National Gatherings
Regional and Local Events — Workshops, meetings, conferences
International Conferences
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)
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.
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Next National War Tax Resistance Gathering:
November 3-5, 2017 • Amherst, Massachusetts
We are excited to announce that the fall NWTRCC National Gathering will join with the annual New England Gathering for War Tax Resisters and Supporters, this year at UMASS-Amherst. Tentatively titled “Voices of Resistance,” the program is in formation, but it looks like it will include a panel discussion of student activists as well as time for war tax resisters to share their stories from decades of experience. This weekend of workshops and discussions will highlight our collective power over many years of activism.
The Friday night and Saturday programs will take place at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, but the weekend begins with registration and dinner on Friday at Pioneer Valley Cohousing, 120 Pulpit Hill Road in Amherst. Delicious meals will be provided by Pacifeast caterers Joanne Sheehan and Rick Gaumer. The NWTR Coordinating Committee meeting will be Sunday morning from 9 am – Noon. After lunch we plan to have a WTR Counselor Training from about 1-5.
The closest airport is Bradley International Airport (BDL), about 1 hour from Amherst*. Please take travel time to and from the airport into account for arrivals and departures. Amtrak (the Vermonter or some Northeast regional lines) stops in Northampton (closest) or Springfield, Massachusetts. Peter Pan Bus Co. has the most frequent service to UMASS, or check for buses to Amherst, and again, as next choice, Northampton.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Watch this page for details and registration form coming soon.
Download the Save-the-Date Flyer
* Some travelers may be flying into Boston or other airports and renting cars, and there will be drivers from around New England, so if you are hving trouble finding flights, please contact NWTRCC for help.
*** Report and Photo Links from Previous Gatherings ***
“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
“Divest from the Pentagon, Invest in People!”
Lansdowne Friends Meeting and Lansdowne Friends School in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, May 13-15, 2016.
Photos
Report
Notes from sessions
“Divest from Weapons and Warmaking” Hosted by Las Vegas Catholic Worker • Las Vegas, Nevada • Nov. 6-8, 2015.
Report
Video of Jennifer Carr’s talk on “Complicity and Collection – Religious Freedom and Tax“
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.
Outreach and Community Meetings 2017
San Luis Obispo, September 23, 6:30 – 7:30 pm. Look for the tax resistance/NWTRCC table at Growing a Local Peace Economy and Divesting from the War Machine with CodePink’s Jodie Evans. The wars are robbing our schools, our healthcare, our children and their future. Learn how to divest and be the catalyst to change your local culture to one that thrives and grows peace in a just transition. Cal Poly Business Building 003-213, California Polytechnic State University, 1 Grand Ave, 93407.
U.S./Mexico border – Arizona – Nogales – Sonora, November 10-12, 2017. School of the Americas Watch Border Convergence. Look for the NWTRCC table (and maybe a workshop) while you act to end US economic, military and political intervention in Latin America; Demilitarization and divestment of the borders; An end to the racist systems of oppression that criminalize and kill migrants, refugees and communities of color. Actions begin Friday morning and include Vigil at Eloy Detention Center, Gathering and Welcome in ambos Nogales, Veteran-led March to the border wall, Rally at the U.S./Mexico border, Forums & Workshops, Puppetistas!, Speakers & Musicians.
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
Thanks to our tablers at the Veterans for Peace Convention in Chicago, August 9-13, and to Kathy Kelly for this photo of the penny poll at the NWTRCC table during the convention.
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
World Congress on Military and Social Spending in Berlin, Germany September 30 – Oktober 3, 2016 • 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.
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The first International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns was held in Tübingen, Germany, in 1986. Conferences are 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 meetings, links to groups, court documents, and more.
The conferences offer a time to exchange information and experience gained by individuals and groups during their local campaigns; learn about legal issues in individual countries; increase the effectiveness by which our groups offer peace tax legislation and/or war tax resistance as a means for civilians to object against war and war preparation; and investigate the need for an international platform for the national groups to make our efforts more visible on an international level.
After the 2013 conference, CPTI moved from Belgium to England. Re-organizaiton within the international network has taken some time, and there is hope that the next conference will be held in 2016.
NWTRCC has sent a representative to each meeting, and reports appear in our newsletter, More Than A Paycheck.
