Carl Gibson

Carl Gibson, 25, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide grassroots movement that used creative direct action to protest corporate tax dodgers and budget cuts in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary We're Not Broke, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. In a collaboration with the Yes Men, Carl and other US Uncut activists, posing as General Electric, distributed a hoax press release on a hoax website claiming General Electric would be donating its $3.2 billion tax refund to the U.S. Treasury and surveying the public on which budget cuts should be reduced with the donation. The hoax wasn't confirmed until 30 minutes after the release was distributed by the Associated Press, causing General Electric's stock to temporarily drop by $3 billion. In June of 2011, Carl helped organize a nationwide campaign against Apple for their role as the leading face of a corporate lobbying campaign to get a costly tax break for a host of tech and pharmaceutical companies. After a series of US Uncut actions at Apple stores in 10 major cities and a targeted awareness campaign in the media, the tax break failed to pass Congress and faced a veto threat from President Barack Obama. The corporate lobby group officially disbanded in September of 2012. Carl was an Occupy Houston organizer shortly after the launch of Occupy Wall Street, and organized dozens of protests and actions including an interruption of a speech by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) at Rice University, for which he was arrested. Carl has also been arrested at an impromptu dodge ball game played in the lobby of the Houston Hilton in March of 2012 in protest of General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt's speech at CERAWeek 2012. He was also arrested at a sit-in at the Mickey Leland Federal Building protesting US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's NO vote on the American Jobs Act, and in New York during a march commemorating the 1st anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. Carl has also frequently called into conservative syndicated talk radio programs to debate hosts and guests live on the air. Carl has debated Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Grover Norquist, US Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and US Representative Paul Broun (R-GA). He has been a contributor on MSNBC, RT, and Huffpost Live. He is a columnist for Reader Supported News and the Occupied Wall Street Journal.