US Uncut Spreads Spirit of Madison: 50 Protests Saturday Over Budget Cuts, Corporate Tax Dodgers

[marmar]

from In These Times:



US Uncut Spreads Spirit of Madison: 50 Protests Saturday Over Budget Cuts, Corporate Tax Dodgers

Thursday
Feb 24, 2011
9:42 am

By Art Levine


A little over two weeks ago, Carl Gibson, a 23-year-old former Mississippi Public Radio reporter fired over protesting a pro-BP cover-up, was inspired by the grassroots protests of poor and middle-class British citizens facing deep budget cuts.

The UK Uncut movement targets corporate tax dodgers and was spread largely by social media, as were the protests in Cairo and Tunisia. The template for bringing that model of grassroots direct action to the United States was described in an essay by the Nation's Johann Hari, "How to Build A Progressive Tea Party." Gibson's father sent the article to him as something he ought to look into himself.

"Dammit," he recalls saying, "if no else is going to do it, I will." Beginning with friends in Jackson and his home state of Kentucky, he started a Facebook page and Twitter stream, and borrowed some pointers and a web template from the British organizers for the debut of US Uncut. It's a loose network that doesn't depend on top-down leaders and invites activists to create their own protests timed to national days of action. This Saturday, nearly 50 protests are scheduled, targeting primarily the Bank of America, which has paid no income taxes while receiving $2.3 billion from the federal government in 2009, along with other corporate tax dodgers.

While there's no guarantee this onging effort will suceed—in an era marked by deficit hawks, timid Democrats and a GOP-controlled House of Representatives—this semi-employed young man working part-time as a bouncer at a gay bar has already drawn significant progressive press attention within a week or so of US Uncut being founded. And he's articulating a clear, fervent populist message that's been MIA from our national politics for far too long. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6998/us_uncut_spreads_the_spirit_of_madison_protests_saturday_over_budget_c/