In response to a reader's comment, Noel Ortega looks at the recent successes of the US Uncut movement.

Thanks commenter @margsview for your very insightful comment:

“I appreciate knowing these facts and that they have been available to those who wished to know but I am now waiting to see ideas as to how to affect the actual tax changes. Simply voting for parties that strive for the current status is futile. Protesting is rather dubious as far as results, as media create their own spin and the authorities vilify the protesters thus nullifying their message for change. That leaves creating new strategies, such as a possible tax movement similar to the longstanding one in California. Comments please.”

I agree with you – historically, “protesting,” in and of itself, has not garnered any significant transformative change for the reasons you’ve listed and many more.

With that said, I also want to emphasize that protesting in the form of creative direct action can be very effective when combined with a well planned strategy. Direct action is needed in social movements, and it plays an integral role in creating transformative change.

One group that understands this paradox well is US Uncut. This social movement is attracting the attention from not only progressives, but also from middle of the road folks, and from the mainstream media. The folks who are behind US Uncut took the lead from UK Uncut to get giant corporate tax cheats like Bank of America, Verizon, FedEx, and GE to pay their fair share in taxes so we won’t have to shutdown our schools, close our libraries, or stop paying law enforcement officers and firefighters.

US Uncut has developed a very simple website that encourages ordinary citizens to take creative direct action on corporate tax cheats, which has led to their success in attracting the attention of the mainstream media (even right wing FOX), from policy makers, and tax policy experts.

It can very well be that this tax movement you’re calling for is already in formation and is becoming a global movement!