The rich have no more right to emit than the poor

CO2 KILL5

CO2 KILL5

Right now some very rich men and women are making bad choices, decisions that will impact on the poorest and most vulnerable in society. Education maintenance allowance – £30 a week to allow kids to finish school has been scrapped. A cap on housing benefits that will create a Kosovan style social cleansing for London. Over 21,000 disabled people will lose their independent living allowance.

Rich people make rubbish decisions too often.

In Chelsea 1 in 5 people drive a 4×4. 1 in every five cars is a 4×4. We can say that again. 1 in 5 are Chelsea Tractors.

These cars are selfish. They dominate the road, terrifying cyclists and pedestrians alike. Check out this article – Chelsea tractors are the most hated form of transport, emitting at least double the emissions of an equivalent Estate vehicle.

It’s not okay for the richest people in society to make choices that will have a rubbish impact on all of our futures. It’s not okay for a borough of London to be saturated by vehicles that were designed for the hard and inaccessible terrain. It is okay to tease these selfish folk. Congratulations to those who made this happen. 300 number plates were updated in Chelsea on 12th December 2010. Seen one on your travels? Wanna take part? Get in touch – info@climaterush.co.uk

Overnight action by the Climate Rush License Plate Authority. Originally posted on their blog.

Well done for innovative direct action!

Also see

Right to protest?

Britain’s woods and forests for sale

Climate Rendezvous with Climate Rush

Chelsea Tractors targeted

Zero Carbon by 2030

Huge New Anti-Government Mural In Shoreditch

Anti-Government Mural In Shoreditch

brainrobber dave

brainrobber george

A new, anti-government graffito has been added to the front of the old Foundry building in Shoreditch.

The piece, by dr. d, is part of a show at the Red Gallery, located just behind the Foundry. It depicts a tabloid-style exposé by the “Fail Daily” (see what they’ve done there?) of the criminal wrongdoings of our political leaders. The esteemed Prime Minister, his Deputy PM, and the Chancellor, re-christened “Raging Dave”, “Dead Leg Clegg” and “Chopper George” respectively, are done up like proper varmints, accused of being the ‘Great Brain Robbers’ and being part of the “notorious” Bullingdon Club (an accusation that might rankle with Clegg, who was never a member).

Update: According to @Asbardella, the graffito is already being painted over.

Reproduced from the londonist blog.

Well done Dr D! And what a pity, if true, this mural is already being painted over.

Dr D is not the only one who has been busy overnight. The genteel folk from Climate Rush have been out and about with their stencils. [see Suffragette ‘Banksy’ Strikes Again]

Also see

Suffragette ‘Banksy’ Strikes Again

Climate Rush Street Art

Haringey Vodafone unpaid tax protest

Student occupation of Millbank Tower Tory HQ

Grateful Vodafone executives say a big thank you to Chancellor George Osborne

Nationwide shut down of Vodafone stores

Vodafone £6 billion unpaid tax bill

Haringey Vodafone unpaid tax protest

Vodafone Wood Green

Around 20 people from various groups protested outside a Vodafone shop in Wood Green Saturday lunchtime. Shoppers and passers-by generally gave them a good reception and many agreed with the connection to fighting Tory cuts that was made by the protestors.

The leaflets handed out made the connection between corporate tax-dodging and the fight against Tory cuts, particularly promoting a cuts protest which will take place outside Haringey Civic Centre (the council HQ) on the evening of the 22nd November 2010 when the council will be in full session.

This is the third weekend of protest against cuts and the Vodafone £6 billion unpaid tax bill.

Welfare cut by £7 billion. Vodafone let off £6 billion tax. We can all do the sums and we do not like the result.

Also see

Poll: protests against Vodafone dent its image

How Vodafone made tax dodging respectable

Yes, Britain’s open for business – the sort of business that doesn’t pay tax

Student occupation of Millbank Tower Tory HQ

Grateful Vodafone executives say a big thank you to Chancellor George Osborne

Nationwide shut down of Vodafone stores

Vodafone £6 billion unpaid tax bill

Nationwide shut down of Vodafone stores

I was on my way up to London on the train to Zero Carbon by 2030 and the news was coming in fast, Vodafone stores were dropping like flies.

It started at 11 am that morning at a meeting in Hyde Park. Then it was close down the Vodafone stores in London and across the country. By the end of the day over 20 Vodafone stores had been reported by UK Uncut as closed in a day of action against Vodafone.

Vodafone claim their unpaid £6 billion tax is an urban myth. Why then have they not demanded a retraction for all those who have published? Do the FT, Private Eye, Grauniad and Forbes spread urban myths as leaked to them by HMRCR?

If an urban myth, as Vodafone claim, how is it that BBC Radio 4 programme File on 4 were able to rebroadcast their excellent documentary A Taxing Dilemma on how Big Business fiddle their taxes? And as A Taxing Dilemma shows it is not only Vodafone.

