Camden UKUncut protest in pictures

Today UKUncut protesters took part in a national action involving over forty Starbucks demanding that they end the practice of using front companies in Switzerland and Ireland to outsource their profits in order not to pay corporation tax despite making large amounts of money from UK outlets.

In Camden Lock and Euston (as well as Kilburn) activists took the arguments to the stores themselves.

A banner saying “No tax = No NHS” hung from Starbucks

How festive! Police guard the entrance

Some customers not very welcome

As protesters went in police and staff shut and locked the doors. Here journalists and a legal observer peer into shop to see what’s happening

Green Party leader is unimpressed at being thrown out of Starbucks by the police

Ben tells the crowd what the protest is all about

Some of the Camden Lock crew

One of the other Camden protests was at Euston station where activists closed the store down for sometime.

Closed for tax avoidance

The focus here was on women

Well attended protest

Protesting

Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader, who attended the protests said “Starbucks’ approach may be legal, but today’s protests show how much damage has been done to their standing among the public.

“The major fault lies with government, which has failed to take action against aggressive tax avoidance, as we’ve seen recently, Vodafone, Google, eBay and Amazon.

“By turning Starbucks stores into refuges, crèches and homeless shelters, UKUncut has shown how government cuts are having a huge impact across the country, but particularly on women, in terms of job losses, benefit cuts and loss of services.

Natalie added that Starbucks’ belated “offer” to pay £10m in tax for each of the next two years was not enough.

“Taxes shouldn’t be ‘donations’. The state isn’t a charity to be given crumbs from a rich multinationals’ table.

“To start to repair the damage Starbucks should pay the proper tax levels for the past six years (how long corporations are required to keep records), and restructure the business to pay fair taxes permanently in future. And they should reverse this week’s slashing of staff pay and conditions. It should be paying staff as a minimum a living wage, should commit to offering standard hours contracts, paid meal breaks and decent sick pay.”