Several demonstrators crashed Bank or America's Investor Conference Tuesday to make the point that when corporations don't pay taxes, governments are forced to lay off public workers.
A blog posting by the anti-austerity group U.S. Uncut called for protesters to gather Tuesday morning at what they called Bank of America's "Tax Dodger Conference."
"Call your broker- if you have any shares in BofA, you're free to come inside to the conference and tell everyone you see about BofA's tax dodging," the statement said.
After the conference had gotten underway, demonstrators unfurled a banner reading "Tax Dodger."
"When corporations like Bank of America don't pay their fair share of taxes, we have to 'cut' teachers, firefighters, and public servants," one protester shouted. "Do you pay your taxes? So do we. Why don't corporations pay their fair share, just like everyone else?"
"Bank of America is Bad for America," the added. "Bank of America pockets billions in profits and bailouts, but $0 in American taxes - that's immoral and un-American."
Last month, the same group organized demonstrations at 40 different Bank of America branches.
U.S. Uncut credited an article in The Nation by John Hari called "How to Build a Progressive Tea Party" with calling the group to action.
"Imagine a parallel universe where the Great Crash of 2008 was followed by a Tea Party of a very different kind," he wrote. "Instead of the fake populism of the Tea Party, there is a movement based on real populism."
The group takes their name from the British group U.K. Uncut, which seeks to use public protests to shame corporations into paying taxes.
A list compiled by Forbes showed that Bank of America paid no taxes on $4.4 billion in income in 2009.
This video is from U.S. Uncut, uploaded March 8, 2011.
Leave a Comment