Vodafone claim they always pay their taxes. Why then is India demanding $2.6 billion unpaid tax?

£7 billion cuts in benefits to the poor. £6 billion unpaid tax by Vodafone. We can all do the sums and we do not like the result.

Sign the petition calling for Vodafone to pay their unpaid tax

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/40035.html

Follow on twitter

http://twitter.com/ukuncut

The Vodafone protest has brought a whole new generation of protest out onto the streets. It was in the High Street in full view of the public. People could see that direct action works. We will not sit back and take the cuts.

Old style demos are a thing of the past. Corporate bosses are twitching. Who will be next?

Only a couple of weeks before protesters from a Crude Awakening had shut down the Coryton oil refinery. [see Crude Awakening shut down Coryton Oil Refinery]

Also see

Vodafone £6 billion unpaid tax bill

Brixton Anti-Cuts March & Vodafone Protest

Vodafone shops blockaded in tax protest

Britain’s £6bn Vodafone Bill

Full report of todays Vodafone action

Vodaphone protest in Oxford

Vodafone stores in York shut by protests

A day of direct action against Vodafone

London: Oxford Street Vodaphone store shut down by protestors

21 Vodafone Stores Shut in Anti-Cuts Action

Tax protests target Vodafone stores

A Day of Action: Liverpool

A Day of Action: Glasgow

A Day of Action: York

A Day of Action: Birmingham

A Day of Action: Manchester

A Day of Action: London

A Day of Action: Oxford

Cat Smith on the direct action against Vodafone

Why are there protests against Vodafone? A simple guide

We are the angry mob

Vodafone protest shows tweets can get people on the streets

Saturday’s Nationwide Vodafone Shut-Downs

Climate Rush ‘do a Banksy’ on HM Treasury

'Bansky' on front entrance to HM Treasury

Congrats to Climate Rush who in the true spirit of the suffragettes and urban art did a Bansky on HM Treasury this morning.

The coalition government claim to be a green government. With cuts in public spending announced last week which will hit hardest the poorest and the environment, threatened massive expansion of coal-fired and nuclear power stations, sell-off of state forests, we see little evidence so far.

Four artists, using black spray cans and stencils, painted George Osborne’s face with a quote on to the white stone of the Treasury at 2.40am this morning.

The three women and one man from Climate Rush arrived at the Treasury and stencilled the image, in Banksy style, with an Osborne quote: “A conservative treasury will drive green growth … by financing a green recovery.”

According to the FT the ‘Bansky’ was covered with a sheet of white paper and guarded by a burly security guard to ensure the paparazzi could not take a picture.

Also see

Climate Rush ‘do a Banksy’ on HM Treasury

Revealed: The Banksy-style hit on the Treasury

Climate Rush activists give George Osborne the Banksy treatment

The Spending Review and it’s consequences for the environment

Climate Rush storm DfT with Axe

Climate Rendezvous with Climate Rush

Climate Rush storm DfT with Axe

Also see

Don’t Let Axe-wielding Beeching Strike Again!

Crude Awakening shut down Coryton Oil Refinery

Climate Rendezvous with Climate Rush

Suffragette-defaced penny

Suffragette-defaced penny

Following Black Friday when Suffragettes were attacked and sexually assaulted by the police, they took direct action to force votes for women. It came as a shock to polite society to see genteel respectable women taking part in criminal acts.

One such criminal act was to debase the currency of the Crown. This was an act of genius as it put their message into common circulation.

Climate Rush are the modern-day successors to the Suffragettes.

Synchronicity: I was at a meeting with Climate Rush where the Suffragettes were discussed. Two days later I walk into my house, turn on the radio and it is a programme about the Suffragettes!

Ongoing today

The Crude Awakening – Central London – Saturday 16 October 2010

Also see

Suffragette-defaced penny

Suffragette-defaced penny

Climate Rendezvous with Climate Rush

Raising a Ruckus

Climate Camp has set up camp outside the global headquarters of Royal Bank of Scotland to highlight their funding of dirty energy. Unless we park our tanks on their lawns nothing will change. It is only by taking direct action that we effect change.

A report revealed today by the Sunday Herald shows that RBS has provided nearly £13 billion worth of funding to the oil and gas industries since it was bailed out by the taxpayer two years ago. This is at a time when small businesses are being starved into bankruptcy through lack of finance.

Also see

Climate Camp vs RBS – We’ve arrived

How RBS funds ‘dirty oil’

Why should state-owned companies be ethics-free zones?

RBS: £13bn funding to companies blamed for global warming

RBS under siege over “environmental vandalism”

Climate change campaigners turn up the heat on RBS chiefs

RBS Porkies and Climate Camp Frogs

RBS moves to avoid protest