In: Barclays Turning banks into libraries for the day
In 2007, years of irresponsible lending, rash and reckless speculation and a lack of regulation in the banking sector came to a head, causing a global financial crisis and subsequent recession that led directly to the current program of massive cuts.
Several banks were saved from collapse by the government; the National Audit Office reported that the amount of public money used to bail them out reached almost £1tn at its peak. Yet the City continues to reward itself. Last year Barclays alone paid its bankers £2.7bn in bonuses, whilst other British banks brought the total amount of bonuses to over £7.3bn. This week Barclays is to post record annual profits of more than £11bn.
Meanwhile the country is undergoing the harshest cuts to public services in generations. Local council and government department budgets have been slashed, thousands and thousands are losing their jobs, community centres and libraries are closing, VAT, university tuition fees and living costs have risen. Vital benefits such as Disability Living Allowance and the Educational Maintenance Allowance are being reduced, restricted or abolished, leaving the most vulnerable parts of society to bear the brunt of the crisis.
The government, led by a Conservative party that receives half of its funding from the City, is doing nothing to reform the problems with the banking system that created a financial crisis in the first place. By lowering corporation tax, they are not only failing to ensure that the banks pay their fair share, but are actually creating a situation where some banks will be paying less than they were before the bail outs! The Coalition say that we are all in it together and that there is no option other than to make society pay for the mistakes of a small minority determined on further enriching themselves at the expensive of the country as a whole.
But there are alternatives. A one-off 50% levy on bonuses over £25,000 last year raised over £2bn for the treasury, yet the government has no plans to repeat this. A ‘Robin Hood’ tax of approximately 0.05% on international transactions would raise billions and discourage the kind of excessive speculation and risk-taking that led to the recent crisis and subsequent recession. Without proper reform and regulation of the banking sector nothing will change, lessons will not have been learnt and this will all happen again.
What the banks are doing may be legal, but that does not make it moral. This is not right, it is not fair and we will not stand for it.
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Next Saturday, 19th of February, sees the start of something rather special: the second public takeover of Britain’s banks. The first takeover, or “bail-out” was astonishingly expensive and not much fun. The public was left billions lighter in the pocket, with little more to show for it than their names in the fine print. What did we get for our money? Greater regulation to ensure the crash didn't happen again? No. A reformed banking system that serves us rather than the city? No. How about penitent bankers showing restraint with their pay packets? Um, also no.
Luckily, the start of the second takeover is just days away. The Big Society Bail-In will be much cheaper, more effective and, crucially, much more fun. Adam Ramsay has already done an excellent job chronicling how the bail-out of deadbeat banks led to the deficit and the resulting rationale for swingeing cuts. Now, for the antidote – the Bail-In. From next Saturday onwards, intrepid UK Uncut volunteers up and down the land will be bailing into the banks and setting up libraries, forests, hospitals, schools, playgrounds, leisure centres and everything else that needs saving. After all, as Osborne’s valiant defense of city bonuses against common sense shows, the banks have nothing to fear from the austerity agenda. What better place to keep our services safe from the Treasury axe?
Since October, the campaign against tax dodgers, the Big Society Revenue and Customs consistently found spectacular and imaginative ways to make tax avoiding corporations pay. In Brighton, Santa Clause glued himself to a BHS. In Oxford, the tax dodger’s grand prix whizzed round the avoiders dotting their high street. In London, volunteers set up a library inside Vodafone, a Sports Day inside Topshop and a NHS field hospital in Boots.
Our next wave of actions will be even more exciting. A Bail-In means marching into our broken banks and building something better. Make your silent, sterile Barclays branch sing, dance, explode with life! Reclaim the space and make it into something thrilling, something that shows how much creativity the anti-cuts movement has. Let’s smash austerity with a smile on our faces. We are Cameron’s nightmare, a real big society with the vision and bravery to transform the institutions at the rotten heart of our system.
UK Uncut is your movement. There are no centrally planned actions. If you have an idea for an action, or want one on your high street, it's up to you to make it happen. First step is to visit our action centre and check whether there is an action listed near you. If there isn't, why not take on organising and listing one yourself? Second, visit our targets section for all the information and resources you'll need. Third, and most importantly, call text tweet facebook email everyone you've ever met asking them to come along. More details on how to organise an action are here.
