The UK Uncut campaign, which targets high-street tax-dodgers, has sprung up incredibly quickly and captured the imagination of many in the anti-cuts movement and the media with its innovative direct-action stunts. Activists from the campaign spoke to Solidarity about their thoughts on anti-cuts activism.
What are the origins of UK Uncut as a campaign?
Twelve friends met in a pub in October, two nights after the CSR was announced and, over pints, started off complaining about the cuts. The sort of conversation that was happening in pubs all around the country. Someone had brought along a copy of private eye with the article about Vodafone's £6bn tax dodge. We couldn't think of a better example to undermine the government's claims that there is no alternative to the cuts and that we're all in it together. So as we got drunker, and slightly bolder, someone suggested shutting down Vodafone's flagship store the following Wednesday. I don't think many of us believed we'd actually do it but just five days later, after recceing the store and putting a call-out on twitter, eighty people were sitting inside the flagship store on Oxford street. Our hashtag #ukuncut trended on twitter and the idea went viral. Within three days nearly thirty Vodafone stores had been shut down across the country. It went from there...
How does it function? It’s notable for its lack of formal structures; is this deliberate?
Yes. A strict hierarchical model would be inappropriate for this sort of protest. It relies on people across the country sharing ideas, tactics and skills but essentially taking on the work and decisions for themselves. And this reliance on decentralised power has produced incredible effects - in Brighton people glued themselves to the windows of Topshop, in Oxford there was a tax-dodgers grand prix. Our way of working is enabled by tools such as twitter and our purpose-build website and it's a model that allows us to organise rapidly and effectively.
The style/form of UK Uncut actions has found an enormous echo across the country; do you think that’s just because of the general political mood or are there specifically UK Uncut activists in various cities organising and building actions?
It's because there is anger out there about these cuts. People are angry and, contrary to claims of apathy, people are willing to hit the streets to defend the things that are important to them. There is no such thing as a official UK Uncut activist: some are local campaigners, others are on their first protest. It has captured the imagination of so many different people because our message is so simple.
How do you see the anti-cuts movement developing and, ultimately, winning?
Diversity. Localism. Solidarity. No one organisation will win this. We need a plethora of groups, ideas, targets and tactics that can dynamically evolve according to the specifics of the campaign. Big marches are fine, but it's more important that different groups around the country are thinking for themselves and coming up with innovative, exciting ways they can combat the cuts locally. Sometimes this will mean convential protest, other times lobbying, often strikes and, as UK Uncut has shown, frequently direct action. Big spectacles in Whitehall will happen too, and that's brilliant. But the cuts must be taken on where they will take effect. In the workplace, on the highstreet and in local communities.
Solidarity is important too. Let's embrace our diversity or targets and tactics and causes and not resort to lefty back-biting. Let's challenge each other not by criticism but by example. The people who set up UK Uncut were worried that direct action was not playing a big enough part in the fight but, instead of bitching, they changed that. If you think you've got a better idea - make it happen.
A lot of general anti-cuts agitation has targeted things like, for example, big banks or military spending. You’ve chosen a slightly different angle by focusing on corporate tax evasion. Why was that?
The issue is a compelling one because it undermines both the There Is No Alternative and We're All In This Together narratives of the Tories. It was also one that was virtually unknown about even though it's so simple. But you're right - there's loads of ways of attacking the cuts narrative. Tax avoidance is a useful one for now, but things will change and we'll have to move on.
There’s been criticism from some on the anti-cuts left (e.g. here) of a perceived softness on the part of UK Uncut to capitalism in its “mutualist” or “cooperative” forms. What’s your view on that debate?
Obviously one of the issues of open networks is that not everyone will always agree on stuff. This is inevitable but doesn't have to be a problem. UK Uncut obviously has no official line on mutuals or co-ops. The person who set up the action took the action down after he was made aware of John Lewis' record on unions etc. I think the episode demonstrates the robustness of horizontal networks rather than their inadequacy. In our three month history this has been one of the only problems of this type.
Workers’ Liberty believes that workers, organised in our workplaces and our communities, are the agency fundamentally capable of stopping cuts and, beyond that, reorganising society. How does UK Uncut see its project intersecting with the trade union movement and working-class struggles in general?
We have already had lots of productive link ups with the PCS, who are trying to save 13,000 jobs at HMRC. UK Uncut agrees that the cuts battle will not be won exclusively in the doorways of high street tax dodgers. But we also need to change the public discourse about cuts in order to allow more people to see that they are unnecssary, unfair and ideological. Already trade unions seem to be getting a bit bolder after seeing the level of public protest at the cuts.
