The Picket Line — 24 May 2011

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24 May 2011

Some bits and pieces from here and there:

Don’t Tread on Mike does some brainstorming on “how to start doing agorism.”
The IRS has put together a set of its web pages that explain its collection process, or at least those parts of it they care to make public.

From the 25 May 1952 Reading Eagle:

Preacher Resigns Methodist Post

Protests Dismissal of Fellow Clergyman

Scranton, May 24 (AP) — The Rev. James Gail Garst resigned from the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Church today in protest against dismissal of a 29-year-old minister who refused to pay income taxes.
Rev. Mr. Garst, serving the Fairdale-Rush Circuit in the Wilkes-Barre district, withdrew his application for full connection with the conference and said “it is my way of showing my protest.”
The conference, in executive session at its 102^d annual meeting, took action against the Rev. Richard M. Fichter, of Springfield, Pa., who was charged with six rural churches in Susquehanna County.
Rev. Mr. Garst, who came here from the Kansas Conference two years ago, sad he plans to go back to Kansas.
Fichter, a deacon in the church, said he refused to pay the federal income taxes as a “matter of Christian conscience because of the suicidal armaments race” the money would support.

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How you can resist funding the government → a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns → manufacture & sell alternatives to taxed goods → underground economy → varieties of, “Solidarity Economics”: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; Some surprising results from surveys about the ethics of tax evasion. Also: American prisoners are scamming the I.R.S. for millions, and getting away with it. And: The “Solidarity Economy” flourishes invisibly all around us (untaxedly, of course) — let’s encourage it!; A look at the underground economy in Chicago’s South Side. Also: artists create a complementary currency. And: a libertarian conference on nonviolent resistance.; Is your congressperson willing to sign a pledge to cut off funding for the war on Iraq? Are you? Also: useful and interesting web tidbits on the underground economy, tax credits for energy-efficient home improvements, and how to get the most tax advantage out of home office expenses.; 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.”; A review of “Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor” by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh.; Sunday browsing bits & pieces: Opting out of the money economy, leaving the sinking ship of a nation-state, and giving an red-white-and-blue homecoming to a war hero.; In part two of Dave Ridley’s civil disobedience adventures, he chooses his battles while trying to maintain a nonviolent noncooperative stance in jail. Also: a review of “Ragnar’s Guide to the Underground Economy.” And: the Pope plans to condemn tax evasion.; Alex Raskolnikov has imagined a picture of the future, and it’s a tax collector stomping on a handshake forever. Also: Ed and Elaine Brown get a good look at The Law.; A coalition of Christian peace groups asks its members to take a tax resistance pledge. Also: the “Don’t Buy Bush’s War” campaign continues to sign up tax resisters. And: a new resource for people and groups working to build and strengthen the “solidarity economy.”; As an enterprising do-it-yourselfer, you can best respond to the current economic crisis by printing your own money, says Douglas Rushkoff. Sunni Maravillosa thinks economic secession is an even better answer.; You’d be surprised how easy it is to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars simply by making up the numbers on your tax return. The government may very well send you a huge “refund” and never miss the money. Also: Governments are already starting to tax virtual play money in video game universes. And: A new tool enables people to barter expertise and trade tutoring.; Activists in a recent workshop see the current economic meltdown as an opportunity for bottom-up innovation of new styles of economic organization, comparing the present calamity to past economic crises that had given birth to inspiring radical social movements and experiments, and seeing the potential for more of this today. Also: a thriving agorist-compatible alternative banking system that’s older and better-established than the mainstream banking system — hawala.; When it comes to agorism, the perfect is the enemy of the good: don’t wait for the theoretically ideal counter-economy to spring to life before you begin to look for alternatives. Also: more state interference with people trying to practice environmentally-sustainable lives.; Just what is this counter-economy anyway? Could it be that we are already participants?; Tax resistance on Facebook, U.S. leads the world in arms exports, the coming expansion of the U.S military, the celebrity endorsement of the guy who threw his shoe at Dubya, a disturbing new look at “Deep Throat”, the rise of the informal economy, alternative currencies in Argentina, and the five developmental stages on the way to a life of Active Peace.; A whole buncha links: updates on the Peace Tax Seven, the U.S. torture policy, San Francisco’s Tea Party, E.I.T.C. fraud, the upcoming military budget, tax resistance during the Great Depression, underground economy as tax resistance, war tax resistance in the Basque country, getting creative with traditional-to-Roth IRA transfers, and when it comes to war crimes saying you were just following orders is no excuse (says Dubya).; Sometimes you see tax resistance from someone who just gets fed up with paying too much for too little. There’s no grand ideological or conscientious stand involved, just a tax payer getting sick and tired of it. Also: notes on the underground economy in San Antonio and war tax resistance in Spain.; Every tax day, Steve Magin visits the I.R.S. offering to pay his taxes in full if they’ll assure him that none of the money will go to pay for war and armaments. Also: a “suspicious powder” incident shuts down the IRS office in Ogden, Utah. And: tobacco smuggling is skyrocketing along with tax rates (who saw that coming?) Also: another dispatch from the liquor tax showdown in Cincinnati in 1884.; 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.; Several war tax resisters were arrested in a symbolic civil disobedience action targeting the nation’s first new nuclear weapons manufacturing plant in decades, in Kansas City, where NWTRCC was holding its Fall 2011 national gathering. Also: the underground economy, a.k.a. System D, is growing in size and importance internationally.; The federal tax angle to legal marijuana sales in America. The trouble with tax-exempt politicized churches. How federal budget cuts are putting the squeeze on IRS employees. And: Vivien Kellems gathered a posse to challenge the self-employment tax in 1952.
