text:
Mennonite Church to Operate a War Tax Redirection Fund
When the Mennonite Church USA met in its biennial conference earlier this month , one of the items on the agenda was a proposal by Mennonite war tax resisters Harold Penner and John Stoner to revitalize and extend a war tax resisters' alternative fund operated by the Church.
That proposal was approved. The new "Church Peace Tax Fund" will enable Mennonite war tax resisters to redirect their taxes into a fund that will support conscientious objectors, peace education and action, and programs that work for the common good.
An international conference on war tax resistance is planned for later this year in Edinburgh, Scotland. It will also be the occasion for the general assembly of Conscience & Peace Tax International.
The war on traffic-ticket-generating radar cameras continues, with several destroyed by rebels in France using fire and spraypaint, and another destroyed by an accident it contributed to in Germany.
Facebook has decided it will ban advertising that discourages people from voting. This should go to show that censorship is of course going to be practiced on behalf of the already powerful (who have the power to censor) and against unpopular heresies. But, you know, polite liberal golf claps is about all I hear.
A poll of expatriate U.S. citizens showed that many are contemplating renouncing their U.S. citizenship, largely because of the tax (and onerous tax reporting) burden.
Businesses in Pakistan are on strike to protest a sales tax increase.
An IRS building in Kansas City, Missouri was shut down by a hazmat team because of "a brown substance on a package" discovered by an employee.
How you can resist funding the government → a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns → destroy the apparatus of taxation → modern roadside apparatus in particular
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Not all tax resistance is nonviolent. There are also plenty of examples in which people have taken up arms against the taxing authority, have violently destroyed the apparatus of tax collecting, or have used threats of violence to intimidate or inhibit tax collectors.
Scott Frisby drops his subscription to crappy government services, the Indianapolis Baptist Temple loses a 16-year court battle defending religious tax resistance, War Resisters International releases a free handbook for nonviolent campaigns, automatic ticket-issuing red-light and speed cameras become targets for populist tax revolt, NTodd Pritsky shares some meditations on civil disobedience, and a government watchdog suspects that I.R.S. employees are issuing huge fraudulent refunds under the cover of bureaucratic confusion. Also: Aristotle looks at the "fairness" component of justice.
You're invited to the May NWTRCC national gathering in Tucson. Also: Rebecca and Her Daughters reemerge in Arizona. And: a neighborhood in Argentina opts out of the municipal tax system. Also: inmates in Florida swipe $100,000 from the I.R.S. while still behind bars.
Ruth Benn explains war tax resistance on David Swanson's show. Also: speed camera destruction, paying a traffic ticket with origami, collecting blood in Greece, tax resistance in Indonesia, council tax resister June Farrow gets a finger-wagging, and the U.S. increases its lead as the biggest global arms race dealer.
The "bonnets rouges" are taking a page out of the Rebeccaite handbook and have destroyed dozens of tollgates in Brittany.
Tens of thousands of "bonnets rouges" demonstrated in France today against a so-called "eco-tax" — and reveled in highway blockades and tax portal destruction.
When government-run public transit fares leapt by 66% in Mexico City, commuters started to leap too in what has become a hopping mad protest movement. Also: the Bonnets Rouges continue to destroy traffic radar outposts in France — over 200 so far.
International tax resistance news from Italy, England, Greece, Brazil, and Catalonia.
An international overview of recent tax resistance news from Addis Ababa, Seattle, Suffolk County, Lagos, and Petroupolis.
Tax Day is coming up in the U.S. Find out what's happening near you. Also: a new option for low-income tax resisters in the U.S. And: an update on the tax resistance campaign in Zaragoza. Finally: a suspect in the destruction of a D.C. traffic-ticket camera becomes a folk hero.
A compilation of stories and videos chronicling the destruction or disabling of ticket-issuing traffic cameras by fed up citizens.
I'm back from vacationing in South America. While I was away: Claire Wolfe praised The Picket Line, war tax resisters in Biscay hit the streets, the Republicans tried to sneak in an I.R.S. budget increase, Google threw in the towel on not being evil, and people around the world took justice into their own hands against the traffic-ticket-issuing robots.
Google backs off from helping to make the military's death drones smarter, other brands try to get a P.R. boost from bucking The Man. Also: tax resistance news from Nicaragua, South Africa, France, South Korea, and Ambazonia.
A call to strengthen tax resistance in Nicaragua, evading tobacco taxes in California, smashing ticket cameras, blue states fighting back against federal taxes, computer security at the I.R.S. is a mess, Catalan war tax resistance grows, a new call for tax resistance in Sri Lanka, and I get another letter from the I.R.S.
Tax resistance in the Nicaraguan struggle against the Ortega-Murillo regime. Surveying Chinese business students about tax evasion. Traffic-ticket-generating cameras vandalized around the world. Kenyan petroleum transporters strike against a new tax. And a city tax strike is proposed in La Rioja, Argentina.
Recent news regarding war tax resistance, tax resistance as practiced around the world, and tax administration follies in the United States.
War tax resisters fight tax breaks for weapons contractors, prank calls take down a government xenophobia hotline, what might happen if you try to stare down an I.R.S. summons, how to wield the "Taxpayer Bill of Rights," and the global grassroots campaign against traffic-ticket-generating robots continues.
An interactive map of the Rebecca Riots, a new tax rebellion in France, more protest and resistance in Greece, the U.S., South Africa, and New Zealand. Also: an audit of the I.R.S. includes a new estimate of the size of the "tax gap" and shows just how much unpaid tax the agency writes off as "uncollectible" each year.
The gilets jaunes movement in France, with its street protests and blockades, has been getting all the press — and has indeed forced significant and painful concessions from the government. But while the gilets jaunes were in the streets, they and their allies were also knocking traffic ticket cameras out of service — by the hundreds — at great cost to the government.
A documentary about war tax resister Larry Bassett, more news of I.R.S. failures, women take over the American military-industrial complex, speed camera destruction proceeds internationally, and more recent news of interest to tax resisters.
The I.R.S. says it will take at least a year to recover from the backlog, the disruption, and the devastation of employee morale caused by the government "shutdown." Meanwhile, the epidemic of traffic ticket camera destruction continues in France, and begins to spread beyond the borders.
Nicaraguan tax resistance leader Irlanda Jerez is being tortured in prison. Radar destruction continues at a slower pace in France. Julia Butterfly Hill interviewed on her war tax resistance. And: what is a tax resister to do in the face of tariffs?
The I.R.S. sent me nine envelopes yesterday, one for each tax year they're pursuing me for. Also: a U.S. anti-abortion tax resister has a court victory, Ruth Benn examines I.R.S. enforcement at a time of agency stress, California conservatives consider a tax strike, traffic ticket camera destruction continues worldwide, and more international tax resistance news.
Joffre Stewart — peacemaker, poet, anarcho-pacifist war tax resister, and legendary distributor of "incomprehensible leaflets" — has died. Also: the documentary film about war tax resister Larry Bassett has been released, lax I.R.S. enforcement makes tax compliance a sucker's game, what anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman's court victories really add up to, and the latest dispatches from the ongoing epidemic of speed camera destruction.
The War Resisters League's federal budget pie chart has been updated for the proposed 2020 budget. Also: find "Tax Day" actions in the U.S. And: war tax resisters demonstrate in Spain, yellow vests continue to disrupt France, and traffic camera destruction continues worldwide.
A new NWTRCC newsletter is out, with news and outreach tips for the upcoming Tax Day, among other things. Also: the New York Times takes a close look at how "sovereign citizens" use bureaucratic incantations and a curious mythology to milk the I.R.S. And: adding up how much traffic camera destruction has cost the French government in unissued traffic tickets.
War tax resistance news from Canada, the United States, and Spain, and other news about the ongoing collapse of "tax morale" in the United States, cynicism about Republican tax cuts, trouble at the I.R.S., and some results of the attacks on traffic radar cameras in France.
Tax resistance news from France, Catalonia, Spain, the United States, Italy, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, and Saudi Arabia. Tax season in Spain and the United States has led to increased coverage of tax resistance campaigns there in particular.
Tax resistance news from all over the world, including also news from the U.S. war tax resistance movement and notes about declining taxpayer morale in the U.S. Also: some numbers have just been released about how many levies, liens, and property seizures the I.R.S. resorted to last year.
Switch to bitcoin to defund the war machine? Also: tax resistance news from Nicaragua, Indonesia, New Zealand, France, and Germany. And: the I.R.S. is redesigning its W-4 form, auditing much fewer wealthy people, and sometimes finding itself frustrated by bankrupt tax scofflaws.
The wealthy already pay high tax rates! (Sure, on that portion of income they aren't hiding off-shore.) Also: a new NWTRCC newsletter is out, attacks on traffic-ticket cameras continue, and a look back at war tax redirection from this date in 1973.
