#Do_it_now dossier: Petition against CVN

The "Christian Values Network" (CVN) is under fire. In the last week,
Microsoft, Macy's, Wells Fargo, Delta, and BBC America have stopped
using the charitable donation service. Why? Because CVN funnels money
to extreme anti-gay groups.

Here’s how CVN works: A customer makes a purchase and then uses CVN to
direct a company to donate to a "charity."

Some of the charities are legitimate, but others are just anti-gay
front organizations -- like Focus on the Family and the Family
Research Council (an organization formally classified as a "hate
group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, widely recognized for
monitoring extremist activity).

Still, Apple continues to use CVN. That means that when people make
purchases from Apple or the iTunes Store through CVN, they can tell
Apple to give money to hate groups -- and Apple does.

That’s why student (and Mac user) Ben Crowther started a petition on
Change.org asking Apple to stop funding anti-gay hate groups through
CVN. Click here to sign Ben’s petition today:

http://www.change.org/petitions/apple-stop-raising-money-for-anti-gay-hate-groups?utm_medium=email&alert_id=YrIajXJcpj_pptUerWvhI&utm_source=action_alert

Beyond spreading misinformation about LGBT people, Focus on the Family
and the Family Research Council have actively lobbied Congress to
uphold the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), reinstate "Don't Ask, Don't
Tell," reject the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and repeal
the 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act -- also known as the Matthew
Shepard Act.

Microsoft ended its affiliation with CVN and its anti-gay allies after
a member of Change.org petitioned the software company. Another recent
successful campaign started on Change.org’s platform got TOMS Shoes to
explain its ties with Focus on the Family and denounce their anti-gay
agenda.

If people like you speak out, we can convince Apple to end its
relationship with CVN. Apple has supported LGBT rights in the past,
most prominently donating $100,000 to the campaign to defeat Prop 8.
And, when more than 158,000 people signed a Change.org petition asking
Apple to stop offering a "gay cure" iPhone app earlier this year,
Apple removed the app from the iTunes store.

Please show Apple that supporting anti-gay organizations is bad for
business -- and hold Focus on the Family and the Family Research
Council accountable -- by signing Ben Crowther’s petition today:

http://www.change.org/petitions/apple-stop-raising-money-for-anti-gay-hate-groups?utm_medium=email&alert_id=YrIajXJcpj_pptUerWvhI&utm_source=action_alert

Thanks for taking action,

- Eden and the Change.org team

QR Code Protest Signs Have Arrived (USuncut does it again!)

By Roger ⋅ June 7, 2011 
Signs are a standard accessory for protesters and it was inevitable that a QR Code protest sign would appear in public eventually. US Uncut (who are opposed to corporate tax avoidance and public service cuts across the U.S.) demonstrated at Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference yesterday dressed in full length spandex bodysuits decorated with QR codes (images below). The QR Code resolved to a YouTube video entitled: Apple: Tax Cheating Doesn’t Sync With My Values.

Group looking to form Apple Retail Workers Union

by Lex Friedman, Macworld.com   May 19, 2011 11:12 am

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As Apple celebrates the tenth anniversary of its retail stores, a group of Apple Store employees is assembling with a different goal. An organization calling itself the Apple Retail Workers Union sent a message to various members of the Apple press on Thursday, including Macworld, announcing plans to try to unionize Apple Store employees.

We are launching today to get fellow employees, shoppers, and the world know that we work in one of the most demanding retail environments while suffering through unfair treatment and compensation among many other various issues... We deserve better. Our time has come.

Someone responding to e-mails sent to the Apple Retail Workers Union—who chose to remain anonymous, but claims to work at an Apple store “in the Bay Area”—told Macworld that employees from “some stores in the Pacific Northwest may be talking amongst themselves” about unionizing, and that “an attempt at [the] Alderwood store… is the closest anyone has come to collective action” at Apple stores.

When pressed for examples of the “unfair treatment” cited in the group’s initial press release, the anonymous respondent suggested that core issues included break schedules, training opportunities, the selection and hiring process for internal candidates for open positions, and wages.

It’s unclear how serious or large an effort the Apple Retail Workers Union is at this time. The Website linked above is barren. The group's Twitter page includes two tweets, one from January 1, 2011, and a second from Thursday. The group’s Facebook page contains a few links posted back in February, and at this writing has been "liked" precisely once.

Apple has not yet responded to Macworld’s request for comment.

Dancing in Apple Retail Stores? This Time in Protest By Lisa Greim

There may be some dancing in the aisles next weekend at Apple retail stores around the country, but not because the consumer electronics powerhouse is launching a hot new product.

A group that seeks to draw attention to corporations that shelter profits overseas to cut their U.S. income tax burden is organizing protests for June 4 at Apple stores.

