Blog

Resisting in Dreamland

Home ownership might seem like a mundane topic while confronted with the latest news headlines, but most of us in war tax resistance see life choices as inextricably linked to global issues, so let’s see where this goes. I saw the movie The Big Short a while ago. I totally don’t understand what those guys… Continue reading

Job opening at NWTRCC; new books by war tax resisters

activists holding a black umbrella with a peace sign on it, a blue sign with red letters saying "Honk for peace," and a banner reading "Don't like war? Then don't pay for it! Your taxes arm the world"

First and foremost, we have just listed our new Field Organizer/Outreach Consultant position on Idealist, New York Craigslist, and our website! We’re looking to build more power among our network affiliates and individual WTRs around the country. This is a temporary position with flexible hours. See the listings for details and application procedures. War tax… Continue reading

Presidential candidates against war taxes?

image of a skeleton on a park bench with words "waiting for an anti-war candidate"

Note that this blog post, like all of our blog posts, are the opinion of the author and don’t represent any official NWTRCC position. Short answer: There aren’t any presidential candidates against war taxes. As we all know, success in national major-party politics requires a commitment to a certain kind of discourse about war: the… Continue reading

Maladjusted to a War Culture

“The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Western Michigan University, 1963 “Creative maladjustment” emerged as a take-home theme (at least for me) from the day I spent at the… Continue reading

Why I am going to Russia

David Hartsough June 14, 2016 The US and Russian governments are pursuing dangerous policies of nuclear brinkmanship. Many people believe we are closer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuba missile crisis in 1962. Thirty-one thousand troops from the US and NATO countries are engaged in military maneuvers on the Russian border… Continue reading

An Unhealthy State of Things

I have a pile of clippings from newspapers and magazines intended for notes in the NWTRCC newsletter. They go back a few years because the newsletter pages seem to fill up before I get around to the clippings, and the pile keeps growing. I was pulling out some of the articles that have to do… Continue reading

45 years of alternative fund grants!

(from our June/July 2016 newsletter🙂 “In order that we may offer our fellow citizens an alternative by which their tax monies may be directed to the sustainment of life rather than its destruction, the PEOPLE’S LIFE FUND is established.” Thus read the announcement of the founding of the New York City alternative fund in the… Continue reading

Share your stories

We don’t have a recipe for inspiring new war tax resisters—every person and every circumstance is different. To me, what this means is that the more ways we have of telling our stories and sharing our message, the more likely it is that our message will speak to a variety of people. Consider this your… Continue reading

Which wars are we resisting?

In this month’s conference, I saw us wrestle several times with the definition of war. There hasn’t been a declaration of war for the US military in a long time. But we don’t need a declaration to see that what’s going on in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and many other places is war. We even talked… Continue reading

End War, End Poverty, Save the Earth

Reverend Billy has a new book out called The Earth Wants You, published by City Lights Books (San Francisco). It’s a quick read, but all about breaking out of our busy-ness, and listening to Earth as a call to get involved in some new kinds of activism — and fast. At a recent book talk,… Continue reading

Honoring S. Brian Willson and remembering Daniel Berrigan

Just a few quick notes before our conference this weekend in Lansdowne/Philadelphia, PA! The documentary about anti-war activist, veteran, and war tax resister S. Brian Willson, Paying the Price for Peace, is now available! The website says, “Vietnam Veteran S. Brian Willson paid the price for peace by nearly being killed by a military train… Continue reading

Making war tax redirection a more constructive program

In Campaign Nonviolence’s recent conference call, Metta Center for Nonviolence staffers Michael Nagler and Stephanie Van Hook talked about Gandhi’s concept of a constructive program. War tax resisters have a history of giving away their resisted taxes to worthy causes, and we have sometimes called this a “constructive program” in the model of Gandhi. For… Continue reading