The Picket Line — 17 February 2006

17 February 2006

The latest NWTRCC newsletter has an interview with Julia “Butterfly” Hill. Excerpts:

I’ve told people from the very beginning that WTR is doing civil disobedience every single day. In this country we seem addicted to what I call “The One Hit Wonder.” We go for one big day of direct action and then get frustrated when the media doesn’t give the action much airplay. Every action for justice is an important step to take, and there’s something powerful about taking one step after the other. To me WTR is that: A commitment. It’s like my two years and eight days in a tree. I called that my “ground fast,” because I was away from the ground for that long. Every choice that is about an everyday commitment is a powerful choice to make.

I chose to take this stand while marching in the financial district in San Francisco right in the very beginning of the protests [against the Iraq War]. I helped shut down the financial district, the federal building, and three different intersections. I was out in the streets exercising my responsibilities as a citizen to ask for some accountability of my government. And it really hit me: How many people are going to go back to their lives and contribute to the very same thing they are out here protesting today? How many people drove here, one or two people per car to protest a war for oil? This was at the time I had found out I had this money available to me because of a lawsuit settlement. (It’s not like I’m able to earn that much per year!) I found out the government wanted to take 32% of it. I tried to find ways to keep it from them and lawyers said, “You have to pay them; just be thankful for this other money you have to work with in the world.” I really struggled with that. And then that day in the financial district I didn’t struggle anymore. I said to myself there is no way I can give that money to the very same thing I am out here protesting against.

(For more on Julia “Butterfly” Hill’s tax resistance, see The Picket Line 15 October 2003, 8 June 2004, and 10 September 2005.)

Activist and war tax resister Kathy Kelly was interviewed by The 40-Year Plan. Excerpt:

How long do you figure it will be before we will see the Bush administration charged with war crimes?
I don’t think about that too much. I don’t want to take a route that says the responsibility should be pinned on this bad guy or this bad girl. I think we need all of us to look in the mirror. There is shared, joint responsibility for the cruelty and suffering that’s imposed on other people because of collaboration by the population of the United States.
They don’t go out and hold bake sales to raise the money for their weapons systems. The one thing they want from us is the one thing we can control, and that is money. So we have that on our hands. How many of us turn over our income, our wealth, and our productivity to people whom we know are using it to commit criminal acts, atrocious acts against other people?

The Scotsman has a profile of princess Sophia Alexandria Duleep Singh, a British suffragette and tax resister.

It was as a tax resister… that Sophia Duleep Singh, the sole Indian member of the WTRL, made her greatest impression. Taking her stand on the principle that taxation without representation was tyranny, she registered her defiance on several occasions. Refusal to pay taxes and fines levied could lead to goods being impounded by the bailiffs under “distraint” and sold by public auction to recover sums due. In May 1911, at Spelthorne petty sessions, her refusal to pay licences for her five dogs, carriage and manservant led to a fine of £3. In July 1911, against arrears of 6s in rates, she had a seven-stone diamond ring impounded and auctioned at Ashford for £10. The ring was bought by a member of the WTRL and returned to her. In December 1913 she was summoned again to Feltham police court for employing a male servant and keeping two dogs and a carriage without licence. Her refusal to pay a fine of £12 10s resulted in a pearl necklace, comprising 131 pearls, and a gold bangle studded with pearls and diamonds, being seized under distraint and auctioned at Twickenham town hall, both items being bought by members of the WTRL. Such actions were a means of achieving publicity. Her high-profile stand was thus significant, and an important contribution to women’s struggle before the First World War.

Charles Merrill of Edneyville, North Carolina has decided that because the U.S. government is denying equal rights to gay married couples and perpetrating the war in Iraq that he’s going to stop paying them.

This intrigued someone at the New York Post, and they’ve put out a request to interview other gay tax resisters in New York City who are resisting in protest of the government’s anti-gay policies.

A San Francisco bay area group calling itself “Compact” has vowed not to buy anything new in 2006 except for food and a few other exceptions.

