War Tax Resisters in New Hampshire are planning a get-together in Hopkinton on .
The pot luck is being organized by Ginny Sсhnеider, and will be held at the First Congregational Church of Hopkinton at 1548 Hopkinton Road (Route 103).
Dave Ridley promotes the conference, and talks about the possible synergy between New Hampshire war tax resisters and the libertarian activists in the Free State Project, on The Ridley Report.
On the Ridley Report, Dave Ridley interviews war tax resister Ginny Sсhnеider about war tax resistance and the possibilities for a libertarian / progressive alliance over not being forced to pay for war:
was .
NWTRCC regulars were joined by curious locals like Tom Quinn of EcoWatch and Michael Patterson from Dennis Kucinich’s office (our meeting place is in Kucinich’s House district and he was curious enough to send an aide to take notes).
A few things jumped out at me during the opening introductory go-’round:
Jim Stockwell of North Carolina mentioned that after some initial mutual
suspicion there was surprising synergy between the traditional Tax Day
protest his war tax resistance group held
and the Tea Party protests going on
at .
Many of the local groups reported diminishing numbers and less-frequent
activity in the past months, mirroring a general doldrums in the peace
movement.
Bill Ramsey noted that it has become harder to set up alternative funds
in the post-9/11 financial paperwork era.
Ramsey also reported on an interesting and creative tax day protest in his
neck of the woods. A group grabbed hundreds of 1040 forms from public
places where such things are found (libraries, post offices, and the
like), then printed ghostly images of coffins and of children wounded in
war over the forms, and then replaced them where they had originally found
them.
Ginny Sсhnеider noted that in New Hampshire, the notoriety
of the Ed
and Elaine Brown tax protester stand-off fiasco has made it difficult
for her to do outreach in the progressive community. People hear “tax
resistance” and immediately their minds conjure up images of nuts holing
up with their arsenals and their conspiracy theories until the government
locks them up for life.
We watched a near-final cut of a film
NWTRCC is producing about war tax resistance and resisters:
Death and Taxes. It met with great acclaim (and
plenty of suggestions for last-minute edits). Last I heard, it’s due for
release .
Attendees watch a cut of Death and Taxes, an introductory war tax resistance film due to be released next month
Later, Phil Althouse, an election observer in El Salvador, updated us on conditions there, and Mike Ferner of Veterans for Peace talked about how to move from activism to organizing and build bonds between disparate parts of the broader anti-war coalition.
Mike Ferner and Phil Althouse address the gathering
While coalition building always sounds great in the abstract, when it comes
down to actually doing it, it runs into the practical difficulty of finding a
common ground and deciding where to compromise and where no compromise is
possible. Ferner thought that organizing around the larger vision of
real democracy was the way to go. Other folks were skeptical. It can
be difficult to find anything approaching an ideological common ground even in
a small group like
NWTRCC
with an inherently common, specialized and political interest.
In members of
NWTRCC
there’s often a tension between avowed nonviolent principles and promotion of
progressive projects (like universal health care and publicly-financed
elections for instance) that fundamentally rely on a coercive, violent state
to carry them out. The avowedly nonviolent progressives either don’t see the
violent ramifications inherent in such projects or I have failed to understand
the ingenious way they have squared this circle. I usually avoid the
temptation to press the point, but sometimes give in.
Anyway, after this we split up into two groups: a War Tax Resistance 101
discussion group that I moderated, and a larger group that discussed issues of
interest to more experienced resisters. There were other groups that met over
the course of the afternoon as well, but by then I found it hard to be in even
one place at once.
In the evening we heard more in-depth stories of the tax resistance from our hosts, Maria Smith and Charlie Hurst, and from Juanita Nelson and Erica Weiland.
Juanita Nelson told the story of her arrest-in-a-Sears-bathrobe that she also tells in A Matter of Freedom.
Erica described her transformation from a young Dean Democrat to a tax resisting anarchist (a salvation narrative in which, to my delight, The Picket Line plays a role).
Juanita Nelson tells her story
There have been some interesting and thoughtful threads on the wtr-s email list recently.
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?
Carol Moore reacts to news of a recent IRS seizure of a resister’s bank account:
“The problem with doing [war tax resistance] when you make a lot of money is they get so much interest and fines, which almost defeats the purpose.