Nicaraguan tax resistance leader Irlanda Jerez released along with other political prisoners. An international war tax resistance conference is coming up. More international tax resistance news. The Republican tax law takes more from people, less from corporations. Also: the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. promoted war tax resistance in 1988, infuriating a U.S. congressman.
I get another letter from the I.R.S. The Mennonite Church considers a new proposal on war tax redirection. Former official Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson starts a private nonprofit Center for Taxpayer Rights. And the international guerrilla uprising against traffic ticket robots continues.
London's "Extinction Rebellion" movement organizes a tax strike for ecological sustainability. Businesses in Pakistan shut their doors in an anti-sales-tax hartal. Human drivers assault traffic ticket robots around the world. And more news about the Mennonite Church USA decision to expand its war tax redirection fund.
London's "Extinction Rebellion" movement launches its tax strike for ecological sustainability. Speed camera radar outposts destroyed by determined drivers across Europe. Boris Johnson, prime minister, tax resister. Tax strikes threatened in Budalengi, Kenya and Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo to protest the government's inability to provide basic services.
Cofounders of the Agape Community interviewed. Tax strikes in Pakistan, Venice, Catalonia, and North Kivu. Continuing attacks on roadside traffic ticket robots. And how Trump is both destroying taxpayer morale and making life more miserable for I.R.S. workers.
A new NWTRCC newsletter is out, more details about anti-abortion tax resister Michael E. Bowman, the I.R.S. is getting more aggressive about revoking passports of tax scofflaws, and attacks on traffic ticket radar robots continue in Europe.
A new videoblog introduces practical war tax resistance techniques. Anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman scores another courtroom triumph. Tireless activist and war tax resister Frances Crowe dies at age 100. Tax resisters in North Kivu organize. And attacks on traffic ticket cameras continue around Europe.
A tax resistance manual gets an on-line release. The war on traffic ticket cameras continues. War tax resisters profiled. Tax strikes in Venezuela and the D.R.C. Graphics promote and educate about a consumer strike and tax resistance campaign in Nicaragua.
A new NWTRCC newsletter is out. The I.R.S. tries to put some teeth in the government's new power to revoke passports from tax scofflaws. Local governments battle I.R.S. over lien-filing fees. And more news about tax resistance and tax resisters.
NWTRCC national gathering next weekend in Oregon. Nathan Goodman on the costs of American empire. A suspicious new tax resistance campaign. The war on traffic ticket cameras continues. I.R.S. liens and deceptive junk mail. Ed & Elaine "show me the law" Brown may get out of prison after all. And the government of Ontario battles Canada's federal government over carbon taxes.
Peter Bagge draws a delightful Lysander Spooner. Tax resistance is one of the tactics of an Economic Hurricane designed to boost Catalan independence. The I.R.S. blinks in its standoff with county recorders. And the human war on traffic-ticket generating robot camera hordes continue to keep hope alive in the hearts of the rebellion.
A Catalan restaurant whose owners have been resisting and redirecting Spanish taxes for years has been forced to close. Also: Coordination with environmental activism discussed at NWTRCC national meeting. And: American war tax resisters at the School of the Americas Watch gathering and the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 trial. Also: attacks on traffic-ticket-generating radar cameras continue.
The Arumeru tax revolt of 1998 was a rare show of determined people-power in Tanzania (or was it just political elites manipulating popular discontent for their own purposes?). Also: depot blockades in France over fuel tax hike, another call for a tax strike in North Kivu, 17,886 traffic-ticket-generating robots in France attacked by angry drivers, half the cigarettes smoked in New York are brought there by smugglers, and a hazmat scare at an I.R.S. office.
Hong Kong protesters use clever software to gum up the tax agency. Aristotle's guide to anarchism. A new NWTRCC newsletter. I.R.S. ramps up surprise in-person visits to tax scofflaws. Paula Rogge on how to defang I.R.S. reprisals against resisters. Lebanese business-owners threaten a tax strike. And the human war on traffic-ticket-generating cameras continues to take robot casualties.
Pete Brace, climate activist from the U.K., shares the correspondence from his tax refusal battle. More details from the ongoing Lebanon tax strike. How the I.R.S. face-to-face visits may play out. "Sovereign citizens" swindle millions of dollars from the I.R.S. but don't know when to quit. The human war on traffic ticket robots continues. And, the Greek government tries to force its tax evading population away from cash to more trackable forms of money.
War tax resisters in Canada, paying your taxes in a wagonload of nickles, speed camera vandals strike again, 50 years later a war tax redirection is still paying off, and the latest on the tax strike in Lebanon.
Albertan politician David Swann has launched a tax strike to protest the government's unwillingness to pursue corporate tax dodgers from the fossil fuel industry. Also: how financial fraudsters peeled tens of billions of dollars from European governments; the human war on speed camera radars continues; the I.R.S. blinks in its stand-off with county governments; and a tax strike in Goma, North Kivu.
A speed radar replaced by a "rat d'art", American politicians are perhaps starting to come together on restoring funding for the I.R.S., a men's magazine calls for a nonpartisan U.S. tax strike, more tax resistance in Kivu, the latest figures on the cost of the war on Iraq, and what you'll find in the latest NWTRCC newsletter.
I got nine separate letters from the I.R.S. today, in a vivid demonstration of government waste. Also: tax strikers on the march in South Kivu, a varied arsenal attacks traffic ticket radars across Europe, and a new tax redirection campaign for Catalan independence.
Looking back at the Women's Tax Resistance League and at the Poll Tax riots thirty years ago. A recap of the last international war tax resistance conference. Another American taxpayer reaches the limit and moves on to resistance. And attacks on traffic ticket radar cameras continue in Europe.
Much of the I.R.S. workforce is twiddling their thumbs at home while collecting a paycheck. There's a new tax strike in Argentina. The 30th anniversary of the British poll tax rebellion is celebrated. American war tax resisters adjust to protest in a time of epidemic. And the war on traffic ticket cameras continues in Europe.
Everything is a little different this mid-April, but there's still some tax resistance news of note, from the U.S., Catalonia, Austria, Mexico, and the U.K.
Tax resistance news from the United States, Italy, Argentina, Catalonia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, and Germany.
Extinction Rebellion plans to launch a tax strike in Britain (or maybe that's just a right-wing fantasy). Are the property tax strikes of the Great Depression due for a revival? The number of Americans renouncing their U.S. citizenship reached an all-time high in the first quarter of this year. And: attacks on traffic ticket robots continue in Europe.
A tax strike in support of #BlackLivesMatter. Ed Agro, co-founder of New England War Tax Resistance, has died. Boosting the Mennonite Church's war tax alternative fund. Tax resistance against the war on the home front. The human war on robot traffic fine blasters continues. And: a Quaker petition defying the militia exemption tax to the Confederate legislature in Virginia.
Without any legal authorization, the I.R.S. is threatening prisoners in order to claw back the stimulus checks they are entitled to by law. Also: a self-employed musician launches a tax strike in Israel, war tax resistance news from the United States, and reports from around the world on the human war against traffic ticket robots.
David & Jan Hartsough share their war tax resistance letter to the I.R.S., a taxpayer uses the law to fight back against the I.R.S.'s private debt collector deputies, neighbors of a Vancouver homeless encampment threaten tax resistance to pressure the government to help, a new NWTRCC newsletter is out, and the international human war on traffic ticket robots continues.
A Beirut business owner has decided to redirect his taxes from the corrupt and inept government to charitable organizations who are effectively responding to the port explosion disaster. Also: local governments in Catalonia are refusing to remit taxes to the Spanish federal government. Resistance to the U.K. television license fee. Payroll taxes deferred to the end of the year in the U.S. And more successful attacks against the traffic ticket robots.
An introductory war tax resistance workshop is coming up in about a month. Also: anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman back in court, a new history of the Agape Community is out, war tax resister Alan Barnett has died, tax resistance rumblings get louder in South Africa, and the human war on traffic ticket robots continues.
Even "socially responsible" investment funds that say they screen out investments in warfare often loan money to the Pentagon by investing in treasury bonds. What is a conscientious investor to do? Also: updates on tax resistance in Strathcona and South Kivu, a hazmat team called out to the I.R.S. office, and the human rebellion against traffic ticket robots continues.
Lindsey Britt on war tax resistance, charitable donations, relationships, and ethical decision-making. The U.S. federal budget is a mess and getting worse (or better, if you're eager to see it go bankrupt). The human battle against traffic ticket robots continues in Europe. And more tax resistance news from Galmudug, Veneto, and Catalonia.
A trove of artifacts from the poll tax rebellion in the U.K. have been scanned in and made available via The Sparrows's Nest Library and Archive. Also: a property tax strike is brewing in Boston, more traffic ticket robots disabled in France, and Donald Trump contributes to the collapse of taxpayer compliance in the United States.
