Dear William Hague,

It seems fair to say that your political hero is William Wilberforce. You have written his biography, and on the third floor of 1 Parliament Street hangs a painting of you aside his image.

Let me applaud you on your choice of hero. Wilberforce was a great man, leading the campaign which culminated in the 1807 abolition of slavery in the British Empire. You, like Wilberforce, are a politician, and like him you are a social and political conservative. So you must have wondered: If Wilberforce were alive today, what would he be doing?

There are many worthy campaigns Wilberforce might champion were he alive. Thankfully, in terms of sheer evil, modern issues tend to fall short of the industrialised enslavement of human beings. Yet campaigns continue to be waged against international injustice; against the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable for the benefit of the rich and privileged.

Such a campaign is fought by the Tax Justice Network. Amongst other things, the Network campaigns against the use of tax havens by Trans National Corporations (TNCs). The use of tax havens — or “secrecy jurisdictions” — by TNCs directly contributes to keeping developing nations poor. This is because secrecy jurisdictions enable TNCs to avoid and evade paying taxes in the countries they operate in. Indeed, Oxfam estimates that developing countries miss out on up to$124 billion in lost income from offshore assets held in tax havens each year.

By not paying taxes in developing nations, TNCs do several things. Firstly, they facilitate what is known as capital flight. Rather than contributing funds to a developing nation via taxation, TNCs use tax havens to move funds overseas. This deprives developing nations of the funds they need to invest in infrastructure, healthcare and education — essential requirements for developing out of poverty. For example, the South African Revenue Service estimates that the South African tax gap ranges up to 30billion rand: 45% of total government revenues. This is largely owing to evasion by rich individuals and avoidance by companies.

Secondly, TNCs that use tax havens shift the burden of tax from the very richest — themselves — to the very poorest. In order to make up for the revenue lost to offshore financial centres, developing nations must increase the tax burden on ordinary people. Thus the poorest people in the world’s poorest nations shoulder the burden of tax, whilst the richest corporations avoid paying for the upkeep and improvement of the societies whose very existences allow them to become richer.

Thirdly, the use of tax havens by TNCs undermines democracy.  As John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network writes:

“[A] primary aim of democratic representation involves the bargaining process between the citizens and elected representatives over taxing and spending. Most people are familiar with the complaints of eighteenth-century American colonists about taxation without representation, but the link between paying taxes in order to earn the right to representation is equally important.”

When TNCs use tax havens to avoid and evade tax, they flout the authority of democratically elected regimes.

The global situation is a depressing one. Global Financial Integrity reports that in 2006 developing countries lost an estimated $858.6 billion—$1.06 trillion through illicit financial outflows. Much of that was due to tax haven abuse by TNCs.

At present, ours is a world in which the poorest are systematically undermined and exploited by the richest. The parallels with the mass industrialised slavery Wilberforce opposed are certainly not complete — but they exist. Thankfully, today’s TNCs do not physically enslave, abuse, sell, maim and kill the people of Africa. But through their use of tax havens they systematically deprive the World’s poorest of the funds needed to develop out of poverty.

I cannot imagine Wilberforce would have approved of that. Rather, I believe that if Wilberforce were alive today he would be a member of the Tax Justice Network.

Mr Hague, if polls are to be believed in a year’s time you will find yourself in government. Will you channel the spirit of Wilberforce and join the fight against the systematic exploitation of the world’s poorest by the richest? Or will you follow in the footsteps of all those men who opposed Wilberforce or did nothing, all of whose names are now lost to history.

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Hat tip for this blog to Paul Sagar, whose work it is. Originally posted on his Bad Conscience blog. Reproduced with his permission