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HSBC tax dodging scandal
Put the establishment on trial!
Simon Carter
The HSBC tax dodging scandal has further exposed the rottenness of the political establishment. Both the Tory party and Labour received millions in donations and loans from super-rich tax avoiding clients of the UK based HSBC banking giant's Swiss branch.
Top officials at HM Revenue and Customs claim ignorance of whistleblower Herve Falciani's 2008 offer to send them HSBC's tax scam details. But by April 2010 HMRC had received the HSBC list. Why then in November 2010 did Prime Minister David Cameron elevate HSBC boss Stephen Green to the House of Lords?
Despite evidence of illegal tax evasion practices only one UK account holder has been prosecuted from a list of 2,000 handed to the HMRC. Incredibly, tax bosses failed to prosecute multimillionaire and HSBC Swiss bank branch client Paul Bloomfield despite concluding that he owed 20 years' tax!
So why haven't legal proceedings been taken against HSBC executives? After all, this was the bank fined $1.92 billion by US authorities in 2012 for laundering drug cartel money through its Mexico operation.
Only now, after the proverbial horse has bolted, does the Treasury Select Committee say it will look into possible illegal practices at the bank. And despite successive Labour and Tory government Chancellors repeatedly announcing crack downs on tax dodging billionaires and corporations there is clearly little to show for their rhetoric. However these governments have relentlessly hounded those on the lowest incomes, sanctioning benefit claimants often for the most trivial of reasons.
None of this is surprising. The 2008 financial crash and subsequent 'great recession' demonstrated the unity of the super-wealthy, capitalism and political establishment in protecting the privileged elite with bailouts and more tax concessions while making us pay. We need working class unity and socialism to rid society of these parasitic freebooters and hirelings.
- Close the tax avoiding loopholes of individuals and corporations
- Prosecute all those involved in illegal tax dodging
- Implement a wealth tax on the super-rich
- Socialist nationalisation of the banking system - under democratic workers' control and management
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The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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