The I.R.S.'s extra-legal attempt to withhold stimulus payments from prisoners gets slapped down by a federal judge. There's a new NWTRCC newsletter out. The human war on traffic ticket robots continues. And more recent tax resistance links of note.
My limerick commentary on current events. Profiles of war tax resisters Don Timmerman, John Woolman, and Ammon Hennacy. Creative ways to exploit I.R.S. paperwork chaos. Traffic ticket robots under attack in Europe. How tax evasion may suddenly balloon. How the "All or Nothing Syndrome" discourages war tax resistance. Americans renounce their citizenship in record numbers. And peace activists who attacked U.S. military planes in Ireland are found not guilty by a sympathetic jury.
Rob Greenfield announces he's through paying federal taxes. Also: fifty thousand businesses in Tuscany launch a coordinated tax strike. And: the human war on traffic ticket robots continues. Also: prohibitive American cigarette taxes inexorably lead to a boom in smuggling.
There's a new NWTRCC newsletter out with updates for American war tax resisters. Also: another tax strike is brewing in South Kivu. And: the human war on traffic ticket robots continues around the world.
The human rebellion against the traffic ticket robots continues to rage. Here is a collection of recent reports from Italy, France, England, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Guadeloupe. Also: reading the tea leaves and trying to divine whether or not an I.R.S. budget increase is in our future.
An upcoming Mennonite webinar will cover war tax resistance. War tax resisters in Spain issue an annual movement census. Peter J. Reilly shakes his head and concludes that not paying your taxes is a workable strategy. More attacks on speed cameras in France. And more hints the Democrats are planning to boost the I.R.S.
An Extiction Rebellion tax resister speaks out on The Earth Tax Strike group's plans. The South Kivu tax strike heats up. Ruth Benn on John-Ed Croft, and Bob Bady on Juanita & Wally Nelson. And the human battle against the traffic ticket robots continues.
The I.R.S. sends me another eight letters (yawn). Also: boycotts target the military coup in Myanmar. And the human battle against the traffic ticket robots continues.
Tax resistance against the military coup in Myanmar heats up. #MoneyRebellion's Earth Tax Strike prepares to launch. Don't be intimidated into silence by frivolous filing penalties. The human war on traffic ticket robots continues. The I.R.S. says it will give you your stimulus money even if you owe taxes, and you now have until May 17 to file your return.
War tax resister Lindsey Britt on how our taxes form our legacy. America's wealthy are tax dodging with impunity. A regional Catalan government stops paying taxes to Spain, while Spanish war tax resisters ramp up for tax season. Traffic ticket robots succumb to attacks around the globe. A look back at the anti-poll-tax movement. Upcoming Tax Day actions. And a new tax strike in the D.R. Congo.
Long-time war tax resisters Arcadi Oliveres and David Zarembka have died. More Catalan municipalities begin withholding their taxes from Spain. A new NWTRCC newsletter, press release, and upcoming national gathering. A tax strike in North Kivu is boosted by a hartal and sit-ins. A new War Resisters League federal spending pie chart is out. Constitutional challenges to revocations of passports from tax scofflaws look unlikely to succeed, says tax prof. Biden plans to boost the I.R.S. enforcement budget. And: more traffic ticket camera destruction in Europe.
The Biden administration plans to beef up the I.R.S. enforcement budget, as the agency struggles to keep up with paperwork and new responsibilities. The I.R.S. commissioner doubles his estimate of the "tax gap" to $1 trillion of evaded taxes per year. War tax resisters in the U.S. and Spain prepare for tax season. Peter Bagge illustrates Henry David Thoreau. And more traffic ticket robots fall to rebel sabotage.
A climate emergency tax strike begins in the U.K., and a seminar about the history of tax objection there. The Biden administration wants banks to report details about everyone's bank accounts to the I.R.S. A separatist group in Catalonia launches a tax resistance campaign. An upcoming seminar about the legal prospects for conscientious objection to military taxation in the U.S.A. And some other tax resistance activity around the globe.
War tax resisters celebrate International Conscientious Objection Day. Anti-coup tax strikers in Myanmar are also refusing to pay government monopoly electricity bills. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to double the I.R.S. budget. And more tax resistance news from around the world.
South Kivu tax strikers force the government to meet their demands, the Global Days of Action on Military Spending conclude on Tax Day in the U.S., restaurants and gyms in Rosario, Argentina launch a tax strike, remembering war tax refuser Eroseanna Robinson, roadblocks in Democratic plans to beef up I.R.S. enforcement powers, NWTRCC holds an on-line national gathering, human attacks on traffic ticket robots continue, and new tax resistance rumblings in South Africa.
Extinction Rebellion U.K. puts out a video to announce the launch of its Earth Tax Strike. Also: Peter Goldberger on the legal prospects for conscientious objection to military taxation in the U.S., an interesting hack of California's tax system, a history of how the I.R.S. got into its current sorry state, prospects for the Biden Administration's plans to turn that around, a letter from a Basque war tax resister, and more tales from the human war on traffic ticket robots.
Newly-released statistics from the I.R.S. confirm that the number of tax enforcement liens, levies, and seizures plummeted last year to twenty-year lows. Also: hotels in Argentina launch a tax strike, connecting the dots between war tax resisters and the Pentagon Papers whistleblower, unintuitive tax resistance in Ivory Coast, another war tax resistance season peaks in Spain, and the human war on traffic ticket robots continues.
An estimated 61% of U.S. households paid no federal income tax last year. The I.R.S. says it will avoid seizing money from bank accounts that received Advanced Child Tax Credit deposits. A "Council Tax Strike" hits the U.K. The human war on traffic-ticket-issuing robot cameras continues. And: looks back at the tax resistance of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen and of Henry David Thoreau.
The Biden administration would like the I.R.S. to have more visibility into your bank accounts, but the legislative proposal to force banks to report this information may not survive the reconciliation process. Also: a recap of the activism of war tax resisters Eroseana Robinson and Juanita & Wally Nelson. And: the human war on traffic ticket robots continues.
The I.R.S. pulls a fast one to evade the statute of limitations. International tax resisters to speak at upcoming NWTRCC conference. New regional war tax resistance group starts in New England. Recap of Women's Tax Resistance League published. London environmentalists launch tax strike against new incinerator. Biafra Nations League issues tax strike ultimatum. Conscientious objectors to abortion introduce peace-tax-fund-like legislation in Argentina. And more of the latest tax resistance news.
Plans to let the I.R.S. snoop on your bank accounts get more modest. A new guide to healthy eating on a frugal budget. Federal tax revenues are way up this year, thanks to booming fortunes of corporations and the wealthy. And the global human ragtag guerrilla defense against the traffic ticket robot hordes continues.
Congressional Democrats were unable to coalesce around a plan to let the I.R.S. snoop on your bank accounts, so that looks to be off the table for now. But the I.R.S. budget is getting a boost that will erase the cuts from the past decade. Meanwhile the global human ragtag guerrilla defense against traffic ticket robots continues, as shown in this dramatic video.
European tax resisters speak at NWTRCC's national gathering. Myanmar democracy advocates call on international companies to hold taxes back from the military junta. More tax enforcement money in the proposed infrastructure bill in the U.S. And: the global human ragtag guerrilla defense against traffic ticket robots continues.
NWTRCC launches a "Refuse to Pay for War Sign-On Statement." The Mennonite Church U.S.A. calls for war tax resistance in its Statement on the value and morality of the 2022 U.S. defense budget. The number of Americans who formally renounce their citizenship hit new highs last year. José Luis Espert, a member of parliament, called for mass tax resistance in Argentina. And: The ragtag human guerrilla war against the robot traffic ticket camera hordes continues.
War tax resister Randy Kehler profiled. An interview with war tax resister Kathy Kelly and an article about war tax resistance by Lincoln Rice and Glen Milner. Richard M. Schickel, a former I.R.S. Revenue Officer, has put out a new book about why the I.R.S. doesn't work anymore. The I.R.S. customer service phone line is so bad, a business is making a profit by sitting on hold for you. And: Santa Claus converts a traffic ticket camera into a pose-with-santa photo booth.
A North London Incinerator Council Tax Strike Handbook published. The anticipated I.R.S. funding boost runs into snags in Congress. Highlights from the Taxpayer Advocate's annual report. New levies, liens, and seizures annual totals released. And: the human war against the robot traffic ticket camera hordes continues.
Catalan separatists double down on tax redirection campaign. Resisters in Myanmar threatened by regime soldiers. I.R.S. revamps its on-line authentication process in an unsurprisingly awful way. Only about half of the income of pass-through businesses in the U.S. is subject to tax. The human war against the robot traffic ticket camera hordes continues. And: clever children hack the heck out of the schools that institutionalize them.
I.R.S. getting desperate as tax season begins with millions of last year's forms still unprocessed. Meanwhile identity thieves rob the government through I.R.S. back doors and the agency's attempt to close those doors is becoming a fiasco. Meanwhile: NWTRCC chief interviewed for a podcast, and the group puts out a new newsletter. And: thousands of people are being forbidden from renouncing their U.S. citizenships because embassies won't process their paperwork. And: the human war against the robot traffic ticket camera hordes continues.
