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Tax Justice Toolkit Building a Popular Campaign STOP

Tax Justice Toolkit Building a STOP Popular Campaign...annually to tax evasion and avoidance. 2 • Tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion a year.3 This is over three times

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Page 1: Tax Justice Toolkit Building a STOP Popular Campaign...annually to tax evasion and avoidance. 2 • Tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion a year.3 This is over three times

Presidential Gold Medal Award Winner - 2013

evasión de impuestos

Tax Justice ToolkitBuilding a

Popular CampaignSTOP

Page 2: Tax Justice Toolkit Building a STOP Popular Campaign...annually to tax evasion and avoidance. 2 • Tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion a year.3 This is over three times

2 Building a Popular Campaign

Page 3: Tax Justice Toolkit Building a STOP Popular Campaign...annually to tax evasion and avoidance. 2 • Tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion a year.3 This is over three times

Building a Popular Campaign 3

Building a Popular Campaign

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Contents

Introduction 5

Why development charities and NGOs are concerned about tax dodging 6

How tax dodging occurs... where you can find out more 8Tax havens – a quick sketch 8

Building popular campaigns to stop tax dodging 10Campaigning focused on multinational companies 10What multinationals say 10

Taking action on tax dodging: Popular campaigning 12

Seven steps in developing a popular campaign 14Who your campaigns could target 16Targeting your campaign at multinational companies 19What encourages people to get involved in a campaign 19Working with new and social media 20

Endnotes 23

Appendix One: Videos on tax issues 24Tax general 24Tax havens and illicit capital flight 24Focus on developing countries 25Campaigning videos 25

Appendix Two: Reports and Resources 26Campaigning and advocacy guides 26Campaigns and resources for young people 26Resources for younger children 26Tax and developing countries 26Multinational companies and tax 27

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This Guide focuses on how campaigning can build popular support for tax reforms. Aimed at both NGOs and activist groups, it looks at best practice in campaigning, outlines seven steps to success, suggests possible targets, and briefly explores online campaigning methods. The two other Guides in this toolkit discuss tax issues in more detail. Here the intention is to provide the sort of information on tax that might be used in campaigning materials. It also looks at some of the arguments against reform commonly used by big multinational companies. Further guidance on how to answer difficult questions is provided in the first Guide in the toolkit, Understanding Tax and Development.

The two other Guides in the toolkit are:

• Guide 1 Understanding Tax and Development

• Guide 2 Advocacy for European NGOs

Introduction

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6 Building a Popular Campaign

Many countries face a fundamental problem: there is not enough money in the system to pay for everything that is needed. As a development worker in Malawi put it: “there simply is not enough money to go round. If we push for more spending on water, then there has to be less on health, or education, or social safety nets”.

There never will be enough money in poor countries until the unfair rules that govern financial relationships between rich and poor countries are changed.

Why development charities and NGOs are concerned

about tax dodging

‘ Aggressive tax avoidance is a serious cancer eating into the fiscal base of many countries.’

Pravin Gordhan, South African Finance Minister

To find out which SABMiller brands are on sale in your country go to: www.sabmiller.com/index.asp?pageid=6

SABMiller: a case of multinational tax dodging in Africa ActionAid research into the activities of SABMiller, the world’s second largest beer making company that owns brands such as Grolsch, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell and Appletiser revealed that its business in Ghana had made an overall loss between 2007 and 2010; for three of those four years it paid no income tax in the country.1 SABMiller owns the second largest brewery in Ghana and its turnover in beer sales is steadily increasing. But the company transfers large sums of money out of the country into tax havens – sums larger than the profits it would have made – which is why it paid no tax. SABMiller denies that the transactions identified by ActionAid were undertaken for tax reasons.

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Campaigners do a demonstration in Paris during the global week of action against End Tax Haven Secrecy in 2011

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Building a Popular Campaign 7

Killer facts on tax – part one

• As Europe struggles financially and its citizens suffer from severe budget cuts, EU Member States lose around €1 trillion annually to tax evasion and avoidance.2

• Tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion a year.3 This is over three times more than the amount required each year to end hunger (US$50.2bn).4

• It is also larger than the $125.6 billion total development aid given by the 23 rich country members of the OECD's5 Development Aid Committee in 2012.6

• For every $10 that poor countries gain in aid, they lose $15 dollars because of tax dodging by big companies.7

• Some developing countries are losing as much as 5 per cent of their entire national wealth (GDP) through tax breaks given to multinational companies.8

• Between 1970 and 2008, the money shifted out of Africa illegally (through tax dodging, drug dealing, corruption and other criminal activities amounted to about US$854 billion.9 According to Global Financial Integrity this could have paid off Africa’s debts and left a surplus of US$600 billion to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth.10

Campaigners encourage companies to act on tax justice as part of the Trace the Tax Campaign done by Christian Aid in 2010

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8 Building a Popular Campaign

Global companies need global rules, but what we have are mostly national rules made by countries that are competing with each other for multinational business.

