Guest post: Holiday Activism, Philip Green Targeted in Skiathos
Posted on Sun 9th Sep 2012, 5:00pmThis is a guest post from Simon Hickman, recounting an incident of impromptu activism this August. A full version of the blog can be found here 
On returning to the port of Skiathos after a €15 boat trip we were greeted by the £63 million Lionheart yacht owned by the tax dodging Sir Philip (billionaire) Green (owner of the Arcadia Group, including Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Miss Selfridge and British Home Stores) dominating the quayside.
Most people had no idea who owned this large imposing vessel or who had actually paid for it.
Saira challenged him vocally about the £285 million tax dodge he’d pulled off and how it may have paid for the huge boat which now dominated the Skiathos quayside. Philip quickly slipped into the crowd and disappeared in to the Skiathos evening and anonymity.
In true activist style it was back to our room to prepare placards, a problem when you haven’t come on holiday prepared for a demonstration. We commandeered two large posters and a kindly shopkeeper gave us temporary custody of a marker pen which we put to immediate use. Then it was off back down to the port of Skiathos with fresh rolled up placards, one proclaiming “ Philip (Billionaire) Green £285 Million Tax Dodger” and the other “£63 Million Yacht. £285 Million Tax Thief = 20,000 NHS Nurses – 32,000 students. Pay Your Tax” returning the marker pen on the way.
As you would expect in such a holiday destination there was a multi-national crowd many of whom had no idea who Sir Philip (Billionaire) Green was. One thing they all seemed to understand was that these super rich people were abusing their power and position to fleece the normal hard working people.
Tina Green responded to our protest with the comment of “not this again” obviously not expecting to be confronted on holiday. As she boarded her luxurious yacht Sir Philip appeared and gave instructions to his crew to have us removed, quite difficult you would have thought on public land. Sir Philip then amazingly started to hurl abuse from the deck of the yacht. Instructions were given by him to the crew to “hose the morons down”. Simon and Saira retaliated vocally with “Pay Your Tax”, “Who Bought This Boat” and “You Should Be Ashamed”.
One of his lackeys from a smaller yacht moored beside Lionheart came to argue his case, it seems that in his opinion if you employ people you don’t really need to pay tax, but he was quickly dispatched by a female member of the crowd now gathered who responded with “if he’s done nothing wrong what’s the problem”.
Unbeknown to us the Mayor of Skiathos had been summoned by Sir Philip to resolve the situation, the Mayor approached us and said “this isn’t helping”, I assume he meant it wasn’t helping his pal Sir Philip. He asked us to leave the quayside as this was private property, so we moved our protest to the port perimeter.
As we walked off the quayside the Skiathos water taxi man was shouting ‘you are heroes’, maybe an exaggeration but we felt we were doing our bit. What we left behind could only be described as mayhem. A selection of Greek locals and holidaymakers entered in to a very heated debate with the Mayor. They demanded to know when the quayside had become private property and why two peaceful protesters were being treated in such a way for pointing out a matter which plagues the capitalist world.
We’d gone from a two person protest to a mass quayside argument with around fifty people looking on. We continued to engage passers-by in conversation about Sir Philip (Billionaire) Green the tax dodger, his £1.2 billion bonus and £63 million yacht and similar stories from around Europe and the world were recounted to us. Apart from the Mayor and his small yacht lackey we received support from holiday makers and locals alike.
The following day we went down to the port to see how Sir Philip was doing, there was no trace of Tina, Sir Philip or Lionheart. Not claiming to have chased him of the island as we weren’t privy to his holiday itinerary, but it was another smile moment!
What did you do on your holidays?
In 2005 Philip Green awarded himself £1.2bn, the biggest paycheck in British corporate history. But this dividend payout was channelled through a network of offshore accounts, via tax havens in Jersey and eventually to Green’s wife’s Monaco bank account. The dodge saved Green, and cost the tax payer, close to £300m. This tax arrangement remains in place. Any time it takes his fancy, Green can pay himself huge sums of money without having to pay any tax.