The bad news gets worse for the I.R.S. as the agency is forced to scrap its new identity verification system, and to stop sending notices to taxpayers and tax resisters as it keeps discovering millions more unanswered letters in its ever-growing pile. Oh, and its mail-sorting and -opening machines are broken. Meanwhile: more news from the Edmonton Incinerator tax strike, a utility bill strike in Turkey, and the ongoing human battle against traffic ticket robots.
How tax resisters popularized bitcoin. "Symbolic" tax resisters explain themselves. The I.R.S. continues to take damage, sometimes self-inflicted. And: The international human war against the robot traffic ticket camera hordes continues.
War tax resistance in the U.S. and Spain, a new federal budget pie chart, woes aplenty at the I.R.S., the ongoing human battle against the traffic ticket robots, tax resistance for an independent Catalonia, and dispatches from the tax protester fringe.
Tax Day protest on Wall Street unites environmental and anti-war resisters. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu keeps up his strike from the dark. Robert McGee releases summary report of cross-cultural studies on tax evasion attitudes. A "failed" tax resister looks back at what went wrong. Comparing W2 and 1099 earnings. And the scrappy human underdogs continue to demolish robot traffic ticket cameras.
Tax resistance in Teen Vogue, redirection ceremonies mark Tax Day in the U.S., an overwhelmed I.R.S. destroys paperwork it is too overwhelmed to process, a new tax strike hits Ituri in the wake of massacres in Djugu, and the human struggle against the robot traffic ticket cameras continues.
Around the world, fed up drivers are attacking and disabling roadside automated traffic-ticket radar cameras, using a variety of creative methods.
The $80 billion budget boost for the I.R.S. has now been signed into law. What can we expect the agency to do with all this new funding? Also: a new NWTRCC newsletter, "Don't Pay U.K." urges Britons to stop paying energy bills, and the ragtag human guerrilla war against the traffic ticket robot hordes continues.
Merchants in San Francisco's Castro district threaten to stop paying taxes and fees to a city that fails to protect their businesses from crime. War tax resisters Betsy Corner & Randy Kehler interviewed. Catholic Worker war tax resister Tom Cornell remembered. Russian anarchists sabotage Putin's war machine. More traffic ticket radar cameras disabled in Germany.
A scholarly take on the tax resistance of Dorothy Day. An upcoming seminar on war tax resistance for beginners. The I.R.S. has its hands full trying to boost its workforce. The founder of Patagonia gives away his business to a non-profit (and avoids a lot of taxes thereby). Huge surge of tax revenue for the U.S. government this year. An I.R.S. building in Memphis appears to have been "swatted." The human war on roadside traffic ticket robots continues. And, tax strikes as political business-as-usual in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A new NWTRCC newsletter celebrates the group's 40th birthday. Republicans vow to rescind I.R.S. funding in what I assume to be insincere campaign bluster. Market vendors in Marimanti, Kenya, organize a tax strike. And the human war on roadside traffic ticket robots continues.
"Let them march all they want, as long as they pay their taxes." Did Alexander Haig really say that? Nobody seems to know for sure, but it seems to be one of those quotes that's "too good to check." Also: NWTRCC's national gathering is coming up soon. The threat of "taxpayer-funded abortion" motivates pro-life voters. The numbers of American tax-filers who pay no income tax predicted to fall back to pre-pandemic levels. And the human war on roadside traffic ticket robots continues.
The I.R.S. has put out a new estimate of the "tax gap" — roughly half a trillion dollars. But they'd be more honest to but big error bars around their figure. The "Don't Pay" U.K. campaign pulls a switcheroo on its pledge and plans to begin its utility bill strike on December first. The scrappy human rebellion against the traffic ticket robots continues. And, a profile of Women's Tax Resistance League pioneer Octavia Lewin.
I.R.S. continues to struggle to build capability, as Congress claws back some of the money it granted. NWTRCC has a new newsletter out. A nuclear weapons protester goes to jail rather than pay a fine. War tax resister Karl Meyer interviewed. Human rebels continue to take it to the roadside traffic ticket camera robots.
A "Tax Strike for Climate" in the Netherlands is protesting government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. "Don't Pay U.K." ramps up its protests. American war tax resisters Robert Randall and Marjorie Nelson have died. The U.S. government backs down from its coercively prohibitive fee for renouncing American citizenship. And more attacks on automated traffic-ticket speed cameras in Europe.
How you can resist funding the government → a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns → issue bomb threats, send disturbing packages → see also
A free MP3-lecture about war tax resistance, some I.R.S. monkeywrenching, the results of a survey about taxpayer attitudes, and Time Management for Anarchists: The Movie.
Yesterday was my first day as a VITA volunteer this tax season, and the government is $2,314 poorer. Also: a heaping helping of miscellany, including grass roots action against domestic torture enablers, Democratic plans to increase military spending, Homeland Security pork, Possum living, attacks on tax collectors, the Coalition to Get the Stop Funding the War Coalition to Stop Funding the War, federal employees who moonlight as tax evaders, and tax policy by merry men in tights.
An on-line game currency crosses over into Chinese meatspace. Also: the Vermont Republic and the Free State of New Hampshire vie for first state out of the Union honors. And: another "mysterious powder in envelope shuts down I.R.S. processing center" story.
I got another letter from the I.R.S. today asking for that money I refused to give them last April. Also: another "mysterious white powder" incident shuts down an I.R.S. mailroom.
Anti-war actions in the San Francisco area to commemorate the beginning of the seventh year of the Iraq War. Also: collecting rainwater that falls on your own roof may be illegal, an envelope of suspicious powder shuts down an I.R.S. mailroom, the Peace Tax Seven suffer a legal setback, and refuting "the free rider fallacy."
NWTRCC's Ed Hedemann talks about war tax resistance and redirection on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. Also: the joy of teabagging your Congressional representatives. And: tax preparation tips from The Onion.
"The Sufferings of many, for Refuſing to pay the wicked Exactions of the Ceſs, Locality, Fynes &c. Vindicated." Also: details and registration info about the upcoming NWTRCC national conference. And: A C.I.A. torture manual excerpt. Also: more details about the grow-your-own tobacco movement. And: lets say you get caught mailing fake anthrax to the I.R.S. how much time are you gonna do for that?
Thoreau writes to Emerson about the peace movement of his day. Also: an envelope full of foot powder, sent to an I.R.S. processing facility from a prison zip code, evacuates the building for the afternoon. And: The Nicomachean Ethics shows the seams from where it has been stitched together from older sources.
A populist movement to get people to move their money out of banks and into credit unions has tax resistance implications. Also: I.R.S. workers discover they are very unpopular, cannot show their faces in polite society, and have to be paranoid of every envelope they open.
Maybe it was the British cops painting swastikas on their helmets and marching through Tel Aviv shouting "Heil Hitler," but many Jews decided they would rather not pay taxes to the British administration of Palestine. Decades later, the Palestinians feel much the same about the new boss.
Arnold Cuba, an undergrad at the University of Texas, started resisting the federal telephone service excise tax during the Vietnam War, and in 1972 had his VW seized by the I.R.S. to be auctioned off to cover $2.44 in resisted taxes. Also: the greatest value of Wikileaks may be measured not in any specific piece of leaked information, but in the disproportionate damage that leakage in general induces unjust, secretive conspiracies to inflict upon themselves.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is on-line. Also: bars in Lansing, Michigan fight back against a smoking ban with a tax resistance campaign; a profile of resister Martha Graber; and more "suspicious packages" force evacuations at I.R.S. processing centers.
Every tax day, Steve Magin visits the I.R.S. offering to pay his taxes in full if they'll assure him that none of the money will go to pay for war and armaments. Also: a "suspicious powder" incident shuts down the I.R.S. office in Ogden, Utah. And: tobacco smuggling is skyrocketing along with tax rates (who saw that coming?) Also: another dispatch from the liquor tax showdown in Cincinnati in 1884.
Tax resistance in occupied Mexican Texas in 1877. Also: Cindy Sheehan on "frivolous" conscientious objection, more background on the Greek tax rebellion, and Indian farmers using the power of poisonous snakes against a corrupt tax office.
The next NWTRCC national gathering will be in Chicago this May, coinciding with the NATO/G8 summit protests. Also: some facts and graphs about the 2012 U.S. military budget. And: the National Prison Divestment Campaign wants you to make sure your money isn't invested in mass imprisonment. Also: the I.R.S. gets a turd in the mail.
An update on Vickie Aldrich's "frivolous filing" case. Also: council tax rebels in Britain, including a group that stormed a tax bankruptcy trial and tried to arrest the judge. And: the I.R.S. facilitates the tax fraud industry by promiscuously distributing taxpayer ID numbers. Also: another "I.R.S. building evacuated due to suspicious package" story.