This Saturday we target Barclays. Next Saturday we're hitting RBS/Natwest. Start thinking now about how you might spruce up your local bank. Send us your ideas and we'll share them around.
This is bonus season: traditionally the time of year when the people who drove the global economy into the ground shamelessly reward themselves for their efforts. Traditionally, we are outraged. Traditionally, our outrage doesn't turn into action and so, traditionally, they get away with it. This year, as our public services are being torn to pieces by a government that has done nothing but indulge the banks, we want things to be a little different. It's up to you. Get creative, get organised and take action.
This is the Big Society Bail-In - we will not pay for their crisis.
See you on the high streets.
Additions
Loads of London Action...
Published: February 16, 2011 14:30
by
fyi
Keep checking http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/actions/list
=========================
London Lewisham, Sat 19th Feb 2011
11am Barclays Bank New Cross Road London SE14, as part of the http://www.canivalagainstcuts.org.uk
This is Massive day of action. Banks will have demos, Librarys, Early learning centres in fact every venue facing cuts or closure as well as Convoy wharf Deptford massive development with no communty advantage but lots of profit for its off shore developer...
...then at 1pm meet at Lewisham Town hall for march to Lewisham, linking all other demos about 100 in all from across Lewisham. This is the largest anti cuts demo ever in the uk, so needs every one to come out and support, Carnival and lots of noise.. go to website for full listing of events in Lewisham.. Has support of every anti cuts group in London, and almost every communty group. Goldsmiths Students will be targeting Colleges and Schools, Pensioners groups will be hitting Lewisham Hospital at 12. People are asked to bring potsc and pans to make a noise and home made banners..
Contact details
www.carnivalagainstcuts.org.uk info@carnivalagainstcuts.org.uk 07871187162 main organiser Lewisham People before perofit www.lpbp.org.uk
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London Campaign Against the Arms Trade in calling for Books not Bombs!
Barclays Bank, investor in the arms trade, is being supported by our government from our pockets whilst our public services are being slashed. We need schools, hospitals and jobs, not weapons.
We will be transforming the Barclays bank in Picadilly into a library - bring your own book, be in the bank by 11am and when the librarians start to 'shhhhh', sit down and read!
Contact details
londoncaat@riseup.net
http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/actions/306
====================
UK Uncut breakfast club at Barclays
Saturday 19th February, 10am-11am Branch - 16-17 Tottenham Court Road
As tax-dodgers Barclays announce huge profits, tax payers in the UK are facing huge cuts to essential services. In Camden, children and working parents are set to lose three-quarters of local authority funding for breakfast clubs, after school clubs, holiday schemes and play centres. This will impact hugely on parents ability to work, and children's access to high quality, affordable care.
So on Saturday 19th February, Camden parents and kids will hold a breakfast club in Barclays Bank, Tottenham Court Road (in the borough of Camden), from 10am-11am. Bring breakfast and games to play.
http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/actions/305
====================
London - Brixton, Sat 19th Feb 2011
Meet 11am by Barclays Bank, 463-465 Brixton Rd, to take part in the UK Uncut day of action.
Come prepared for a read-in to highlight library closures - bring a good book!
If numbers are strong we will protest in Brixton, but we also have the option of adding our numbers to the other actions taking place in London throughout the day - bring a charged up Oyster Card!
http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/actions/304
======================
London - Elephant and Castle (Walworth Road)
Turn Barclays Bank Walworth Road into a Library!
TIME: early afternoon - Time will be confirmed soon and tweeted out and posted here. We'd like to hear from other people in the area - to link up? Bring books, banners and librarian's glasses...
Contact details
email: ukuncut@gmail.com with 'ELEPHANT UNCUT' in the subject heading to get connected
http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/actions/307
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Stand-Up Occupation
One of the many Bail-Ins in London, this action will see a stand-up comedy gig held in a Barclays in Central London.
11am. Location and lineup to be announced
Video: How To Do Your Own Bail-In
Published: February 16, 2011 14:34
by
vids
At:
http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog/video-how-to-do-your-own-bail-in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIHg3-xYJlI
Call out text
Published: February 16, 2011 14:54
by
pete wells
Look through the newspapers this month and two points will become
immediately clear. First, the government is cutting, privatising and
changing the very nature of social security and public goods that were won
through the 20th century. Every aspect of what was fought for by
generations seems under threat – from selling off the forests, privatising
health provision, closing the libraries and swimming pools, and scrapping
rural bus routes.
