National Gatherings
International Conferences
Regional and Local Events — 2019 Workshops, meetings, conferences
Webinars – WTR 101 and more
National Gatherings and Coordinating Committee Meetings
NWTRCC sponsors two gatherings each year, usually over the first full weekends in November and May. Each national gathering starts with dinner on Friday and includes a mini-conference format on Friday evening and all day Saturday with panel discussions, action reports and analysis, how-to workshops, and strategy discussions. NWTRCC’s business meeting is held on Sunday morning. The gathering is open to everyone with an interest in war tax resistance. The location shifts regionally in the U.S. depending on invitations from local host groups.
National War Tax Resistance Gathering & Coordinating Committee Meeting
Yes to the Earth! No to War Taxes!
, Portland & Corvallis, Oregon
Join us the first weekend in November for “Yes to the Earth! No to War Taxes!” with a mini-conference on Friday evening and Saturday. The primary focus of the weekend will be on collaboration between war tax resisters and environmental activists. The Friday evening session will begin in Portland at 5:00pm. After the session ends at 8:00pm, we will carpool down to Corvallis. The Saturday & Sunday portions of the program will be in Corvallis. Check Weekend Program Schedule below for more details.
Arrival and registration begin ; Dinner 5, Program Friday evening 6
Housing, travel and other logistics + online registration form
See you in Portland & Corvallis!
*** Reports and Photo Links from Previous National Gatherings ***
NWTRCC & DC Catholic Workers at the Venezuelan Embassy after the Sunday Business Meeting. Photo Courtesy of Chrissy Kirchhoefer.
Divest the Pentagon–Invest in People
May 3–5, 2019 • Washington, DC
Hosted by NWTRCC in collaboration with the Dorothy Day House Catholic Worker in Washington, DC.
Minutes from our business meeting • Blog report “War Tax Resistance Conference in DC” by Lincoln Rice • Video from Opening Night Session on Iran & Venezuela with Code Pink CoFounder Medea Benjamin
The Science of Peace
November 2–4, 2018 • Cleveland, Ohio
Hosted by NWTRCC in collaboration with the Cleveland Catholic Worker & the Cleveland Nonviolence Network.
Minutes from our business meeting • Blog report “The (Art and) Science of Peace” by Erica Leigh • Video from Opening Night Session on Resistance to Cleveland National Air Show
We remembered to get everyone together for a group photo on Sunday.
Divest from War – Invest in People
May 4–6, 2018 • Los Angeles, California
Hosted by members of Southern California War Tax Resistance and Alternative Fund and co-sponsored by Veterans For Peace LA Chapter, LA Catholic Worker, and NWTRCC.
Minutes from our business meeting are here • Photo Reflection by Ruth • Erica’s Report of the Weekend
“Voices of Resistance: Making a Living While Working for Justice” • Amherst, Massachusetts • November 3–5, 2017
Videos are online from some of the talks and workshops during this gathering. Go to our YouTube account to see panels and workshops including: panel with young activists working on immigrant rights, prisons, climate change, and refusing to pay for war; Loretta Ross’s keynote address on white supremacy and sustaining activism; the workshop on divesting from war with Jason Rawn and Paki Wieland; and the border militarization workshop with Anne Barron.
Photos from the weekend are here • Minutes from our business meeting are here • Notes from Workshops and other discussions are here
“Raising the Stakes: Resistance and Community Survival in Troubled Times” • St. Louis, Missouri • May 5-7, 2017
Hosted by the Dick Gregory Catholic Worker House & co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and WILFP-St. Louis Chapter
Blog post: Highlights: War tax resisters in St. Louis
Minutes from the Coordinating Committee Meeting
Photos from the weekend
“Individual Resistance and Collective Power in an Era of Endless War”
November 4 – 6, 2016 • Sustainable Living Center of North Florida, Hampton, Florida
Blog report
Photos
Notes from sessions
Business meeting minutes
Regional and Local Events • War Tax Resistance Workshops and More
Watch this space for workshops and events in your area, or if you are planning a workshop or action in your area email the information, and we’ll list it here. If you would like to schedule a workshop or presentation for a group, please use the linked form.
Your taxes should go to support democracy. This hour-long discussion looks at the ways you can invest in peace and divest from war. Facilitator Anne Barron is a war tax redirector/resister and a board member at the Peace Resource Center of San Diego. For more information, contact Anne at anne@prcsd.org.
WTR Potluck & Conversation
Taking Back Our Tax Dollars from War Makers – Using Our Money for Our Priorities
Click to view flyer.
