Take Back Power supporters redistribute food from supermarkets to foodbanks

Take Back Power supporters have been redistributing food from supermarkets to local foodbanks across the country this morning. Take Back Power is a nonviolent civil-resistance group, demanding that the UK government establish a ‘House of the People’. This is a permanent citizen-led assembly with the power to tax extreme wealth.

From around 8.30am on 14 March, teams across four UK cities – Manchester, London, Exeter and Truro – entered supermarkets. They began putting food and necessities into boxes emblazoned with:

These things are going to those who need them.

The Take Back Power supporters left the shops without paying for the produce and then redistributed these items to local foodbank drop off points.

In Exeter, a team of five supporters took five boxes of produce from Morrison’s supermarket in Prince Charles Road. However security stopped them and took away two of the five boxes. The remaining three boxes were successfully liberated and taken to a local foodbank drop-off point.

From 9am, in London, on liberating boxes of food, two supporters set up a stall outside Sainsburys in the Lewisham centre, to give the food back to the local community. Security staff arrived by around 9.40 and police arrived onsite at around 9.50. There were no arrests and the supporters left at around 10am.

In Manchester, three action takers filled boxes with food from Tesco, on Pars Wood Lane in Didsbury. All three left the store without incident and redistributed the food to a foodbank drop-off point at a local Aldi.

In Truro, two supporters loaded boxes from the Sainsburys on Treyew Rd. They left the produce at the foodbank drop-off point in the same store.

6.5 million people using UK foodbanks

A spokesperson for Take Back Power said:

It is sickening that 6.5 million people in the UK are forced to turn to foodbanks every year and a third of children under five are living in homes where there is insufficient access to nutritious food.

This is because our country is in crisis, with billionaires hoarding wealth, whilst ordinary people suffer. We need to tax extreme wealth to fix Britain, and we need ordinary people to decide how.

One of those taking action was Eve Middleton 25, from Manchester, who said:

I refuse to sit by while billionaires hoard wealth and capture our democracy. We can all see the impacts of inequality on our streets, in our schools and hospitals and in our own homes.

Taxing the super rich is the first simple step to solving these crises. Yet our political system will not deliver a wealth tax, as it is rigged to benefit parasitic billionaires instead of the masses.

It’s time for ordinary people to be put at the heart of decision making, through a House of the People with powers to tax the rich and fix Britain.

Also taking action is Ruth Cook, 74, a company director from Somerset, who said:

I’m taking this action and risking arrest because we have a terrible situation in this country. Families are struggling and children are going hungry, while the profits some companies make are obscene.

The answer is to tax the super-rich. I’m taking this food and delivering it to a foodbank collection point because we need to do something about this. We need to tax the super rich and give ordinary people a say in how our taxes are spent. Join us at takebackpower.net.

Today’s action comes in the wake of the raid of a Quaker meeting house and the arrest of 15 people during a nonviolence training. Police arrested one other at their home later and raided the houses of seven supporters in connection with these actions so far.

This occurs as the UK remains in crisis. Last year, 14 million people in the UK faced the prospect of going hungry due to a lack of money. Whilst in 2024, 6.5 million people turned to foodbanks.

Take Back Power is demanding that the UK government establish a permanent House of the People. This is a citizen’s assembly chosen by democratic lottery, that has the power to tax extreme wealth and fix Britain.

Until the government makes a meaningful statement in response to its demand, the group says it will undertake nonviolent action to resist the super-rich, who are driving us towards social collapse. Donate or sign up to take action at TakeBackPower.net.

Featured image via the Canary