How you can resist funding the government →
a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns →
secede / set up a parallel government →
territorial/political secession
American Secessionism tends to be thought of as mostly a fantasy of far right-wing types who pointedly refer to the Civil War as “The War Between The States” and imagine themselves jumping like minutemen and grabbing their rifles from above their beds when they hear Hilary’s black helicopters coming.
We believe that, of the options open to those who would dissent from the actions and institutions of a government grown too big and unwieldy and its handmaiden corporate sponsors grown too powerful and corrupt, the only comprehensive and practical one is some form of separatism.…
The Middlebury Institute hopes to foster a national movement in the United States that will:
place secession on the national political agenda,
encourage secessionist and separatist movements here and abroad,
develop communication among such existing and future groups,
create a body of scholarship to examine and promote the ideas of separatism,
and work carefully and thoughtfully for the ultimate task, the peaceful dissolution of the American empire.
They’re not anywhere near the “to the barricades!” stage yet — they’re more in the “let’s make a think tank!” stage.
But it looks like it will be worth keeping an eye on.
The declaration itself says of separatism:
By separatism we mean all the forms by which small political bodies, dedicated to the precept of human scale, distance themselves from larger ones, as in decentralization, dissolution, disunion, division, devolution, or secession, creating small and independent bodies that rule themselves.
Of course we favor such polities that operate with participatory democracy and egalitarian justice, which are attainable only at a small scale, but the primary principle is that these states should enact their separation and self-government as they see fit.
Which sounds delightful to me, though I hope they don’t restrict themselves to “states” and take notice of how such “small and independent bodies that rule themselves” like families and people can also distance themselves from larger governments.
As Thoreau wrote:
Alternative currency schemes have been slow in getting traction for a variety of reasons, but it may be that their time has arrived.
But it probably won’t be something along the lines of the local “Ithica Hours” but a weird cross-over whereby an on-line game world currency flings itself into meat space, as the QQ has in China.
If you’re interested in exploring alternatives to government-backed media of exchange, you may want to visit ReinventingMoney.com which covers all the bases.
The race is on: will it be the peaceniks and greens in the Republic of Vermont or the libertarians next door in the Free State of New Hampshire who skip the Union first?
For a while, during the early days of the United States, Vermont was an independent republic of sorts, though with aspirations for statehood.
Some regions of neighboring New Hampshire felt more loyal to the Vermont Republic than to the confederation of United States, and expressed this by refusing to pay taxes to the latter.
Here is one piece of evidence of this tax resistance, in the form of a statement by the Selectmen of Swanzey, New Hampshire, issued on (excerpts):
That under the Present unhappy Situation of our affairs in this part of the State, when most in many and many in all the Towns have Revolted from under the Government and Jurisdiction of the State, bidding defiance to the Authority and Laws of the same; Absolutely Refusing to pay Taxes, or to contribute any thing in any way or manner towards Raising men for the Continental Army or Providing Supplies for the same — We find it Extreemly Difficult for us to Comply with the Requisitions of the State for altho’ the greatest part of the People in this Town Remain firm in their Allegiance to the state; Utterly averse to the late and present factious and Seditious conduct of a great (if not the greatest) part of the People in this Western part of the State, Yet our affairs are extreemly Embarrassed, for if Taxes are Assessed they cannot be Collected, as some will Refuse to pay, and if Constables or Collectors should Distrain Such Delinquents for their Rates, mobs would Arise, and perhaps the power of the State of Vermont would be employed for their protection—
This was still a problem in , when the Selectmen and Assessors of Swanzey sent another message, complaining that “some [Inhabitants] were delinquent Refusing to pay their State Tax, Occasioned principally by the Union of the Grants (so called) with Vermont” and that the government had therefore ordered Swanzey to make up the difference by further taxing those inhabitants who had complied.
…your petitioners think it very unjust to Assess Levy and Collect the aforesaid Sum of those Persons who paid their Tax in due Time and your Petitioners have no Warrant to Assess said Sum on those that were Delinquent, and dare not venture to Assess said Sum either on the whole or part of the Inhabitants, lest it should make great confusion, murmuring and Complaining among the People of Said Town…
In , the Selectmen’s exasperation rose to a delightful pitch:
[We] would undoubtedly Collected the whole [tax], had it not been for a number of Political Heriticks in this and Adjacent Towns, who by their Instigations and artful insinuations Shook the Allegiancy (of the ignorant and unprincipaled part of the community) from the State of New Hampshire and Attached them to the usurped State of Vermont and the Imbecillity of Government was so great at that Day that your Petitioners thought it not wise to compel or use Coercive measures with those who would not freely pay their proportion of Said tax, and Since the Energy of Government has increased, and this Town has been caled upon to pay Said Tax with a Doomage [penalty], the Selectmen have taken up the Matter, and finde it Difficult if not Impossable to make an Assessment for said Doomage in any way which will not blow up an unquenchable fire in this Town — for if we Should Assess it on the Delinquants only, who in Justice Ought to pay the Same we Should in so doing do injustice for a Number of said Delinquants are Removed out of this Town and consiquently out of the Reach of an Assessment: and should an Assessment be made on the whole Town, it would be to make the Righteous be as the Wicked which the Patriarch of the Hebrews Saith is far from the Almighty.
Curiously, today there is a secession movement by a community in Vermont — in the middle of Vermont, mind you — that wants to become a part of New Hampshire.
The issue animating today’s secession movement?
You won’t be surprised when I say “taxes.”
