Friday 6 May 2011

Send a message to Sheriff John Key

Post-Budget push to collect 10,000 more signatures for the Tax Justice petition

Fri-Sun, 20-22 May

You can help. Contact Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator, straight away. Email svpl@xtra.co.nz, or ph/txt 021-0415 082.


On Thursday 19 May, John Key’s National-led government will present their 2011 Budget. It will most certainly be an attack on grassroots people. There will be cuts to public services and social spending, which will hurt ordinary Kiwis. There will be other announcements that strengthen the hand of the market and enrich an elite few. John Key will try to justify the attacks by saying the government is spending too much and racking up debt.

But in fact the government is not spending enough to help ordinary New Zealanders. They’re not spending enough to help the people of Christchurch who face a cold winter in damaged homes. And the reason the government is borrowing heavily is because they handed out tax cuts to the rich and big corporates. The country isn’t broke, the wealth is being stolen away!

As part of our collective fightback we need to rally support and build political momentum for tax justice. One tool we have is the Tax Justice petition, which calls on parliament to:

1. Remove GST from food; and
2. Tax financial speculation.

Removing GST from food would give immediate relief to people struggling to cope with the rising cost of living. It would set the country on a path to getting rid of GST, a horrible regressive tax, altogether.

While we currently pay tax on our kai, the financial speculators operating in NZ markets are getting a free lunch (or should we say banquet?). They pay zero tax on their profiteering. This gross injustice must be stopped.

30,000 people have so far signed the Tax Justice petition. But we need heaps more signatures by the time we present the petition to parliament in August. That will increase our chances of making Tax Justice an election issue.

Tax Justice 10,000, 20-22 May

We’ve done it before, we can do it again. We’re aiming to get 10,000 more signatures for the Tax Justice campaign in three days immediately following Budget 2011. A Budget that grassroots people are going to be angry about, which will translate into people wanting to sign the Tax Justice petition. We can count on it.

We need volunteers from around the country. If you can help on a Tax Justice petition stall (a table on busy street) or organise one in your area between Friday 20 May and Sunday 22 May, contact me now. Email svpl@xtra.co.nz or ph/txt 021-0415 082 (anytime).

Leading up to the Budget and afterwards we’ll be sending out a string of media releases. A big mobilisation of Tax Justice supporters around the country will help us break into the mainstream media, so important to the campaign.

The Tax Justice demands are achievable. Winning them would be a big boost to the confidence of grassroots people in this country, from which many good things could flow.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
svpl@xtra.co.nz
021-0415 082

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The class struggle is now reduced to polite wee squeeks about tax details, aptly represented as a playfight with rubber tipped arrows.
Thanks a lot guys.

Doloras LaPicho said...

I'm always impressed by the sectarian left's razor-sharp deconstruction of Klarc's cartoons, because no doubt the real ideological content of the campaign is to be found there.

The author of the above comment no doubt thinks he (and it is undoubtedly a he) is doing far more for the class struggle, and it would be interesting to hear how. I fear it would be "valuable but non-revolutionary trade union work, combined with angry denunciations of other socialists on blogs".

Anonymous said...

Hardly sectarian to call a lame campaign for what it is.

Doloras LaPicho said...

As opposed to leaving snarky anonymous comments on blogs, which is pushing the class struggle forward by leaps and bounds.

Anonymous said...

Hey, good point Doloras.

Let's all get plastic bows and arrows and make a real difference.