Artist Paolo Cirio’s introductory video to Loophole4All.com teaches everyday people how to pursue tax loopholes by becoming a pirate and hijacking an offshore company.
With leaders from eight of the world’s wealthiest countries
discussing economic policies that will affect citizens worldwide, the
G8, always a symbol of undemocratic governance, is particularly
contradictory this year. British Prime Minister David Cameron, host of
the summit in Northern Ireland, is calling for a crackdown on widespread
global tax evasion. But he might as well be called prime minister of
major tax havens for his role overseeing London and the Crown
Dependencies.
As usual, G8 members will advance measures aimed at maintaining,
rather than resolving, these contradictions. Their proposals will not
contain any changes that might distress corporate interests.
A mere 100 miles southeast of the summit, Dublin serves as a tax
haven and a center of massive tax evasion for many of the wealthiest
corporations. American companies like Cisco and Apple set up
subsidiaries in Dublin to evade U.S. taxes, since corporate tax rates
are roughly three times lower in Ireland than in the United States.
Apple’s Irish affiliate actually paid no taxes on $30 billion in profit
over the last four years. Corporate CEOs defend such tax evasions by
presenting themselves as job creators acting for the benefit of the
economy as a whole, but they leave out the data showing the decline of
the middle class and consequent increases in poverty and homelessness.
Ireland is not such a great place for normal people, with its severe austerity and outrageously high unemployment.
If corporations don’t pay taxes, then it follows that when people buy
iPhones, search on Google or order items on Amazon, everyone loses
hospitals, schools, road maintenance and eventually pensions. Meanwhile,
the lucky employees of untaxed companies get higher wages that directly
produce unaffordable living costs for people employed by local and
public businesses. Only those who work for the regime of major firms can
survive.
People who raise their voices against the injustice of this situation
by taking to the streets outside G8 summits have met escalating
violence from security forces. In my twenties, I joined several anti-G8
protests across Europe, facing riot police that regularly employed tear
gas, water cannons and clubs against peaceful demonstrators. At the
Genoa summit in 2001, I dodged the massacre at the Diaz school
out of pure luck. I have not always had the same fortune, and violent
repression and mass arrests have become ordinary in the decade since.
Although street protests are crucial in manifesting dissent, we need
to supplement public demonstrations with new, creative strategies of
subversion. For instance, with the project Loophole4All.com,
I managed to unsettle corrupt Cayman Islands authorities and
international accounting firms by creating a caricature of the
Certificate of Incorporation used by shell companies set up in the
Caymans. At the same time, I drew attention to thousands of fraudulent
companies, engaging the public in an unusual form of civil disobedience
that threatens the offshore financial system.
Political innovation should be considered an art form that challenges
brutal repression and creates solutions for global governance. I
believe that artists can create legislative and financial models for the
complex needs of the 21st century, incorporating humor, beauty and
interactivity into new forms of social organization. Just as creativity
and concrete social goals come together in architecture, contemporary
artists should intervene in proposing policies that work for our times,
while guiding us in interpreting and unveiling the invisible truths of
our world.
The absurdity of the unsolved legality of offshore business helps to
expose to everyone the disorder of our times and the need for radical
change. The vast exploitation of discrepancies among legal jurisdictions
undermines the notions of law and national borders that are central to
contemporary civilization. Globalization has outstripped the power of
governments, businesses and citizens; each is left powerless against the
other.
This article originally appeared on: AlterNet
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