Better to do ‘token’ resistance of whatever feels right — be it for you $500 or $2000, or whatever — and make them go through the effort of collecting.”
Randy Belmont says: “I am very puzzled why WTRs use banks.
Most banks are members of the Federal Reserve Banking System and if they are not members they are tributaries, in that they must follow all regulations and are beholding to the Fed.
Why would anyone who refuses to voluntarily fund war do business with these people?
The funding of America’s empirical wars is brought about through the fiat money creation machine known as the Federal Reserve.
“Stealing ones money from a bank account is the simplest and easiest strategy for the IRS.
I read over and over the same scenario of funds being stolen from bank accounts.
Yet, people continue to patronize these institutions.
There is no law requiring one to use banks or keep money deposited in the bank.
Please stop using banks!”
Christopher Toussaint responds: “To use a war analogy, in this case for nonviolent resistance, one must sometimes go behind enemy lines, use their infrastructure to infect transformational memes into the dominant society, get a hold of their ‘ammunition’ and use it against them.
We are a minority, guerrillas who must be grounded in integrity and street smarts.
After all, if we are forced to live in poverty and/or keep our cash in our mattresses, haven’t we compromised ourselves beyond the point of sacrifice, where we become ineffective in changing the greater community toward peace?
“In my case, using the banks to keep small amounts of money to pay by check and debit card, makes my life easier and I am more productive in the work I do on behalf of creating a more just and sustainable society.
Its not hard to change banks periodically if you want to do that to keep the IRS from pilfering your accounts since they are often months and even years behind in their collection process.
Just make sure you have a good reason to change banks, other than evasion of IRS collections, like the bank service fees are too high or their percentages of interest are no longer high enough or you have moved, etc.
“I am aware of the Federal Reserve fiat money situation and yes, in an ideal world, ‘Stop Using Banks’ and trading in silver and gold coins might be preferred.
But this discussion needs to focus more on strategies for keeping our money out of the reaches of the IRS and not on just blanket statements that are not always practical to most WTRs.”
Heather Snow agrees: “Keeping small amounts in the bank is so much easier to pay bills… all the bills are connected to banks.
I mean, living without a bank, is like living without a car.
Almost impossible.
That’s how the feds want it.
I don’t keep all my money in the bank, and enjoy having cash on hand.”
Dana Visalli adds: “[I]t is possible with small banks that have no branches to have an account in somebody else’s name, or more meaningfully, someone else’s SS#.
There can be two signers on the account but they only take the SS# of the first person.
Apparently this option does not exist with banks with branches; only dog knows why this is the case.
“When the IRS seized my account some years ago, the bank president came up to the teller window and explained this technique to me!”
Randy Belmont responds: “Actually, not using banks is really not that hard.
Cash checks at the local corner store or bar.
You can pay many utility bills directly at local drug stores and purchase money orders for other bills.
You can also recycle checks because all checks are drafts for money.
Example: You have a bill for $100.00 owed to ABC Co. and a check made out to you for $75.00. Sign and write pay to the order of ABC Co. on the back of the check and purchase a money order for $25.00. Send both of these to ABC Co. and your bill is paid.
Additionally, if the check is bad the issuer of the check and not yourself is liable.
You can also purchase a pre-loaded debit card for internet purchases etc. at 100s of stores.
I understand that we all must use Federal Reserve Notes to survive, but it is not hard to ween yourself from the constant use of banks.
If you must keep an account keep very little in it and cash your checks for cash and use the methods I described above.
Additionally, you will never have an overdraft or bounced check fee again.”
Larry Rosenwald: “We keep our money in a local bank (two branches).
I love Dana’s story about the bank president!
But here’s a question.
As noted in an earlier exchange with Carol Moore, I think of war tax resistance as an act of civil disobedience, and in that context — and for other reasons — I am not trying not to be penalized; rather the being penalized is for me part of the civil disobedience.
I hate being levied, I should make clear!
But I understand being penalized as part of the process, and when I’m penalized, when we’re levied, I take that occasion to publicize what we’re doing.
I’m guessing from the responses to this thread, and from other threads, that other readers of this list don’t think of wtr as civil disobedience, or think of civil disobedience in a different way, and I’d be interested in understanding these other conceptual frameworks better, if readers would be willing to comment on them.”
