US Uncut

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http://www.usuncut.org/

US Uncut is a grassroots movement taking direct action against corporate tax cheats and unnecessary and unfair public service cuts across the U.S. Washington’s proposed budget for the coming year sends a clear message: The wrath of budget cuts will fall upon the shoulders of hard-working Americans. That’s unacceptable.

Obama seeks to trim $1.1 trillion from the budget in the next ten years by cutting or eliminating over 200 federal programs, many dedicated to social services and education. For instance, it cuts in half funding to subsidize heating for low-income Americans; limits an expansion of the Pell grant program for students; and decreases Environmental Protection Agency funding by over 12%.

Meanwhile, Republicans are using their new House majority to slash spending even more brutally. The GOP has made it clear that they are bent on raiding funds for Social Security, Medicare, education; determined to kill health care reform; and gut needed investments in infrastructure, climate change and job creation, at a time when America needs it most.

These cuts will come on top of very painful austerity measures made at the state-level across our nation–-worth hundreds of billions–since the recession began.

In short, budget cuts demonstrate that Washington has abandoned ordinary Americans.

But there is an alternative: Make corporate tax avoiders pay.

Enjoying record profits and taxpayer-funded bailouts as the economy slowly recovers from a financial crisis, nearly two-thirds of US corporations don’t pay any income taxes, instead opting to abuse tax loopholes and offshore tax havens. According to this study from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, 83 of the top 100 publicly traded corporations that operate in the US exploit corporate tax havens. Since 2009, America’s most profitable companies such as ExxonMobil, General Electric, Bank of America and Citigroup all paid a grand total of $0 in federal income taxes to Uncle Sam. Tax havens alone account for up to $1 trillion in tax revenue lost every decade, money that could be invested in K-12 education, colleges, public health, job creation and hundreds of other worthy public programs.

If we pay our taxes, why don’t they? If corporations profit here, shouldn’t they pay here?

It’s time for ordinary Americans to fight back and demand an end to the corporate tax avoidance. Join US Uncut and together let’s make corporate tax avoiders pay.

US Uncut is a horizontal movement. There are no centrally planned protests.

Getting Started

US Uncut is all about action. Don’t worry if you’ve never done anything like this before- you’re not the only one. And taking action is easy!

US Uncut is a decentralized organization – no one from on high plans your events, it’s all up to you. Post an action, make some signs, & people will join you – it’s fun!

Planning And Taking Action In 5 Easy Steps

  1. Choose your target. Go to the “Targets” tab on the website to find a list of and information on America’s most egregious tax dodgers.
  2. Plan your specific action. Find one of those companies’ local branches in your community. (No branches in your community? Local organizers are encouraged to act autonomously and choose a different target if necessary.)
  3. Post the action and spread the word. You can post your action on our Action lists page. From there, tell friends, family members, coworkers, business associates, classmates, roommates, neighbors, teammates, fellow churchgoers, significant others and everyone else you know about your action! When you have a chance, call/email your local newspapers, radio stations and TV stations.
  4. Use online tools if possible. On twitter, mention @usuncut and use the hashtag #usuncut in related posts. Create a facebook event and invite your friends, then link it to your action on the site. Use Foursquare to make it known what you’re doing, and reach out to local political blogs to get people interested.
  5. Do it already! On your planned day of action, go to your target and stage your action. Emphasis is on creativity and nonviolent, direct action. Make sure you print out some flyers with useful information on your target’s tax dodging activities, tie that to low tax revenues for your state, and how that relates to unnecessary budget cuts. hand it out to everyone you see!

Suggestions and Reminders

  • Remember to bring a video or photo camera. If it isn’t captured in video or photographs, it didn’t happen. News organizations will often take video and photos from this website – so it is vital that you document your actions so we can spread our message. After your action, simply go back to your action listing on this site, and you will find buttons available to ‘Submit a report’ and ‘Add photos/video.’ You can link to your images on Flickr, your Facebook photo albums, or even your videos uploaded to Youtube and Vimeo. Show off to everyone what you’ve accomplished!
  • Be creative, think outside the box. US Uncut follows UK Uncut’s example of creative protests. For one example, watch their video here for how to stage a bail-in at your target corporation on the day of action you’ve planned. Make it fun and interesting!
  • Report back afterwards. Submit a report on your action listing page to describe your action. What happened? What was the best part? What was the worst part? How many people showed up? What would you do better next time? Share your thoughts and ideas so we may learn from each other.

