CREATING COMMUNITY CO-OPERATIVES AND TAXATION TRUSTS

 

Chris Coverdale, a war law lawyer and peace activist, considers two ways of reclaiming power from governments while simultaneously creating sharing, caring, thriving communities.

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The stimulus for a new approach to citizen’s sovereignty came in March 2020 with the COVID lockdown law and regulations which are an abuse of freedom and criminal medical fraud on a world-wide scale.

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30 years’ experience in business, organisation development, innovation and change consultancy, plus 20 years of anti-war activism led me to identify 7 courses of action we can pursue to challenge and change corrupt government systems, re-energise community spirit and reclaim our democratic powers.

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Some of the ways in which we can reclaim our power over the corporate and government tyranny that has taken over government in Britain involve the use of current statute law, law enforcement systems, local and national political systems, taxation and budgeting systems, banking and monetary systems, the educational system, the media and the governance system.

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Creating a tyranny or a decent democratic society involve similar institutions used in very different ways for different ends. Here I focus on two long-established governance institutions that we can turn to our advantage. They are the Limited Liability Company, and the Discretionary Conditional Trust.

The reason for focusing on these systems is that they are two of the main ways by which the rich and powerful elite increase their wealth, power and control. But now an opportunity has arisen to turn the tables on the established elite and use the same systems that they use to disempower and control us to disempower and control them.

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Discretionary Revocable Conditional Trusts

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The main reasons that the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful every year is that they own and control the banks, they print money and control its supply, they charge interest on loans, and they avoid paying tax by setting up Trusts in overseas tax havens. By placing their assets, property and profits into lawful Trusts in tax-free jurisdictions, political and civil leaders, company directors, lawyers, accountants, bankers and fraudsters of every hue increase their power and avoid up to 99% of tax due in Britain. 

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So what WE need to do to take back our power is to use the same lawfully constituted Trusts and  trust Deeds to ensure that we control the money that flows to Government AND the uses to which it is put. By carefully controlling how our taxes are used by Government and UK public authorities such as Councils, the Police, the Military and the Courts, we can ensure that our money is used SOLELY for lawful purposes such as health, education and welfare and NEVER used for criminal purposes such as war, mass murder, corruption, medical fraud, or misfeasance in public office.

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Some advantages of setting up a local Community Co-operatives and annual Trust Deeds are:

• Co-op members can work together to lawfully withhold their taxes from the Government until it acts lawfully and in full accord with the law.

• For the first time in history, citizens have a lawful duty to withhold tax. In law it is a crime to pay tax if some of the money is used for criminal purposes. By withholding our taxes in a Taxation Trust we can withdraw consent to the way in which our money is spent. When our leaders spend our taxes on criminal wars and mass murder in the Middle-East or unsafe experimental vaccinations, we have a legal duty to withhold the money and to prosecute the perpetrators for genocide.

• By withdrawing our consent and lawfully withholding taxes in trust for the Government and public authorities until they end their wars and crimes, we can choose each year on what to spend our money. The choice between war and mass murder or home schooling our children is ours.

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The Limited Liability Community Co-operative

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In 2014 UK law changed. Parliament enacted the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act and introduced a new type of company – the multi-stakeholder limited liability co-operative. This structure gives members of a co-operative the same legal powers as a multi-national limited-liability company. It is now legally possible for individuals and businesses to become equal members of a multi-stakeholder limited liability Community Co-operative operating to benefit all its individual and business members.

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Some benefits of membership of a community co-operative limited by guarantee rather than shares are:

1. Each member’s liability for losses is limited to the amount of their guarantee – [£1, £10, £100?]

2. Every individual and business member of the Co-op is equal in power and control and has 1 vote at General Meetings - every individual has the same power as the largest business in the co-op.

3. Whenever members gather together we are on lawful co-op business and providing we abide by the operating rules of the Co-op we can’t (shouldn’t) be interfered with by the police or councils.

4. Transactions between business and individual members are not liable for VAT. This gives us cost reductions when buying meals at a member restaurant or a vehicle from a member dealership.

5. As a co-op we can contract with suppliers to receive beneficial prices on products and services purchased jointly for all members – i.e. 20% reduction for all members on energy and utility costs.

6. Everyone can join, socialise and use their skills and experience with others in local support, mental health, task, functional or social groups such as home-schooling, food, law, finance, politics etc.

7. All interactions between members are ‘essential work’ (we’re building a caring, sharing, thriving community) and subject to less onerous Coronavirus regulations.

8. Lobbying power – with 1000+ members we can bring real financial and political power to bear on national and local politicians and public servants. Lobbying for changes in law and institutions.

9. We can incorporate or contract with firms of lawyers and accountants to work on members and the Co-ops behalf, in the same way that unions employ lawyers to defend members in court.

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I believe that by setting up these two new lawful institutional arrangements – Community Co-ops and Conditional Taxation Trusts, and by together deciding for ourselves how our taxes are to be spent, we can force dramatic rapid change in British society. If 10,000 of us take coordinated action in 100 or more local communities we can bring about a new and better way of living in Britain within the year.

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But this will only happen if we plan it carefully and then ACT on our plans. As we found out at the start of the Iraq war, marching, demonstrating, protesting or petitioning have little or no effect on Government policy. As the history of successful revolution teaches us - the best way to force leaders and governments to end their crimes is to stop paying them.  Withhold all taxes until our leaders act lawfully.

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The fundamental free market principle comes into play. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it.  So it’s down to us to get together in lawful community co-operative meetings and decide for ourselves the ways in which we want to spend our money to benefit our local communities and the country.

The choice is ours. So I urge you to set up local community co-ops and conditional taxation trusts in your local Parliamentary constituencies and start proactively changing all those aspects of life in 21st century Britain that are harming our communities replacing them with rules and institutions that benefit us all and bring about a peaceful, just, fair and truly democratic society.   

 

Chris Coverdale – May 2023