Dana Visalli again: “Interesting note Larry, thanks. I’m sure it is the case that everyone interprets their ‘resistance’ (I like to think of it as ‘complete refusal’) to pay for the insanity of war.
“For one think it is quite important for me to keep my financial resources away from the IRS because they will use that money to kill people.
So, when they did seize my account and get $4000 some years ago, that was a sizable amount that went to war (I know we generally calculate about half goes in that direction).
It is a real, literal, tangible issue to me; I don’t want any of my resources to go to war (not to be too pure here, I do drive my car quite a bit… petroleum is quite a war-related problem…).
“It’s certainly an issue that if the IRS does seize a large sum then the mechanics of living become problematic.
I’m sure that’s what Diogenes was getting at when he said ‘People don’t own possessions, possessions own people.’
He apparently lived in a barrel in the town square for quite a while.
I’m passionate… but not that passionate.
“Also, if one can retain one’s resources, one can redistribute them.
Some years ago I gave $1000 to the town community center for their new roof; when I handed the cash to the manager I stipulated that I was going to point out in a letter to the editor why I could afford to give away a thousand dollars when I don’t have a lot of money.
I would like to get up to giving away ¼ of what I make (total taxes are about ¼ of income), but I’m not there.
It is however a real pleasure to give $100 here and $100 there; if the IRS got at my funds that would be impossible
“I’m 61 and I think I can get social security next year.
Surprisingly, they are offering me something like $600 a month (I’ve paid very little into the system in my life).
My favorite idea is to take the money and then donate it to groups working on the aftermath of American war-making, or the many exemplary groups I met in Afghanistan when there in March, trying to educate street children or take care of old people with almost zero resources (speaking of this there are two good essays at CommonDreams right now by Kathy Kelly and her co-workers, who are in Afghanistan as we speak).
I know not everyone could afford to do this, but in my case I think I can make some money until I’m at least 70 selling at farmer’s market and doing other work.
“So… I had no intention of ending up an anarchist, but the Politics of Obedience are too much for me.”
Ginny Sсhnеider adds: “Aside from the Federal Reserve tie, imagine how the banks are investing your money!
Likely these investments uphold the military-industrial complex — just what you are working to overcome.
Credit Unions and newer, socially-responsible bank like institutions might be better alternatives even while you wait for the IRS to seize your money from an account.”
Ed Agro says: “I think I’m somewhere else entirely.
This isn’t surprising; I think if 100 resisters-refusers-redirectors got together & beyond our standard slogans, there’d be 100 different reasons.
“I do know I’m not as attached to independence as Dana; but on the other hand I can’t quite see Larry’s putting up with seizure as civil disobedience.
“If we cannot point out a palpable relationship between making the collection of taxes difficult and a turn away from war, where is the salience of the disobedience?
Is it even civil if it’s an individual or a small-group action with no hope of provoking change?
We cannot show the salience theoretically, and worse, our experience over our years of refusal don’t show it empirically.
It’s not at all obvious that even were there a mass refusal of ‘war taxes’ (which would mean at the very most half of the population, as it has been shown over & over that at least half of our fellow citizens love the government’s wars) that the government would be less inclined or less able to wage war.
The draft resistance movement in the 1960s and ’80s were successful enough to worry the military-industrial complex; so now they buy their soldiers, and as we see there are plenty who will take them up on it.
This is just to say that consumer capitalism’s genius is its ability to absorb and commodify almost any dissent, particularly when that dissent expresses itself as dissatisfaction.
“I’m not saying that either Dana’s or Larry’s different conceptualizations of citizens and subjects are not worth following to their deedful conclusions, but only that perhaps neither of these are resistance.
It’s been interesting and very useful for me to note and remember that their different actions both result in a very good thing: conversation with neighbors, co-workers, officials… There, perhaps is the nub of what we’re doing.
It’s the most we can expect out of WTR, and it’s not a small thing in these timid times.
“Long ago I took a job precisely so that my WTR could be as ‘effective’ as possible in that the substantial risk of seizure at least would give the resistance a voice, and for years I enjoyed sticking it to the IRS with many an antic scheme.
(I particularly enjoyed taking as business losses the time I spent in antiwar work.)
In the end, though, the thing that I cam away with wasn’t the accounting of who was ahead, or the best way to protect my money.
