UK Uncut take action in Cardiff

In what was called the ‘emergency operation’, actions took place across the UK on Saturday 28th May, in protest at government cuts to the National Health Service. UK Uncut carried out 41 actions against banks and tax avoiders, some of which took the form of occupations.

In Cardiff the target was Topshop, the clothing store owned by retail giant the Arcadia Group, headed by Sir Philip Green, who has avoided the payment of millions of pounds of taxes. Following an anti-austerity rally dubbed "Busk against the Cuts" around 50 people simply walked down the main shopping street and straight past the shop's security guards, who were clearly overwhelmed by the number of protesters walking through the door. They then occupied the store for an hour, forcing it to close for at least half of that time.

It seemed to be the chants of the protesters that bothered Topshop the most. One of the more amusing aspects of the occupation was the rather pathetic attempt to drown out the chants by cranking up their own, awful ‘background’ music to ear splitting levels. In the end even the cops were begging them to turn it down. .

UK Uncut in Cardiff

In recent months the country seems to have suddenly come alive with resistance to the neo-liberal shock therapy that is being imposed by the coalition government. In the past my generation saw massive public opposition to the war in Iraq swept aside by an arrogant prime minister, convinced by his own lies that he had no obligations to the will of the people whom he supposedly represented, and popular dissent seemed to wither away as a result. Now though, we once again face an ultra-right wing government bent on a campaign of ideological scorched earth not seen since the dark days of Thatcher.

One of the new flowerings of dissent has come in the shape of the UK Uncut movement, although “movement” seems like too strong a word for something that is little more than an online message. The message goes like this – make the greedy corporations who (legally) evade their tax liabilities in the UK pay a fair share of tax, and in so doing, put the missing money into the government’s coffers that would pay for nearly everything that is being cut back. Watching from behind the safety of my laptop screen, it was frustrating to see the protests explode across the country while nothing seemed to be happening in Cardiff.