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NWTRCC News
Tax Season Is Here!
If you are somewhere between outraged and sick about all the U.S. tax money that goes to the military and to war, consider joining our public list of war tax resisters and refusers. NWTRCC has updated the War Tax Boycott website for 2012. If you are wondering how to do war tax resistance, some groups offer workshops between now and tax day, April 17, 2012. See the events list or use our contacts list to find someone in your area. If your group is doing an action about military spending and war tax resistance between now and tax day, please email the information to us and we'll post on this website.
Peace Tax Fund Bill
"We must protect conscience from war," writes Duane Shank on the Sojourners blog. The article includes links to the H.R. 1191, introduced into Congress by Rep. John Lewis (Ga.).
Being Public
Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan continues her public response to the IRS demands for her taxes. After her son was killed in Iraq in 2004 she announced that she could no longer pay taxes to the U.S. government. She has found the need to respond to allies as well as the IRS. Read her blog...
Read More
Check out our Latest News page for more stories.
NWTRCC Latest News
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| Ruth Benn gave a war tax resistance workshop at Stop the Machine! Create a New World! October 8 in Washington, D.C., the beginning of the Freedom Plaza occupation in D.C. Photo by Carol Moore. |
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| Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Times Square, Oct. 15, 2011. Photo by Ed Hedemann |
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| On the march from Wall Street to Times Square, Oct. 15, 2011. Photo by Ed Hedemann |
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| Marching up Broadway to Times Square, Oct. 15, 2011. Photo by Ed Hedemann |
2012 Tax Day Actions and Redirection
Due to state or DC holidays, Tax Day falls on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. NWTRCC will post on our website a list of upcoming actions to protest military spending and all the tax money that goes to war. Please email your events to us. We also send out a national press release about April 17 actions, so join this united effort to make our voices heard about cutting military spending—and to make the point with our own money! If you decide to refuse to pay some or all of your federal income taxes (see the How to Resist page if you are new) please let us know (anonymously if you prefer) how you chose to redirect those tax dollars. Let's pool our reports and show the government all the good things that tax dollars could be doing. If you're not sure what to do, how about looking at our Five Actions page!
What Friends Say....
Julia Butterfly Hill has ideas about where to invest your "green energy."
Bishop Gumbleton - In a time when some accumulate mind-boggling wealth, we find hunger and homelessness have increased across every major city…
On Our Site
Check out the "Other Taxes" page and the “Anarchists and War Tax Resistance” page and flyer. We’ve also updated information about the frivolous penalty.
Released from Prison
Carlos Steward was released from the Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama, to a halfway house near his home in Asheville, N.C., on December 1, 2011. Hurray! Carlos was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to filing false income tax returns for 2002 and 2003 and failing to file returns for 2000 and 2001. He entered the FPC August 7, 2010, and is very happy to be getting an early release to a halfway house. Carlos did not know about the war tax resistance network at the time he ran into trouble with the IRS, but he's been grateful for the supportive letters he's received during his incarceration. He found us by becoming the editor who completed our film, Death and Taxes. For more background on Carlos’s case click here.
Good Listening
A video of San Francisco attorney J. Tony Serra’s talk at the May 2011 war tax resistance gathering in Oakland.
“The other tea partiers: antiwar tax resisters,” by Steven Short for the Crosscurrents news magazine show on KALW.
Occupy! Resist!
The cry of Occupy Wall Street is “We Are the 99%!” War tax resisters resist some or all of federal taxes because of the 48% of the budget that goes to war, skewing the priorities of the federal government and depriving the 99% of much needed jobs and services. Here in NYC, Occupy Wall Street is full of energy and excitement and the most creative signs and messages we've seen in years. While the mainstream media complains about the lack of a specific message, most of us are aware of the interconnections of these issues, and the masses of new activists turn out for demonstrations to protest evictions, deportations, hunger, the death penalty, lack of jobs, war, or whatever is pressing at that moment.
We don't know where it will lead, but it is wonderful to be in a hopeful moment, a time when people are really trying to figure out how to build a system that cares equally for the 100%. Each occupation around the country is trying to create and live a new style of community—which is reflective of the positive side of war tax resistance, of taking our money from the military and giving it to programs that work for life. Not everyone can occupy the local park, but one of the beauties of war tax resistance and refusal is that you can do it anywhere, anytime—a daily act of civil disobedience.
We would like to hear from you about your experiences with the Occupy Wall Street activity. Send us your reports and photos from “Occupy ______.” Tell us if you have done a war tax resistance talk or workshop to a group there and how it went. What are you learning from the occupations that might influence organizing around war tax resistance. And if you are new to war tax resistance, look over our website, contact one of the individuals or groups close to you, or invite a speaker to come to your community.
Thoreau and War Tax Resistance
Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts on July 12, 1817. Untold numbers have been moved to resistance by his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” which was inspired by the night he spent in jail in July 1846 after refusing to pay poll taxes in protest against the Mexican War and the extension of slavery. You can read the essay online (y en español). Lawrence Rosenwald, a longtime war tax resister and Professor of English and of Peace and Justice Studies, wrote about the influence of Thoreau for him personally, and has analyzed Thoreau’s essay more thoroughly in “The Theory, Practice & Influence of Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience.” Wikipedia has a good biography of Thoreau with more links. War tax resister David Gross has collected some of Thoreau’s writings into two volumes, which can be ordered from his website (scroll down the books in the right column). Thoreau’s refusal to pay for war was one famous instance of civil disobedience, but his legacy continues. See NWTRCC’s teaching kit, Thoreau and His Heirs, for more details!
Profile of a Longtime War Tax Resister
Read about the life of Martha Graber in the February issue of The Mennonite, written by longtime NWTRCC network member and supporter Susan Balzer. At 91, Martha’s “Long Life of Witness and Service” is one to honor.
War Tax Resistance History and Tidbits
Dave Gross continues to come up with current and past news items that demonstrate the persistence of individuals to refuse to support war, damn the consequences. Click here for links to articles including profile of Nashua, N.H., resisters Francine Wall and Ruth McKay; Irish resistance refusing to pay the “police tax” in 1884; the current state of the Spanish tax resistance movements; tax resistance in Beit Sahour; and much more!
See NWTRCC’s history pages on this website for an overview of of history from ancient time to current.
WRL’s Piechart Available on Web
The War Resisters League’s analysis of the President’s fiscal year 2012 budget, “Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes” is now available. An online Spanish version is also available to download.