While I was busy going through Friends Journal back issues, I didn't attend much to American tax resistance news in the here-and-now, so I'll try to give a recap today of some of the interesting items that caught my notice over the last couple of months.
NWTRCC's fall gathering announced; a report on the BerkShares alternative currency; Robert Fernandes pays his taxes in $1 bills as a protest; lucky duckies are becoming rarer and may have been over-counted in the first place; prohibitionists in Colorado are trying to use taxes to push marijuana back underground; Michael Izbicki shares his decision to begin resisting taxes; and another "suspicious white powder" incident at an I.R.S. facility.
An upcoming google hangout explores how to continue to resist war after the anti-war rally ends. Also: frugal living in the service of philanthropy, more evidence the I.R.S. is falling down on the enforcement job, the tax trouble of bitcoin, and another suspicious package evacuates an I.R.S. building.
Scotland officially throws in the towel and won't try to collect Thatcher's Poll Tax from people who refused to pay back in 1989. French tax officials are frightened out of their wits by taxpayer animosity. Greek resistance to the enfia tax grows. And: another "suspicious white powder" incident at an I.R.S. office.
Direct action convicts refuse to pay their fine, results of a tax day "penny poll," an I.R.S. building threatened by mad Squirrel, and one man's struggle against a "bachelor tax."
Today, a series of tax resistance news briefs and links about campaigns and campaigners all around the world, refusing taxes in the service of a variety of causes.
Participants in the 1963 Birmingham Campaign signed a pledge committing them to a daily, constant practice of nonviolent discipline, which was designed to help them transform more than just local public transit. Also: more links of interest, and an Education Act tax resister is released from jail in 1905.
The Guardian gives anti-Trump tax resisters some publicity. Americans are giving up their citizenship in record numbers. Trump's border wall is just the latest step in the militarization of the border. Another mysterious-white-powder scare shuts an I.R.S. office. And: say, isn't there a general strike today?
The I.R.S. made fewer property seizures, served fewer levies, and filed fewer liens last year than the year before, continuing a recent trend. Also: another example of a suspicious envelope of white powder causing the evacuation of an I.R.S. building.
See the scripts the I.R.S.'s new private debt collectors will be using. View your I.R.S. account on-line. A look at how Thoreau has aged. A note about a suffragette tax auction. Suspicious packages shut down I.R.S. buildings in Austin and Philadelphia. And the I.R.S. is forced to return hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.
More Thoreau bicentennial notes, including a surprising number in the German press. Also: forty businesses in Italy unite in a tax strike. Another report from the C.P.T.I. gathering. And some advice on keeping your fingers out of I.R.S. bomb threat plots.
A radical paper covers the jailing of Dr. Arthur Evans for contempt of court during the government's confrontation with his war tax resistance in 1963. Also: another "suspicious package" arrives at an I.R.S. mail room. And: A dramatic increase in the number of Americans failing to pay their quarterly estimated taxes.
The Women's Tax Resistance League is explained in a lecture by Helen Thornley. Also: persisting in protesting, tax day after tax day. Another suspicious package shuts down another I.R.S. building. Tax strike in North Kivu. Tax resistance urged in Imo, Nigeria. And Australian tax refusers are very likely to come out ahead, even if they are caught and fined and ordered to pay up.
Tax resistance news from Samoa, Greece, the United States, Brittany, Saudi Arabia, France, Italy, Zambia, India, Nicaragua, Uganda, and Valencia.
I.R.S. says it will delay levying bank accounts into which you deposit stimulus payments or PPP loans (long enough for you to zero them out!). Tax blogger Peter J. Reilly concludes that I.R.S. Collections is broken, and "flat out not paying" has become a workable strategy for taxpayers. There's a new NWTRCC newsletter out. Also: tax protests and strikes in Poland, Italy, South Kivu, and Serbia. And a Nicaraguan columnist wants big business to lead the next tax strike there.
Eleven council tax resisters fight the Edmonton Incinerator. The fate of I.R.S. provisions in the Build Back Better Act. War tax resisters in Spain redirect €25K in war taxes to good causes. Tax strike launched in Ituri. A new NWTRCC newsletter is out. And more tax resistance news.
How you can resist funding the government → a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns → migrate or taxpatriate ahead of the tax collector → leave the country ("taxpatriatism")
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If I hate the government so much, why don't I leave its country?
"Taxpatriates" renounce their citizenship and leave the country to stop paying taxes. And: fragging returns to our national flashback.
Daydreaming about living South of The Border, and of extraterritorial income exclusion rules.
Help lay the groundwork for a "People Power"-style freedom movement in the U.S. by adding to the project's strategic estimate. Also: Americans renouncing their citizenship to become "taxpatriates", waste and pork in the military budget, and upscale dumpster-diving in Berkeley.
A taxpatriate, who fled overseas rather than continue to support and be embarrassed by the U.S. government, tells her story. Also: frugalista living tips from Wendy McElroy. And: a new sales pitch for war tax resistance — of the effective things you could be doing, it's one of the easiest.
A Permanent Tourist, only Passing Through or Parked Temporarily, can become a Prior Taxpayer. Also: news from War Resisters International about its tax resistance and an upcoming international war tax resistance conference. And: more about John Buscaglia's tax resistance in favor of legal recognition for same-sex marriages.
The rules of taxpatriatism have changed (here are the details). Also: the news media were used by the military-industrial complex (wait… aren't they part of the military-industrial complex?). And: yep, the Pentagon is wasting tons of your money. Also: Bureaucrash sponsors a Stop Wars project that'd be perfect for young war tax resister provocateurs. And: a new alternative currency system sprouts up, a sort of technologically-advanced Time Dollar.
The lawyers of Delhi go on strike to protest a threatened tax on lawyering, bringing the local legal system to a standstill. Also: Guy Hands becomes a taxpatriate.
Terry Gilliam tells how he renounced his American citizenship and became a taxpatriate because he "got tired of my taxes paying for exciting little wars around the world." Also: is a tax resistance movement brewing among the American religious right? A look at the Manhattan Declaration leads me to conclude: who knows?
Notes from the National Taxpayer Advocate's Annual Report about social security levies, haphazard collection processes, rampant taxpatriatism, the undermining of the offer-in-compromise program, and increasing taxpayer noncompliance.
Taxpatriatism on the rise, says the Wall Street Journal. Also: details on the upcoming NWTRCC National Gathering, libertarian war tax resister Jose Roldan explains himself, tax resistance for animal welfare in Spain, and Cindy Sheehan reminds anti-war taxpayers that you get what you pay for.
A practical guide to a very effective, if somewhat daunting, method of tax resistance: expatriate and renounce your citizenship.
More information about how to renounce your citizenship and get out of Dodge. Also: Larry Dansinger on the Frank Donnelly case, Carl Kline on war tax resistance as an antidepressant for frustrated activists, and 1,295 prisoners got the first-time home-buyer tax credit during their stay in the big house. And: I get another letter from the I.R.S.
Want to renounce your citizenship? The government taxes that too. And: the war tax resistance movement in the Canary Islands, Joan Baez sings of whiskey rebels and moonshiners, and announcing the November NWTRCC national in Boston in conjunction with the 25th Annual New England Gathering of War Tax Resisters and Supporters this November. Also: see you in August — we're off to Mexico!
Evan Reeves decides to become a war tax resister, and has an innovative protest idea. Also: A Quebec man tries to pay his taxes with 200,000 pennies. And: Americans renouncing their citizenship to avoid U.S. taxes. Also: Alcohol, tobacco, ammunition, and firearms federal excise tax receipts are way up. And: how the U.S. judiciary supplements the legislature's revenue raising prerogatives in times of war.
A list of Tax Day war tax resistance actions nationwide this year. Also: the new War Resisters League federal budget pie chart is out. And: it is becoming more popular for Americans to taxpatriate. Also: the government publishes a guide on how to evade the tobacco tax. And: A 1949 New York Times piece on the war tax resistance of Caroline Urie.
Michael Sonnleitner on how war tax resistance helps him get a good night's sleep. Also: Robert Wood on the history and current state of U.S. law regarding "taxpatriatism" — people who renounce their U.S. citizenship and move overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Notes from the Social Justice Networking panel at the NWTRCC conference earlier this month, resolving a tangle of taxpatriatism, and a look back at the conviction of war tax resister Ellis Rece in 1972.
In 1972, the Central Conference of American Rabbis voted to begin war tax resistance to protest the Vietnam War. Also: The number of people who are renouncing their U.S. citizenship or giving up on their long-term residency continues to rise, extending a trend that began last year.
