November 2017 Photos

“Voices of Resistance: Making a Living While Working for Justice”
National War Tax Resistance Gathering
Amherst, Massachusetts • Nov. 3-5, 2017

It was a solid NWTRCC Gathering with a powerful call to action. From our panel Friday night to our Coordinating Committee meeting on Sunday, each piece focused on how we as War Tax Resisters can be deeply involved in movements for social justice while demanding an end to all forms of state violence. Titled Voices Of Resistance, that’s exactly what we brought together over the course of the weekend, finding the common threads of solidarity and sustained resistance between us. Now, during the coming months it is my hope that we as a network can put that into action, continuing to weave a stronger and more connected movement going forward. A big thanks to everyone who helped make this weekend a success, including coming from around the world to be a part of it!— Sam

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The gathering weekend began with a panel of activists on Friday evening (l to r) Camila, Nathalie, Rojas and Erica . You can watch a segment of the panel here. More videos will be added soon.	Daniel Sicken (left) and Craig Simpson (right) reconnected with Brayton Shanley of the Agape Community.	NWTRCC’s Field Organizer Sam Koplinka-Loehr MC’d the evening and connected with a fellow prison justice organizer after the talks.
Jason Rawn (right) led a workshop on Divesting from the Pentagon along with Paki Weiland, who spoke about CodePink’s new Divest from the War Machine campaign.	Professor Loretta Ross gave the keynote talk on Saturday at noon. A favorite quote related to sustaining our resistance for the long haul was “Fighting Nazis should be fun.” You can listen to her talk on our YouTube channel.	Saturday evening discussion at the co-housing community building.
Joanne Sheehan of War Resisters League New England took a moment to advertise a useful resource — WRL’s perpetual calendar.	Anne Barron, center, speaks about organizing in San Diego. She is flanked by Robert Randall from Georgia (left) and Craig Simpson who is on the New England War Tax Resistance board. Anne led a workshop on border militarization.	Once again Rick Gaumer and Pacifeast Catering provided great meals! Portrait by Sam.
TD Bank in downtown Amherst was the location for a Saturday afternoon protest of their financing for the tar sands pipeline.	Left: Chrissy and Daniel Above: Anne Right: Peter and Bill	Photos by Craig Simpson.
Chrissy from St. Louis managed to laugh despite the busy weekend schedule. Portrait by Sam.	Hmmm, can we figure out this guy’s name, who joined us from his new location in upstate New York. Portrait by Sam.	Ruth making sure that Juanita was Presente. Portrait by Sam.
Thanks to everyone for a great weekend. More notes from meetings and talks and links to video coming soon. Photos by Ruth Benn, Erica Leigh, and Sam Koplinka-Loehr.