(Though I have to agree with Dana: without a very good reason to let the IRS get much more than I refused, I could get really bummed out.)
Rather I finally came to see that this was indeed a species of tilting at windmills since except insofar as I wrote to various presidents & secretaries of state — and even then with no apparent effect — the IRS was if not a windmill, at least a coffee mill into which my resistance was soon ground up.
The occasional agent who looked with sympathy on my stance — really, I could’ve gotten more mileage for my ideas with less work by way of a letter to the editor.
“I don’t know how I’d feel about all this were I still in the labor market, though I like to believe I’d still be happily reckless.
But this feeling that WTR is less than cogent has had one good effect.
It’s led me to thinking over the years about why, exactly, civilization is so screwed up.
This in turn (and I have to admit, helped along by a good social-security situation) has led me to a preference for a frugal life.
“Yet… Maybe a disadvantage of a frugal life is that it turns not to include tax liability.
Though the relationship isn’t as ‘functional’ as we like to believe, ‘war’ taxes are associated with state violence; so I do miss (or think I miss) the occasion to refuse them.
For that reason I find myself inordinately attached to refusing the phone tax, the only one to which I’m liable and to which with a certain amount of mental gymnastics I can associate with war.
Why do I bother, after these long-winded arguments for ineffectiveness?
The only reason that makes sense to me is that I enjoy the ritual.
Like voting, which ritual I also enjoy even though in the large it apparently doesn’t accomplish anything meaningful either.”
[Y]ears ago when a notice to garnish wages was received by an employer, the employer had 30 days to comply.
Now it appears that the 30-day notice is sent directly to the non-taxpayer and the 30 days begins ticking then.
Thirty days later the employer receives the notice if no payment has been made by the resister.
The employer must comply immediately.
In other words, there is no longer a grace period to sort things out once the employer has received the notice.
This means the IRS will receive whatever wages have been earned during the pay period when the employer receives the notice to garnish.
The only way this might be stopped is to file a collection appeal.
When the appeal is filed the IRS is required to suspend collection during the appeal process.
There’s a new issue of NWTRCC’s newsletter out, with content including:
a look back at the life and work of Juanita Nelson with contributions from Bob Bady, Karl Meyer, Ginny Sсhnеider, Ed Hedemann, Lori Barg, and Ed Agro
some notes about trends in tax enforcement including IRS levies on royalty income, the sudden decline in property seizures for the past 15 years, phone tax resistance, and Elizabeth Boardman’s attempt to get some respect for war tax resistance in the courts
a note about the passing of Dirk Panhuis, who had been active with Conscience and Peace Tax International
some updates about war tax resisters Julia Butterfly Hill and Joseph Olejak, the Spring Rising anti-war action, Greg Wise’s mouthing off about tax refusal, and the Mennonite Central Committee’s war tax redirection program
news about tax day outreach on social media, at the U.S. Social Forum, at the Jewish Voice for Peace conference, and the Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship
Members of the Bijou Community were already involved in war tax resistance when Peter and Mary arrived.
Early on, money was held in common, but that evolved over the years to each doing their own thing.
One year the community did a tax protest and filed a 1040 saying they didn’t want to pay anything “because we don’t want to support the war.”
That seemed to trigger an audit, which took an exhausting six months of collecting receipts to convince the IRS that members were not living off donations that came in for the soup kitchen and houses of hospitality.
“The IRS said don’t file like that anymore because it messes up our system, and we said don’t audit us anymore because it messes up ours!”
David Hartsough is a Quaker and a War Tax Resister who has for decades been redirecting a large portion of his “tax obligations,” believing that if war is abolished, “humanity can not only survive and better address the climate crisis and other dangers, but will be able to create a better life for everyone.
The reallocation of resources away from war promises a world whose advantages are beyond easy imagination.”
(Editor’s note: The 2016 U.S. budget for past, present, and future wars is $1,300 billion.)
He cofounded the Nonviolent Peaceforce, inspired in part by Gandhi’s idea of a shanti sena, a peace army, and this organization is now active in 40 countries, stationing trained professional peaceworkers in conflict areas around the globe and is sustained by an $8 million budget.
He works with World Beyond War and is currently executive director of Peaceworkers in San Francisco.
Waging Peace has been in the works for 27 years.