Legal Tools

Engaging in civil disobedience? It’s important to know the legal resources you have available to you.

The only and best network of Lawyers that support Nonviolent Direct Action (both as Legal Observers and as Criminal Defenders) is the National Lawyers Guild. Folks coordinating these kind of actions should make contact directly with the NLG folks in their cities/regions by using this handy little web tool:
NLG Chapter Map

Guidelines for Nonviolent Direct Action

3 rules for dealing with police and property:

  1. Don’t touch police officers (it’s assault and it’s a felony)
  2. Don’t glue locks (it’s property destruction – and possibly abduction if you lock innocent bystanders into the bank with you).
  3. Don’t damage property.

MOST IMPORTANTLY – Have Fun! Cops & Employees are not your enemies, so be pleasant.

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6 Comments

  1. I am willing to participate inonviolent protests . These tax evading needs too stop .before be become a third world nation , and slaves to corporations.

    )

  2. Democracy Tax

    I propose a tax called the Democracy tax. It would pay for the cost of all federal elections and get the rich and powerful our of the business buying candidates. It’s a simple inexpensive tax that would raise enough money to fully fund all federal elections. It would mandate that the candidates use only the money provided by the tax and could not accept donations from any individuals or companies and could not even use their own money to finance their campaigns. Here’s how I see it working.

    The IRS says that greater than 250,000,000 tax returns will be filed next year. This includes all returns including private, business and corporate returns. There would be a democracy tax of $10 charged on each return. That would raise $2,500,000,000 a year and $10,000,000,000 over four years. That is significantly more money than spent in total on the last four year election cycle. The cost would come to 2.7 cents a day per day per tax return. A small price to pay to turn our government into a democracy.

    I like this formula because I would contribute as much as GE to any candidates election.
    It would level the playing field and mean candidates would not have to sell their soul to get elected.

    I would support any candidate that would vote for this tax and oppose anyone who would not.

    Thank You

    Chris Carter

    • Sounds good. Only issue is that we shouldn’t tax the non-wealthy anymore than they already are…this tax should apply to individuals of a certain higher salary bracket and to corporations, and lastly there has to be better transparency, as well as different ppl in positions of tax appropriation, to avoid misuse of the funds.

  3. I just watched your documentary on Netflix. My mind has been awaken. Gee, I wonder where Netflix sits in the transfer game. It would be nice to know that our countries next round of leaders act upon these thugs. Our young people need to step up and march for this defining moment. Close the tax code loopholes and let them slowly tie a noose around their notches of their big fat belts!.

