There’s a new issue out of More Than a Paycheck, NWTRCC’s newsletter. Here’s some of what you’ll find inside:
- A transcript of J. Tony Serra’s talk at the Spring 2011 NWTRCC national gathering in Oakland.:
It was e.e. cummings, I used to love this when I was an early teenager about a conscientious objector [“i sing of Olaf glad and big”]. There was one line, “there is some shit I will not eat,” that reverberated in my social conscience since probably age 12. There comes a point when there is something out there that we have to reject ultimately, and we have to throw ourselves on the wheel to stop it — even if the wheel devours us.
The boycott of taxes is so strong, so potentially powerful, that I guess I am urging other people to go forward without fear. We are right. War is wrong. We are approaching the totalitarian state. Take from them their finances, and we take their strength. Eliminate the nexus between corporate wealth and industry and politics. In this era there is so much to protest against, and tax is a very salient part of that.
- A note about “frivolous filing” notices. The IRS has gotten in the habit of responding to taxpayer protests with $5,000 frivolous filing penalties — even if the protests accompany a tax return that has been filled out correctly and legally. What’s worse is that by the IRS’s rules, in order to appeal such a fine, you have to first pay it.
- Notes on war tax resisting authors S. Brian Willson and Philip K. Dick.
- Updates on imprisoned resisters Frank Donnelly (he’s out now) and Carlos Steward.
- Reports about a Louisville Fellowship of Reconciliation penny poll, the upcoming New England Gathering of War Tax Resisters and Supporters, and the Oregon Community for War Tax Resistance.
- News about the upcoming Stop the Machine / October 2011 direct action campaign, and the Fall NWTRCC national gathering in Kansas City.
- An in-depth look at the Iowa Peace Network’s “Penalty Sharing Community.”
Peace activists have a resource of financial support when they accrue penalties for resisting taxes, participating in civil disobedience or in nonviolent direct action. Through the PSC, the cost of a person’s or family’s penalty can be defrayed by almost 100%. This is possible because a community of almost one hundred people have come together and committed to help each other with their fines.