The issue of tax dodging and its impact on development has been covered in many videos and publications including Guide 1 in this toolkit Understanding Tax and Development. You may also like to look at Chapter 1 of the tax toolkit produced by the Tax Justice Network and other NGOs in 2011: Tax Justice Advocacy: A Toolkit for Civil Society available at: www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/trace-the-tax/resources/toolkit.aspx

If you want to go into more depth, Appendix 2 provides a list of policy reports on different aspects of tax and development.

Tax havens – a quick sketch

When we think about tax havens, we tend to imagine a beautiful tropical island complete with palm trees and an azure sea. Some indeed fit that description, particularly a number of British Overseas Territories such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

But tax havens are found in a variety of locations. Whole countries are sometimes given that description, for example Singapore, Bahrain, Switzerland and Uruguay. Some cities – such as Hong Kong and Macau – are tax havens. In the UK, the City of London acts as a tax haven for foreign businesses, while in the US, a number of states offer tax haven services, notably Delaware.

A hall mark of the world’s 70 plus tax havens is the secrecy they offer, with many making it a crime to reveal information about companies and their financial transactions.

Multinationals exploit that secrecy to the full, routing their global finances through subsidiaries set up in such jurisdictions to hide the profits made from their worldwide operations, and even, in some cases, details of their true ownership.

The money accrued offshore – on paper at least as the transactions are usually carried out elsewhere – is often almost entirely tax free and can be redirected by the multinational elsewhere in its business empire, in ways that incur as little tax as possible.

The way the system usually operates is as follows:

• A business concern operating in more than one country will set up one or more subsidiaries in a tax haven. Such a subsidiary, although it may amount to little more than brass plaque on a lawyer’s door, will be said by the multinational to be fully integrated into its supply chain.

• As such the subsidiary is said, for a fee, to supply other parts of the parent multinational with services such as insurance, branding and intellectual copyright licences for their products (or services) they offer.

• This means that when the multinational sells the goods (or services) on in a third country, all the fees that it has levied against itself can then, for tax purposes, be written off as costs. In fact, they are largely profit.

• Because tax haven transactions are secret, it is impossible to check whether the ‘costs’ the multinational has charged itself are fair. The OECD stipulates that an ‘arms-length price’ should be charged between related companies i.e. the price the services would cost on the open market. But with intangibles such as management costs and branding, determining an independent value is often difficult .

• The process is known as ‘transfer pricing’. When bogus figures are used: ie the multinational charges itself excessive amounts off-shore to ramp the eventual asking price, this is known as transfer mispricing.

• With raw materials produced in developing countries, multinationals have used this technique to spirit as much as the value out of the producer country as possible, either paying below market rates for the produce, or exporting far more than they admit to the revenue authorities. Tax haven secrecy makes it impossible for poorer countries to keep a check on what is happening.

See www.tackletaxhavens.com for an introduction to the tax haven problem.

How tax dodging occurs... where you can find out more

TOP TIPA really good way to become familiar with some of the issues around tax havens, capital flight, etc is to look at some of the short videos produced by tax campaigners. A list of these is provided in Appendix One.

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Building a Popular Campaign 9

Country of sale

Tax havens

Country of production

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How tax havens hide costs

Some unscrupulous companies exploit the financial secrecy provided by tax havens. Costs are artificially created in a tax haven in order to hide the profits made and dodge the taxes owed. This enables companies to dodge taxes in both the country of production and the country of sale. Here is an example of how a banana can travel through various subsidiaries in different tax havens. The money made through the services charged there are not taxed.

*pence

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10 Building a Popular Campaign

Building popular campaigns to stop tax dodging

Campaigning focused on multinational companies

Multinational companies are a fundamental feature of the global economy and have a role to play in ending global poverty. But they could play a far more positive role than they do at present if they paid a fairer amount of tax in the countries where they do business. For this reason, persuading them to take a more socially responsible stance in their approach to tax is very important.

As campaigners we need to be aware of the arguments being made by big companies so that we can counter them.

What multinationals say

‘ We are simply trying to do what our shareholders expect us to do which is to make big profits’It is true that big companies are primarily accountable to their shareholders and that shareholders generally want good returns on their investments. But as public anger over tax dodging grows, companies are increasingly risking their reputation – and therefore their profits – if they use aggressive tax avoidance tactics to maximise their profits. In a recent opinion poll, for example, a third of the UK public said they were boycotting the products of a company known to have dodged tax.17 In future

shareholders may increasingly wake up to the fact that tax dodging is bad for business.

‘ We are not breaking the law. We abide by the tax laws in all the countries where we operate’Companies will usually seek to reduce their tax bills through legal tax avoidance schemes rather than by evading tax illegally. However, in order to do this they may actively search for loopholes in the laws of national governments. So while companies may be obeying the letter of the law, some are going against the spirit of what governments intended the law to achieve.

‘ We create mucn-needed jobs and we pay lots of taxes’It is true that multinational companies create jobs in the countries where their real economic activity is undertaken (though not in tax havens where their subsidiaries may employ few if any staff). The number of jobs created and the extent to which they are filled by locals differs significantly between companies. Some companies will offer training and professional development to their employees, depending on the nature of the work and company policy.

