NWTRCC’s May 2026 conference on Zoom attracted about 100 participants. Friday evening featured two half-hour sessions where participants could socialize in small groups based on themes offered during registration. We then separated into breakout rooms with themes suggested by participants during registration. One session was a bit more formalized and featured Socialist Washington State congressional candidate Kshama Sawant, for a session entitled, “Who Speaks for the Anti-War/Genocide Left?: Independent Kshama Sawant or Democrat Jim McGovern.”
Saturday morning we heard from Rachel Cohen, a Chicago lawyer who very publicly proclaimed this spring that she would be refusing to pay about $8,000 in federal income taxes because of the actions of the US military and ICE. She now has over 275,000 followers on Instagram (@cohen.489).
After our WTR 101 & 201 sessions, Sociologist Ruth Braunstein discussed the morality of taxpaying in the US. Much of her discussion focused on her interviews with war tax resisters while researching her recent book, My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America.
Our final Saturday session on New Trends in WTR Outreach featured speakers discussing how they are working to spread war tax resistance in our changing world. We heard from Brian, who founded TaxStrikeNV.com in Reno; Em, who recently took over management of New England War Tax Resistance; and Kima and Jenna with the Oregon Community Peace Fund, who discussed how they have adapted their outreach and workshops.
On Sunday morning, we had our Sunday business meeting. If you are interested in what happened there, here is a link to the minutes.
Lastly, Mark your Calendars!!! Our next National War Tax Resistance Gathering & Coordinating Committee Meeting is November 6-8, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. We will be hosted by the Las Vegas Catholic Worker.
~Post by Lincoln Rice