There are now over half a million people in the UK going hungry, forced by our government to make the choice between paying the bills or eating, feeding themselves or feeding their children.
That’s why on Saturday 20th July UK Uncut will be setting up our own UK Uncut style food banks inside branches of HSBC – shutting down the UK’s biggest, bonus-munching, crisis-causing, tax-dodging bank. Our taxes bailed them out, but they won’t pay their fair share and the government continues to let them get away with it.
As banker's continue to be rewarded with bonuses and subsidies, and tax dodging is rife (£25 billion is lost annually), there’s been a 170% increase in the number of people relying on food banks in the UK. We need to demand that the government stop propping up the people who caused this crisis and put an end to the need for food banks.
The government try and cover it up by saying food banks are ‘the Big Society in action’. But Cameron, Osborne, Clegg and Co. have made a political choice to attack the poorest in our society. Cuts to jobs, wages and benefits are forcing families to choose between a roof over their head or putting food on the table.
The banks got us into this mess, but this cabinet of millionaire men are forcing us to pay the price. And that’s not all – banks are some of the biggest tax dodgers out there. HSBC uses more tax havens than any another UK bank. HSBC – the world’s local tax dodger! Last year they helped some of the richest people in Britain dodge hundreds of millions of pounds in tax in Switzerland and Jersey – once again showing we are not all in this together.
The government tell us there is no alternative, that public services and the welfare system are too expensive. This is a lie. They tell us the only way to deal with the deficit is to slash public spending. This is also a lie. There are alternatives to these cruel, devastating and unnecessary cuts.
Don’t just sit at home getting angry. Join UK Uncut’s National day of action on Saturday 20th July, where we’ll be occupying and transforming HSBC branches across the country into our own UK Uncut-style food banks, because it’s the banks that should be targeted, not ordinary people. Let’s show the government and tax-dodging fat cats we know there are alternatives to the cuts. Make the banks pay, stop the tax-dodgers and hands off our public services and welfare state.
So don your UK Uncut apron, put together your food packages, whether that’s real food or not and let’s show HSBC what’s really going on out there. This isn’t about setting up real food banks, but highlighting the divide between rich and poor through creative civil disobedience.
Now’s the time to get talking to your mates and people in your community, find your nearest HSBC branch www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/contact-us/branch-lo..., list an action on our website and get planning. If you need any help, drop us an email on ukuncut@gmail.com
We are the big society. Let’s show them how big we are, by stopping business as usual and continuing our creative resistance to the cuts.
See you on the streets!
UK Uncut
