UK Uncut Hijack Vodafone Website
For immediate release

Tel: 07591992825
Email: ukuncut@gmail.com
Twitter: @ukuncut
Web: http://www.ukuncut.org.uk


UK Uncut, the anti cuts direct action group [1], this afternoon hijacked a Vodafone website and posted blogs demanding that the government force the company to pay its tax. At around midday, UK Uncut took over the blogs on the 'World of Difference' website [2], Vodafone's flagship Corporate and Social Responsibility initiative.

UK Uncut have targeted Vodafone since October, shutting down hundred of the mobile phone giant's high street stores in protest against a £6 billion tax dodge [3]. Despite Vodafone trying to brush off the allegations, the National Audit Office have recently opened an investigation into HMRC's controversial tax settlements with the company [4].

Vodafone's World of Difference programme is their highly-publicised charity scheme, which awards small grants to people to undertake charity work [5]. Each of these winners has a blog on World of Difference website. UK Uncut were leaked the password details by a small group of the winners, who were angry at the company's tax avoidance practices.

One of the winners that leaked the passwords, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "Vodafone make a big deal out of their funding to charity, but their charitable giving pales into insignificance compared to the £6 billion they got away without paying in tax. I work for a charity and understand how the government's brutal spending cuts will hit the poorest and most vulnerable. So many charities, including mine, are under threat. Vodafone's tax dodge alone could pay for every cut to every charity in the country." [6]

The messages posted on Vodafone's website included photos and videos of UK Uncut's actions at Vodafone stores and details of some of the cuts that could be avoided if the government chose to make Vodafone to pay its tax. One blog was titled: "Vodafone's Tax Dodge £6bn. Cuts to charities £5bn."

Fiona Samuels, 31, a spokesperson for UK Uncut said: "These cuts are not necessary, not fair and there are alternatives. People across the country are angry and willing to fight to prevent unprecedented cuts to public services."

[1] http://www.ukuncut.org.uk
[2] http://worldofdifference.vodafone.co.uk/
[3] The Vodafone tax deal, and the figure of £6bn, was first reported by former senior HMRC tax inspector Richard Brooks in Private Eye. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=514832&in_page_id=2
[4] http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/19/national-audit-office-investigate-multinational-tax
[5] http://worldofdifference.vodafone.co.uk/aboutWOD.html
[6] http://www.philanthropycapital.org/publications/improving_the_sector/grantmaking/preparing_for_cuts.aspx

This is a post to mark International Women's Day. Join the International Women’s Week and Mothering Sunday Mothers' March this Sunday:

Today is International Women’s Day. For one hundred years, women and men all over the world, from Germany to Ghana, from Uganda to the UK, have used the 8th of March to celebrate the achievements of women past, present, and future. Historically this day has also been a time for feminists and all those who believe in gender equality to consider the challenges and struggles we still face. This year certainly gives us pause for thought.

The history of the struggle for gender equality in the UK, and the rise of the welfare state are bound together. Just as campaigners for gender equality helped bring about the creation and expansion of the welfare state, the position of women in our society has improved because of it. The government’s unprecedented and unjustified attacks on the state inevitably therefore have a disproportionate impact on women.

The government insist that ‘we’re all in it together’ and that the distribution of the cuts will be ‘fair’. This is simply not true. They choose to focus the cuts on people who are already the most vulnerable in our society, on those who already face structural and historical disadvantages. The government may have neglected their duty to investigate the impact of legislation on gender inequality, but other people have not, and the results show that women will face a disproportionate burden.

Highlighting the impact of the cuts on women is not divisive and does not disregard the needs of everybody else in society. This was well demonstrated and articulated by the people who organised UK Uncut’s feminist bail-in, and by the protesters who attended, half of whom were men. Feminism, and the struggle for gender equality, are inclusive and can be understood as involving everybody, regardless of gender, in a joint struggle for equality. Drawing attention to the impact on women is a reflection of statistical evidence. It is a fact that women, in general, will be worse affected than men. It is important to know this if we are to understand what the cuts really mean and relate that to the people who will be affected.

Women will, in general, be hit harder than men for a number of reasons. As the Fawcett Society points out, they make up 65% of the public sector workforce and will therefore be hit hardest by job cuts. They rely more heavily on public services such as the NHS, for reasons such as pregnancy and longer life expectancy. We can also expect cuts to many women specific services such as refuges from domestic violence and support services for rape victims. To rub salt into the wound, women will also be expected to bridge the gap where childcare and services for the elderly are removed, directly affecting their ability to work. They are also due to lose out heavily from changes to the benefit system – single mothers will lose 18.5 per cent of their net income; female single pensioners will lose 11.7 per cent. The repercussions of these cuts can be seen already. By the end of last year the number of unemployed women topped the one million mark. Recent figures show that the number of women aged 25-49 on jobseeker's allowance is now at its highest since records began in 1997. The evidence goes on and on and on.

Still think we’re all in it together? These cuts are not an economic necessity, they are a political choice. UK Uncut has helped to show that there are many alternatives to the government’s shock and awe austerity programme. Closing the tax loopholes which allow the super-rich to dodge their responsibilities is one alternative. Making the banks pay for the crisis they caused is another.

If we want to stop the government, and if we want a fairer society, we have to stand up for ourselves. We can draw on a rich history of ordinary people who have organised, struggled and fought for their rights and their ideals. Like the women who did whatever it took to win the right to vote. Like the brave female Ford workers who took industrial action to win the right to equal pay. Like the UK Uncut protesters who transformed a high street bank into a crèche, highlighting cuts to childrens’ services.

This International Women’s Day let us honour and remember all of those women who have fought and continue to fight for gender equality and let’s promise to protect and build on their victories.

See you on the high streets.

On 23rd March George Osborne will unveil his budget and, with it, the deepest cuts to public services since the 1920s. On March 26th hundreds of thousands of people will march and take action in London to oppose these cuts. This march is not the beginning of the anti-cuts movement and it isn't the end. But it is hugely important that we have massive numbers on the streets of London that day.

It's up to you to make sure that happens. Here's how:

1) Go to this Facebook event. Click attending. Click Invite. Then copy and paste this piece of code into your address bar:

javascript:elms=document.getElementById('friends').getElementsByTagName('li');for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === 'object'){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}

Hit return. This will select all your friends. Now add a brief message explaining what the march is and why it's important to attend. Send the invites.

2) Talk to your Mum and Dad, sister and brother, niece and nephew and all your friends and colleagues. Talk to your postman. Tell them all to come on the march. Explain to them why it's important. All the details you'll need are on the March for the Alternative website.

That's it!

See you on the streets.

Displaying posts 178 - 180 of 234 in total