Sign up to attend the NWTRCC National Gathering in Kansas City this November. And: Americans living and working overseas are renouncing their citizenship to get out of the grips of the I.R.S. Also: Robert Burrowes on war tax resistance in Australia. And: Anarchists and war tax resistance. Also: how the rich use government to get richer at your expense. And: contemporary council tax rebels in England… mostly just because they don't think they're getting their money's worth.
Italy's tax resisters turn to letter and petrol bombs directed at the quasi-privatized national tax agency. Also: a Facebook co-founder renounces his U.S. citizenship soon before the Facebook I.P.O. makes him filthy rich with what would have been taxable capital gains. He joins a rising number of Americans who have decided that U.S. citizenship isn't worth it.
One tactic tax resisters have used from time to time is to pack up and leave when the tax collector comes calling, or when arrest is imminent. Also: the tale of James F. Hathaway, who won tax concessions by threatening to go Galt in 1897.
Ten things I think are probably true concerning ethics. Also: a round-up of recent international tax resistance news.
A rundown of recent tax resistance news: war tax resistance in the Friends Journal is all in the obituaries column these days; tax resistance news from Spain, Thailand, France, and Greece; I.R.S. ineptitude makes the news again; the impact of the shutdown on government revenue; and the rising trend of taxpatriatism in the (that is to say, out of the) U.S.
The I.R.S. has been ramping up its use of criminal charges in tax cases. Also: a record number of people renounced their U.S. citizenship last year. And: another early account of the Rebeccaite movement.
War tax resistance news from the U.S., American tax law news, tax resistance news from Spain, France, Greece, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and the Isle of Man, and a couple of looks back at the poll tax resistance campaign in Britain.
Venetian separatists advance their tax resistance campaign. American taxpatriates multiply. Scottish bedroom tax resisters chalk up a victory. Also: an earlier imperialist war in Afghanistan strikes some familiar notes.
The War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund has sent out a new appeal to its subscribers. Also: the number of ex-U.S. taxpatriates continues to rise. And: what to do with this inconvenient Rebecca-informer?
Fewest I.R.S. enforcement officers since 1970s. Cost of renouncing U.S. citizenship goes up more than 500%. War tax resisters to gather in New England. ⅓ of filers will owe Obamacare overpayments in April. Banks liable if they fail to freeze levied accounts quickly. War tax resister at Seattle Anarchist Bookfair. New Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns released on-line.
Notes from war tax resisters Erica Weiland, Peg Morton, John Lindsay-Poland, Frances Crowe, Joseph Olejak, and Henry Braun. Also: some news briefs of interest to tax resisters.
Is war tax resistance elitist? Got any protest plans for Tax Day? Congress denounces black I.R.S. kettle. Colombia court protects conscientious objectors. New Mexico sheriff stands down I.R.S. and federal marshals attempting property seizure. Al Sharpton tries for tax evader hall-of-fame. And: a record number of Americans renounced their citizenship last year.
News about American war tax resisters, troubles in the U.S. tax bureaucracy, and tax resistance campaigns in Spain, Israel, England, Hong Kong, and India.
Simon Black, advocate of personal financial geographical diversification, explains how tax resistance was one motive that led him to expatriate to Chile and stop his money from being "squandered on waste, debt, and war."
Tax resistance news from Catalonia, the U.K., the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Spain, Greece, and elsewhere.
I.R.S. follies, international tax resistance news, war tax resistance bits of note, and a couple of things about Bitcoin and nonprofits and people who renounce their U.S. citizenship — more links than you can shake a stick at.
News from Catalonia, Mexico, India, and the United States highlight the variety of ways people are pushing back against tax collectors.
War tax resistance news from the new NWTRCC newsletter, and from war tax resisters in Spain, Canada, and the U.K.
I get another letter from the I.R.S. Also: the number of Americans renouncing their citizenship or residency continues to rise. And: tax day reflections from Bryan Caplan, war tax resistance news from Spain & Catalonia, a war tax redirection ceremony in San Diego, Raul Perez is making a documentary film about his attempt to get U.S. courts to recognize a right to conscientious objection to military spending, and more…
A tax resistance news roundup, with items from Italy, the U.S., France, the U.K., and Greece.
I'm conducting a free Tax Resistance 101 webinar this Sunday. Here's how to attend. Also: news about tax resisters and tax resistance actions is flying across the wires as Tax Day passes in the United States.
There's a new NWTRCC newsletter out, with news of interest to the American war tax resistance community. Also: more I.R.S. follies and failures, the death of the myRA, and Americans are renouncing their citizenship at a record pace this year.
Issues of "The Mennonite" from 1999 show Mennonites still struggling to find the right method of confronting the problem of taxpayer complicity: some tried lobbying for Peace Tax Fund legislation schemes, others tried to get below the tax line by making large charitable deductions, and one family "taxpatriated" to another country.
How a "constructive programme" of cooperative house building grew out of a war tax resistance house seizure in 1989. Also: tax resistance news briefs from the United States, Kenya, and Canada.
The latest tax evasion scoops, more about the continuing collapse of the U.S. government, I.R.S follies, and other miscellaneous news of interest to tax resisters.
Residents of the Strathcona neighborhood of Vancouver launch a tax strike to protest government neglect of the homeless. Also: a report on the 15th international tax resistance conference, skepticism about tax resistance for Catalan independence, and a record number of people renounce their U.S. citizenship.
Does the U.S. government respect citizens' right to travel abroad? A record number of rich Americans renounced their citizenship last year. Catalan restaurateurs redirect their taxes for seven years and now are fighting a big fine. The I.R.S. continues to drown in a backlog of last year's tax forms, and Congress seems in no hurry to bail them out with more funding. And: a new NWTRCC newsletter is out.
How you can resist funding the government → other forms our opposition can take → electoral politics, legislator lobbying, playing the game
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The Picket Line Tax Day Special, featuring a digest of tax day news.
Hannah Arendt on the "lesser of two evils" strategy: "Its weakness has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget quickly that they chose evil."
Some investment advice from The Picket Line. Also: are you wasting your time looking for the lesser evil on the campaign trail when there might be a greater good somewhere else entirely?
Seven war tax resisters in the UK bring a legal challenge to try to force the government to accommodate conscientious objectors to military spending. Also: the U.S. electorate — dumb as rocks, or simply spiteful? And: War tax resister John Kefalas widens his lead in the Colorado House primary to a whole seven votes.
You know things have gotten desperate when Utah Phillips registers to vote. To vote, or not to be: that is the question.
A play about tax resistance? Also: the civilian death counts you've been hearing from Iraq may be understated by a factor of six, according to a report in The Lancet. The Department of Homeland Security goes after bootleg Rubik's Cubes. And the I.R.S. — say what you want about 'em, they've got a good web site. Also: there's an urban public transit solution made of thousands of individually-owned vehicles — it's called "slugging."
So maybe you decided to give the lesser-of-two-evils strategy one last try and you spent the last months putting all of your eggs in the Kerry basket… well, here's an "A" for effort. Now if you want to get serious, I'd like to suggest something a little more intense than making a donation, hammering in a yard sign or pulling a lever.
I'm in no mood to join another protest march with the same old "People! United!" marching under the banner of "Our Opinions Sure Are Right!" Next time there's a march, I want to be marching upstream, with a sign reading "When You're Serious About It, Get Back To Us!"
The White House may borrow a ton of money to enact Social Security reform and then pretend that it hasn't borrowed any money at all when it calculates the deficit. Don't you wish you could use such creative accounting techniques? Also: foes of a new nuclear arms race manage to win a rare victory — the new nuclear weapons projects requested by the White House were dropped from the budget bill. And: 40%–50% of the food America produces is thrown away uneaten — go Freegans go!
A review of today's civil disobedience action at Bechtel headquarters in San Francisco: the action was flawed and not very successful, but we can learn from this. Also: In spite of my professed lack of faith in democracy, I'm unable to keep myself from celebrating over Lieberman's primary loss.
The "Taxed Enough Already" crowd in 1950s France was a lot like their counterparts in today's United States, except that they actually put their money where their mouths were.
When Vivien Kellems resisted the federal income tax withholding system, she was subjected to an unusually intense smear campaign, which included the government intercepting her private mail and leaking it to the press.
Please don't vote. It's worse than worthless. And don't feel like you have to follow the election-season blathering either. You'll be happier, more productive and helpful, and less of an annoyance to your friends and family.
The group Acción Colectiva de Objetoras y Objetores de Conciencia advanced its careful plan to improve the situation for draftees and conscientious objectors in Colombia as they hosted the 14th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns in Bogotá.
Please don't vote. It's worse than worthless. And don't feel like you have to follow the election-season blathering either. You'll be happier, more productive and helpful, and less of an annoyance to your friends and family. Here are some alternatives to voting.
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó has attempted, for over a decade now, to maintain a neutral oasis of nonviolent resistance on the front lines of the civil war in Colombia. Among their strategies are techniques of economic noncooperation with belligerents.
