In a recent Boston Globe column (“Resisting Trump: The Revival of Tax Protest,” April 10), Alex Beam points to a time-honored way of resisting violence and war: refusing to pay for it. He highlights the activism of the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts, and central to that activism were Juanita and Wally Nelson, two peace and civil rights activists, subsistence farmers, advocates of simple living and local food. They were also war tax refusers, people who refused to pay for what they knew was wrong, what they opposed with every fiber of their being: war and killing. Wally and Juanita Nelson lived on Woolman Hill in Deerfield from 1974 until virtually the ends of their lives in 2002 and 2015, respectively. They were known for their integrity and for the extent to which they embraced a philosophy and lifestyle of nonviolence.
Juanita (far left) & Wally (far right) protesting in front of the IRS in Greenfield, Massachusetts in 1980
The signers of this opinion piece are all founding members of the Nelson Legacy Project: an effort to keep the ideas and commitments of Juanita and Wally Nelson alive and accessible to future generations. If Alex Beam is right, these ideas are needed now more than ever.
War tax refusal has usually meant a refusal to pay for war in the conventional sense: a shooting war with bombs, missiles, guns, chemical and biological agents, and (these days) drones—not to mention the maintenance of a nuclear arsenal, the most hideous form of violence we humans have created.
Today we are faced with a different type of war. The Trump administration has declared a domestic war on its political opponents, on virtually every progressive measure this country has ever enacted, from civil rights to voting rights to women’s rights to LGBTQIA rights to free speech… the list expands day by day. Most pernicious is the war against the natural environment. Trump has turned the Environmental Protection Agency into the Environmental Destruction Agency and is seeking to reverse every measure addressing climate change that previous administrations took pains to enact. Antisemitism has been weaponized to suppress free speech on college campuses. Words like diversity, equity, and inclusion have become dirty words. We are now apparently supposed to support its opposite — (white) monoculture, inequity, and exclusion—or face draconian funding cuts. Dr. King is surely rolling in his grave, along with many others who sacrificed their lives for racial and social justice in this country.
Not for the first time, the war has come home.
The example of Wally and Juanita Nelson forces us to ask ourselves the question, “If you don’t support what the Trump administration is doing, why are you paying for it?” If we pay our federal taxes, we are supporting the Trump/Vance/Musk agenda, no matter how many protest rallies we attend. Wally was fond of carrying around a sign that simply said, “You Don’t Gotta.” What he meant was, you don’t have to be a sheep and follow the crowd. You don’t have to do what you don’t believe in. Sure, there will sometimes be consequences for following your conscience, especially if it involves some form of civil disobedience. But we are already living with the consequences of doing next to nothing, or as Alex Beam puts it, “sitting on our hands.” Trump’s policies and executive orders are already causing a lot of suffering.
The Nelsons insisted that the struggle of our times is that of freedom, and for them, freedom meant doing what you know is right, no matter the consequences. Wally famously said, “Freedom… You don’t vote for it. You don’t shoot for it. You don’t tell other people what to do about it. Freedom is something you do for yourself.” In other words, freedom is what you live. Juanita put it this way: “You don’t create change by doing something one day a month or one day a year. It has to be your whole life.” The change to which the Nelsons devoted much of their lives was divesting from the violent US economy.
The violence of our economy is what lies behind war and exploitation, and it is what lies behind Trumpism. Trump did not create this violence. It was long in the making. But Trump’s policies are its extreme manifestation and stem from the same sources: greed, profit, wealth, overconsumption, exploitation of vulnerable people, disdain for human rights and civil liberties, degradation of the natural environment… that’s how our economy works, that is its effect. The Nelsons saw that the American Dream was actually a Nightmare for so many people, both here and abroad, and especially for people in the Global South. And for the planet itself.
Complicity was an important word for the Nelsons. Toward the end of the 1960s, during the height of the Vietnam War and the struggles of the United Farm Workers, Wally and Juanita realized that they were part of the problem. In 1970, they gave up their urban lifestyle in Philadelphia to become subsistence farmers, first in Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, and then in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in an attempt to divest themselves—to some extent—from economic violence. They wanted to be neither the exploiter nor the exploited. Their guiding principle was nonviolence, which was both broader and deeper than the usual “tactical” definition of that term. For them, nonviolence was a way of life. It permeated everything they did, every choice or decision they made, everything they purchased (or didn’t purchase). And it governed the way they related to people, which included economic relationships.
For the Nelsons, tax refusal was a way of exercising freedom, of living one’s life according to one’s most deeply held beliefs. You, too, can choose your level of noncooperation with the Trump agenda. Most importantly, you can redirect your federal taxes to those organizations and causes that are being defunded by Trump at the direction of billionaire Elon Musk. You can fund climate change mitigations, DEI initiatives, independent media, aid to the homeless, protection for immigrants, Headstart, reparations for Indigenous people and African Americans, resources for LGBTQIA people, your local library… the list keeps getting longer. You don’t have to hope that your tax dollars will go to the right places. You can make sure that they do.
Wally and Juanita Nelson in front of their cabin at Woolman Hill.
The Nelsons knew that any government can only function with the cooperation and consent of those governed. Once we withdraw our cooperation and consent, that government is finished. We can defund the Trump agenda if we dare to do so. There will likely be consequences for this, but as we said earlier, there are already consequences if we continue to fund what we abhor. Tax refusal is not for the timid or the meek, as Alex Beam confessed at the end of his opinion piece. Plus, it takes a certain amount of discipline and training to carry it through, as is true of any form of civil disobedience. You don’t have to go through it alone, however. There are people and organizations to provide help and support.
To find out more about Juanita and Wally Nelson and their legacy of active nonviolence, including a new audio documentary called “Eyes on Freedom,” visit www.nelsonhomestead.org. Even better, if you are in the vicinity of Massachusetts, come to a discussion on May 18 or June 8 and visit the Nelson homestead itself on the grounds of the Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center in Deerfield, MA. Visit www.nelsonhomestead.org/home/get-involved to register for one of these dates. There is no charge to attend. Information and resources about war tax resistance can be found at nwtrcc.org.
Members of the Nelson Legacy Project:
Bob Bady
Betsy Corner
Aaron Falbel
Mary Link
Jane McPhetres Johnson
Paula Rayman
Joe Toritto