It is true that companies pay a whole range of different taxes, for example: business rates, fuel duty, garbage duty, city rates and building tax. Nevertheless unless companies pay fair rates of tax on their profits, they will not be covering the full costs involved in creating a productive workforce. The basic education and health of their employees cost governments money; so does the legal

Killer facts on tax – part two• Across the world, $32 trillion in financial wealth may be hidden in tax havens.11

• In 2010, financial wealth in small island tax havens alone amounted to $18 trillion – about a third of the world’s financial wealth.12

• 98 of the 100 largest companies in the UK (known as the FTSE 100) use tax havens.13

• In 2008 the US Government Accountability Office reported that 83 of the 100 largest US publicly traded corporations had subsidiaries in tax havens.14

• A Wall Street Journal study of 60 large US companies found that they deposited $166 billion in accounts in tax havens in 2012, thereby excluding over 40 per cent of their profits from US taxes.15

• More than half of all banking assets and a third of multinational company investments are routed via tax havens.16

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Building a Popular Campaign 11

system that supports contract and employment law; not to mention the basic infrastructure – roads, power supply, and so on – without which the company could not operate. All of these things require financial inputs from government – paid for by tax revenues.

‘ Governments gain because our employees pay taxes’It is fanciful for multinational companies to treat employee taxes as if they were a contribution from the company itself. The fact that employees are paid, and pay taxes on what they earn, is a result of the social contract between the workers and the government and has nothing to do with the hiring company. Indeed,

if companies paid their fair share of taxes, employees could benefit either from better public services or reduced national income tax rates.

‘ Tax authorities in developing countries have so little capacity that they wouldn’t be able to cope with all the additional information you want us to disclose. NGOs should focus on building the capacity of tax authorities, not companies’ transparency’It is true that tax authorities in most developing countries are seriously under-resourced and ineffective. In Nigeria in 2004, for example, tax authorities only collected 10 per cent of the taxes due.18 Many countries also have a poor record with regard to the

investigation and prosecution of tax evasion. In Guatemala, for example, between 2001 and 2003, of 1,295 tax evasion cases presented to the court, only four resulted in prosecution.19

That is why in recent years civil society has called on European governments to allocate more of their aid budgets to building the capacity of developing country tax authorities so that they are better able to detect tax dodging and collect the taxes they are due.20 However no amount of capacity-building will help if tax authorities cannot get access to basic financial information about the companies operating in their territory and where the profits made there are ending up.

Valvina Hernandez and her family live in Guatemala. Valvina gave birth to 10 children, only seven of whom survived. Infant mortality and chronic malnutrition rates are high in Guatemala, which is a middle-income country but has one of the lowest levels of tax collection in the world

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12 Building a Popular Campaign

Taking action on tax dodging: Popular campaigning

Like all other advocacy approaches, popular campaigning is about achieving change. When you campaign you are trying to persuade people to take a particular course of action in relation to a particular issue. You are also trying to change people’s attitudes or opinions.

This means you need to have a clear aim or purpose and know what change you want to achieve, and what is required to bring that change about.

• Your main tools are information, argument, and publicity.

• Your arguments should be thoroughly researched, factually correct and convincing.

• Your tactics should be consistent with, and relevant to, your campaign supporters, should further your objectives and should be designed to succeed in pressuring the people you are trying to persuade.

• Your activities should be non-party political and nonviolent.

There are some important things that need to be considered before campaign planning begins.

Wherever possible, work in alliances with other groups and organisations.

Alliances and cooperation between groups create a stronger voice and have a greater impact than can be achieved by any organisation working alone. If everyone is asking for the same thing at the same time, governments and companies are more likely to feel the pressure.

Unless you are already linked to organisations campaigning on tax, the first step should be to find out if there are other groups active on the issue in your

country. You could start by looking at this list of some of the European organisations currently campaigning on tax on page 27 of Guide 2 of this toolkit.

There are also global and regional networks and alliances which bring together different organisations campaigning on tax issues:

See Guide 2, page 23, for a list of international networks of organisations campaigning on tax issues.

“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.”

Margaret Mead, anthropologist

Christian Aid partner Savior Mwambwa from Zambia joins supporters to call for tax justice as part of the Tax Justice Bus Tour in Oxford, UK

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Building a Popular Campaign 13

Credibility

Campaigning organisations need to be listened to if they are to stand any chance of success. They need to be listened to by those whose policies and practices they want to change as well as by those they need to convince to take some action. In many societies, to be listened to takes more than being right or just, it also depends on being credible and trustworthy. This means:

• The information you use needs to be reliable and evidence based. When producing simple campaign materials, you may decide not to include

detailed academic references. Even so, you must know and trust the sources of information on which you base your analysis and messages and be able to produce these if challenged.

• Your recommendations must be realistic, clearly relate to the problems you identify and map out how your demands could be achieved in practice.

No campaigning styles will be suitable for all countries or all audiences. Popular campaigning must always be context-specific, that is, whatever campaigning is done must fit with your local and national

culture and politics. What is suitable and successful for one country can have a negative impact in another.

This means that when you read about campaigning ideas or look at what others have done, think carefully whether they are right for your context, and for your organisation.

Flash mob for End Tax Haven Secrecy in Paris.