Second, the banks are doing just fine. February is bankers' bonus month;
Barclays announces their gifts to themselves on the 15th, with its chief
executive, Bob Diamond, expecting £9m just for him. While RBS is due to
transfer its £900m bonus pool into the pockets of high-earning bankers on
the 25th. These bonuses should make the disgrace of the MPs' expenses
scandal look like chicken feed and are another demonstration of just how
much we really are not all in this together.
The two, of course, are linked. Because it was our broken banking system,
with its greed and reckless gambling, that caused the crash. The National
Audit Office has reported that at its peak, the amount of support provided
to the banks reached nearly £1tn. In 2009 alone, £131bn of public money
was spent keeping the banking industry afloat – and taxpayers continue to
spend money supporting the banking system. But instead of asking the banks
to pay for their crisis, it is the public who were asked to support the
banks that are now being made to pay a further price.
The £2.5bn so-called "raid" on the banks is a levy of around 0.075% of
their balance sheets. That's pathetic. Since 2007 and the Northern Rock
crash, it's been abundantly obvious that the banking system is unjust to
the core: from exorbitant bankers' bonuses to gambling on debt, from
massive tax loopholes to holding the country to ransom with their threats
of moving to Zurich. Before the crisis, after the crisis, it's as if we've
learned nothing: the banks still serve themselves, not the public.
Over the past four months UK Uncut has grown from a meeting in a pub to
hundreds of high-street acts of protest against tax avoiders, highlighting
the £25bn dodged in taxes every single year by some of the most wealthy
individuals and profitable corporations. Combine this clamping down on tax
avoidance with truly tough action on the banks and you've got a genuine
alternative to the cuts agenda. It is simply a lie to say that the only
way to reduce the deficit is to sacrifice essential public services, which
support some of the poorest in our society. There is an alternative, but
the government doesn't want to talk about it because they have got the
same agenda as the banks: making the poor pay the way for the rich.
This is an outrage and it has to be stopped. UK Uncut has launched the Big
Society Bail-In. On 19 February we will be targeting Barclays, and on 26
February we will turn to RBS. Civil disobedience is back in Britain, and
it is on your local high streets. Just like with Vodafone and Topshop,
anyone can get involved, because tax-avoiding corporations and banks have
put their outlets and branches everywhere. Every time a library is closed,
every time a hospital is privatised, there's somewhere nearby where people
can protest – your friendly local high street.
Together, we're going to change those high-street branches into schools,
libraries, gyms and forests. We're going to show that it's our society
that is too big to fail, not our broken banking system. It's going to be
fun, but it's also going to be hard work, because this isn't just about
Twitter – it never was. It's about on the street, grassroots,
getting-in-the-way politics, the same politics that won women suffrage,
defeated the poll tax and could stop the cuts.
It's about telling your friends, your co-workers, your children, your mum.
It's about knowing why our welfare state is being attacked and targeting
the right people in response. Everyone should do what they can do to make
this happen. Come on the UK Uncut protests this month, and also make sure
you're taking to the streets on 26 March. Let's make the banks pay for
their crisis.
Upcoming events feed
flyer text
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15927156/barclays-flyer-4.pdf
We’re here to tell the government to stop the cuts, and make Barclays and the other banks pay for the crisis they caused.
Barclays have just paid £3.5bn in bonuses, with average pay per employee in the investment banking division rising to £236,000 – that's ten times the UK's average salary. It was this greed, and the recklessness of the banks, that caused the economic crisis. Yet the government are making ordinary people pay the price. David Cameron himself has said that the cuts will change Britain's "whole way of life".
The government are lying to us when they say that the cuts are a necessity. They are a political choice. The government could get tough on the banks, they could tax bankers’ bonuses, they could stop the tax avoidance of the super-rich. Instead they choose to cut vital public services, a move which will impact most upon the poor and vulnerable.
The British taxpayer bailed-out the banks with £1 trillion of public money and they haven’t paid us back. So now we’re bailing-in. We’re transforming the banks into schools, leisure centres, libraries and forests – all the things that the government want to privatise and cut.
The government’s cuts are not ‘fair’, we’re not ‘all in this together’, and there are alternatives. Make the banks pay for the crisis they caused. It’s our society that's too big to fail, not the broken banking system.
Join the protest, spread the word, stop the cuts.
www.ukuncut.org.uk