“A brilliant spark that will fly through the air and set the vapors of our insurrectionary imaginations alight.”
John Jordan, founder of Reclaim the Streets
UK Uncut is a tax justice movement that emerged in late 2010 in response to proposals by the British government to sharply reduce social spending. UK Uncut highlights the disparity between the government’s aggressive austerity measures and the preferential tax treatment enjoyed by big businesses by targeting retail stores and bank branches owned by the worst corporate tax dodgers. Its colorful, creative actions have shut down dozens of banks and stores through banging pots, blowing whistles, chanting and singing. To highlight cuts to specific social services, protesters have held read-ins to protest library closures and sleep-ins to protest cuts to housing subsidies, and they have transformed targeted stores into hospitals, daycares, classrooms and homeless shelters. UK Uncut has also inspired similar actions in the United States, carried out under the name U.S. Uncut, which began with a national day of action on February 26, 2011.