Stop AIDS Activists took to the streets yesterday to tell George Osborne that there IS an alternative to the cuts, and it’s called a Robin Hood Tax!

On the day of the Budget announcement, we joined hundreds of other activists outside of Downing Street who all believe that the recent cuts to public spending have gone too far and are counter productive. Along with other merry men from the Robin Hood Tax Campaign, we grabbed our bows and arrows, posters and loud voices to tell the Government to tax the banks, not the poor!

 

 Robin Hood Tax is a small 0.05% tax on parts of banking transactions that are currently untaxed such as the in the trading of bonds, stocks and derivatives. Despite this being a tiny tax, it has the potential to raise billions of pounds for people living in poverty across the globe. It is estimated that $843 billion could be generated through this tax for healthcare across the globe. This money could be even be used to fund the Global Fund- so it is definitely something that the Stop AIDS Campaign supports.

After some chanting loud enough to wake up the whole of Downing Street, campaigners marched past the Houses of Parliament and straight to Abingdon Square, where the media crews had set up camp. Media reporters were stopped in their tracks, drowned out by the hundreds of activists demanding the UK government to stand up and listen. With our super loud voices, the Robin Hood campaigners dominated the chanting and we quickly had all of the protesters from various sections of civil society chanting “Tax the banks, not the poor!”. We even made it on the BBC news!

 

We want the UK Government to implement a Robin Hood Tax now. France and Germany have already taken the plunge. Now it’s our turn.

To find out more info about the Robin Hood Tax go to http://robinhoodtax.org/