The Picket Line — 1 December 2012

1 December 2012

NWTRCC has posted some documents from October’s New England war tax resistance regional gathering, including:

Larry Rosenwald’s position paper on the potential political effect of war tax resistance
a transcript of a conversation on the subject: “does war tax resistance have a political future?” featuring Ed Agro, Ruth Benn, Daniel Sicken, and Bob Irwin

Today’s treasure hunt was inspired by this tiny dispatch from this date in 1919

Miners Decide to Strike

Resistance to Income Tax

(Reuter’s Message.)

London, December 1. The Welsh miners have voted in favor of a strike in resistance to the income tax.

That was the whole thing. And it didn’t give me much to go on. After some sleuthing, I found a little bit more:

The Income Tax.

Miners Object to Pay

London, December 1. The final figures in respect to the ballot of the Welsh miners gave 73,307 votes in favor of the strike to enforce the £200 limit in the income tax exemption, and 72,837 votes against the strike.
The council of the Welsh miners have decided to defer the strike pending a conference with the Miners Federation of Great Britain, which has been asked to arrange a national ballot on the subject.

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How you can resist funding the government → the tax resistance movement → conferences & gatherings → Fall 2012 New England War Tax Resistance regional gathering: ▶; ♦; A new issue of NWTRCC’s newsletter is on-line. Also: the Women’s Tax Resistance League marches in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.
Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → Wales / miners against income tax in 1919
Miscellanous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Ed Agro: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; The American anti-war movement reminds people that if they aren’t part of the problem, they’re part of the problem. Also: smokers are paying Congress a buck a pack now.; How to resist the federal excise tax on your Verizon phone bill. Also: signs of moral engagement and disengagement, and how to encourage the former. And: Uri, Switzerland tried to tax “bobbed hair” in 1929, but women laughed it off.; Is it really war tax resistance if you’re pretty sure the IRS is just going to lift the money (with penalties & interest) from your bank account anyway? Is the point of our resistance to register our disapproval strongly with the government, or to actually withhold funds from the war machine? Highlights from a recent mailing-list back-and-forth. Also: in 1978 the I.R.S. sent agents to tax protester seminars to jot down names and take notes. Suppose they still do?; War tax resisters on the “wtr-s” email list mull over the prospects for building a war tax resistance movement.; At his Forbes blog, Peter J. Reilly turns the page over to war tax resister Ed Agro to explain what this tax resistance business is all about. Also: When the government steals from you every day, theft can start to seem respectable. And: North Carolina seemed to have more tax rebellions than it had tax collectors during the first decades of the colony.; The I.R.S. takes war tax resister Cindy Sheehan to court. Also: notes from war tax resisters Ed Agro and Paul Leatherman. And: the I.R.S. shed 5,000 employees over the last year, mostly from their tax enforcement division.; The Department of Justice loses 30% of its tax prosecutors. The federal government is bigger than you might think. Ed Agro on war tax resistance. And: a Mother Jones article from April 1989 on war tax resisters.; Tax evasion could get you deported… or confined within the borders. Also: updating the war tax resistance bible. And: the rise of popular sociopathic protagonists. Also: Ed Agro on war tax resistance. And: updates on the Irish and Greek anti-austerity tax resistance movemements.; War tax resisters are finding that it is no less of a delicate balancing act trying to merge their message with the left-wing Occupy movement than it was with the right-wing TEA Party. Also: area war tax resisters are supporting Cindy Sheehan in her struggle with the I.R.S.; Three Plowshares activists shut down the main U.S. nuclear weapons fissionable material plant in a daring raid. The Pacific Yearly Meeting offers financial aid to Quaker war tax resisters. Ed Agro gives his two cents on the “one-man revolution.” Vickie Aldrich updates us on her battle with the I.R.S. And tax-scamming identity thieves are so unconcerned about law enforcement that in one case they filed for over 2,000 bogus refunds destined for the same residential address.; By April, 1970, the American anti-war movement had really hit its stride, and war tax resistance had become a mainstream protest tactic.