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14 Building a Popular Campaign

Seven steps in developing a popular campaign

51% SAY THEY ARE CONSIDERING A BOYCOTT

A THIRD OF BRITONS SAY THAT

THEY ARE CURRENTLY

BOYCOTTING THE

PRODUCTS OR SERVICES

OF A COMPANY

BECAUSE IT DOES NOT

PAY ITS FAIR SHARE OF

TAX IN THE UK

66% OF BRITONS NOW BELIEVE TAX AVOIDANCE TO BE MORALLY WRONG– UP FROM 56%

STEP 1

Ask yourselves why you need to have a campaign. What are you concerned about? What needs to change? Why hasn’t change happened already? How would communicating with a wider public help?

STEP 2

Find out who else is campaigning on the issue. Contact them and explore opportunities for working together. What positions are they taking? How can your campaigning activities support theirs? Remember that a unified message from a group of organisations has the strongest impact.

STEP 3

Decide on your target audience(s) for the campaign – be specific.

Remember that in popular campaigning, your target audiences are potential campaigners, not policymakers. It is the campaigners who will put the pressure on the policymakers through their campaign actions.

Who in the public is most likely to respond to the issue? Who can influence the people you need to change? Get to know your audiences' ideas about tax dodging, as well as the media they read, watch and listen to.

Think about what makes them enthusiastic. What styles/approaches will motivate them? What would alienate them? Make the style of your campaign, its language and arguments, really speak to your campaigners.

STEP 4

Most importantly, start your campaign from where your audience is, not where you are. If the people you are seeking to involve in your campaign generally see tax as a wholly bad thing and think that if companies can find ways to dodge tax, good luck to them, then your starting point must be different from a situation where people understand the value of taxation in terms of funding services that are important in their lives.

8 10WANT TO SEE MULTINATIONALS’

ACCOUNTS MORE TRANSPARENT AND

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

OUT OF

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Building a Popular Campaign 15

TOP TIPSThink broadly about finding the resources you need.

• Could art students from local colleges help with design?

• Are there retired people with special expertise to contribute to the campaign?

• Would small businesses, trade union branches or religious institutions be able to provide support in kind or cash?

85%SAY WE NEED GLOBAL LEADERS

TO STOP MULTINATIONALS FROM ABUSING

THE TAX SYSTEM

THREE QUARTERS BELIEVE THAT DAVID CAMERON IS RIGHT TO MAKE TACKLING TAX EVASION

AND AVOIDANCE A PRIORITY AT

THE G8 MEETING

STEP 5

Develop your messages. Remember, campaigning should motivate, not educate. All issues are complex but your campaign must not be. Complexity de-motivates people, makes them confused and reduces their willingness to listen to what you are saying.

Communicate one message at a time. Be straightforward and simple, do not assume your audiences know anything about the issue, unless you are certain they do.

Always test your messages and campaign materials on people who are not involved in tax or development issues. Try an uncle, or a neighbour, or a casual acquaintance – find out what your messages mean to them. If they don’t convey what you intended, or you don’t get the response you were hoping for – start again!

STEP 6

Design, plan, budget and timetable campaign materials and activities. It is good practice to set some criteria for what constitutes success in relation to each separate activity or publication so that you can see whether they had the impact you were expecting.

Once a campaign begins, everything can become very hectic so a detailed plan, with realistic assessments of how much time each element of the campaign will take, will help to keep things on track.

It also allows you to see in advance which elements are no longer feasible or appropriate. Think about what skills are needed in the core campaign team. Do you need to recruit more volunteers who could help with activities, or bring specific skills? Is there anyone, or an organisation, you could approach for sponsorship?

STEP 7

Establish a way of recording the names and addresses of campaign supporters. Provide them with feedback as the campaign progresses – this will maintain their enthusiasm and interest and motivate them to take more action in the future.

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16 Building a Popular Campaign

Who your campaigns could target

Campaign supporters, especially those who are new to popular campaigning, are most likely to respond positively to campaign actions that target local or national actors. Local targets could include:

• local member of the national parliament

• local member of the European Parliament

• city, district or regional council

• local offices of multinational companies

• local faith leaders such as the local bishop.

At national level the most obvious campaign targets would be:

• the minister responsible for setting tax policies, usually the finance minister

• the trade and/or business minister as s/he oversees policies and regulation regarding multinational companies

• the minister responsible for overseas aid, although s/he may be more of an ally than a target.

Where to go for more information on using campaigning toolsPopular campaigning is dynamic and new techniques emerge all the time. This means that there is no such thing as a comprehensive list of campaigning activities. The Tax Justice Advocacy toolkit, Chapter 4 Getting Active on Tax is an excellent resource. It's available at: www.christianaid.org.uk/images/completetaxadvocacytoolkit.pdf

Amnesty International's Campaigning Manual (Section 2: How We Achieve Our Goals) provides some of the most detailed information available on a whole range of campaigning techniques including:

• letter writing and petitions

• speaking tours

• public events and protests

• celebrity support

• public meetings

• vigils

• demonstrations and protests

• alternative summits

• surveys; plus

• everything you need to know about preparing a wide range of campaign materials and handling media and publicity.

www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT10/002/2001/en/d5463891-d8fc-11dd-ad8c-f3d4445c118e/act100022001en.pdf

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Building a Popular Campaign 17

Christian Aid staff members and supporters were among 500 IF campaign supporters who demonstrated outside the UK Parliament dressed as the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer the day before the 2013 Budget, to remind the Chancellor that he needed to honour aid pledges and crack down on tax dodging.

