In a recent Boston Globe column (“Resisting Trump: The Revival of Tax Protest,” April 10), Alex Beam points to a time-honored way of resisting violence and war: refusing to pay for it. He highlights the activism of the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts, and central to that activism were Juanita and Wally Nelson, two peace… Continue reading
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” One of the greatest opening lines. Are we there, 41 years later? In real life, 1984 was a year during Reagan’s presidency, and a lot of us thought we might be headed into the book’s vision of dystopia at that time. Or… Continue reading
[Editor’s Note: The following remarks were made by Peter Goldberger at a National Lawyers Guild war tax resistance workshop over Zoom on April 4, 2024. Goldberger addresses three subjects: the legality and ethics of counseling illegal activity; the particular risks faced by legal professionals contemplating participating personally in tax resistance; and the argument by certain… Continue reading
Hundreds of people risk arrest in direct actions pretty much every day. Protests about the war on Gaza might top the list with thousands of arrests in the U.S. since Israel’s genocide began. Last July Nuclear Resister tallied 9,000 arrests, but that number could have doubled by now. Thousands have been arrested in Black Lives… Continue reading
Review Lawrence Rosenwald Autobiography of a Political Objector Max Sandim’s Memoir; Forward by Randy Kehler; Edited by Ed Hedemann & Ruth Benn ($15) Published in May 2024 Max Sandin’s memoir begins with a story told by the late Randy Kehler, who met Sandin in 1963, in New York, on a bus taking them to the… Continue reading
Dear IRS Friends, I was not born or raised this way. But when I received a death threat, in 1968, and was planning a gunfight, a prophet/angel appeared in a dream, taking me to talk with the man who wanted to kill me. I know now that Jesus’ “love your enemy” actually works better than… Continue reading
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
[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” 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
Recently the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists met to share their annual Doomsday Clock. The Council decided to keep the Doomsday Clock, which estimates the probability of a nuclear catastrophe at 90 seconds to midnight. That same time was set a year earlier in 2023, the closest the clock has been set to midnight, the deadline… Continue reading
People are mobilizing, taking a variety of actions to call for an end to the slaughter in Gaza; making connections of how our struggles for liberation are bound together. It is encouraging that so many people are seeking out information about how to resist paying for war and then collaborating with others to learn more… Continue reading
Fifty-three years ago, as a cash-strapped University of Texas graduate student, I relied on my office phone at the astronomy department to save money. Consequently, I didn’t also need a telephone at home. But I got one anyway. It was my gateway to resisting taxes for war. The year before, I had refused induction into… Continue reading