The group, US Uncut, says the so-called "Dance-Ins" at Apple stores are meant to grab the attention of 20-somethings who love Apple products but believe that all corporations should pay their fair share of taxes.

Apple and other tech companies, including Cisco, Adobe, Google, and Microsoft, support legislation that includes a proposed tax holiday.

The Freedom to Invest Act of 2011, H.R. 1834, would let corporations pay a 5.25 percent tax rate on money "repatriated" to the U.S. from foreign countries. The bipartisan bill, introduced May 11, proposes a temporary tax holiday for corporations who refuse to pay the 35 percent corporate tax rate.

Its proponents say that a similar measure passed in 2004 brought $312 billion in capital back to the United States through such companies as Oracle, Qualcomm, and Adobe. It generated more than $34 billion in tax revenue, according to a 2009 study.

But US Uncut, while noting that Apple does pay taxes, says it is disappointed in Apple's support for what the activist group believes amounts to corporate tax amnesty.

Protests are in the works in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, among other cities.

Activists are being asked to wear royal-blue shirts and white badges to impersonate Apple store employees, playing anti-Apple videos on in-store computers and chanting slogans like "Love the iPhone, hate the tax cheat" and "Tax cheating. There's an app for that."

US Uncut's previous efforts to draw attention to tax dodging by American corporations has made headlines. It was involved in sending a fake press release to news organizations in April. The release purported to be from General Electric, and it said the company was returning a $3.2 billion tax refund to the U.S. government. GE, while acknowledging its U.S. tax bill for last year would be small, did not receive such a refund.

Apple didn't return an email seeking comment.

iHate Tax Cheats: US Uncut Targets Apple

Allison Kilkenny

May 27, 2011  

US Uncut, the anti–corporate tax dodging group, recently announced that Apple is its newest target. In a press release, the organization declares it will stage actions across the country on June 4 against the popular company.

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About the Author

Allison Kilkenny

Allison Kilkenny is the co-host of the progressive political podcast Citizen Radio (wearecitizenradio.com) and...

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The group is demanding Apple remove its support of the Win America Campaign (WAC), an effort aimed at repatriating $1 trillion in foreign accounts back to America at just a 5 percent tax rate. Essentially, WAC’s efforts would lead to a $4 billion tax cut for Apple.

The Win America campaign backs a Congressional proposal called the Freedom to Invest Act of 2011 that seeks to give corporations that shelter profits overseas—including giants like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Cisco and many others—a limited-time “tax holiday” that would allow them to return their profits to the United States without paying traditional rates of taxes.

“Apple plays huge games with their taxes. By disguising profits in the United States as foreign earnings in low-tax countries, Apple dodges billions of dollars of taxes they should be paying,“ the group stated.
Last month, Apple reported a record March-quarter growth rate of 83 percent with a 95 percent profit growth and record iPhone sale growth of 113 percent. The company’s second-quarter revenue was a record-setting $24.6 billion.

“When this ‘Win America’ tax cheat coalition wins, we all lose as Americans,” US Uncut San Francisco organizer Ana Corrie stated in the group’s press release. “We are all disappointed to see a great company like Apple participate in such a deceitful campaign that violates their commitment to operate in a socially responsible manner.”

Other companies, such as Bank of America, Pfizer, Duke Energy, General Electric and big oil companies all use this technique of disguising profits as earnings in low-tax countries to lower their tax liability, and on a far lager scale, but US Uncut is targeting Apple due to the company’s popularity. The group hopes to draw attention to the problem of tax dodging by focusing on a brand universally recognized by working Americans.
“I love my iPhone, but I hate tax cheats,” said US Uncut spokesperson Carl Gibson, “The only winners in the WAC effort are the same corporate executives who continue to steal $1 trillion out of our nation’s coffers every decade. We all pay our fair share of taxes, and Apple should too.”

Thus far, the group has put together an “Action Scenario” detailing a typical scenario for how a flash mob might occupy an Apple store. Such an event entails unveiling signs, banners, chanting and distributing leaflets to customers. But it also can involve the more creative approaches of dressing like Apple employees and participating in dance parties.

“It’s outrageous for a company that got $4 billion in tax credits last year to only pay 85 percent less than they should in taxes while the public services we all depend on get the axe,” said US Uncut San Francisco organizer Joanne Gifford. “Should we really be giving away tax loopholes to the folks who sell iPads at the same time we cut Grandma off Medicare? It’s shameful.”

“We already got duped once by this hoax of repatriating profits with the ‘American Jobs Creation Act of 2004’ under Bush,” said US Uncut spokesperson Ryan Clayton, “It did not create jobs and only opened the door for tax haven abusers to continue to cheat the system. As the saying goes: ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.’ ”

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Allison Kilkenny