Within the war tax resistance network we’ve been following Obamacare for a while, but a tax day article in the New York Times added to my own concerns/suspicions/disgust about the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known at Obamacare. The article, “Tax Preparers’ New Role: Health-Coverage Advisers,” makes obvious the connection… Continue reading
Tax Day and Post-Tax Day Media Roundup
Across the country on April 15, 2014, war tax resisters and military spending opponents took to the streets and held events to bring attention to the federal budget and to the damage wrought by war. Read Tax Day event reports from NWTRCC affiliates here. The Brandywine Peace Community held a “War Tax Resistance Then and… Continue reading
Pre-Tax Day Media Roundup
As happens every year in the run up to Tax Day, war tax resistance starts getting more news coverage. Here’s a roundup of recent news and blog posts on the subject: Peg Morton and Susan Cundiff, Using the Tax Return to Protest War (interview on the Jefferson Exchange public radio show) The image isn’t about… Continue reading
Economic Disobedience and War Tax Resistance: Reportback from Eugene Event
I was invited down to Eugene, OR to speak about war tax resistance and economic disobedience at a panel last night, hosted by Eugene’s First Methodist Church and organized by Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC), Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network (ESSN)/Jobs with Justice, Taxes for Peace Not War, and Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND). What… Continue reading
WRL Pie Chart — Escape from Responsibility?
A Distraction from Direct Action? Since the 1970s the War Resisters League’s annual Federal Tax Pie Chart has been a very effective vehicle to channel outrage and protest, by radicals and liberals alike, against U.S. wars and military spending. However, I’ve recently come to realize that all too often the pie chart (as well as similar analyses… Continue reading
Bringing War Home
When we talk about war tax resistance and why we do it, we tend to focus on the Pentagon and its warmongering abroad. Recently I was doing research for the back of the WRL pie chart and the true horror of weapons of war-come-home really hit me. Doesn’t this picture say it all? The police… Continue reading
War Tax Resistance as Self-Care
Last week on Twitter, I saw that David Gross retweeted a message from author Sofia Samatar in which she described war tax resistance as self-care. I was immediately taken with this concept, and while Sofia’s plate was too full to write about it, she gave her blessing for me to run with it! So thanks… Continue reading
7 Weeks Until #TaxDay !
Tax Day, April 15, is in just seven short weeks. Every year, NWTRCC network affiliates take action to bring attention to the United States’ military budget and to the tactic of war tax resistance (here’s last year’s Tax Day report). Common actions include distributing the War Resisters League’s federal budget pie chart, conducting penny polls,… Continue reading
Redirecting Our Money, Time, and Focus from War
Last week in NWTRCC’s Strategy Committee, we discussed war tax redirection, which is a tactic employed by many war tax resisters. The money such resisters refuse to pay to the IRS, they instead “redirect” it to organizations they feel will make better use of the money. (Read more about redirection on our website.) One of… Continue reading
Weathering a WTR Workshop
On February 7, Ed Hedemann and I headed up to Rochester, New York, from Brooklyn, on the bus to facilitate a Friday night/Saturday war tax resistance workshop. We’ve had quite a winter, so heading 300 miles north, where the cold and snow was bound to be worse, left us wondering if the workshop would be… Continue reading
Zero Interest in Paying the Killing Machine’s Bills
I learned everything I need to know about the United States when I saw that picture of the young Vietnamese girl Kim Phuc running down the road with napalm burning through her skin to her bones. I finally in 1980 began questioning whether I wanted to spend my life paying for the death of other… Continue reading
War Tax Resistance Trailblazer
Today, January 26, in Philadelphia the Quaker Action Team honors five elders, including our friend and associate Robin Harper. NWTRCC sent this tribute in his honor: Speaking truth to power has been the undercurrent of Robin Harper’s years as a war tax resister. Since Robin began his resistance in 1958, he has had many opportunities… Continue reading
