NWTRCC’s video contest is entering its last stage, and you can vote for your favorite of the four finalists at the contest website.
Also available from NWTRCC is a list of protests around the country this year. Take a look and see what’s happening in your neck of the woods, or let NWTRCC know if you have something planned.
A new issue of NWTRCC’s More Than a Paycheck is out with articles on how to make the most of a tax levy, nationwide tax day demonstrations, tax law and court case updates, a remembrance of long-time war tax resister Cynthia Foster, a profile of tax resister Tim Pluta, and more.
Lots of tax resistance in the news as approaches:
The “Democracy Now” radio show features Ruth Benn of NWTRCC and Pamela Schwartz of the National Priorities Project, talking about the cost of war and how to stop buying it. (This segment starts at 28:45, if you download the audio, or here’s the transcript.) Benn discusses the phone tax and its recent partial repeal, the history of war tax resistance and of her own resistance, and how the government typically responds to resisters (including an update on the imprisoned tax resisters from the Restored Israel of Yahweh group).
The National Priorities Project has released their estimate of how much of your tax bill feeds the war machine. They use a different methodology from that used by the War Resisters League in their pie chart, so they come up with different numbers. If you’re curious, read the fine print.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel profiles local war tax resisters Scott Kennedy and Alexander Gaguine:
Kennedy, 59, a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, has not paid a full federal tax bill as his way to protest war and object to the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. government on bolstering defense.
“It’s a valid moral stance,” said Kennedy, a former Santa Cruz mayor. “To me, it’s not just an extraordinary waste of resources, but withholding taxes is part of the effort to build a more humane world community. We’re happy to pay taxes for a good purpose.”
The San Jose Metro takes note of Silicon Valley tax resistance, and tax resisters Susan Quinlan and “Dave and Mary X”.
Women’s Action for New Directions posts some great ideas for “Tax Day” protest actions.
And Willamette Week profiles tax resisters John & Pat Schwiebert, John Grueschow, and Ann & Bruce Huntwork. I like the article’s subtitle: “Your money is paying for a bloody war. Theirs isn’t.”
In Battleboro, Vermont, war tax resisters held a ceremony in which they redirected a few thousand dollars from the IRS to community groups. The Times Argus covered the ceremony, at which resisters Daniel Sicken, Ellen Kaye, and Lou Waronker.
Ellen Kaye of Brattleboro, who was holding a hand-painted sign that said, “I Haven’t Bought A Bomb ,” said she decided in that she just couldn’t send money to the federal government to use on military actions.
And Berkeley’s KPFA covered war tax resistance on their Sunday Salon program. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research and Jeremy Scahill (author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army) presented the problem, and area war tax resister Jon Marley promoted a solution. Host Larry Bensky talked about his own tax resistance from years ago. (If you download the archived broadcast, the tax-themed segment starts at 67:45.)
has come and gone, and the news about Tax Day protests is starting to trickle in. Robert Randall reports on some protests in Georgia:
Wow! We really mis-calculated on the number of pie chart flyers we could have given out today. We had ordered 500 from the War Resisters League and divided them between the downtown Brunswick (GA) and the St. Simons Island post offices. I was worried we’d have dozens left over after a full day of leafletting.
Uh-uh. They were all gone at both P.O.’s by ! At the Brunswick P.O. we fortunately had a couple of hundred “Cost of War” flyers left over from last Fall, highlighting the costs of the Iraq War to Georgia and the 1st congressional district, and we promptly gave out of them, too. We were headed home by .
Eight protesters from the New Hampshire Underground protested in front of the post office in Keene. One reported: “Lots of horn honks and other gestures of support. Even some from the police.”
Protesters in the New Hampshire Underground braved soggy weather to protest at the Keene Post Office. Photo by Michael Hampton.
More tax resistance news is trickling in during .
The Brooklyn Eagle quotes war tax resisters Ed Hedemann, Robin Harper, and Karl Meyer.