On returning to the port of Skiathos after a €15 boat trip we were greeted by the £63 million Lionheart yacht owned by the tax dodging Sir Philip (billionaire) Green (owner of the Arcadia Group, including Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Miss Selfridge and British Home Stores) dominating the quayside.
Most people had no idea who owned this large imposing vessel or who had actually paid for it.
Saira challenged him vocally about the £285 million tax dodge he’d pulled off and how it may have paid for the huge boat which now dominated the Skiathos quayside. Philip quickly slipped into the crowd and disappeared in to the Skiathos evening and anonymity.
In true activist style it was back to our room to prepare placards, a problem when you haven’t come on holiday prepared for a demonstration. We commandeered two large posters and a kindly shopkeeper gave us temporary custody of a marker pen which we put to immediate use. Then it was off back down to the port of Skiathos with fresh rolled up placards, one proclaiming “ Philip (Billionaire) Green £285 Million Tax Dodger” and the other “£63 Million Yacht. £285 Million Tax Thief = 20,000 NHS Nurses – 32,000 students. Pay Your Tax” returning the marker pen on the way.
As you would expect in such a holiday destination there was a multi-national crowd many of whom had no idea who Sir Philip (Billionaire) Green was. One thing they all seemed to understand was that these super rich people were abusing their power and position to fleece the normal hard working people.
Tina Green responded to our protest with the comment of “not this again” obviously not expecting to be confronted on holiday. As she boarded her luxurious yacht Sir Philip appeared and gave instructions to his crew to have us removed, quite difficult you would have thought on public land. Sir Philip then amazingly started to hurl abuse from the deck of the yacht. Instructions were given by him to the crew to “hose the morons down”. Simon and Saira retaliated vocally with “Pay Your Tax”, “Who Bought This Boat” and “You Should Be Ashamed”.
One of his lackeys from a smaller yacht moored beside Lionheart came to argue his case, it seems that in his opinion if you employ people you don’t really need to pay tax, but he was quickly dispatched by a female member of the crowd now gathered who responded with “if he’s done nothing wrong what’s the problem”.
Unbeknown to us the Mayor of Skiathos had been summoned by Sir Philip to resolve the situation, the Mayor approached us and said “this isn’t helping”, I assume he meant it wasn’t helping his pal Sir Philip. He asked us to leave the quayside as this was private property, so we moved our protest to the port perimeter.
As we walked off the quayside the Skiathos water taxi man was shouting ‘you are heroes’, maybe an exaggeration but we felt we were doing our bit. What we left behind could only be described as mayhem. A selection of Greek locals and holidaymakers entered in to a very heated debate with the Mayor. They demanded to know when the quayside had become private property and why two peaceful protesters were being treated in such a way for pointing out a matter which plagues the capitalist world.
We’d gone from a two person protest to a mass quayside argument with around fifty people looking on. We continued to engage passers-by in conversation about Sir Philip (Billionaire) Green the tax dodger, his £1.2 billion bonus and £63 million yacht and similar stories from around Europe and the world were recounted to us. Apart from the Mayor and his small yacht lackey we received support from holiday makers and locals alike.
The following day we went down to the port to see how Sir Philip was doing, there was no trace of Tina, Sir Philip or Lionheart. Not claiming to have chased him of the island as we weren’t privy to his holiday itinerary, but it was another smile moment!
What did you do on your holidays?
In 2005 Philip Green awarded himself £1.2bn, the biggest paycheck in British corporate history. But this dividend payout was channelled through a network of offshore accounts, via tax havens in Jersey and eventually to Green’s wife’s Monaco bank account. The dodge saved Green, and cost the tax payer, close to £300m. This tax arrangement remains in place. Any time it takes his fancy, Green can pay himself huge sums of money without having to pay any tax.
