Posted by Kate Shayler

 …well not all beer, just the kind that’s made by tax dodging company SABMiller like Grolsch and Peroni. 

This coming week the Edinburgh University Activista group are out plastering their uni with posters, making speeches, walking around in beer bottle suits and persuading students to vote to have the company banned in their bars.

 We’re pretty excited! A ban from a union like Edinburgh (- a pretty big customer of SABMiller’s) will really make them sit up and listen.
 
ActionAid last year released a report that showed the company was dodging millions of pounds out of Africa and India every year – a sum that could put an extra 250,000 children into school.  

Thousands of our supporters have asked the company, very nicely, that they stop using tax havens to siphon money out of developing countries, and they are really feeling the pressure. 

Hopefully this will be the next step towards getting them to realise that they can’t get away with this sneaky behaviour any longer. 

Good luck guys! And if you go to Edinburgh uni – make sure you Vote YES in the referendum next week!

Posted by Lisa Telfer

Check out this shiny new awesome Beach Break vid to get you in the mood for the summer and get your mates rates tickets now with £10 off from a Beach Break rep near you!

The ActionAid tent will be back for a 3rd year at Beach Break live in 2012, giving you more jam packed action than ever before.

By day, make the most of this relaxing hangout with comfy seating, giant jenga and table football. Then by night, our mates from Propaganda get the party started!

Watch out for the secret DJ sets from some of the festival stars in our tent.
Follow us on twitter @ActionAid_Team #actionaidtent to be in the know.

Posted by Lucy McDonnell

We’re not on our own in thinking that when it comes to paying for important stuff, like education and healthcare, companies should pay their fare share.

The trouble is that by avoiding paying their taxes they’re not. Annie Leonard, Co-Director of The Story of Stuff, explains (far more cleverly than I ever could!) what this means for people living all over the world in this amazing video: The Story of Broke.

She might be talking about American taxes, but what she shows is how corporate tax breaks affect people everywhere, and how the hardest hit are always the poorest.

That’s what our Tax Justice Campaign is looking to tackle.  We’ve been taking a look at the practices of multinational companies based here in the UK, companies like SABMiller.

Poorer countries lose three times more money to tax havens than they ever receive in aid.

Annie argues that it’s not that we don’t have the money to ensure people’s basic human rights are being met – it’s that the money isn’t going to the right places. What do you think?

Worldwide, big businesses are dodging taxes. You can do something about it today by joining us in demanding Tax Justice.

Posted by Kate Shayler

Well last week, Tom (this man below), our Activista group Coordinator in Durham did meet him.

He was invited to present his vision of a poverty free world literally minutes before Bill did the same.

It was part of the Global Poverty Project Ambassadors launch: where the first 50 of their 175 new Ambassadors who are aiming to mobilize communities into action were invited to attend.

Tom was the only one of the Ambassadors to present though (Whoop!) and he did amazingly.

Tom told me, it was “extraordinary, though petrifying, experience sharing a stage with Bill Gates - his record as a man who's undoubtedly changed history speaks for itself. I was selected to meet Bill and present my 'vision' following the voluntary work I'd done overseas, and the campaigns I've followed with ActionAid in this country.”

Tom Stevenette dressed as a beer bottle campaigning for tax justice in London last September.

“It's great to know that there's so many people in this generation committed to fighting extreme poverty and realizing a more equitable world order, be they billionaires or the unemployed.

So, even though my heart rate was teetering on the abnormally high, the whole experience was a privilege.”

Tom highlighted the power that information technology has had on this generation and its’ potential to help end poverty.

What would you say?

You can also join our global youth network and take action where you are with Activista