National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee

Tax Day Actions, April 2010

Press Releases

Links to Newspaper Articles and Online Interviews

Photos and Reports from…

(send yours to nwtrcc@nwtrcc.org)

Milwaukee, Wis.

vigil in milwaukeeMembers of the Peace Action Wisconsin’s Middle East Committee and Casa Maria Catholic Worker organized a pre-tax day Stand for Peace vigil in Milwaukee focusing on war tax resistance and military aid to Israel. Over 30 people protested outside Milwaukee’s Federal Plaza for approximately one hour and received mainly positive responses.

On tax day, two war tax resisters wearing signs had a four hour sit-in at Senator Herb Kohl’s office as an act of conscience. They stressed outrage over Obama’s proposed $33 billion military appropriation bill for Afghanistan and were not arrested this year. Most photos are by Dekeytra Dillard. More photos from the action can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/49324938@N05/.
—Michael Komba

young antiwar activist komba with pie chart

Colorado Springs, Col.

Vigil and leafletting at the downtown post office. Photo by Donna Johnson

half your taxes go to war if you pray for peace

Below: COS vigil video by Mark Lewis with words by Martin Luther King Jr. Photo by Genie Durland

New York, N.Y.

The Manhattan office of the IRS and the General Post Office were linked on April 15 by a protest march. Late in the afternoon as demonstrators from the War Resisters League, NYC People’s Life Fund, NYC Pax Christi, NWTRCC, and miscellaneous war tax resisters leafletted and vigiled in front the IRS for over an hour. This was followed by a half hour march — led by the War Tax Boycott banner and the Rude Mechanical Orchestra — through midtown Manhattan during evening rush hour, past the Times Square recruiting station, to the General Post Office to join other members of the WRL, Raging Grannies, among other protest groups that included about 50 people. Photos by Ed Hedemann.

[Click on photos below to enlarge]

For more NYC Tax Day photos, go to http://eclipsewar.net/taxday2010.html.

vigil at NYC irs march thru times square

Above left: Vigil at the IRS office in Manhattan. There were a lot of police officers and others from Homeland Security, but we all got along fine. Above right: Marching through Times Square from the IRS to the GPO.

NYC3 NYC4

Above left: Raging Grannies and The Rude Mechanical Orchestra serenade passers by at the General Post Office. Above right: Out front at the General Post Office on 8th Ave and 33rd Street. A busy place even with electronic filing.

Seattle, Wash.

Two Tax Day Anti-War Actions in Seattle. Hundreds of people were a little better informed about the militarization of the US federal budget and about nonviolent alternatives to passively paying for wars and weapons after two successful actions at Seattle post offices today. Nearly 500 copies of the War Resisters League’s “pie chart” leaflet — “Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes.” The bulk of the leaflets were handed out at noontime at the Midtown Post Office by four members of the Veterans for Peace, Greater Seattle, Chapter 92 and by Liz, a friend recruited at our recent benefit concert. Well over a hundred copies of the leaflet were distributed this evening at the Riverton Heights Post Office where we had to end the action after only half an hour because we ran out of leaflets. As one of us noted, “It was like giving candy to babies in Riverton Heights” — many folks were interested and grateful to get the leaflets.

Austin, Tex.

at the state capitolAustin Conscientious Objectors Against Military Taxation showed “Death and Taxes” on April 8 at Monkeywrench books.

War Tax Resisters made their presence known at Austin’s tea party rally. “Warrior for Conscience” Thad Crouch spoke at the Texans for Accountable Government’s Trans-partisan LiberTEA Party. Watch and listen to his speech on YouTube:  Part 1 and Part 2 (approx. 7 min. each)

Debbie Russell of Austin, Tex. holds a sign at the LiberTEA rally on the steps of the Texas State Capitol.

Washington, D.C.

vigil at IRS headquartersTwo war tax resisters and a dozen activists with the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation protested at IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

See the action on YouTube including statement by Carol Moore.

Photo by Carol Moore.


Boston, Mass.

Tax redirection ceremony at the post office. Photos by Craig Simpson
[Click on photos to enlarge]

Asheville, N.C.

Asheville war tax resisters and Asheville War Resisters League members took to the streets with some great new banners!

Below left: Judy and Clare hold pie chart banner designed by Coleman Smith. Below right: Lena Feldman displays Ryan’s banner. Bottom: The whole gang ready for action.

Asheville budget banner stop paying war taxes bannerAsheville war tax resisters

Olympia, Wash.

Scott Yoos took his message to the post office. Photos by Robert Whitlock.Scott flyering in Olympia question national priorities

Louisville, Ky.

By Steve Olshewsky

The local chapter of Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) hosted a lunch featuring three War Tax Resisters and a showing of the new NWTRCC film, Death and Taxes. Of the speakers, one withheld telephone tax before switching to Working Assets and now has a cell phone and internet package, so cannot engage in any sort of WTR. Another was a local CPA who was able to explain the details of the zero bracket amount (ZBA) or earning less than a taxable income although he had no experience with WTR. The third was a Mennonite who was an ardent resister and had a case cert denied by the Supreme Court. Various ways WTR might work and what kinds of consequences could be expected were explored, so it was a very productive discussion with maybe 30 people.

Then several of us went a few blocks away to the downtown (old) post office which is housed in the Federal Building along with the Court and so forth. Unfortunately, there was a big Tea Party rally going on that had the participation of several local political candidates. As such, it seemed impossible to do anything distinct from that rally. I think the others were discouraged and it had been a long day already by then, so I went alone to the Gardiner Lane (main branch) post office. I checked in with the head of security there and their set-up made it impossible to stand near the drop-off point without trespassing on federal property.

He did however take a flier and said he absolutely agreed with what I was promoting. Then he recommended a post office in neighbouring St Mathews which was in a a strip mall and thus not federal property. After a while at that strip mall, a local cop said I needed a permit to “solicit” in St Matthews and suggested a similar Louisville area (Lyndon) post office just outside his jurisdiction.

That post office closed at 6:00 so it went okay, but many asked if I was “one of those crazies” and similar references to the Tea Party crowd who were getting tons of media coverage about their huge rally. It was very unfortunate how “popular” the Tea Party event was in that area and it seems to have poisoned the well for any other topics of demonstration. Also, the security guard at the main branch said that with e-filing, they expected extremely low car drop-off traffic of tax returns. In years past, he described setting up five manned drop-off baskets in the street, but that had been unnecessary for several years.

I was encouraged by the outpouring of support for this activity from the local peace community who had never before considered WTR. Also, it was nice to participate with the more successful events in other cities. Finally, it was hopeful that everyone was helpful (even suggesting alternate sites) and I believe that far greater success would have resulted from additional planning.

Send us your report and photos!