Compacters can get as much as they want from thrift shops, Craigslist, freecycle.org, eBay and flea markets, as long as the items are secondhand.…
One especially appealing aspect of the Compact is its social component, members say. Fellow Compacters offer advice, moral support, help locating needed items and partners for thrift-store runs.

The group Conscience and Peace Tax International recently published an update on international war tax resistance and peace tax campaigns.

The American Friends Service Committee, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, nominated Jeff Halper and Ghassan Andoni for the prize this year. Ghassan Andoni was active in the tax resistance campaign in Beit Sahour.

Thanks to Carnival of the Capitalists, Carnival of Personal Finance, and Carnival of Liberty for plugging The Picket Line while I was away.

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How you can resist funding the government → getting under the income tax line → how it’s done → keeping an eye on your budget → consumerism, personal debt: ▶; ♦ ♦; America’s Knowledge Gathering Bureaus are combining and sifting through databases in new ways to try to make sure you can’t escape taxes. Also: Most of the advertisements are advertising the same thing, and we seem to be buying it; Someone suggests to Michael Moore that a taxpayer general strike might be worth considering.; Links-a-plenty: A new torture memo says “the gloves are coming off… we want these individuals broken.” A pork-hungry Congress loads the defense budget with billions of dollars of worthless crap. Jon Else revisits a nuclear weapons test site and checks on our priorities. A town in Vermont wants to join the gulchers from the Free State Project and move to New Hampshire. And if a mountain of debt is keeping you from getting below the tax line, here’s some news you can use.
Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → Palestine / Beit Sahour & intifada (1988–92) → Ghassan Andoni
Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → Palestine / Beit Sahour & intifada (1988–92): ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; 27 air force pilots in Israel have put conscientious objection on the public agenda there — what would it take for that to happen in the United States? Also: was tax resistance ever used as a tactic in the Israel-Palestine conflict?; “I have made sedition my dharma.” — Mahatma Gandhi, 18 March 1930; Also — more information about the Palestinian tax resistance in Beit Sahour.; Google has added more text-searchable newspaper archives to the Web, and I go hunting for more information on the history of tax resistance.; Tax resistance in Palestine in 1988–9: an excerpt from Andrew Rigby’s 1991 book “Living the Intifada.”; Maybe it was the British cops painting swastikas on their helmets and marching through Tel Aviv shouting “Heil Hitler,” but many Jews decided they would rather not pay taxes to the British administration of Palestine. Decades later, the Palestinians feel much the same about the new boss.; A news dispatch from the end of the tax strike of Beit Sahour in 1989.; Helena Normanton gives a history of tax resistance in England from the time of King Cnut. Also: tax resistance in Beit Sahour continued beyond the famous 1988–9 tax strike.; I’ve got a guest post up at “Early Retirement Extreme” about how by living frugally, you can spend less on government and more on priorities that better match your values. Also: remembering Beit Sahour. And: voluntary pauperism; there’s a good way and a bad way. Also: tax fraud is so easy and lucrative that it’s keeping criminals off the streets and in front of their laptops.; On this day in 1989, the New York Times published a good article about the men and women in Beit Sahour who were using tax resistance as their intifada against the Israeli occupation.; One way a tax resistance campaign can get a leg up is through the acts of sympathizers within the tax collection bureaucracy itself. After all, they’re taxpayers too, and may feel more loyalty to their fellow-subjects than to the government they’re subjected to. Here are some examples. Also: a theater company’s clever response to a hike in the value-added tax on entertainment tickets.; Not everybody is able to be a tax resister, so it can be useful to inspire those who cannot resist to show solidarity with resisters in other ways, and it can be helpful for tax resistance movements to provide roles that non-resisting sympathizers can play in the campaign. Today I’ll mention some examples.; Sometimes the decisive turn in a tax resistance campaign has come when the resisters have coalesced into a formal group with the authority to organize and coordinate resistance actions. Today I’ll give some examples of this.; Tax resistance by Catalan separatists and by Italy’s Northern league, household tax resisters in Ireland and a council tax resister in England, the story of the Bardoli satyagraha, the I.R.S. seizes a bit of Cindy Sheehan’s