Miscellanous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Ruth Benn: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; We’re a long way from April 15th, the war tax resistance movement’s traditional fifteen minutes of fame, and yet the news is full of war tax resisters doing their thing.; More tax day news, including “Burma Shave”-style protest signs in Oregon, an interview with NWTRCC coordinator Ruth Benn, and Ashby Crowder reminding taxpayers that conscientious objection isn’t just for those in uniform.; It is going to take a lot of work to convince people that you don’t have to live under the poverty line to live under the tax line — even people in the war tax resistance movement who should know better.; Self-restraint as consent, pre-dawn protests at military processing centers, how to get a conscientious vegetarian to fund your meat habit by keeping empty promises, and how to spend thousands of dollars on coffee without really trying.; More on the I.R.S.’s new W-4 strategy, debates about the size of the tax gap (and some ideas on how to increase it), and the I.R.S. loses in court yet again while trying to close the flat-rate long distance loophole.; War tax resisters Ruth Benn, Jim Allen, Becky Pierce, Jim Stockwell, Peter Smith, Ellyn Stecker, and Susan Quinlan are profiled in newspaper articles about tax resistance.; A Daily Kos contributor reminds liberals that the “power of the purse” doesn’t begin and end with Congress, but with them. Also: Ruth Benn of NWTRCC advises activists who want to take a step beyond marching with signs and lobbying politicians.; The War Resisters League’s annual “pie chart” shows you where your income tax money really goes. Also: Ruth Benn of NWTRCC explains war tax resistance on Ashland, Oregon’s KSKQ.; SmartMoney covers the war tax resistance beat. And: Cindy Sheehan is urging Americans to resist their taxes. Also: I fill my home for free, and some people fill their bellies much the same way. And: if it oinks like a pig and it wallows like a pig it’s probably the latest Iraq War emergency supplemental funding legislation.; War tax resisters hit the radio waves and the newspapers across America as “Tax Day” approaches. Also: the adolescent sophistry of the tax protester set hits The Picket Line’s comment section. And: a review of “Off the Books.”; Jerry DePyper is a rare example of a right-wing conscientious tax resister, on strike against a government that funds abortion and tolerates gay marriage. Also: a profile of Ithica War Tax Resisters, and a new edition of “More Than a Paycheck.”; Dave Ross recycles bits of my appearance on his radio show for a commentary that has the Freepers screaming. Also: here’s the audio from Ruth Benn’s appearance on the Marc Germain show.; To what extent does paying taxes to the government make you responsible for what the government does? That turns out to be a very hard question. Also: The Money Magazine article I’m in is finally on-line. And: Ruth Benn eulogizes Ralph DiGia. Also: is war tax resistance futile, or scrappy? And: United for Peace & Justice breaks my heart.; Is advocating war tax resistance the same as “promoting tax evasion schemes” and if so, could the government shut down organizations that promote war tax resistance and seize their membership rolls? What about tax resisters’ “alternative funds”? Are they a variety of “warehouse bank” vulnerable to wholesale seizure by the government?; Karl Hess’s tax resistance in Time magazine, Ruth Benn interviewed on Australian radio, and a remarkable proposal from Cato Unbound.; Ruth Benn reports back from the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns in Manchester, England.; Ruth Benn tells us more about the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns, and I reflect on whether war tax resisters have much in common with peace tax fund scheme promoters, or whether we’d be better off doing some outreach to other varieties of tax resister instead.; An American libertarian-oriented tax resistance campaign that calls itself the “Slave Uprising” gets ready to launch. Also: more impressions of the recent international conference on war tax resistance and peace tax campaigns, highlighting the differences between the United States and European countries. And: the Wall Street Journal profiles Gene Sharp, wrist-slaps for murderous soldiers, and the release of the Peace Tax Seven movie.; A brief report from the NWTRCC conference in Eugene, Oregon. Also: Melissa Etheridge joins the emerging tax resistance movement to protest government discrimination against same-sex marriage.; I report back from the NWTRCC conference in Eugene, Oregon. Lots of news about frivolous filing penalties, the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act debate, the aftermath of the recent election, the