Blog

Living in Extraordinary Times

10th anniversary protest 2011

This week marked the anniversary of wars largely paid for with US taxpayer money. Twenty- three years ago on October 7, the United States began bombing Afghanistan not even a month after the 9/11 attacks. Brown University’s Cost of War Project estimates that the United States spent $2.313 trillion on the war in Afghanistan between… Continue reading

War Tax Resistance Gathering on Zoom – November 8-10, 2024

NWTRCC’s November 2024 conference will be on Zoom the weekend after the election. (Click here register.) We often meet the first weekend in November, but we know that many of our members will be canvassing and doing other pre-election activities. Friday Night Social Mary Sprunger-Froese of Colorado Springs will gather us together with three songs… Continue reading

Dear IRS- Hear US

Dear IRS- Hear US! September 11th, 2024 | Federal Income Tax, IRS, Letters, Things You Can Do This past Tax Day, Tom Joyce in Ithaca, NY joined others to raise awareness about how much of US taxpayer money goes towards military spending that can result in moral injury. May this ongoing and consistent action inspire! Statement of War Tax Resistance – Tom Joyce… Continue reading

Obedience, Protest, and Facing the Consequences

Randy Kehler speaking, Oct 2013

The first obligation of responsible citizenship, I believe, is obedience to one’s conscience. Obedience to one’s government, and to its laws, is very important, but it must come second. Otherwise there is no check on immoral actions by governments, which are bound to occur in any society, whenever power is abused. — Randy Kehler The… Continue reading

Good Grief?

79 years ago, the United States unleashed the most powerful weapon known to humankind. The devastation of ‘Little Boy,’ a uranium bomb rained down on Hiroshima killing an estimated 140,000 people, mostly civilians. Three days later the United States dropped the second bomb ‘Fat Man’ made of plutonium which was ten times more powerful and… Continue reading

Yes, You Can Do This!

Kathy Boylan Ruth Benn DC July 24, 2024

I got on a bus to DC for the “Arrest Netanyahu” rally and march July 24, with a pile of WRL pie charts in my backpack and a sign about refusing to pay for war. I hadn’t been to DC in quite a few years, but Congress’s invitation to the person presiding over more than… Continue reading

War Tax Resistance: A Catholic Worker Tradition

Ammon Hennacy

[Editor’s Note: A longer version of this article was first published the April 2024 edition of the Agitator, the newspaper of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker.] “‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me’ with napalm, nerve gas, our hydrogen bomb… Should one pay… Continue reading

An Overlooked Avenue for Political Dissent

Survey Button

“An Overlooked Avenue for Political Dissent” is the title of the one and only review on that big online bookseller for the War Resisters League book Guide to War Tax Resistance, precursor to the 2004 edition of the book titled, War Tax Resistance: A Guide to Withholding Your Support from the Military.  The 5-star review… Continue reading

Understanding common IRS collection letters

image of IRS letter with heading "You have unpaid taxes for 2015 - Amount due: $1,922.39"

[Editor’s Note. This post by Erica Leigh was originally published in 2016, but all the information is still accurate. Many first-time resisters who filed this past spring are beginning to receive their first letters from the IRS. These letters can be intimidating and scary. With this in mind, we thought it was time to re-share… Continue reading

Living Simply in a New Way: An Interview with Robin Greenfield

[Editor’s Note: Robin Greenfield has been challenging people to think about their environmental impacts, their relationship to other animals and plants, and their enmeshment in economic systems for over a decade. Through YouTube videos, TV appearances, books, articles, public speaking, and other cultural work, he shares personal challenges he sets for himself and how he… Continue reading

NWTRCC War Tax Resistance Gathering – May 2024

Panel with war tax resistance groups from NWTRCC's May 2024 Conference

NWTRCC’s spring 2024 gathering was back on Zoom (3-5 May 2024). On Friday evening, over thirty people joined us for a Social Hour where we twice broke out into smaller groups of five or six and had an opportunity to meet new people and touch base with old friends. On Saturday morning, forty-five people attended… Continue reading

First-Time Resister’s Letter to the IRS

[Editor’s Note: Many people, including several new war tax resisters, have been gracious enough to share their letter to the IRS with us. Just a reminder that we will be holding our next NWTRCC gathering on Zoom, May 3-5, 2024. Many long-time and first-time war tax resisters have already registered. Here is the full schedule… Continue reading