rent money, an American alternative currency martyr is profiled, and I.R.S. employees seem to be in a rush to get delinquent accounts off their desks. Also: a few more glimpses at the tax strike of Beit Sahour during the first intifada in 1989.; A variety of tactic that has occasionally accompanied tax resistance campaigns is the renouncing of government privileges and titles. Here are some examples.; Tax resistance movements have often coordinated with labor strikes, business shut-downs, or consumer strikes as a way of further restricting government resources, demonstrating solidarity, and freeing up the time of resisters to engage in more campaign-oriented activities. Here are several examples.; Tax agencies live by bureaucracy and paperwork. Many of the earliest examples of writing in the worlds’ museums are tax records. But some mischevious tax resisters have discovered that this is a vulnerability that can be targeted.; Another way people can assist and show solidarity with tax resisters is by coming to their assistance if their property is seized. Here are some examples.; Some tax resistance campaigns have used violent threats and other such forms of intimidation to try to force reluctant taxpayers to join the campaign. Here are some examples.; A tax resistance campaign can benefit its recruiting efforts, engage public sympathy, and constrain the response of the government, by getting a good spin out in the media. Here are some examples.; A brief note about Reagan-era war tax resister Katherine Kohrman. Also: reminiscences of the Beit Sahour tax strike, of war tax resister-sympathetic Bishop Walter Sullivan, and of the movement resisting Thatcher’s poll tax. And: Athens resisters battle police. Also: a classic satyagraha sci-fi story comes on-line.
Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → women’s suffrage movements → British women’s suffrage movement → Sophia Alexandria Duleep Singh: ▶; ♦ ♦; Several years before Beit Sahour there was another Palestianian tax strike, this one involving the doctors of Gaza City. Also: the tax authorities used a battering ram to break Kate Harvey’s barricade and seize her goods for taxes. A hell of a lot of good that did them when the suffragists turned the auction into a mass rally.; Tales from the British Women’s Suffrage Movement, showing how tax resistance evolved as a tactic between 1884 and 1914.
Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → women’s suffrage movements → British women’s suffrage movement: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; Tax Resistance in “The Vote”; Did you know that the I.R.S. is not allowed to call people “illegal tax protesters” or “any similar designation?” That’s one of the curious facts I learned by reading an interesting deconstruction of the legal travails of tax protester Robert Mueller.; The militant women’s suffrage movement in Great Britain found tax resistance to be one of their most popular, widely-adopted, and sustained tactics.; What is a man from the 17th Century doing on a banner from the Women’s Tax Resistance League of 1910?; The “Siege of Montefiore” was tax resistance and guerrilla theater combined in the service of Britain’s women’s suffrage movement.; A profile of Kate Harvey, a tax resister from Britain’s women’s suffrage movement. Also: an I.R.S. audit forecast for the coming year. And: the right-wing media discover the wacky world of freegans.; A wonderful how-to and why-to book on “Possum Living” by a 19-year-old who lives on the cheap with her father. Also: a letter from the Women’s Tax Resistance League of 1913.; “A Global Call” advocates tax resistance. Also: a flashback to a tax resistance episode from the British women’s suffrage movement in 1913, and its “men’s branch.”; War tax resistance among American Mennonites during the Revolutionary War. Also: tax resistance during the British women’s suffrage movement, and a political cartoon from the Spanish-American War shows what happens when a jingo meets the “war tacks”. It must be history day at The Picket Line.; Google has added more text-searchable newspaper archives to the Web, and I go hunting for more information on the history of tax resistance.; An upcoming gathering of war tax resisters in New Hampshire. Also: when one woman in England refused to pay her taxes to protest for women’s suffrage, the government arrested her husband!; Aristotle says that the life of philosophical contemplation is the best possible life for people, which probably explains his career choice. Also: the imprisonment of Clemence Housman in 1911 for refusing to pay her taxes until women could win the right to vote.; 98 years ago today, the Toronto World covered the Women’s Tax Resistance League and compared it to other tax resistance campaigns.; A call for more aggressive tax resistance in the women’s suffrage movement, 99 years ago today. Also: don’t forget to let NWTRCC know about your Tax Day plans this year.; A wealth of information about tax resistance