future of the War Tax Boycott, and much more.; Ruth Benn shares her notes from the recent NWTRCC national gathering. Also: more people pile on the gay rights tax resistance bandwagon. And: Ron Paul salutes tax resisters from within the bowels of the House of Representatives.; If you’re interested in starting a regular regional gathering of war tax resisters in your area, NWTRCC is eager to help, and can help you both with expertise and with seed money.; From the latest issue of NWTRCC’s newsletter: updates on tax policy and the international conscientious objection movements, news and updates about war tax resisters and the war tax resistance movment, a story of how even a first-time token resister might come face to face with the capricious jaws of the I.R.S., and announcing a new speaker’s bureau. That and a great review of “We Won’t Pay!”; A Tax Day round-up: penny polls and other war tax resistance actions, interviews and profiles of war tax resisters, reactions to the “Tea Party” phenomenon, gay and lesbian tax resistance, a conservative call for an anti-war/anti-tax convergence, a columnist notes how easy it is to get away with not filing your taxes, I.R.S. employees pissed off that their boss got away with the sort of tax evasion that would get them fired, contractors in the I.R.S. mail room caught stealing the government’s stolen money, and Joe the Plumber’s 1-900 fair tax trainwreck.; I report back from the Spring NWTRCC national gathering in Virginia.; The most contentious item on the agenda at the NWTRCC Spring national gathering was our organization’s relationship with the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act and with the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, a long-time affiliate of NWTRCC, which promotes the act.; More reports from the national NWTRCC gathering earlier this month. Also: a report on the barter economy, the federal government’s vast borrowing, an update on Charles Merrill’s tax resistance court battle for same-sex marriage rights, and the civil rights movement seen as a successful (nonviolent) revolutionary insurgency.; More “Tax Day” recaps. Also: war tax resister Allen Cooper gets fired by his jingoistic cocaine snorting boss. And: a flashback to Utah Governor J. Bracken Lee’s quixotic tax protest in 1956.; Reports and photos from the opening days of the Spring 2010 NWTRCC national gathering in Tucson, Arizona.; A new issue of “More Than a Paycheck,” NWTRCC’s newsletter, is on-line, including news about penny polls, “settle with the IRS for pennies on the dollar” companies, “frivolous filing” overreach from the IRS, Karl Meyer on what makes war tax resisters more vulnerable to criminal prosecution, Ed Hedemann on the history of the U.S. government’s use of property seizures and criminal cases as tools against war tax resisters in the post-World War II era, and more.; More than fifty war tax resisters from across the country (and a few WTR-curious from the Boston area and elsewhere) gathered at the Cambridge Friends Meeting house last night at the opening session of the joint National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Meeting Fall gathering / 25th annual New England Gathering of War Tax Resisters and Supporters.; Maurice McCrackin fasts while in jail for war tax resistance in 1958. Also: some notes on phone tax resistance from this date in 2005 and 1998.; NWTRCC announces this year’s crop of “tax day” war tax resistance actions. Also: “tax day” newspaper articles from years past cover the war tax resistance of Max Sandin, Joan Baez, Irwin Hogenauer, Raymond Hunthausen, Clare Hanrahan, Susan Quinlan, Larry Harper, Bill Ramsey, Ruth Benn, Mary Ann C. Holtz, and Karl Meyer.; Notes from the Social Justice Networking panel at the NWTRCC conference earlier this month, resolving a tangle of taxpatriatism, and a look back at the conviction of war tax resister Ellis Rece in 1972.; A guest post from a war tax resister who participated in the Occupy Freedom Plaza event, and some additional comments about the Occupy Wall Street and related protests.; An overview and update on the Greek tax resistance movement from the New York Times. Also: Ed Hedemann and Ruth Benn talk war tax resistance on Cindy Sheehan’s radio show.; A search through the archives for more information about war tax resisters Art Harvey and Elizabeth Gravalos.; The latest edition of “More Than a Paycheck,” NWTRCC’s newsletter, is on-line. Also, in a new blog, Vickie Aldrich talks about her war tax resistance and her father’s experiences in a Civilian Public Service camp for drafted conscientious objectors during World War Two.; Catholic bishops get all bent about being forced to pay for contraceptive-coverage in the health insurance of their employees, and war tax resisters