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18 Building a Popular Campaign

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End Tax Haven Secrecy campaigners call on G20 leaders to take action in front of the French Embassy when France hosted the meeting in 2011. Simple campaign props are useful tools to communicate an advocacy message.

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Building a Popular Campaign 19

Targeting your campaign at multinational companies

Over time NGOs have learned a lot, often the hard way, about campaigns focused on big companies. Before targeting a multinational, consult the section on “engaging with corporates” in the Tax Justice Advocacy Toolkit, Chapter 4, see www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/trace-the-tax/resources/toolkit.aspx which provides lessons learned in this area.

As outlined in Guide 2 Advocacy for European NGOs of this toolkit, your campaign may also seek to influence EU and G20 policies. These targets can best be addressed by calling on national government to support, or oppose, particular EU or G20 proposals (G8 too if your country is a G8 member).

Some of the tools used in campaigning include: • posters or advertisements

• media work – newspapers, radio or Tv

• petitions

• letter writing or postcard campaigns

• citizens/supporters lobbying their political representatives

• leaflets for public distribution

• public meetings

• mass lobbies, demonstrations

• mass events – fasts, cycle rides, street theatre, etc.

• ‘stunts’, actions, or events to attract media attention

• opinion surveys – for attracting media attention

• using celebrities to support your cause

• competitions, award ceremonies

• running an active website

• viral emails

• Facebook, YouTube and Twitter

• Make videos and share them online

• pictures and photographs: a good picture is worth a thousand words.

What encourages people to get involved in a campaign

It’s easyThe easier it is for someone to do something, the more likely they are to do it. If you ask people to send a letter to the Prime Minister or their local parliamentarian, you must provide all the information they need, such as the address, background information, points that can be put in the letter, and so on.

Success We are all motivated by achieving what we set out to do. Defining success and failure is partly down to you. If your campaign’s immediate objective is to achieve an international ban on tax havens in six months, people will be disappointed when their actions fail. If it is to get a political leader to say what s/he plans to do about tax dodging, the chances of success are much higher.

Listening, talking, respectFind out what activities campaign supporters would enjoy doing. Invite them to suggest and help organise events. Activists and supporters will have lots of ideas to contribute, so campaign with them, not on behalf of them. Set out the steps that will be needed along the path to achieving your ultimate objective so they can understand how progress will be made.

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20 Building a Popular Campaign

Working with new and social media

Like traditional communications, successful use of new and social media such as emails, the internet, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, is about deciding who you want to reach, what messages will attract their attention and the best way to communicate with them.

The Message in-a-box website (see right) gives reasons why you should think about using internet communications:

Reasons for using online campaign tools1. Constant access – to key information, as well as allowing interaction with anyone that can get online, with no mailing or printing costs. That’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. It doesn’t matter where your audiences are, or what time zone they are in, they can still get access.

2. Cost effective – nearly everyone can create and maintain a dynamic online presence for almost nothing, no matter where you are in the world. Email is also almost free.

3. Flexible – unlike print communications, you can update your online information in a flash from anywhere, any time. Even from your mobile phone.

4. Engaging – communicating on the internet is really about engagement, getting people involved. You can engage your stakeholders, including local and global media and policy makers, in important conversations that bring you closer together and increase understanding. If you get it right, the people you communicate with will become advocates for your message and promote it themselves.

5. Keep it short – a big challenge with new technologies is that vast amounts of information and images compete for people’s attention while at the same time, people’s patience with lengthy communications has decreased. US president Barack Obama’s highly successful e-campaign usually limited emails to below 200 words, often featured a very short video and only ever had one “ask” with a single web link attached.

What campaigns must do21

Arouse emotions Make people care strongly about your campaign issue. A killer fact can help, for example developing countries lose more from tax dodging by big companies than they receive in aid.

Create enthusiasm Tell people that however shocking the problem is, something can be done about it and they can help. For example, tell them if we can get rid of the secrecy in the global financial system, tax dodgers will have nowhere to hide.

Give people something to do Every time you communicate with your campaigners, give them something to do. For example, say 'please sign this petition to the President asking him/her to sign up to a new Tax Transparency Convention.'

The Tactical Technology Collective has a guide to on-line advocacy at:http://onlineadvocacy.tacticaltech.org/?q=taxonomy/term/38 Its Message in-a-box website at: http://miab.tacticaltech.org provides lots of useful information about working with audio, video, internet, print, images and mobiles.

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Building a Popular Campaign 21

Ch

rist

ian

Aid

To summarise: campaigns are most successful when:• You have followed the seven steps

(see pages 14–15).

• The campaign is motivational, not educational.

• The objectives resonate with the public.