How you can resist funding the government → the tax resistance movement → birth of the modern American war tax resistance movement → Richard Fichter: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; 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.; On this day in 1958, picketers protest the imprisonment of war tax resister Maurice McCrackin; and on this day in 1949, picketers welcome war tax resister Katsuki James Otsuka back from prison.; Richard Fichter, one of those in the first generation of the modern American war tax resistance movement (and his raid on “The $64,000 Question”). Also: William Atzinger, an unusual tax resister for gender equality in Montana.; When people are arrested, tried, or imprisoned for tax resistance, their comrades have sometimes used this as an occasion to hold rallies or other demonstrations. This shows support for the people being persecuted, demonstrates determination in the face of government reprisals, and can be a good opportunity for propaganda. Here are some examples.; Individuals can demonstrate their support for tax resisters in various ways. Sometimes just dropping them a line can be a good pat-on-the-back. Here are some examples of ways in which people and groups have given their thumbs-ups to tax resisters.
How you can resist funding the government → about the IRS and U.S. tax law/policy → how the government deals with tax resisters: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; I’ve decided to stop paying my self-employment tax. So in addition to legally avoiding my income tax, I will be illegally withholding payment of SECA. Let’s see how this plays out. Also: one tax resister says she’s been getting stern letters from I.R.S. computers since 2002 and isn’t frightened any more. And Jonathan Meier writes that if we want to change the world, we have to stop holding protests and rallies behind and instead do the unexpected over and over again.; The American Bar Association Journal summarizes the consequences of failing to file your tax return, or of failing to pay. Also: The I.R.S. adjusts for inflation several of the items that will be on your tax forms in the 2007 tax year filing season.; 26 years ago today, the papers announced that Catholic Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle, Washington would be refusing to pay half of his federal income taxes to protest the nuclear arms race.; Eight ways you can personally help to smash the state, from Francois Tremblay. Also: a grand jury subpoenas a newspaper for identifying information about everyone who left comments on their web site about a recent tax protester trial. And: the war tax resistance movement in Spain is very familiar, with arguments on both sides of the issue seeming to be Spanish translations of the same arguments you hear in the U.S.; More on the IRS software modernization fiasco. Also: waste and fraud in military spending boondoggles: it’s not a bug, it’s a feature. And: some excerpts from Clarence Lee Swartz’s “What is Mutualism?” (1927). Also: more details about that federal grand jury subpoena for personal details about everyone who commented at a newspaper’s website about an ongoing tax protester trial. And: a letter you can send to politicians to tell them why, after Proposition 8, you’re not paying your California state taxes anymore.; Minutes from NWTRCC’s recent national gathering. Also: the feds hint that they may suspend the statute of limitations for tax crimes because the nation is at war. And: hundreds of thousands of Americans game the education tax credit system. Also: how to keep your inheritance free from the estate tax. And: how come people opposed to abortion can get Congress to keep their tax dollars untainted, but people opposed to war cannot? Also: the IRS may get overtasked becoming the nation’s health care administrator. And: another variety of tax protest for same-sex marriage rights.; When Vivien Kellems resisted the federal income tax withholding system, she was subjected to an unusually intense smear campaign, which included the government intercepting her private mail and leaking it to the press.; Ed Hedemann of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee has put together some interesting charts and tables showing all known prosecutions and property seizures against U.S. war tax resisters since the 1940s.; 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?; The Protestant Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland threatened tax resistance against a plan for power sharing with Catholic Ireland in 1986. The U.S. government contemplates its response to public war tax resistance in 1966. And: looking back at the tax resistance of suffrage activist Flora Annie Steel.; When Nixon got caught using the IRS to go after his political enemies, one of the consequences was that the agency — though on the cusp of victory in its battle to seize the home of war tax resister Ernest Bromley — surrendered and returned the home to its rightful owners.; The December, 1968 edition of The Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle promoted phone tax resistance as a Vietnam War protest, and gives some interesting details about the government (and telephone monopoly) response.; The I.R.S. was having trouble figuring out how to respond to the increasing number of war tax resisters in the early 1970s, as the cases of Carole Nelson and Sally Buckley show.

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