Jeff Reifman

How to Occupy the Law - Yes! Magazine

Update: Now on Common Dreams as well...

Yes! has republished our model Community Bill of Rights template for Occupy (and all) communities! Check it out!

To Refute Claims, Microsoft Should Disclose Its Royalty Tax Payments

Last week, after John Burbank, Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, wrote an editorial condemning the company's hypocritical record of tax dodging while advocating for more education funding, Jeffrey Reading, Microsoft's Senior PR Manager wrote The Herald to refute the claims Burbank made (Burbank based his article on my reporting):

"Mr. Burbank does not include sourcing to support his claims regarding Microsoft’s Nevada licensing, which is part of a very complicated piece of state tax law. Much of the information regarding this issue is misinformation primarily spread by a blogger, and no state official has ever provided any factual data supporting his claims."

I stand behind my research and all of my claims. If Microsoft wishes to prove that it paid Washington State Royalty Taxes during the years 1998 - 2010, it should disclose its worldwide licensing revenue and its Royalty Tax payments for this time period. It would be quite simple for the company to provide these two sets of numbers and would put the issue to rest once and for all (as I have done here). 

Read the full post

 

John Burbank Tells Legislature to Target Microsoft

In his Everett Herald column today, John Burbank, Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, zeroes in on Microsoft's tax dodge and its harmful effects on the state's educational system. Read more

Model Community Bill of Rights Template for Occupy Communities

It's out: We’ve published the model Community Bill of Rights template for Occupy communities that wish to begin mobilized initiative campaigns in their region. Think of the template as a menu to pick and choose what’s important in your community. It’s meant to provide a framework and a starting point, not necessarily to be used in its entirety. The text is derived from ongoing national and global work by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) such as Ecuador adding Rights for Nature to its Constitution, Pittsburgh stripping drilling corporations of corporate constitutional “rights,” such as corporate “personhood” and Spokane’s Community Bill of Rights initiative which narrowly missed passing by 1,000 votes last month. Those efforts have joined over a hundred other municipal campaigns that have driven into law local bills of rights.

WooT!

Don't Fall for the Frame: Washington State Doesn't Have a Budget Deficit

Link

Ballard Banner Calls Attention to Microsoft's Nevada Tax Dodge

Microsoft is a huge Washington State tax dodger (about $6.1 billion dodged to date), it's just sad the banner is technically incorrect and incomplete ((photo courtesy of Geekwire):

Hypocritical, Tax-dodging Microsoft Supports Increased Sales Tax to Fund Higher Education

Apparently, Microsoft's Brad Smith thought it was safe to start making hypocritical political statements in public again ... 

Shepard Fairey's "Occupy Hope"

Nice. Via BoingBoing:

This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement

Turning Occupation into Lasting Change is included in the Yes Magazine's new compendium on the Occupy movement ... check it out...

This Changes Everything shows how the Occupy movement is shifting the way people view themselves and the world, the kind of society they believe is possible, and their own involvement in creating a society that works for the 99% rather than just the 1%.

Attempts to pigeonhole this decentralized, fast-evolving movement have led to confusion and misperception. In this volume, the editors of YES! Magazine bring together voices from inside and outside the protests to convey the issues, possibilities, and personalities associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

This book features contributions from Naomi Klein, David Korten, Rebecca Solnit, Ralph Nader, and others, as well as Occupy activists who were there from the beginning, such as David Graeber, Marina Sitrin and Hena Ashraf. It offers insights for those actively protesting or expressing support for the movement—and for the millions more who sympathize with the goal of a more equitable and democratic future.

Archive of We Are the 99 Percent