Educate and Win – The UKuncut event on the 15th January

Given the recent exchanges over the nature of the UKuncut event on the 15th of January in John Lewis and HSBC – I thought it worthy to point out the details of the events as written on the Uncut website.

It is our contention that it is time the British people began to have a genuine debate about how our banking sector is run and that all possibilities for our banks going forward should be scrutinized and thought over. In order to begin this debate we believe that the time has come to inform and educate the general public not only of the numerous failings of the existing system, where banks exist purely to advance short-term shareholder interest, but also of the many comparative advantages that other models might hold, be they mutuals, co-ops, credit unions or nationalized banks. Another financial world is possible.

Given the likelihood of an attempt to privatize both Northern Rock this year and the Royal Mail we feel it imperative to get such a debate started as soon as is possible.

This debate must be done on our terms and our streets. The people must define the debate about where we go with banking both retail and investment, this can no longer simply be left to media and political elites. In order to facilitate this we must educate and inform people of the alternatives. Banking reform and restructuring needs a movement, movements need people to participate, powerful participants need knowledge.

There will be a series of public lectures at both John Lewis and HSBC. We will also distribute flowers and sweets to those whom choose to shop and more importantly work at John Lewis given, despite its numerous imperfections, that it represents a different . way of doing business. We will proceed to disseminate information with regards to the comparative merits of co-operative banking, mutuals and credit unions over privately owned public shareholder banks, as well as highlighting HSBC’s own tax evasion outside the HSBC on 431 Oxford St and 196 Oxford Street.

The action will begin at 12:30 on Saturday, January 15th – we will meet outside John Lewis at 300 Oxford Street on the right hand corner of the front of the building as you face it. To self-identify and identify the group please bring your favourite book/ newspaper or flowers…look forward to seeing you all!

For what it is worth, and this is utterly irrelevant given this is an event predicated on starting debate, educating and infoming my personal opinions are as follows.
In the next 12 months I would like to see nationalization of RBS and Lloyds HBOs and Northern Rock put into workers hands. I would also like to stave off privatization of the post office – and this is a battle we can win – we just need to educate the public about the multiplicity of models and foster some proper public deliberation about these issues.

I would also like to see re-localized economies with local credit mutuals, staffed and owned by local people – community-based, community-owned finance.

Workers co-operatives where workers own not only profits but also the means of production is my preferred model regarding public services and enterprises.

However my opinions are just that, opinions – on the day we will begin a process of educating the public about the many alternatives – but we must start with something they recognize however imperfect it is.

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

A positive start is educating people about employee-owned enterprise and I think it makes perfect sense to get in the broader public conscience.

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