Comedian Mark Thomas led a flashmob into Apple’s flagship store on Regent Street, central London, on Monday to protest against the company’s tax avoidance policies.
Apple use three subsidiaries in Ireland to help massively reduce their exposure to tax, letting Apple Sales International pay just $10m in tax on a sales income of $74bn in 2011.
The protesters explained the reasons behind their action:
On the evening of 3rd June 2013, a flashmob including comedians Mark Thomas, Nick Revell, Chris Coltrane and Tiernan Douieb stormed the Regent Street branch of the Apple Store to highlight the corporation’s multi-billion-pound tax-avoiding Irish-subsidiaries ruse (more on that here: www.guardian.co.uk/technology/…).
We temporarily turned the store into Irish territory with music, dancing, flags, posters and messages about their iDodge on many of their big screens. A good craic was had by all.
The impromptu party saw Mark Thomas and around 50 activists pile in the Regent Street shop, accompanied by a three-piece band playing traditional Irish music and a jaunty cover of ‘the Irish Rover.’
Banners diplayed captions like, “Take a tax holiday in Ireland” while the screens of computers and tablets in the store were altered to urge customers to buy the same goods in the nearby John Lewis store.
[Via]