The tax resistance movement against the Education Act of 1902 ran headfirst into party politics, which became something of a tar baby for the campaign.
War tax resisters to meet in Massachusetts in October. 27% of Americans pay no income or payroll tax. Separatists in Trieste launch a tax strike. An Argentine priest leads a road toll rebellion. A college student invents a chatbot that overturns $4 million in parking tickets. The I.R.S. continues to get spanked for civil forfeiture abuse. Bitcoins may be the next super tax haven. Another irate taxpayer pays his bill with bags of low-denomination money. And more news besides.
Tax resistance news from the U.S., the D.R. Congo, Tunisia, Greece, and Catalonia. Also: another reason why American democracy is harmful to American people.
I want to put in a word for hopelessness. I encourage you to abandon hope in the electoral process and do something useful instead, just as I would encourage someone with a malignant tumor to stop watching faith healers on TV and make an appointment with an oncologist. The time has come for you to get seriously hopeless. Not because there is no hope, but because your hope lies elsewhere.
How you can resist funding the government → the tax resistance movement → conferences & gatherings → Mennonite Church U.S.A. biennial, 2019
A new war tax resistance redirection fund is being proposed at the Mennonite Church U.S.A. biennial conference next month. It would breathe new life into a fund first established over 35 years ago but that has lately been dormant.
How you can resist funding the government → the tax resistance movement → conferences & gatherings → 15th International Conference on War Tax Resistance & Peace Tax Campaigns
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Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → Pakistan → business strike, 2019
Tax resistance in the "Peace Churches" → Mennonites / Amish → Barbara & Harold A. Penner
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Mennonite war tax resisters today, a "Tax Tea Party Revolt" for legal same-sex marriage recognition in April, and weighing the pros-and-cons of simultaneous war tax resistance against federal and state taxes.
It's "Tax Day" in the United States, and American war tax resisters are pressing their cases in the media. Appearances by Barbara & Harold Penner, Linda & Titus Peachey, Berry & Sharon Friesen, Janet & John Stoner, Erica Weiland, Ruth Benn, David Zarembka, Ed Hedemann, and Sue Barnhart, among others.
As the U.S. war on Iraq heated up, ironically talk of war tax resistance in the pages of "The Mennonite" continued to dwindle.
As the first decade of the new millennium came to a close, some Mennonites wondered whether the Mennonite Church had come to be "at peace with war." Certainly they seemed to largely be at peace with war taxes, with some notable exceptions.
"The Mennonite" is now on-line, but a search through its recent archives discloses little about war tax resistance. Also: I discover where the missing volumes of "The Mennonite" from 1934, 1935, and 1953 were hiding.
The debate about whether or not to pay war taxes, and about whether Mennonite institutions should be more accommodating of the requests of their employees not to have war taxes deducted from their salaries, continued in 1985, and edged ever closer to the Mennonite Church itself.
Tax resistance in the "Peace Churches" → Mennonites / Amish → Janet & John K. Stoner
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Some profiles of, and quotes from, tax resisters in the press recently.
The latest issue of New Escapologist carries an article I wrote to introduce the practical technique of tax resistance. Also: John K. Stoner tries to get American Mennonites excited about a new war tax resistance protest campaign. And: would you be surprised to learn the I.R.S. issues more press releases about tax-related prosecutions in the weeks leading up to April 15?
NWTRCC announces this year's crop of "tax day" war tax resistance actions. Also: "tax day" newspaper articles from years past cover the war tax resistance of Max Sandin, Joan Baez, Irwin Hogenauer, Raymond Hunthausen, Clare Hanrahan, Susan Quinlan, Larry Harper, Bill Ramsey, Ruth Benn, Mary Ann C. Holtz, and Karl Meyer.
One of Gandhi's first experiments with satyagraha was a strike by Indian workers in South Africa to defeat a tax aimed at Indians there. Also: some conscientious objectors to military taxation gave their two cents to Congress in 1993 during hearings about taxpayer noncompliance.
War tax resistance was a frequent topic in the issues of Friends Journal in 1979, though there was still no consensus about how to go about it, and there was a lot of hesitance among Quaker institutions about how strongly to endorse it.
The third of Friends Journal's special issues on war tax resistance came in 1988, and the topic came up in several other issues besides.
By 1993 the coverage of American Quaker war tax resistance in the Friends Journal makes it seem pretty weak — not a lot of activity at all, and what there is of it is half-hearted symbolic measures or pathetic attempts to get Congress to pass a "Peace Tax Fund" scheme. There was almost more news about war tax resistance in Canada than in the United States.
A New Call to Peacemaking was an effort by concerned Brethren, Mennonites, and Quakers to revitalize the peace testimony that sets those denominations apart. It included a call to war tax resistance. Also: the State Department issued me a brand new passport in the face of a law passed in 2015 that says tax resisters like me should have our passports revoked.
Between the "New Call to Peacemaking" initiative and the ongoing study and debate in Mennonite congregations, 1978 was a big year for war tax resistance in "The Mennonite".
In 1980 the General Conference Mennonite Church voted to initiate a legal suit in an attempt to free it from having to withhold war taxes from its conscientiously objecting employees.
Debate about whether, and how, to resist war taxes continued in the pages of "The Mennonite" in 1981, a proposal to create a "sabbatical service" program for war tax resisters was floated, and the General Conference Mennonite Church prepared a lawsuit against the I.R.S.
A "Taxes for Life" initiative was briefly a craze among "The Mennonite" set in 1992. Meanwhile other Mennonites continued to puzzle over what it means to Render Unto Caesar in a nuclear age.
In the late 1990s, while some individual Mennonites were still enthusiastically resisting war taxes, Mennonite institutions were less interested in confronting the issue directly, and tended to only obliquely refer to the dilemma of paying taxes for war. Even institutions that officially supported tax resisting employees often indicated that no employees were asking for such support.
At the turn of the millennium, war tax resisters in "The Mennonite" seemed to be on the defensive, trying to fortify the practice against the Frequently Asked Questions of the reluctant.
A variety of Mennonite conferences met in 1978 for a collective consultation about the propriety of paying war taxes, and "A New Call to Peacemaking" urged the traditional peace churches to take a stronger war tax resistance stand.
In 1979, the Mennonite Church had the luxury of playing spectator as their cousins in the General Conference Mennonite Church wrestled with war taxes at a special conference. Meanwhile: a conservative backlash was organizing, and peace tax fund advocates were ramping up their lobbying campaign.
1981 was marked by heated debate in the pages of "Gospel Herald" about war tax resistance, while Mennonite Church institutions continued to struggle with whether or how to take a stand.
Hopes that the U.S. court system might recognize a Constitutional right to conscientious objection to military taxation were dashed in 1982, as the debate about war tax resistance continued in the Mennonite Church.
In 1987, it seemed to me I started to see a lot more content in the "Gospel Herald" bemoaning how "our tax dollars" were financing this or that government-sponsored horror without going one step further and suggesting how people could stop their taxes, at least, from being spent in that way.
Between the distracting hope of Peace Tax Fund legislation, and a newly-organized conservative anti-tax-resistance faction, in 1992 the war tax resistance tide started to recede in the Mennonite Church. Among the symptoms of decay were pleas for new resisters to refuse some tiny, safe, token amount of taxes in lieu of more firm resistance.
"Gospel Herald" ceased publication as an independent magazine at the beginning of 1998, merging with "The Mennonite" as the Mennonite Church merged with the General Conference Mennonite Church. Today I'll show some of the final mentions of tax resistance in the magazine before the merger.
One of the best debates I have seen about the biblical basis for tax obedience or tax resistance was between Vernard Eller and Dale Aukerman in the Church of the Brethren's "Messenger" in 1985.
The American Catholic press in 1979 included news of war tax resisters in the United States and anti-abortion tax resisters in Canada and Italy, and the War Resisters League advertised its new "Tax Resistance Kit."
The "Don't Pay U.K." campaign launches its utility bill strike. The Mennonite Church U.S.A. honors war tax resister John Stoner. NWTRCC holds a nostalgic 40th anniversary conference.
Tax resistance in the "Peace Churches" → Mennonites / Amish
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Mennonites, atom bombs, Borgen values, unconventional thinking, and gasoline taxes (oh my!)
How did the Amish manage to get themselves exempted from the U.S. Social Security system? Also: Crispin Sartwell gives a conference of young Democrats a good talking to, and that's not all he's got to say.
Supporters rally to protest the jailing of war tax resister Russell Kanning. Also: how can someone who doesn't file a 1040 apply for a refund of those illegally-collected telephone taxes? And: new editions of the newsletters of NWTRCC and the War Resisters League. Also: a new section on war tax resistance from the Mennonite Central Committee web site.
War tax resistance among American Mennonites during the Revolutionary War. Also: tax resistance during the British women's suffrage movement, and a political cartoon from the Spanish-American War shows what happens when a jingo meets the "war tacks". It must be history day at The Picket Line.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is out. Also: Chris Hedges expands on last month's tax resistance pledge.