in the British women’s suffrage movement comes on-line. Also: it’s time for a new Boston Tea Party, says Huey Long, seventy-five years ago today.; A new issue of NWTRCC’s newsletter is out, with an update from Julia Butterfly Hill on her resistance, and reports from the Arizona national gathering and from this year’s tax day actions, among other things. Also, a member of the Women’s Tax Resistance League wrote a history of that movement shortly after it succeeded in winning the vote for women. Unfortunately the only copy I’ve been able to locate is one continent and one ocean away.; The announcement of the publication of “The Tax Resistance Movement in Great Britain” in 1919, and excerpts from Laurence Housman’s “The Duty of Tax Resistance.”; The official Women’s Freedom League policy on tax resistance.; The Women’s Tax Resistance League announces that they’re closing up shop in 1918 in the wake of a partial victory for women’s suffrage.; In 1948, Walter and Emily Longstreth pointed to the Nuremberg Principles to explain their war tax resistance. Also: the Doukhobors, in exile in Canada, refused to pay education taxes there. And: a letter to “The Vote” urges women to maintain their tax resistance during World War One.; At the end of the 19th Century, Tolstoy gave a heartbreakingly accurate prophecy about the 20th: “Suppose a problem in psychology was set: What can be done to persuade the men of our time — Christians, humanitarians or, simply, kindhearted people — into committing the most abominable crimes with no feeling of guilt?”; Suffragist tax resister Captain Gonne gets no respect from his government in 1914 and the Women’s Freedom League looks to sharpen its tax resistance militancy. Also: In 1718 Thomas Story reassures critics of Quakerism that although the Quakers themselves won’t fight, the government can always buy soldiers with the taxes from reliable Quaker taxpayers.; Two dispatches from the early days of tax resistance in the English women’s suffrage movement. Also: what have we learned about authoritarian sociopathy since the sobering days of the Milgram and Stanford prison experiments?; You know about John Woolman’s tax resistance, but what about his brother Abner? Also: British suffragists look back at the history of tax resistance in England. And: a British Quaker explains why they pay some war taxes. And: a man was arrested this month for not taking off his hat in court, a bit like George Fox was some 450 years ago… why do Americans tolerate such arrogant pretentiousness from judges today?; War tax resister Francis Costello: “If I have any fear at all in my lifetime, it’s knowing exactly where my conscience is going to take me.” Also: the Women’s Freedom League expands their tax strike in 1914.; An editorial in the 8 April 1911 issue of The Vote, 100 years ago today, reflected on the census boycott that the Women’s Freedom League had conducted. Also: war tax resisters Susan Quinlan and Elizabeth Boardman speak on Raising Sand radio.; A mob attacks a group of women’s suffrage activists protesting at an auction of a tax resister’s seized property in 1913.; Tax resistance campaigns can increase their visibility by adopting particular uniforms, badges, ribbons, or other emblems to identify resisters and those working in concert with the campaign. Today I will summarize some examples of this.; Whenever the authorities arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned, or seized property from Quaker war tax resisters, whatever Meeting that Quaker belonged to was sure to make note of it in their book of “Sufferings.” Commemorating resisters who have “taken one for the team” can be a good way of encouraging resisters to persist.; From biblical times to the present, a census has often been the prelude to a tax. Wise tax resisters have known that resistance can start right away — by resisting the census itself.; Income tax withholding or “pay as you earn” makes it difficult for people to resist paying income tax. Resisters need their employers to be willing to go out on a limb and resist alongside them. Here are some examples of employers who have done just that.; Other ways to support tax resisters as they go up against the legal system include triggering mass actions in response to arrests, honoring prisoners, issuing formal shows of support, and petitioning the government for leniency. Here are some examples of these tactics in action.; Not everybody is able to be a tax resister, so it can be useful to inspire those who cannot resist to show solidarity with resisters in other ways, and it can be helpful for tax resistance movements to provide roles that non-resisting sympathizers can play in the campaign. Today I’ll mention some examples.; Sometimes the decisive turn in a tax resistance campaign has come when the resisters have coalesced into a formal group with the authority to organize and coordinate resistance actions. Today I’ll give some examples of this.; A very frequently-used tactic of tax resistance