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Tax Strike Tactics

Conduct Consumer Strikes

Consumer strikes are more wide-ranging than targeted boycotts of resistance movement foes or of government monopoly products. Consumer strikers withdraw participation in commerce generally as a way to deprive the government of resources or to put pressure on it. This can reduce the revenue from a range of taxes—such as income taxes, sales taxes, and value-added taxes. It can also encourage merchants to pressure the government to make concessions in order to end the strike.

Example Cruise Ship Passengers in Cairo

For example, when a boatload of cruise ship passengers arrived in Cairo in 1947, they discovered that they would be subject to an unexpected and hefty “landing tax.” Instead, they refused to disembark. The tourist-dependent shopkeepers were so alarmed by this that they rioted and forced the tax officials to waive the tax.

Example Chinese Miners in Australia

When Australia ratcheted up taxes on Chinese immigrants in the mid-19th century, the Chinese eventually organized and ran a sophisticated tax resistance campaign that included a variety of tactics. Among these were consumer strikes that targeted the white community which was profiting from the taxes levied exclusively on the Chinese. One report reads:

The Chinese, however, are not limiting their demonstration to passive “resistance.” They have adopted the principle of exclusive dealing. Like the American colonists, after the passing of the Stamp Act, John [“John Chinaman” was a term used by white Australians to refer generically to Chinese immigrants] has resolved to suspend business relations with those whom be considers as his oppressors. The effects of this resolution are beginning to be felt by all classes. Since Wednesday last the Chinese have practically ceased to sell their gold to Europeans, or to purchase from them. This non-intercourse policy is so rigidly carried out, that excepting a few Celestials, whose love of ease has got the better of their indignation, not a Chinaman has patronised any of the conveyances on the creeks for many days. The omnibus drivers are so largely dependent upon the Mongolians, that were it not for their support, one half the vehicles would be driven off the road. The unanimity of action which the Chinese exhibit on all matters affecting their supposed interests or wrongs is a remarkable feature in their character.… Their present object in confining their business transactions as far as possible to their countrymen, is to appeal to the self-interest of the Enropean traders. It is supposed that when the latter feel a serious diminution in their trade, they will exert themselves in favor of their Chinese customers.

Consumer Slow-Downs

An acute strike like this is more dramatic, but a consumer slow-down may also be effective. If consumer behavior is taxed (as it often is) frugality and anti-consumerism become tax resistance tactics. Your campaign may find that by encouraging a do-it-yourself, cooperative, solidarity-economy, recycling ethos, that among the virtues this promotes is the redirection of resources away from the government and into the movement and the community that nurtures it.

Notes and Citations