ask “hey, what about us?” Also: resistance to the “Household Tax” in Ireland, and to the many fee hikes in Greece. And: the I.R.S. is getting overwhelmed by a cottage industry of tax fraud via identity theft.; Tax evasion could get you deported… or confined within the borders. Also: updating the war tax resistance bible. And: the rise of popular sociopathic protagonists. Also: Ed Agro on war tax resistance. And: updates on the Irish and Greek anti-austerity tax resistance movemements.; Ruth Benn explains war tax resistance on David Swanson’s show. Also: speed camera destruction, paying a traffic ticket with origami, collecting blood in Greece, tax resistance in Indonesia, council tax resister June Farrow gets a finger-wagging, and the U.S. increases its lead as the biggest global arms race dealer.; Some video from the recent NWTRCC national conference. Also: Heinrich Böll refused to pay a tax to the Catholic Church in 1972 — a tax that is still causing controversy today, as the German Catholic Church has decided to effectively excommunicate Catholics who refuse to pay their government-mediated church tax. And: a couple of American war tax resisters ran for office — how’d they do?; Ruth Benn, Ed Hedemann, and Cindy Sheehan talk war tax resistance this evening. Also: income tax resistance in the campaign for expanded citizenship rights in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1919.; Tomorrow I leave for the 14th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns in Bogotá, Colombia. Expect things to be a little quieter around here for the next month. Also: tax resistance in Catalonia, more on the War Resisters International war tax capitulation, and an update on prisoner tax fraud.; Cindy Sheehan forces the I.R.S. to blink. A look inside NWTRCC’s latest newsletter. Yesterday’s “Pull the Pork (from the Pentagon)” protests. War tax resisters Francesc García Barberà and Amy Wachspress. And the I.R.S. use of civilian informers.; A new issue of NWTRCC’s newsletter with information about regional, national, and international war tax resistance gatherings, and news and commentary about war tax resistance.
Miscellanous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Bob Irwin: ▶; ♦; NWTRCC has added some “Readings on Money” to their website, including discussions of the ethics of interest, the management of inheritances, a look at how money comes into being, the dilemma of tax-exempt status for nonprofit organizations, and hints on how to run a penny poll.
Miscellanous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Larry Rosenwald: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; Lawrence Rosenwald has written a fantastic study of the historical, political, biographical and philosophical context of Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and how it came to influence an unlikely array of activists. Also: The I.R.S. is issuing its annual bluff about catching tax cheats.; How can we make the war tax resistance movement less culturally monotone and more successful? Thanks for asking! I happen to have provocative suggestions on just those very topics.; More news from NWTRCC’s national meeting in Las Vegas last weekend. Also: Dave Ridley gets cited for “Distribution of Handbills” after leafletting the I.R.S. office in Nashua, New Hampshire.; SmartMoney covers the war tax resistance beat. And: Cindy Sheehan is urging Americans to resist their taxes. Also: I fill my home for free, and some people fill their bellies much the same way. And: if it oinks like a pig and it wallows like a pig it’s probably the latest Iraq War emergency supplemental funding legislation.; War tax resisters Anna Aschenbach and Joanne Sheehan in the news. Also: Northern California war tax resisters redirect money from the Pentagon to community needs. And: Lawrence Rosenwald on unsentimental pacifism, tax resistance, and the seeds of war.; Don Schrader lives simply (and strangely) in pursuit of ethical living (and generates plenty of interest); war tax resisters in Colorado Springs make the news; the I.R.S. refuses to cough up its audit statistics despite a court order; expatriate tax resister Jeff Knaebel speaks at the Gandhi Sixtieth Memorial in Pune; and Larry Rosenwald wonders if the emphasis on voluntary simplicity means that tax resisters with voluntarily complex lifestyles aren’t welcome in the clubhouse.; Does a taxpayer enter into a criminal conspiracy with the government, with the risk of being prosecuted under the Nuremberg Principles? If you pay taxes under duress or under protest, do you not have to worry about the ethical consequences? How was Chiquita (the banana company) convicted for paying taxes? Can Caesar take your blame away? Is paying taxes obligatory, like paying your debts, regardless of