Hedemann… has not paid any federal income tax and has no intention of starting now.
The 62-year-old, mild-mannered pacifist says he owes the government $70,000. This sum is worth several cluster bombs at $14,000 each and dozens of $9 hand grenades, but instead, he has donated the money to Global Exchange, American Friends Service Committee and other humanitarian efforts. Hedemann says he sleeps better knowing his tax dollars are being redirected to peaceful causes. “I run a risk of getting in trouble for not paying my taxes, but not as big a risk as the people of Iraq will suffer if I do pay,” said Hedemann, the author of War Tax Resistance: A Guide to Withholding Your Support from the Military.
The antiwar activist is so dedicated to his cause that he lives on the brink of poverty; he doesn’t own a home, car or bank account for fear the IRS will seize his assets. “I don’t want to finance this country’s war-making machine,” Hedemann said.
Elsewhere: In South Bend, Indiana, a dozen people held signs and distributed War Resisters League pie charts to last-minute filers at the post office. And in Austin, Texas, the groups Austin Conscientious Objectors to Military Taxation and CodePink Austin joined up at the downtown post office to hold signs and hand out flyers about military spending and taxes.
In Portland, Oregon, CodePink and the War Resisters League were joined by Physicians for Social Responsibility and the American Friends Service Committee to make that much more upsetting for taxpayers.
On in Pittsburgh, the Raging Grannies, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and the American Friends Service Committee “sang and distributed 400 ‘where your tax money really goes’ leaflets outside the Squirrel Hill post office.”
The Occupation Project in St. Louis, Missouri held up large orange “Caution Signs” at the post office on :
The first sign will say: “Caution, War Tax Payment Zone”. The next will read “Pause before you Pay for”. And the then the following signs will read, “House to House Searches”, “Torture”, “Hundreds of Thousand of Refugees”, “Over 3200 U.S. Military Dead”, “Over 600,000 Iraqi Dead”.
Five protesters in sackcloth and ashes were arrested at the Chicago federal building on .
The Oregon Peace Institute has a cable access show in Portland, and recently hosted three members of the Oregon Community for War Tax Resistance — John Grueschow, Anne Huntwork, and Pam Allee — to discuss war tax resistance:
While it’s nice to see war tax resisters getting the word out, they sadly spent much of their time asking people to support the “Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act” — a counterproductive waste of time and energy.
They bent over backwards to reassure people that they aren’t opposed to taxes in general — indeed they are in favor of taxes, but they feel these taxes should go to “life affirming” things that are “for the common good.” To this end, they redirect their own taxes — sending their checks to charities of their choosing rather than to the IRS.
This message is common in war tax resistance circles. The intention in part is to distinguish war tax resisters from tax evaders who are avoiding taxes for selfish reasons. But I think this can send another message that isn’t as helpful: They seem to be saying that it is perfectly fine for them to decide on their own which charitable activities they want to support, but that this isn’t okay for everyone else.
In other words, if the government ever decided to spend its tax receipts on things the resisters agree are “life affirming” and “for the common good” then the government would be perfectly justified in forcing everyone else to go along with it. It seems to me that once you admit that some group of people gets to decide what the “common good” is that everyone is forced to spend their money on, you’ve already lost: all that remains is a political battle over which group of people gets to do the deciding.
It strikes me as arrogant for war tax resisters to say “yes, I believe one group of people should be able to tax everyone and spend their money… but only if they decide the way I like, otherwise I’ll drop out.” It’s like saying that you’ll flip a coin to decide who does the dishes: if it comes up heads the other guy has to do it, and if it comes up tails you’ll flip it again until it comes up heads.
It would be more respectful to say: “I think I know how to spend my money in more beneficial ways than Congress does, and I believe I am right to do so, and so I will, and I’ll certainly respect your right to do likewise.”
Anyway… Here’s another video clip, of the Oregon Community for War Tax Resistance holding up “Burma Shave”-style signs for traffic on Tax Day:
