Robin Hood Tax (RHT) Campaign – post-budget Update
Hi One and All
Following the ‘Sachs-in-the-City’ update that related the amazing few days of Jeff Sachs’ whirlwind visit when we met with Alastair Darling, George Osbourne and Vince Cable, culminating in the Archbishop of Canterbury coming out in favour of the campaign, this installment features: our campaign swelling to more than100 members, pre-budget antics outside the Treasury, our post-budget response, international news and celebrities joining the campaign by the day.
The Robin Hood Tax campaign is growing quickly… we now have 106 member organisations, with the National Union of Journalists bringing us beyond the 100 mark in the last few days. To see who we are, click here: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/who-we-are/. About a quarter of our membership is made up of trade unions, which means if we add up the amount of UK citizens now behind the campaign it numbers many millions – a strong position as we move into the election period. Having got ourselves established we are now looking to step up a gear – so look out for an Urgent Action email in the next day or two asking all member organisations to write to Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the run-up to the launch of their party manifestos.
Robin Hoods visit the Treasury – one of the highlights of last week for me was being present when 10 Robin Hoods with green budget boxes descended on Parliament, sang ‘Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding through the glen…’ to surprised Treasury officials and turned up at Lib Dems and Conservative party headquarters. This was an extremely successful action with an excellent 5-minute package shown on Channel 4 News that night entitled ‘Squeaky-bum time for the banks’, if you havn’t watched it yet, you have to see it, click here and scroll down: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/homepage/photo-feature-robin-delivers-a-budget-to-believe-in/
To see great pix of the Robin Hoods in action, visit the site of ace photographer, Andrew Aitchison: http://www.photoshelter.com/c/andrewaitchison/gallery-list . This all goes to show that the Robin Hood character and story is (what he had always thought) extremely media-friendly – it’s fun, it’s colourful, it’s different – so let’s play with this both nationally and especially locally!
The Budget – in just five days running up to the budget more than 3,400 supporters responded to our Budget Day Action by emailing the Chancellor. An impressive showing! When it came to it the Chancellor let down the 150,000 people officially signed up to the campaign by letting rich financial institutions off the hook. He proposed a different sort of bank levy, which will raise a fraction of the tens of billions of pounds for good causes that the Robin Hood Tax would raise by taxing financial transactions. This is really disappointing since it is nowhere near enough to protect jobs, help poor people at home and abroad or fight climate change. As well, frustratingly, the Chancellor dismissed unilateral transaction taxes, such as the sterling transaction tax the campaign has been asking for, which we believe to be an important stepping stone towards coordinated international action to tax the financial sector more extensively.
The Campaign reaction – see the letter published in Saturday’s Guardian from the heads of more than half of the 100 members of the RHT campaign stating our disappointment:
http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/debate/in-the-news/response-to-budget-letter-to-editor/.
This initiative was put together immediately after the budget announcement and it’s brilliant to have achieved this many sign-ons in such a short time. Well done everyone for moving on this so quickly!
The curious case of Government denial in the face of incontrovertible evidence
Our pressure is helping to create policy differences between the major parties. For us, the implementation of Financial Transaction Taxes (FTTs) needs to be pursued at an international level by the G20 – the top-down approach – but also critically by countries introducing certain kinds of FTTs unilaterally – the bottom-up approach. For us, therefore, the principle that FTTs can be implemented unilaterally is key. Last Saturday David Cameron moved the Conservatives to a more progressive position than the Labour Government by announcing that a levy on banks should not rely on international agreement. The Lib Dems, some weeks ago, conceded that FTTs can be applied unilaterally (ie nationally) or regionally (ie within the EU) but importantly not waiting on the US to proceed. However, the Government persist in saying that FTTs have to be applied internationally, which appears to be an entirely untenable position since we have got not one, but two, unilateral FTTs in this country already. Namely, a stamp duty on share transactions introduced in the 1960s (at 0.5% raising more than ?3 billion a year); and the tax on bankers bonuses introduced last November. In the election period it is going to be critical for us to exploit these policy differences to the max!
International news: Robin Hood on the march – from Italy to Australia RHT campaigns are launching
“Molto bene”!!! Italy have just launched a national FTT campaign called ZERO ZERO CINQUE – 0,05 – bringing together NGOs, social movements, think tanks, trade unions, catholic groups and ethical banks – check out their website: http://www.zerozerocinque.it/. Australian campaigners plan to launch their campaign in the next 2 weeks. Support for the Robin Hood campaign is expanding across the globe. A campaign has been running in Germany for some time called Steuer gegen Armut (Tax Against Poverty) – see their version of the Richard Curtis-Bill Nighy film: http://www.steuergegenarmut.org/. (Max thinks it’s hilarious!). Our friends in the States have been pushing for action in Congress and the White House, as well as protesting outside banks all over the USA , and are planning a mid-April campaign launch.
In Brussels …outside the EU Heads of State meeting last week, Robin Hoods and Maid Marians had a tug of war with a gang of protesting bankers to highlight the need for Europe to introduce a Robin Hood Tax. See these brilliant pictures – http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfamsol/sets/72157623566580145/show/ – which you can contrast with our Robin Hoods descending on Parliament (see link above). Find the Brussels story here: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/homepage/robin-hood-battles-brussels-bankers/.
Celebrities join the campaign
Sienna Miller, Nick Frost, Emma Thompson, David Threlfall and Lamar have joined Bill Nighy as a first wave of celebrity endorsers of the Robin Hood Tax. See them all wearing the green masks here: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/homepage/celebrities-join-our-merry-band/, where you’ll find links to stories in Heat magazine, the Daily Mail, The Mirror, and the Sun. Especially, check out the piece by David Threlfall (aka Frank Gallagher in Channel 4’s Shameless) explaining how the RHT could improve the lives of millions of children in the UK and abroad in the Sun: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2903234/Why-Robin-Hood-must-take-from-rich-banks-and-give-to-poor-kids.html. What is exciting is the extension of coverage from the broadsheets to the tabloid press – an essential ingredient for campaign success!
What next?
In the run-up to Easter, let’s concentrate on three things. Firstly, there will be an Urgent Action for all member organisations to write to the 3 Party Leaders in the run-up to the launch of their party manifestos. Secondly, on the faith front, we are especially looking to build on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent public support for the campaign, focusing particularly on getting our message to the Christian community. Thirdly, we are about to launch our new campaign film starring a host of new celebs including Sir Ben Kingsley, Noel Clarke (from Dr Who) and Jamie Winston. This should create a surge of new support, adding petrol to the tank and propelling us forward with renewed energy!
Again, thank you one and all for the hard work you are putting in.
Best wishes
Dave
David Hillman, Stamp Out Poverty, Coordinator
Robin Hood Tax Campaign, Steering Group