Workshops at noon; Panel discussion of Maine activists at 1:45
Colrain After 25 Years: Looking Back and Looking Forward
The 34th New England Regional Gathering of War Tax Resisters
Friday 6pm – Sunday 1pm, November 16–18, 2018
Woolman Hill Retreat Center, Deerfield, Massachusetts (directions)
Between 1989 and 1993, hundreds of people flocked to Colrain, MA, to voice their opposition to war and military spending by supporting the war tax resistance of the Corner-Kehler household. As this year marks 25 years since the end of the Colrain action, we are inviting as many of these participants (and interested others) as possible to gather at the Woolman Hill Retreat Center in Deerfield, MA, November 16–18, 2018, to revisit that experience.
Cost for the entire weekend, which includes 6 meals: $60 per adult; Saturday only: $30; Cost with meals but without housing: $45 (These amounts are suggestions. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.)
Full brochure with many pictures from Colrain
Register online by using this link
Registration deadline: November 1st. No deposit necessary. Questions/Ride Share/Airport pickup: Contact Bob Bady at bobbady@gmail.com or 802-258-7750, or call Aaron Falbel at 413-397-8976.
Past Outreach and Community Meetings 2017
Stone Ridge, NY, February 11, 2018, 1-3 pm: Rise Up Hudson Valley presents a Talk on War Tax Refusal. Program includes 30-min. introductory film “Death and Taxes, Methods & Risks of refusing to pay for war with an experienced war tax resister, followed by discussion, Q & A, action planning. The program will be held at Christ the King Episcopal Church, 3021 NY Route 213. Questions? Email: RiseUpHV@gmail.com.
Print out a flyer.
A New Hope: Sam’s October College Tour to Haverford College (Penn.), Amherst College (Mass.), and Bates College (Maine) — read or watch her report on our blog
Ed Hedemann, photo left, has something to say about war tax resistance organizing to the group at a potluck in Portland, Oregon, August 16. War tax resisters and new-comers gathered in the garden at the Peace House for good food and and informal an presentation and discussion about war tax resistance when New Yorkers Ruth Benn and Ed Hedemann were visiting the area. Photo by Michael Sonnleitner.
NWTRCC Field Organizer Sam Koplinka-Loehr traveled to Western Pennsylvania, Minneapolis, Toronto, Buffalo, and Rochester in late July and early August. A highlight of the trip was the “Solidarity and Fightback: Building Resistance to US-led War, Militarism, and Neofascism” conference in Toronto (photo left of Sam at the street action during the conference). See Sam’s full report of the trip on the NWTRCC blog. Sam will be speaking at colleges in Pennsylvania and New England in October and November and traveling to Arizona in mid-November for SOAW convergence and possibly on to talks in California. Contact her if your group or college would like to host an event: 607-592-7650 or email Sam
Always available on YouTube — view yourself or with a group!
War Tax Resistance 101 with David Gross – April 23, 2017
We Won’t Pay: War Tax Resistance 101 with Erica Weiland (Feb. 18, 2017)
Redirecting Taxes to Black, Brown, and Indigenous Resistance with Sam Koplinka-Loehr (Feb. 25, 2017)
Please be in touch with the NWTRCC office if you are willing to table or hand out some war tax resistance materials at an event near you or a conference that you are attending. We will ship you literature for the table and may be able to help pay the conference fees. Just ask!
International Conferences
The 15th Annual Conference on War Tax Resistance & Peace Tax Campaigns will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 28 through December 1, 2019. The theme for this conference is “Paying for Peace not Paying for War.” NWTRCC will be sending a representative, but the conference is open to all and is expected to cost under £100, though accommodation is extra. They hosts will be assisting with options for accommodation from hostels through to hotels. More information can be found on the Conscience UK website.
The first International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns was held in Tübingen, Germany, in 1986. Conferences were held every-other-year, most often in Europe with a few exceptions: India in 1998; U.S. in 2000; and Colombia in 2013. While the conferences are organized by the local groups, Conscience and Peace Tax International (CPTI) was founded at the conference in Hondarribia, Spain, in 1994, to connect the groups working on legislative campaigns and to track legal issues internationally. The CPTI website includes reports from earlier conferences, links to groups, court documents, and more. After the 2013 conference, CPTI moved from Belgium to England, and the reorganization put conference organizing on hold until this year.
Cathy Deppe (right) holds a Ban Uranium Weapons banner in front of the Reichstag, Berlin, Germany, September 2016.
In 2016 representatives from many of the groups that attended the international conferences met at the World Congress on Military and Social Spending in Berlin, Germany, which was sponsored by the International Peace Bureau. NWTRCC’s representative Cathy Deppe participated in the conference and public demonstrations, tabled for NWTRCC, and joined members of Conscience and Peace Tax International for a workshop about military spending and peace tax campaigns. served as to the congress. Read her report.
NWTRCC has sent a representative to each meeting, and reports appear in our newsletter, More Than A Paycheck.
