Miscellaneous tax resisters →
individual war tax resisters →
Jon Marley
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.)
Shortly after Tax Day, Cindy Sheehan will appear in court where the IRS will ask a judge to compel her to fill out a collection information statement so they can find assets to seize for her back taxes (or, possibly, so they can determine she doesn’t have enough assets to be worth pursuing).
When the IRS takes Cindy Sheehan to court to try to force her to support the war machine that killed her son, other war tax resisters from Northern California will be standing with her.
On , the IRS will ask a judge of the U.S. Federal Court, California Eastern District (501 I St., Sacramento) to compel Cindy Sheehan to give them information that would help them collect money from her.
Northern California War Tax Resistance supports Sheehan’s continued refusal to cooperate.
Cindy Sheehan is not waiting for Congress to shut off the spigot of funding for war and militarism — she’s taking a stand of conscience by refusing to pay the taxes that make the wars possible.
And she’s not alone: war tax resisters across the country are refusing to pay into the Pentagon’s budget.
Among them are members of the group Northern California War Tax Resistance.
“I wish more antiwar activists would put their money where their mouth is like Cindy does,” says David Gross, 43, of Berkeley, California.
Gross hasn’t paid any federal income tax .
“I didn’t feel like I could really say I was against the wars until I stopped supporting them with my tax dollars, so I decided to stop paying.
Now I put all of my energy on the side of my values instead of being a reluctant parttime worker for the Pentagon.”
Jan and David Hartsough of San Francisco, California, have been resisting the federal telephone excise tax , and today they also refuse to pay half of their federal income tax.
“The U.S. Government has already taken Cindy’s son for the immoral and illegal war in Iraq,” David says.
“She should not in addition be forced to pay for other mothers’ sons to kill and be killed in Afghanistan.”
“This year I’m celebrating of refusing to pay war taxes to the federal government,” says Jon Marley, 50, of Berkeley, California.
“I choose this kind of civil disobedience because I believe it is morally wrong for the U.S. to spend nearly 50% of our taxes on murder, torture, and rape in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.
We should be using those dollars for projects that provide housing and food and education and health care.
Cindy Sheehan understands this, and that’s why she has my full support in her brave stand as a war tax resister.”
“How many of our sons and daughters must die in faraway lands?
And how many faraway sons and daughters must die at their hands?” asks war tax resister Susan Quinlan of Berkeley, California, who has been resisting taxes .
“Thank you to Cindy Sheehan and to the other mothers and fathers who say ‘no!’ to this military madness!
Not our children, not their children, and not with our taxes!”
Martha Cain, of Berkeley, California, says: “[Former U.S. Secretary of State] Alexander Haig said [of antiwar protesters], ‘Let them march all they want as long as they continue to pay their taxes.’
Cindy Sheehan interpreted this advice and acted on it.
I support and admire Cindy for her courage and commitment in refusing to pay for more violence in this world.”
“I refuse to allow any of my tax money to be spent on wars, torture, rape, and killing people for whatever excuse the government and our corporations want to make up,” says Xan Joi, of Berkeley, California.
“To attempt to force Cindy Sheehan to pay for this war on Iraq that actually took her child’s life is unconscionable, immoral — and demanding that she participate in supporting, condoning, and accepting the murder of her own child — let alone other mothers’ children.
I feel so tender toward the women of this nation and other nations that I will not allow myself or others to injure their sons and daughters.
Cindy Sheehan is a courageous mother who is refusing to be bought by the greed of our nation.
I support her stands.”
“I have been resisting the military portion of my income taxes since
Vietnam,” says Lorin Peters, 69, of Lafayette, California. “For two reasons:
our military is being used for domination and empire, and not for defense;
[and] nonviolent defense works better than violent defense, as was
demonstrated by Gandhi and others.”
Sheehan appreciates the company: “I would like this to be a movement,” she
says. “There are many, many people who are conscientious tax resisters around
the country, but I think we need to make it a movement with more and more
people joining us. There are many ways people can be conscientious tax
objectors. You don’t have to do it 100% like I do.”
The War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund is a mutual aid/insurance program for war tax resisters.
People who participate in the fund help to reimburse resisters for any penalties & interest that the IRS successfully seizes from them.
If you would like to participate in this mutual aid program, I encourage you to follow the link above, or to view their recently-released Appeal in which they are raising $10,410 to help pay the interest & penalties seized from three resisters: Larry Bassett, John Lindsay-Poland, and John Marley.
To reach this total, they are asking all of the participants in the fund to contribute $30.