Press release: Disabled activists and UK Uncut blockade the DWP and Atos' HQ in protest against welfare cuts
Posted on Fri 31st Aug 2012, 4:37pmDisabled activists and UK Uncut blockade the DWP and Atos headquarters in protest against government welfare cuts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press enquiries:
UK Uncut: 07415063231 | ukuncut@gmail.com | DPAC: mail@dpac.uk.net
Today, over 400 protesters from Disabled People Against the Cuts 1 and UK Uncut 2 have simultaneously shut down Paralympic sponsor Atos’ headquarters and the Department for Work and Pensions.
This was a spectacular grand finale to a sustained week of creative direct action 3 against Atos by the two grassroots direct action groups, timed to coincide with the first week of the Paralympic Games.
The second target, the DWP, was not revealed until over an hour into ‘The Closing Atos Ceremony’ 4 outside Atos HQ. When it was announced that a smaller group of disabled activists had locked on and blockaded and occupied the DWP building, protesters travelled from the atos building to join them by by tube, buses and taxis. There were 8-12 disabled and non disabled activists inside DWP who then left DWP 2 hours later. This comes after Cecilia Burns died of cancer today despite Atos telling her she was fit for work and cutting her benefits. The police were very heavy-handed at DWP with disabled activists and one woman had her wheelchair damaged by police. One many also went to hospital due to the heavy handling by police. There was one arrest.
Throughout the week hundreds of disabled activists and anti-cuts campaigners have collaborated and taken part in over 20 anti-Atos demos all over the UK; a coffin full of messages from the victims of Atos was delivered to Atos HQ in London, a main road was blocked with a mass ‘die-in’ in Cardiff 5 , the Atos centre in Sheffield was stormed, and the ‘Armchair Olympics’ took place, which saw people unable to leave their homes jamming the phones and emails at Atos HQ for a whole day. Whilst speculation continues that Team GB Paralympic athletes hid the Atos logos on their lanyards at the Paralympic opening ceremony on Wednesday evening in an act of resistance to the Paralympic sponsor 6.
Atos were awarded the £100 million a year contract by the Department for Work and Pensions to conduct work capability assessments on sick and disable people. Their testing programme has come under fierce criticism. The British Medical Association 7, disabled people, and MPS 8 have all demanded the tests be halted immediately. A recent episode of Dispatches 9 revealed Atos staff being pressured into unfairly declaring people ‘fit for work’ in order to fulfil targets set by the government. The government are aiming to cut nearly 20% from the welfare bill, despite the government’s own figures showing less than a 0.5% fraud rate 10.
Lydia Foxton, a spokesperson from DPAC said: ‘We have been targeting Atos, but they are just doing the government’s dirty work. Cutting welfare is devastating people’s lives and removing dignity, security and independence from thousands of sick and disabled people across the country. At the same time, David Cameron and his government are using the Paralympics to show themselves to be champions of disabled people, it’s a disgrace.’
Andrew Cox, a spokesperson from UK Uncut said: ‘The government have been making huge cuts to welfare provision, even though their own research shows that less than 0.5% of welfare claims are fraudulent. They are making disabled people a scapegoat for the economic crisis – they are being punished with welfare cuts, while the banks and the big businesses are getting off scot-free. The government could clamp down on tax avoidance and get back billions, the savings they will make from cutting welfare do not even come close, and they are devastating people’s lives.’
See here for photos and follow the story @ukuncut and #giveatoss
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Disabled people who have undergone Atos’ WCA are at the action and are available to talk to the media, please contact the UK Uncut media phone for details.
1 DPAC is a volunteer campaign network of and for disabled people campaigning for equality and human rights for all disabled people: dpac.uk.net/about
2 UK Uncut is a grassroots anti-cuts direct action network, well-known for targeting corporate tax avoidance: ukuncut.org.uk
3 ukuncut.org.uk/blog/the-atos-games
4 www.facebook.com/events/217652368360892
5 blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/08/30/re...
6 www.channel4.com/news/did-gb-paralympia...
7 bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/news/201...
8 parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/295
9 www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/...
10 falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/repost-benefit...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press enquiries:
UK Uncut: 07415063231 | ukuncut@gmail.com | DPAC: mail@dpac.uk.net
Today, over 400 protesters from Disabled People Against the Cuts 1 and UK Uncut 2 have simultaneously shut down Paralympic sponsor Atos’ headquarters and the Department for Work and Pensions.
This was a spectacular grand finale to a sustained week of creative direct action 3 against Atos by the two grassroots direct action groups, timed to coincide with the first week of the Paralympic Games.
The second target, the DWP, was not revealed until over an hour into ‘The Closing Atos Ceremony’ 4 outside Atos HQ. When it was announced that a smaller group of disabled activists had locked on and blockaded and occupied the DWP building, protesters travelled from the atos building to join them by by tube, buses and taxis. There were 8-12 disabled and non disabled activists inside DWP who then left DWP 2 hours later. This comes after Cecilia Burns died of cancer today despite Atos telling her she was fit for work and cutting her benefits. The police were very heavy-handed at DWP with disabled activists and one woman had her wheelchair damaged by police. One many also went to hospital due to the heavy handling by police. There was one arrest.
Throughout the week hundreds of disabled activists and anti-cuts campaigners have collaborated and taken part in over 20 anti-Atos demos all over the UK; a coffin full of messages from the victims of Atos was delivered to Atos HQ in London, a main road was blocked with a mass ‘die-in’ in Cardiff 5 , the Atos centre in Sheffield was stormed, and the ‘Armchair Olympics’ took place, which saw people unable to leave their homes jamming the phones and emails at Atos HQ for a whole day. Whilst speculation continues that Team GB Paralympic athletes hid the Atos logos on their lanyards at the Paralympic opening ceremony on Wednesday evening in an act of resistance to the Paralympic sponsor 6.
Atos were awarded the £100 million a year contract by the Department for Work and Pensions to conduct work capability assessments on sick and disable people. Their testing programme has come under fierce criticism. The British Medical Association 7, disabled people, and MPS 8 have all demanded the tests be halted immediately. A recent episode of Dispatches 9 revealed Atos staff being pressured into unfairly declaring people ‘fit for work’ in order to fulfil targets set by the government. The government are aiming to cut nearly 20% from the welfare bill, despite the government’s own figures showing less than a 0.5% fraud rate 10.
Lydia Foxton, a spokesperson from DPAC said: ‘We have been targeting Atos, but they are just doing the government’s dirty work. Cutting welfare is devastating people’s lives and removing dignity, security and independence from thousands of sick and disabled people across the country. At the same time, David Cameron and his government are using the Paralympics to show themselves to be champions of disabled people, it’s a disgrace.’
Andrew Cox, a spokesperson from UK Uncut said: ‘The government have been making huge cuts to welfare provision, even though their own research shows that less than 0.5% of welfare claims are fraudulent. They are making disabled people a scapegoat for the economic crisis – they are being punished with welfare cuts, while the banks and the big businesses are getting off scot-free. The government could clamp down on tax avoidance and get back billions, the savings they will make from cutting welfare do not even come close, and they are devastating people’s lives.’
See here for photos and follow the story @ukuncut and #giveatoss
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Disabled people who have undergone Atos’ WCA are at the action and are available to talk to the media, please contact the UK Uncut media phone for details.
1 DPAC is a volunteer campaign network of and for disabled people campaigning for equality and human rights for all disabled people: dpac.uk.net/about
2 UK Uncut is a grassroots anti-cuts direct action network, well-known for targeting corporate tax avoidance: ukuncut.org.uk
3 ukuncut.org.uk/blog/the-atos-games
4 www.facebook.com/events/217652368360892
5 blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/08/30/re...
6 www.channel4.com/news/did-gb-paralympia...
7 bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/news/201...
8 parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/295
9 www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/...
10 falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/repost-benefit...
Photos from DPAC and UK Uncut action inside and outside DWP 31/08/12
Posted on Fri 31st Aug 2012, 3:30pm