campaigns is to take public oaths or sign public pledges of resistance. This signals to potential resisters that they will not be alone, and is a show of defiance to the authorities. I’ve collected dozens of examples, which I’ll summarize today. Also: William S. Burroughs turns down Norman Mailer’s request that he join the ranks of tax resisters, on this date in 1967.; If you can convince an organization to endorse tax resistance, or to recommend it to its members, this can strengthen your campaign and bring in new resisters. Here are some examples.; I’ve heard of some tax resistance or tax resistance-like campaigns that have threatened to withhold certain non-governmental, voluntary payments as well.; Pickets and other such public demonstrations commonly accompany tax resistance campaigns. Here are some examples that caught my eye.
Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → tax resistance for same-sex marriage → Charles Merrill / Kevin Boyle: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; Charles Merrill and Kevin Boyl ramp up their tax resistance campaign in support of gay marriage rights. Also: dropping a note in the I.R.S. suggestion box with Form 13285-A.; Charles Merrill, who stopped filing taxes because the I.R.S. would not recognize his (gay) marriage, announces that he’s being prosecuted. Also: On this date, 36 years ago, Time magazine decided it was time to say something about “The War Tax Protesters.” And: a defender of puritanism researches Quaker “sufferings” at puritan hands, and uncovers some persecution for war tax refusal.; An update on Charles Merrill’s tax resistance to support government recognition of same-sex marriages (in which he’s buried $2 million of gold in the desert). Also: Ron Paul supporters aren’t giving up yet. And: yes, there are war tax resisters in Canada.; NWTRCC’s newsletter is out with lots of news and views of interest to war tax resisters. Also: Indymedia NewsReal broadcasts the trailer to Steev Hise’s “Death and Taxes.” And: Mary King on nonviolent struggle for regime change.; Some news from the courtroom fights of Charles Merrill, who is resisting taxes to protest government discrimination against same-sex marriage, and of David Little, who is resisting taxes in conscientious objection against government funding of abortion.; 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.; Updates on Melissa Etheridge and Charles Merrill — two tax resisters fighting for legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Also: in these troubled economic times, barter is making a come-back (and the internet is helping). And: ever wonder what happens when the I.R.S. gets audited?; Mennonite war tax resisters today, a “Tax Tea Party Revolt” for legal same-sex marriage recognition in April, and weighing the pros-and-cons of simultaneous war tax resistance against federal and state taxes.; This tax day, along with the war tax resisters and tea baggers, there’ll be folks protesting that gays and lesbians are still paying for a first-class ticket with their taxes but getting a second-class citizenship in return. Also: the torture of tens of thousands with long-term solitary confinement, arguments for tax resistance, liberals deprecating dissent, students playing Bartleby on standardized tests, and more about this year’s tax day protests.; 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.; One way to resist taxes — or to resist the sort of property seizure that governments sometimes inflict on tax resisters — is to hide assets so as to remove them from the reach of the tax collector or assessor. Here are a few examples.
Miscellanous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Julia “Butterfly” Hill: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; The war tax resistance movement got a big boost today when legendary environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill announced what is being called “the single largest war tax resistance in U.S. history.”; Yesterday I wrote about individual tax denier schemes — today: How do huge, profitable corporations get away with paying nothing or getting refunds? Also: I follow up on earlier stories about Julia “Butterfly” Hill, Thomas Jefferson and about military refuseniks and conscientious objectors.; Details emerge about the new Medicare bill’s tax-free Health Savings Accounts. Also: How to be a permanent tourist, what does the I.R.S. think of Julia Butterfly Hill’s record tax resistance, and why did Thoreau go to jail when the law said he should have had his property seized instead?; Libertarians, environmentalists, let’s all join hands and sing a round of “I ain’t gonna pay for war no more.” (Some good articles about war tax resistance in the environmentalist and libertarian press this week); Julia “Butterfly” Hill, commenting on her war tax resistance and on the state of the world: “There are too many ways we all accidentally or knowingly participate in this injustice that supports its existence, including