  4. STANDUP!!!

    • Standup For Freedom For All!
    • Standup For the Right of Equality For All Humans!
    • Standup For the Right of Respect For All the Human Race!
    • Standup For BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS!
    • Standup For the Right For a Woman’s Right to Choose!
    • Standup For the Right to Believe and Practice Any Religion Without Fear From Other Religions or Governments!
    • Standup For the Right To Maintain Separation of Church and State!
    • Standup For the Right To Love Whomever You Wish!
    • Standup For the Right of Freedom of Speech!
    • Standup For the Right To Have Clean Water!
    • Standup For the Right To Breathe Clean Air!
    • Standup For the Right To Eat Clean Food!
    • Standup For the Right To a Clean Environment!
    • Standup For the Right To Affordable Healthcare!
    • Standup For Right To Clean Elections!
    • Standup For the Right to Eliminate Citizens United, Lobbyists, and Special Corporate and Millionaire Tax Breaks!
    • Standup For the Right of All to Vote!
    • Standup For the Right to Fight Climate Change!
    • Standup For the Right To Live Off the Grid!
    • Standup For the Right To Walk Down the Street Without Being Shot by Police or Stand your Ground!
    • Standup For the Right To Live in a World at Peace Not War!
    • Standup For the Right To Stop Paying Taxes For War Machines and Military That Can Now Be Used Against Us In the Streets!
    • Standup For the Right To Demilitarize The Police!
    • Standup For the Right to Peacefully Protest in the Streets, Without Reprisals!
    • Standup For the Right To an Affordable Education!
    • Standup For the Right To a Decent Wage!
    • Standup For the Right To Impose the Minimum Wage, Social Security, Medicare, and ACA on Congress!
    • Standup For the Right to Organize Unions!
    • Standup For the Right To Use Science!
    • Standup For the Right To Breakup of Monopolies!
    • Standup For the Right Not to Be Censored!
    • Standup For the Right to Honest and Open Communication!
    • Standup For the Right to Help the Poor!
    • Standup For the Right To Stop Corporate Control of Solar, Wind, and Future Power Sources. Demand Open Source For New Technologies!
    • Standup For the Right to Eliminate Terrorist Threats:
    Terrorists Defined as Those Whom:
    1. Want to Impose Their Religion on All in the World!
    2. Wage War to Force Their Way of Life on the World!
    3. Hate and Intolerance of All Races Other Then Their Own!
    4. Control Women of the World and Their Bodies!
    5. Hate the LGBT Community!
    Listen for 1-5 by the Media Message Machine, Our Politicians, and Religious Right in This Country!
    • Standup For the Right of the World to Share Food and Eliminate Hunger Without Poisons like GMO’S!
    • Standup For the Right to Privacy!
    • Standup For the Right to Require Background Checks for Guns and Eliminate High Capacity Magazines and Semi-Automatic Rifles!

    STANDUP!!!

    • Standup For RESPECTFULL, NONVIOLENT PROTEST! ✌
    • Standup in The Street, show your Support✌
    • Standup in The Football Stadium! ✌
    • Standup in The Hockey Area! ✌
    • Standup in The Basketball Stadium! ✌
    • Standup in The Soccer Stadium! ✌
    • Standup in The Local School Board Meeting! ✌
    • Standup in The Town Hall Meeting! ✌
    • Standup in The State Houses and Senates! ✌
    • Standup in The Courtrooms and Jails! ✌
    • Standup in The Corporations! ✌
    • Standup in the Banks and Wall Street! ✌
    • Standup in The Churches! ✌
    • Standup in The Congress! ✌
    • Standup in The Supreme Court!
    • Standup in The Colleges! ✌
    • Standup For Marching For Freedom, Equality, and Fairness! ✌
    • Standup For WE THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!! ✌
    • Standup Peacefully and Respectfully for “WE THE PEOPLE” WE Will Not All Fit in The Jails! ✌
    STANDUP!!!

    • Standup – Turn Off the Media Message Machine! ✌
    • Standup – Eliminate For Profit Jails! ✌
    • Standup – Reduce Mandatory Minimum Sentences! ✌
    • Standup – Two Movies to Watch before Unplugging: V for Vendetta and The Hunger Games, Catching Fire. Watch, listen, and reflect on the Deeper message of These Two Movies! ✌
    • Standup – Turn Off the Politicians! ✌
    • Standup – Connect with a Fellow Human Being! ✌
    • Standup – Eliminate Waste, Recycle, Reuse, Simplify, Live, and LOVE! ✌
    • Standup – To Consumerism! Break the Cycle! You are More Than They Tell You Are! You are PERFECT AT ALL TIMES – LOVE AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! ✌
    • Standup – Grow Your Own Organic Food! ✌
    • Standup – Demand Dropping Exemptions for Corporations That Cannot Be Sued For Their Products! ✌
    • Standup – Share Knowledge on LOVE, Life, Conservation, Solar and Wind Power, Cooking, or Sewing; Whatever Your Passion May Be! SHARE IT.
    • Standup – DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY! ✌
    • Standup – To a Common Enemy – “FEAR AND HATRED” Replace it With “LOVE AND SHARING” ✌
    • Standup – WE THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD ARE ALL CONNECTED, WE ARE ONE, AND WE ARE BEINGS THAT CAN CHANGE THE COURSE OF OUR LIVES, THROUGH LEARNING, LOVE, AND SHARING! ✌

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