the consequences? Have people really been arguing about this stuff for centuries now?; Examples of twenty-two ways tax resisters and their sympathizers have organized to support tax resisters and tax resistance campaigns.; Emily Greene Balch and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon on tax resistance. Also: is “eudaimonia” to be praised, or to be prized?; A new issue of NWTRCC’s newsletter is on-line. Also: Bomb-throwing anarchists, mutinies, and revolutionary agitators on the march, in the wake of the Viborg Manifesto, which called on Russians to refuse to pay taxes to the Czar.; Is it really war tax resistance if you’re pretty sure the IRS is just going to lift the money (with penalties & interest) from your bank account anyway? Is the point of our resistance to register our disapproval strongly with the government, or to actually withhold funds from the war machine? Highlights from a recent mailing-list back-and-forth. Also: in 1978 the I.R.S. sent agents to tax protester seminars to jot down names and take notes. Suppose they still do?; Reporting from the first full (very full!) day of the joint National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee Fall gathering / 25th annual New England Gathering of War Tax Resisters and Supporters.; War tax resisters on the “wtr-s” email list mull over the prospects for building a war tax resistance movement.; The other night I was in the kitchen, alone in the house, when a large rat tripped the trap in the laundry room. The trap seized around the rat’s neck without snapping it, and the rat thrashed around in agonized panic. So did I, in a manner of speaking. Also: a new issue of More Than a Paycheck is out.; Larry Rosenwald thinks that American war tax resistance could become a real movement, if only resisters would sign on to a more coherent program. His idea of which program that should be bears some resemblance to one published by some Spanish war tax resisters several years back.; Some back-and-forth about my “one man revolution” post from last week, and some bits of interest that didn’t make the final cut.; There are four fairly distinct varieties of tax resister. Most tax resistance campaigns are dominated by one variety or another, but the American war tax resistance movement is an amalgam of all four. This makes it difficult for that movement to decide on goals and tactics.; Muted reaction from American war tax resisters to my series of articles on tactics. Also: Eighty years ago, a taxpayers’ league in Elmira, New York, threatened a tax strike as a way of pressing for reduced rates.
Miscellanous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Daniel Sicken: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; Tax Day has come and gone, and all over the country war tax resisters decided to send their money to charity rather than give it to the government.; In the newspapers and on the radio, tax resisters Daniel Sicken, Ellen Kaye, Lou Waronker, and Jon Marley. Also: author Marcy Sheiner tells us why it’s much too scary to be a tax resister, which, as far as I can tell, is the typical last step before becoming a tax resister.; War tax resisters are having a conference in New England this weekend. Also: Once tax resistance got going during the French Revolution, it just kept going, long after the Assembly took power from the Church and the Crown.; A new edition of NWTRCC’s newsletter features an article I wrote on how to craft a persuasive and motivating tax resistance message, updates on Daniel Jenkins’s legal battles for conscientious objection to military taxation, notes from the New England war tax resistance gathering, and more. Also: the “economic stimulus” package — what will it mean for tax resisters like me?; In the aftermath of Tax Day, tax resisters are all over the media and the web. Here are reports from Keene, New Hampshire; Brattleboro, Vermont; New York City; Nashua, New Hampshire; Los Alamos, New Mexico; Bangor, Maine; central New Jersey; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Berkeley, California; Washington D.C.; and all across the blogosphere.; The documentary film “Path of Greatest Resistance” about war tax resisters in Western Massachusetts in the early 1990s, is now on-line. Also: war tax resisters Larry Dansinger and Bill Ramsey meet the press on Tax Day.; Tax Day actions across the country; a new tax resistance campaign for D.C. statehood; attempting to make the coercion of taxation more explicit; the government considers refusing to issue passports to people unless they’ve paid all their taxes; the I.R.S. doesn’t get that budget boost they’d been hoping for; war tax resister Don Schrader profiled; and eleven tax resistance tactics for the rich.

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