• The campaign is winnable: objectives and timeframes are realistic.

• There are clear and simple asks or actions that supporters can take.

• The approach taken is creative and easily understood.

• The approach allows for active engagement from supporters.

• The campaign is supported by wider alliances of civil groups and NGOs.

• The issue allows you to speak from your experience or analysis and is consistent with your values and vision.

• The issue is one where changes will result in real improvements in people’s lives.

• The campaign has a well thought out programme that creates a sense of injustice that will mobilise positive action.

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22 Building a Popular Campaign

Case Study: Targeting local government authorities22

In 2011 CCFD and other French organisations led a campaign against tax dodging, which called on local authorities to ask multinational companies tendering for contracts with them to report their activities on a country-by-country basis and adhere to money laundering laws. Popular support was gained through highlighting:

• the unfair competitive advantage available to multinational firms using tax havens as compared to local businesses

• the negative impact of tax havens on public finances in the global South and North

• the role of tax havens in causing the financial crisis.

The first stage for an authority participating in the campaign was to pass a formal ‘deliberation’ or resolution calling for transparency. The French campaign worked closely with the first few authorities on the wording of this resolution. This paid off as other regions then copied the earlier resolutions.

Regional councils emphasised the high standards of transparency they aimed for regarding their own finances, which they wanted their private sector partners to mirror. They formally asked their banks and the companies from which they procured services to submit details of their activities in every country where they operated (names of subsidiaries, revenues, number of employees and tax paid) no later than six months after releasing their annual accounts.

The Île-de-France administrative region, which covers Paris, became the first authority to pass a resolution in June 2010. Since then 17 of the 22 French regions have followed suit. Other authorities at town and city levels also started to participate including Bordeaux, La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, and several in the east of the country.

A key factor in the campaign’s success was that campaigners called on candidates to pledge to make their region ‘tax haven free’ during the run up to the 2010 regional elections. They gained the support of Europe Écologie (the European Green Party) and most importantly the Parti Socialiste (French Socialist Party) which won in all but one region. Extensive positive coverage was received in the local and national press at the time.

Another success factor was that the campaign included a broad coalition of 15 civil society and political organisations with grassroots support: trade unions, church groups, development NGOs and political parties.

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Building a Popular Campaign 23

Endnotes

1 Martin Hearson and Richard Brooks, Calling

Time: why SABMiller should stop dodging taxes in

Africa, ActionAid UK, 2012 www.actionaid.org.

uk/sites/default/files/doc_lib/calling_time_on_

tax_avoidance.pdf

2 European Commission Directorate General

Taxation and Customs Union http://ec.europa.

eu/taxation_customs/taxation/tax_fraud_

evasion/index_en.htm

3 For details of how the US$160bn figure was

compiled see Christian Aid, False Profits:

Robbing the poor to keep the rich tax free, 2009 and

Christian Aid, Death and Taxes, 2008.

4 Figure based on Josef Schmidhuber and Jelle

Bruinsma, ‘Investing towards a world free from

hunger: Lowering vulnerability and enhancing

resilience’, in Adam Prakash (ed), Safeguarding

Food Security in Volatile Global Markets, FAO,

2011. Action Contre Le Faim/Institute of

Development Studies, Aid for Nutrition: Using

innovative financing to end undernutrition,

undated, p13. See Susan Horton et al, Scaling

up Nutrition: How much will it cost? World Bank,

2010, p24.

5 The Organisation for Economic Cooperation

and Development, based in Paris, develops the

policies that govern how big companies pay tax.

6 Total net overseas aid from 23 members of the

Development Aid Committee of the OECD. The

sum includes transfers to donors like the World

Bank and UN agencies, who then make their

own grants. OECD, 2013 www.oecd.org/dac/

stats/aidtopoorcountriesslipsfurtheras

governmentstightenbudgets.htm

7 Figure quoted in ActionAid, Bringing Taxation

into the post-2015 Development Framework

ActionAid, March 2013

8 Figure quoted in Bringing Taxation into

the post-2015 Development Framework,

ActionAid, March 2013

9 Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Hidden

Resources for Development, Global Financial

Integrity, 2010 p.10. Washington www.gfintegrity.

org/storage/gfip/documents/reports/gfi_

africareport_web.pdf

10 Global Financial Integrity, 2010, ibid

11 James Henry, The Price of Offshore Revisited,

Tax Justice Network 2012

12 IMF Working Paper, WP/10/38, February 2010

13 FTSE 100 tax haven tracker, ActionAid 2011

www.actionaid.org.uk/tax-justice-campaign/

ftse-100-tax-haven-tracker

14 International Taxation: Large U.S. Corporations

and Federal Contractors with Subsidiaries

In Jurisdictions Listed as Tax Havens or

Financial Secrecy Jurisdictions, Government

Accountability Office, December 2008

15 Scott Thurm and Kate Linebaugh, 'More U.S.

Profits Parked Abroad, Saving on Taxes'. Wall

Street Journal, retrieved 19 March 2013

16 Ronen Palan, Richard Murphy and Christine

Chavagneux, Tax Havens: How Globalisation

Really Works, Cornell University

17 Opinion poll conducted by MORI for Christian

Aid in March 2013

18 Figure quoted by Max Everest-Phillips,

Director, Governance and Institutional Affairs

Division, Commonwealth Secretariat, UK

Houses of Parliament, 30 November 2011

19 Figure quoted in Tax Justice Advocacy:

A Toolkit for Civil Society Christian Aid et al,

2011, Chapter 1: Why Bother with Tax? p11

20 See ActionAid and Christian Aid joint

submission with the Confederation of British

Industry to the UK Parliament’s International

Development Select Committee in February

2012, for example. www.publications.

parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/

cmintdev/130/130we04.htm

21 Adapted from Jonathan Ellis, Campaigning

for Success: How to cope if you achieve your

campaign goal, NCvO, 2007 (hard copy only)

available at: www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/prod-

ucts-services/publications/campaigning-

for-success

22 Tax Justice Network Blog, France’s first tax

haven-free town http://taxjustice.blogspot.

com/2011/03/frances-first-tax-haven-free-

town.html

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24 Building a Popular Campaign

Appendix One: Videos on tax issues

Tax general

Christian Aid: The Big Tax Return Part 1 A simple and straightforward account of how tax dodging happens, illustrated using a banana, and a giant diamond! The video also looks at the impacts in developing countries and a success story from Bolivia. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnMNY1YWBwU

Why does Starbucks pay so little tax?Tim Bennett with a Money Week tutorial on how companies dodge tax. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th4fxMFRIt0

Five Reasons to Tax by Richard Murphy The title says it all. Factual, interesting look at what taxes are used for. A good ten minute introduction to this subject. www.youtube.com/ watch?list=UUmLuHO76uO6EPEkRKCi J9cQ&feature=player_detailpage&v=BvKxZWTw8qg

We’re Not BrokeTrailer for an hour long documentary about the financial crisis and the failure of big companies to pay tax. Focused on what is happening in the US. http://werenotbrokemovie.com/

Tax the Rich: An animated fairy taleThis US animation focused on the financial crisis from a public service union could give you ideas. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6ZsXrzF8Cc

Tax havens and illicit capital flight

Tax Havens 101: the high cost of going offshoreProduced by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has a research project on tax dodging, this short video explains how offshore accounts and companies are set up and used. www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUzLqSkXqbvKnI05Z-3xCwwA&feature=player_embedded&v=gy2RgjIIZyA

“Tax Me If You Can” – LiechtensteinA ten-minute BBC documentary case study on Liechtenstein tax haven and how a whistleblower exposed some of the consequences of total financial secrecy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWmlUfknTZk

Tax havens: the great scamA Canadian animation with a simple explanation of how government treaties with tax havens help to protect companies from paying tax. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxW8GP59Sq8

Paradis fiscaux : La grande arnaqueFrench language version of the above www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DF2FP5W5nI

KapitalflugtenDanish language animation from Ibis about illicit capital flight – good enough to be understood without language. http://ibis.dk/campaigns/kapitalflugten/ and at: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=urvu5ofKtz4

Tax Haven Secrecy Campaign2011 INESC video from the End Tax Haven Secrecy Campaign in Brazil (in Portuguese with English subtitles). www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5HvS8cnAR-A -

Crisis y paraisos fiscalesSpanish language animation from No a lo Paraisos Fiscal. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz8LSCL19NQ

Same animation as above with voice over in English. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxSPOpIS1RQ

Paraisos fiscales cap 1Entertaining Spanish language documentary from RvTE Spain about tax havens, in which business people are offered tax haven souvenirs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeDnabuPlfc

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Building a Popular Campaign 25

Las vacaciones financieras que tus oscuros ahorros se merecen. ¿A qué esperas?Brilliant video on a great web page by Inspiracion in Spain mocking a travel agency offering trips to tax havens. www.paraisoviajes.inspiraction.org

Christian Aid: The Big Tax Return Pt 2 of 2Mostly aimed at UK citizens. Highlights the fact that some of the most important tax havens are British territorities and why British citizens should take action. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH24RXBJyWI

Focus on developing countries

Svenskt bistånd till skatteparadisAnimation from ActionAid Sweden about Pan Africa Energy and tax havens. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf158aOcP4k

Africa losing billions in tax evasionA short case study by Al Jazeera on how capital flight and transfer mispricing are depriving African countries of much needed revenue. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g4HaTUqGh4

Tell Associated British Foods to stop tax dodging in ZambiaAn ActionAid video with a strong message about how tax dodging affects people in Zambia. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em1vDIUo7BE

Trace the tax: How tax dodging hurts the poorChristian Aid video on the impact of tax dodging on developing countries (including Spanish language section with English subtitles). With information on how tax dodging takes place and why financial transparency and country-by-country reporting are important. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDksQDCO_HE

Tax Justice in Central AmericaChristian Aid video on tax dodging in Central America. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM6XiQsX1ck

Campaigning videos

Short campaign videos asking people to take action

Would you swallow it? One-minute Action Aid campaign video from 2010 highlighting SABMiller. www.youtube.com/watch?v=alcKsti_8QQ

