Given what’s going on at Standing Rock, last year’s blog post on resisting militarism and colonialism at Thanksgiving seems as timely as ever. I know gratitude is a feeling that keeps our movements going, as we are grateful for each other. Yet the “story of Thanksgiving” helps cover up the lack of gratitude – really,… Continue reading
History
The military is at Standing Rock again
Many of our readers have been following the water protectors’ struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL, or “the Black Snake”), which is being built on Standing Rock Sioux treaty lands. Thousands of people are on the ground in several resistance camps. The local Morton County police department has brought in reinforcements from other police… Continue reading
Ammon Hennacy and other early modern war tax resisters
NWTRCC network member David Gross has been working to release the enormous volume, The Book of Ammon, a collection of writings by the Christian anarchist Ammon Hennacy, as a free e-book. This book, currently out of print, is a fascinating look at a man famous for his draft resistance, his war tax resistance, and his… Continue reading
Unpleasant truths about preemptive strikes: War Is a Lie
After putting the book down for a few months, I recently picked back up my reading of David Swanson’s War Is a Lie, which I got from the author himself at his April 16 appearance in Portland, Oregon. Over this weekend, I think I started to understand why I had put the book down. Just… Continue reading
Opposing nuclear weapons at Lawrence Livermore Lab
by Cathy Deppe Last August was the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan. As members of the international peace group Global Network, Alex and I were fortunate to participate in commemoration services in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A year later we traveled a shorter distance to California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to… Continue reading
Mutual aid and war tax resistance
One of the ways war tax resisters support each other is through the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund (WTRPF). This fund was founded in 1982 by the North Manchester, Indiana chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and later became a separate organization. Its purpose is to provide mutual aid for war tax resisters who have… 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
“The Boys Who Said No” and other anti-war media
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve come across a lot of media of interest to war tax resisters and our supporters! There’s a film in development called The Boys Who Said No, about draft resisters during the Vietnam War. The film name is a reference to that iconic poster of Joan Baez and her… Continue reading
Flashes from the Past
In going through some old files recently a few tidbits of historical, inspirational, and/or organizing interest surfaced: In the midst of an election year (it feels more like years) a flyer from the early 1970s is a refreshing change from everything we are hearing from the current crop of candidates. Elizabeth Taylor (no, not that… Continue reading
Martin Sheen backs this war-tax-resisting group
Since I joined the war tax resistance movement, I’ve had many opportunities to get to know friends in the Catholic Worker houses around the country, including in New York City, Milwaukee, and Las Vegas. Catholic Worker houses offer a place to sleep, meals, and/or support for those in need, which may include homeless, poor, mentally… Continue reading
Video: Complicity and Collection – Religious Freedom and Tax
At our November 2015 conference in Las Vegas, University of Nevada – Las Vegas law professor Jennifer Carr spoke to us about her research paper, “Complicity and Collection: Religious Freedom and Tax.” Our audio recording of her talk and the ensuing discussion is now available online, synced up with slides from her PowerPoint. This is… Continue reading
Refusing the Legacy of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has got me thinking about how the militarization of the U.S. extends all the way back to the pre-colonial days of Pilgrims and other white settlers arriving on the shores of this continent. In addition to the land they claimed, they decided they had a claim to the lives of the American Indians who… Continue reading