in our inactions. It is too easy a trap to fall into, to separate our selves from people like Bush, the media, and this current administration, and claim a moral stand merely by means of verbal disassociation.”; Julia “Butterfly” Hill talks about how she became a “war tax redirector” and how the I.R.S. has responded.; A new issue of NWTRCC’s newsletter is out, with an update from Julia Butterfly Hill on her resistance, and reports from the Arizona national gathering and from this year’s tax day actions, among other things. Also, a member of the Women’s Tax Resistance League wrote a history of that movement shortly after it succeeded in winning the vote for women. Unfortunately the only copy I’ve been able to locate is one continent and one ocean away.; Julia Butterfly Hill addressed her war tax resistance to an audience in New York in April. A video of her presentation has turned up on YouTube. Here it is.; When tax resisters give away their resisted taxes to charitable causes, this defuses critics who claim they are selfish tax evaders, and also forms links between tax resisters and other activist groups.
Miscellanous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Kathy Kelly: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; Mary Kelly cast her vote early — on January 29th, 2003 she took an axe to a U.S. Navy 737 that was stopped in Ireland on the way to the war in Iraq, doing 1.5 million dollars in damage. Also: The I.R.S. is falling way behind on corporate audits. And the Chicago Tribune profiles war tax resister Kathy Kelly.; Tax Day protests are breaking out all over, and NWTRCC has the list. Also: another news article on tax resistance looks at the strategies and goals of a number of resisters.; Kathy Kelly asks us to stand up and resist now, while the risks are still low. Also: The tax resistance movement adds a folk song alongside its funk anthem.; Labor unions strike against unjust wars in Zimbabwe and Iraq. Also: David O’Brien and Kathy Kelly on citizen collaboration in what we like to call “Bush’s War.” And: more Tax Day Action reports.; This November, don’t celebrate or weep along with candidate A or candidate B, but instead come to Eugene, Oregon, and participate in the next National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee national conference.; An on-line movie celebrating the life and works of Ammon Hennacy and covering 20th century American anarcho-pacifism. Also: Utah Phillips on Ammon Hennacy.; 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.; Learn about “The Power of the Purse: Women and War Tax Resistance” at the 2009 Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking this October in Memphis, Tennessee. Also: Aristotle comes to the conclusion that “eudaimonia” is the ultimate goal of human striving.; War tax resisters Pam Beziat, Kathy Kelly, Clare Hanrahan, and Judy Scheckel held a panel discussion about “The Power of the Purse: Women and War Tax Resistance” at the 2009 Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking last Saturday. Also: how do people make choices? Aristotle says these originate when desire and reason combine.; “Tax Day” has come and gone; here is some of the news from around the country.; Kathy Kelly on discerning ourselves from the drones. War Resisters International on war tax resistance in Spain, and an opportunity for resistance-through-overcompliance in the new health care law. Also: supporters of war tax resister Frank Donnelly plan to rally at his sentencing on June 14.; 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?; Tax resisters Kathy Kelly and Karl Meyer as they were profiled fifteen years ago today. Also: Lively protests accompanied the government’s actions against suffragist tax resister Kate Harvey in 1912.; How can volunteering in an IRS-sponsored program and helping people file their tax returns be a useful thing for war tax resisters to consider? When those tax returns overwhelmingly result in refunds that take money back from the government and give it to lower-income people. Also: Kathy Kelly on tax resistance, activism, and courage.; The Catholic Leader asks war tax resister Kathy Kelly if maybe she’s a little too radical. Also, on this date in 1899, a Friends’ Intelligencer reader writes in to advise Quakers on how they can best avoid the war tax on their estates.; What makes liberals so dangerous is that their passive-voice platitudes have to be enacted by flesh-and-blood people, and they lose track of this in their dreams of polishing their beloved collective. Also: Vickie Aldrich on civil disobedience or civil initiative. And: a good overview of the Rebecca Riots.; Kathy Kelly writes of the diffuse responsibility for the ominous emergence of drone warfare, and our responsibility for stopping it. Also: the latest developments in the tax resistance campaigns in Ireland and Greece. And: Raoul Vaneigm takes the side of the Greek “We Won’t Pay” rebels.

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