Take action! Join the End Tax Haven Secrecy CampaignOne-minute Christian Aid campaign video asking for action by the G20. www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fUikadMiEAc &feature=player_embedded

Activists’ stunt in OxfordPresenting a fake award to a genuine UK tax chief for being a “friend to corporate tax avoidance”. www.youtube.com/embed/3w4tcIsaInE

Money on an Island Apopolyptics rap music video on tax havens. Note that this links both to the promotional video – with the printed text of some of the song only – and the full song being performed by Apopolyptics. www.indiegogo.com/projects/money-on-an-island?website_name=moneyonanisland

Campaign stunt in SpainAnother video by Inspiraction at Foro Social Mundial de Madrid. In this campaign stunt at the European Social Forum in Spain in 2011, 300 signatures will get rid of the those business people using tax havens. www.youtube.com/ watch?v=T8ySxbd4EPI&feature =player_embedded

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26 Building a Popular Campaign

Appendix Two: Reports and Resources

Campaigning and advocacy guides

Christian Aid’s comprehensive tax advocacy toolkit – with a section on public campaigning and media work. A must see publication!

Tax Justice Advocacy: A Toolkit for Civil Society, Christian Aid, 2011 www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/trace-the-tax/resources/toolkit.aspx

A really comprehensive guide to all aspects of campaigning based on Amnesty International's experiences. Some chapters focus on human rights but much of the text applies to all popular campaigning.

Amnesty International Campaigning Manual, Amnesty International, 2011 www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT10/002/2001/en/d5463891-d8fc-11dd-ad8c-f3d4445c118e/act100022001en.pdf

Campaigns and resources for young people

ActionAid’s youth movement www.actionaid.org.uk/bollocks- to-poverty

Christian Aid youth movement www.christianaid.org.uk/getinvolved/youth/collective.aspx

Christian Aid youth resources www.christianaid.org.uk/resources/youth/index.aspx

Christian Aid resources for youth leaders http://learn.christianaid.org.uk/YouthLeaderResources/Default.aspx

Resources for younger children

Oxfam has a large education programme with lots of resources for teachers: www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/search-results?m_sort_education_resource=resource_date;q1=Resources;show_all=education;x1=page_type;q2=English;x2=pub_language

Tax and developing countries

A useful, short, clear briefing on how tax havens work.

Helen Collinson, Tax haven secrecy – keeping the poor poor, Christian Aid, 2011, www.christianaid.org.uk/resources/policy/tax.aspx

An accessible, short guide to tax for potential campaign supporters with calls to action.

The big tax return, Christian Aid, 2009, www.christianaid.org.uk/images/bigtaxreturnguide.pdf

Christian Aid's original report which looks at many of the issues around tax dodging, and its impact on developing countries.

Death and taxes, the true toll of tax dodging, Christian Aid, 2008. www.christianaid.org.uk/images/deathandtaxes.pdf

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Building a Popular Campaign 27

For an excellent overview of the problems facing Africa due to tax avoidance see the Executive Summary of: Global Financial Integrity and African Development Bank, 2013, Illicit Financial Flows and the Problem of Net Resource Transfers from Africa: 1980–2009, available at: http://africanetresources.gfintegrity.org/index.html

Tax Competition in East Africa: A Race to the Bottom? Tax Incentives and Revenue Losses in Kenya, ActionAid International, 2012 www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/kenya_report_full.pdf

Multinational companies and tax

A summary of the Christian Aid report that points out that stopping tax dodging could provide the money needed to end world hunger

Who pays the price? Hunger: the hidden cost of tax injustice, Christian Aid, 2013 www.christianaid.org.uk/resources/policy/tax.aspx

ActionAid’s much-quoted SABMiller case study on tax dodging in Ghana:

Calling Time: Why SABMiller should stop dodging taxes in Africa, Action Aid, 2012 www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/calling_time_on_tax_avoidance.pdf

ActionAid’s detailed case study on tax dodging in Zambia by the giant food multinational Associated British Foods

Sweet Nothings: The human cost of a British sugar giant avoiding taxes in southern Africa, ActionAid, 2013 www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/sweet_nothings.pdf

Platform has produced a report on tax dodging by BP, Shell and Tullow oil companies – as well as the benefits they receive in terms of government subsidies.

Making a Killing: Oil Companies, Tax Avoidance and Subsidies, Platform Briefing, Platform, 2013 http://platformlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/MakingAKilling-LOWRES.pdf

The Ethical Consumer website has a Company Ratings section which provides information on well known brands like Adidas, Amazon, Apple, L’Oreal, Nestle, Nike, npower, Primark, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks and Unilever. Click on the Politics button under the description of each company to find out more about their tax habits. www.ethicalconsumer.org

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STOP tax dodging is a joint initiative seeking tax justice. Membership includes organisations such as:

14-770-J1727

This publication has partly been funded by the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Christian Aid and other member organisations of the STOP tax dodging campaign and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

AcknowledgmentsProject coordination: Mariana PaoliText: Hilary Coulby and Helen CollinsonDesign, editoral: Christian Aid

The authors would like to thank all member organisations of the STOP tax dodging campaign for their valuable feedback and input.