This past weekend at our war tax resistance gathering in rural Florida, we had a discussion about post-election organizing. Before I knew it, emotions were rising about whether people should vote Clinton or third party, whether Clinton was better than Trump, and other such topics. These topics have set anti-war folks against each other throughout… Continue reading
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
I’m happy to report that our outreach at the SOAW border convergence at ambos Nogales (both Nogales, on the US and Mexico sides) went very well! NWTRCC network members, including myself, Anne Barron, Rachel Soltis, and Coleman Smith, were present at each activity throughout the weekend, including the vigil at the Eloy Detention Center (where undocumented… Continue reading
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
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
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
(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
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
War tax resisters were busy during tax season this year, speaking out about resistance and redirection. Here are some more reports you might have missed: War tax resisters in San Diego held a redirection event, giving away over $6,000 to various groups: “I pay my taxes, but not to the Department of Defense. I pay… Continue reading
NWTRCC chose the theme “Divest from the Pentagon, Invest in People” for our 2016 Days of War Tax Action. Divestment (also called disinvestment) has been used to galvanize big changes, like abolishing apartheid in South Africa. Today, it’s used in the movements against fossil fuels and Israeli occupation of Palestine, where supporters pressure institutions and… Continue reading
I’m so pleased today to highlight some of the amazing work war tax resisters are doing, both in war tax resistance work and in addition to refusing to cooperate with military taxation! Kathy Kelly was arrested yesterday at Volk Field with fellow Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV) activist Brian Terrell for crossing onto the base… Continue reading
Days of War Tax Action 2016 PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: January 15, 2016 Contact: Ruth Benn, Coordinator National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) PO Box 150553, Brooklyn, NY11215 • 800-269-7464 From Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday to Tax Day A Call to Invest in People, Divest From the Pentagon “A nation that continues… Continue reading