(This article appeared in the June/July 2014 edition of More than a Paycheck, NWTRCC’s bimonthly newsletter, but several links have been added.) By Robert G. Randall II Several of you have written about your own experiences with the Affordable Care Act (ACA, I call it Obamasurance rather than Obamacare, because, other than the free preventive… Continue reading
Real Life Stories
A Sense of Freedom
Marion Bromley (1913-1996) was working for the Fellowship of Reconciliation in the 1940s when she met Ernest Bromley, who was circulating a statement about refusing to pay for war. She and Ernest married not too long after that and made their way to Cincinnati, Ohio, where they lived the rest of their lives. They are… Continue reading
War Resistance Beyond the Rally
We’re holding our second Google Hangout on June 4 at 9 AM Pacific, noon Eastern. Hear from panelists from the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee and two of its affiliates, the Center on Conscience and War and the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, about their approaches to war resistance that go beyond… Continue reading
The Health Care Conundrum
Within the war tax resistance network we’ve been following Obamacare for a while, but a tax day article in the New York Times added to my own concerns/suspicions/disgust about the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known at Obamacare. The article, “Tax Preparers’ New Role: Health-Coverage Advisers,” makes obvious the connection… Continue reading
WRL Pie Chart — Escape from Responsibility?
A Distraction from Direct Action? Since the 1970s the War Resisters League’s annual Federal Tax Pie Chart has been a very effective vehicle to channel outrage and protest, by radicals and liberals alike, against U.S. wars and military spending. However, I’ve recently come to realize that all too often the pie chart (as well as similar analyses… Continue reading
Redirecting Our Money, Time, and Focus from War
Last week in NWTRCC’s Strategy Committee, we discussed war tax redirection, which is a tactic employed by many war tax resisters. The money such resisters refuse to pay to the IRS, they instead “redirect” it to organizations they feel will make better use of the money. (Read more about redirection on our website.) One of… Continue reading
Weathering a WTR Workshop
On February 7, Ed Hedemann and I headed up to Rochester, New York, from Brooklyn, on the bus to facilitate a Friday night/Saturday war tax resistance workshop. We’ve had quite a winter, so heading 300 miles north, where the cold and snow was bound to be worse, left us wondering if the workshop would be… Continue reading
Zero Interest in Paying the Killing Machine’s Bills
I learned everything I need to know about the United States when I saw that picture of the young Vietnamese girl Kim Phuc running down the road with napalm burning through her skin to her bones. I finally in 1980 began questioning whether I wanted to spend my life paying for the death of other… Continue reading
War Tax Resistance Trailblazer
Today, January 26, in Philadelphia the Quaker Action Team honors five elders, including our friend and associate Robin Harper. NWTRCC sent this tribute in his honor: Speaking truth to power has been the undercurrent of Robin Harper’s years as a war tax resister. Since Robin began his resistance in 1958, he has had many opportunities… Continue reading
Ways to Deal with the IRS
While it would be great if we could have conversations with the DoD or Pentagon directly, for many war tax resisters our primary government contact is with the IRS. Beginning with the choice of whether or not to file an income tax return for Tax Day, our choice of resistance tactics can affect the type… Continue reading
Watch Out for Tax “Help” Scams
There are lots of ’em. Many fly-by-night companies comb the public records for tax liens and then by mail or telephone offer to “help with your debt.” Some do their best to masquerade as the IRS, with official looking mailings or official sounding names. A call came recently to a war tax resister in New… Continue reading
“Sick of Paying for Your Wars”
How very strange that we—myself, partner Ed, and friends and fellow resisters Liz and Kevin— first saw this graffiti as we were driving home from a memorial for Sallie Marx. It would have been an eerie coincidence, except that it was also great to happen onto this expression of frustration and defiance from someone unknown… Continue reading
