- Home
- War Tax Resistance
- Who We Are
- Programs
- Events
- Resources
- News & Media
- Contact
- Connections
- En Español
NWTRCC News
May 18–20, Chicago
Protest the NATO Summit and participate in the next war tax resistance gathering!
April 19 Cindy Sheehan Hearing in U.S. Court
Cindy Sheehan argued in U.S. District Court in Sacramento that she has First and Fifth Amendment rights not to answer IRS questions about her assets.… Read more…
Tax Day Action Reports
Photos and reports from around the country of 2012 Tax Day and pre-tax day actions. It was a busy day, coinciding with the Global Day of Action on Military Spending and events around the world. Nearly 300 people have made their war tax resistance/refusal public this year as part of the War Tax Boycott. Many occupiers and unions were out to demand that the corporations and the rich pay their fair share — we add "Not for War!"
Julia Butterfly Hill
“On Activism, Tax Resistance, and What She Learned from a Thousand-Year-Old Redwood” — Read The Sun article
Read More
Check out our Latest News page for more stories.
History of War Tax Resistance
400 B.C. to 1699 A.D.
411 B.C.: Lysistrata Was a Right-On Woman
In Aristophanes’ play, Lysistrata, Greek women refused to have sex with their war-mongering husbands until they agreed to stop fighting, and they provided an early example of war tax resistance.
Magistrate: What in Zeus’ name do you mean by shutting and barring the gates of our own Acropolis against us?
Lysistrata: We want to keep the money safe and stop you from waging war.
Magistrate: The war has nothing to do with money.
Lysistrata: Hasn’t it? Why are Peisander and the other office seekers always stirring things up? Isn’t it so they can take a few more dips in the public purse? Well, as far as we are concerned, they can do what they like; only they’re not going to lay their hands on the money in there.
Magistrate: Why, what are you going to do?
Lysistrata: Do? Why, we’ll be in charge of it.
Magistrate: You in charge of our finances?
Lysistrata: Well, what’s so strange about that? We’ve been in charge ofyou’re your house keeping finances for years.
Magistrate: But that’s not the same thing.
Lysistrata: Why not?
Magistrate: Because the money purse is needed for the war!
Lysistrata: Ah, but the war itself isn’t necessary.
—From Aristophanes, Lysistrata (411 B.C.), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics, reprinted in the Peace Tax Campaign Newsletter from Great Britain.
200 B.C.: Egypt
Collective tax refusal was reported in Egypt.
1197 A.D.: St. Hugh of Lincoln
St. Hugh refused to pay a tax to fund Richard the Lionhearted’s war against the King of France. All his property was seized.
1500s: Dutch Wars
Many people refused to pay a special war tax imposed on the Dutch to finance the wars of Philip II, King of Spain and Duke of Holland.
1515: Danish Taxes
Norwegian peasants refused to pay tax increases levied by the Danish king to support his war against Sweden. They killed the tax collectors.
1630s: Norway
There was a widespread movement against paying taxes in Norway.
1637: Native Americans
Algonquins opposed taxation by the Dutch to improve a local Dutch fort.
Mid-1600s: Humanists
A group of humanists in the Netherlands refused to pay taxes due to their opposition to violence.
1672: Quakers in America
Quakers refused tax payments for the repair of fortifications in New York at the beginning of the Anglo-Dutch War.
1689: Pennsylvania Colony
The Quaker Assembly in charge of the Pennsylvania Colony was resistant to appeals for funds to aid in King William’s War.
pre-1700s • 1700s • 1800s • 1900-1959 • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s