British seek to brew their own Tea Party, US partiers advise activists abroad

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9/9, "A Very British Tea Party: US Anti-Tax Activists Advise UK Counterparts," Guardian UK, by R. Booth

"British anti-tax campaigners are taking advice from leaders of the right wing Tea Party movement in the US in a bid to import the mass-protest techniques that have seen a million activists march on Washington DC to call for lower taxes and smaller government.

• The Taxpayers' Alliance, an influential campaign group that calls for tax cuts and low government spending, is being advised by Freedom Works, a powerful Washington organisation credited with helping to destabilise the Obama administration through its mobilisation of 800,000 grassroots activists.

Libertarian US Tea Party organisations attended a conference in London today to share tactics with British and European taxpayer lobby groups, and described their activities as "an insurgent campaign" against their government's tax and spending policies.

• The move reflects an increasing desire within rightwing circles to establish a British version of the Tea Party "uprising", and a growing belief that
  
• expected union action against the coalition government's programme of cuts could be harnessed to mobilise vocal counter-demonstrations.
  

The Taxpayers' Alliance also believes that public anger at the Revenue & Customs blunder that has left 1.4m people facing backdated tax bills could fan the flames of a wider anti-tax revolt.

• "You could say our time has come," said Matthew Elliott, founder of the TPA, which has seen its supporter base rise 70% to 55,000 in the last year. ...
  

Elliott said that the HMRC blunder could fuel protests. "When the envelopes [from HMRC] hit the doormats there will be a lot of fury," he said, "not least because a lot of people won't be able to pay it."

The Tea Party movement – named after the anti-tax Boston Tea Party protest of 1773 – emerged last year, partly in protest at the US bank bailout, and has been championed by Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate. It claims to have mobilised more than one million voters against the government through dozens of local groups.

Freedom Works is organising a second mass protest outside the White House this weekend.

• Terry Kibbe, a consultant at Freedom Works, which claims to convene 800,000 activists, told the Guardian she wants to help mobilise otherwise cerebral political institutions in the UK and Europe by helping them create grassroots activist wings.

Behind the Tea Party movement are a series of well-financed and well-established rightwing lobby groups (!) who pay for TV adverts, campaign materials and supply training for local grassroots chapters.

• "We have been working to identify groups in Europe that would be amenable to becoming more activist-based, thinktanks that could start activist wings," said Kibbe.
  

"We have worked with the Taxpayers' Alliance, in Austria and in Italy, and we want to do more.""...

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The article portrays US Tea Partiers as backed by powerful "established" Washington lobbyists and rich people, which is funny because these are just the people we need to get rid of. The Guardian sees rich guys trying to destabilize Obama or riling up the masses to 'get' Obama. It would be nice if it were that simple, but we have hundreds in congress to worry about as well. Anyhow, great if others want to get their countries back, too. All aboard. ed.

• via Lucianne.com