Fifty years ago today, Time magazine published an article about Amish resistance to the social security tax in the United States — a civil disobedience campaign that eventually succeeded in forcing concessions from the government.
A new video about government spending priorities and war tax resistance, put out by the Mennonite Central Committee. Also: seven million American children went missing in 1986, thanks to a change in the tax laws. And: Nepalese doctors stage a tax strike.
The new health-care industry law includes concessions to the conscientious objection of the Amish and of people who oppose abortion. Meanwhile conscientious objectors to military taxation still don't get no respect.
A 1964 article about the Amish resistance to the Social Security taxes in the United States, and a couple other data points about the campaign. They were eventually successful in gaining a partial exemption from those taxes for the Amish, but it took over a decade.
My Shareable article about my tax resistance is topic #1 on the Porc Therapy podcast. Mayors in Italy's Northern League launch a tax strike. A Mennonite responds to the Lettermanesque 10 reasons Mennonites don't resist taxes any more. A government-funded video game based on Thoreau's "Walden" pegs the irony meters in the red. And: a photo of Ken Knudson burning his tax payment check in 1966.
When trying to bring new tax resisters into a movement, sometimes there is no substitute for addressing potential resisters individually: whether that be through letters, petitions, face-to-face meetings, or cleverly creative modes of engagement.
If more people evade more taxes, even if they do so for non-idealistic reasons, this both takes resources away from the government and increases the number of targets the tax enforcers have to pursue, thereby taking some pressure off of the resisters. Here's how to make that happen.
Some tax resistance campaigns have accompanied their resistance with petitions to the government asking it to change its policies or to rescind the tax. Here are some examples.
One way a tax resistance campaign can claim victory is by convincing the government to either formally rescind the tax, or to recognize the legal validity of tax resistance. Here are some examples.
What's happening on Tax Day 2013. Mennonites contemplate war tax resistance. Data on the underground economy. French heterosexual supremacists contemplate tax resistance. Even if they're caught, American tax fraudsters are incredibly unlikely to ever cough up their ill gotten gains. And: fifty years ago today, Barbara Deming lays out the case for war tax resistance.
War tax resistance remained very much on the agenda at the Friends Journal at the beginning of the Reagan era of aggressive military build-up in 1981.
Is the dilemma facing pacifist Quakers who are asked to pay a war tax best resolved by conscientious objection and civil disobedience, or by lawsuits and lobbying? Both approaches could be found in the pages of the Friends Journal in 1982.
The I.R.S. sends me five very bland letters. Also: American "peace church" representatives confer about how to revitalize war tax resistance in their congregations.
Mennonite war tax resistance in 1969 and today, a conspiratorial look at the Republican plot to destroy the tax system, another highway tax portal in Brittany destroyed by fire, and a peek at tax resistance used in the Cypriot struggles of the 1950s.
News about American war tax resisters Jason Rawn, Juanita Nelson, and Elizabeth Boardman. Also: the U.S. Mennonite Central Committee organizes a tax redirection campaign to support Israeli conscientious objectors.
NWTRCC's newsletter, a new War Tax Talk blog post, and a Ruth Benn radio appearance… the latest news from the American war tax resistance movement.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter, with articles about the U.S. war tax resistance movement, tax resistance internationally, and the global anti-war and conscientious objection movements.
Announcing the next NWTRCC national gathering, news from a war tax resistance teach-in in San Diego, a look back at the pioneers of the modern American war tax resistance movement and how war tax resistance featured in the anti-Vietnam War movement, and more news and links of interest to war tax resisters.
Gloria Steinem says if the government defunds Planned Parenthood, she'll divert her taxes to the group. Also: a new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, with news from the American war tax resistance movement. And: a proposal for a toothless threat for Democrats to refuse to pay taxes if they get Trumped again.
Ronald Freund's book "What One Person Can Do To Help Prevent Nuclear War" gives us an assessment of individual and institutional Christian support for war tax resistance as it stood about 35 years ago.
Issues of "The Mennonite" from 1886 to just before World War Ⅰ show little concern for the conflict between paying taxes for war and traditional Mennonite conscientious objection to military service. It would take some time for Mennonite war tax resistance to reemerge.
As World War Ⅱ heated up, American Mennonites anticipated they would be called on to contribute to the fighting, and tried to decide how they would respond. One suggested that Mennonites quickly invest their assets in charitable endeavors before the government could requisition them for its martial purposes.
When the United States entered World War Ⅱ, American Mennonites feared a repeat of the World War Ⅰ experience, when many were persecuted for refusing to purchase war bonds. So they asked the government to sell them bonds that didn't say "war" on them anywhere, so they could buy too.
During World War Ⅱ the U.S. and Canadian governments sold "war bonds" and "victory loan bonds" to the public, and there was high pressure to buy. Mennonites convinced the government to sell them special bonds that, while the money went to the same place, made them feel like they weren't paying for war. How did that sleight-of-hand work?
As World War Ⅱ comes to a close, American Mennonites find that they have all but conceded to voluntarily funding the military in spite of their "nonresistant" creed. "[W]hat justification remains for us to continue as a separate denomination?" asked one.
Timidly but with plaintive curiosity, "The Mennonite" began to explore war tax resistance in the late 1940s and early 1950s while non-Mennonites were largely at the forefront of the emerging modern war tax resistance movement.
As the 1960s begin, the pages of "The Mennonite" show plenty of evidence that Mennonites were asking whether it was right for them to pay taxes for war, but not a lot of evidence that Mennonites were refusing to pay.
In the early 1960s, war tax resisters and the WTR-curious became more bold in the pages of "The Mennonite," but the General Conference Mennonite Church itself had a hard time coming to a consensus on how to handle the matter.
In 1963, Leo Driedger and John Howard Yoder tell readers of "The Mennonite" that it is time to take arguments about the propriety of paying war taxes seriously, and to decide how to respond.
In the mid-1960s, some Mennonites began to explicitly promote war tax resistance, and a backlash also began. Also, the war in Vietnam for the first time became a focus of war tax discussion.
Mennonites opposed to war tax resistance, particularly in the Eastern District, began to throw their weight around in the late 1960s in the hopes of suppressing what was about to become a serious bone of contention in Mennonite circles.
The Western District Conference led the way in the Mennonite General Conference, passing a war tax resistance resolution in 1970 — possibly the first time an established Mennonite body had taken a public position on the issue.
In 1971 war tax resistance came out in the open, with the General Conference Mennonite Church overwhelmingly adopting a resolution saying "We stand by those who feel called to resist the payment of that portion of taxes being used for military purposes."
Things were really heating up by 1972, and regular coverage of war tax resistance and of Mennonite war tax resisters in "The Mennonite" reflected this. But the majority of Mennonites were not yet on board.
In 1973 the American war on Vietnam was winding down just when war tax resistance among Mennonites was heating up. Also: Lyle and Sue Snider cleared of tax evasion and contempt of court charges related to their war tax resistance.
1974 brought "The Mennonite" readers the news that The World Peace Tax Fund Act had been introduced in the U.S. Congress. It was like the "Civilian Bonds" of World War Ⅱ all over again. Would Mennonites conclude that they were off the hook and could wait for the politicians to do something about their complicity with war?
One of the most thoughtful critiques yet written against war tax resistance was part of the back-and-forth on the issue in the 1975 issues of "The Mennonite".
In 1976 the General Conference Mennonite Church began to wonder whether they could still call themselves a "peace church" while paying war taxes to the government for their objecting employees.
Should the General Conference Mennonite Church stop paying war taxes on behalf of its objecting employees? In 1977 nobody seemed to want to decide, but nobody could make the question go away, so a long discussion and debate began.
In 1979 an unusual session of the Mennonite General Conference was called, just to discuss war tax resistance, and in particular, to decide whether the Conference would support its tax-resisting employees by refusing to withhold taxes from their paychecks.
Before it was even really out of the gate, the General Conference Mennonite Church's suit against the I.R.S., which was intended to free it from having to withhold war taxes from its employees, was crushed.
In 1983 the General Conference Mennonite Church regrouped. Having failed via lawsuit and lobbying to get permission to stop withholding taxes from the paychecks of their war tax resisting employees, they decided to go the civil disobedience route.
The General Board of the Mennonite Church joined the General Conference Mennonite Church's General Board (I know. I know. This is totally confusing.) in pursuing the option to stop withholding taxes from their war tax resisting employees' salaries in 1985. On the other hand, the Mennonite Central Committee decided it wouldn't do any such thing.
Enthusiasm for war tax resistance seemed to be waning in "The Mennonite" by 1987, just as the first international gathering on war tax resistance and peace tax campaigns had taken place. The increased enthusiasm for Peace Tax Fund legislation may have been partially to blame.
In 1988, Mennonite, Quaker, and Brethren leaders conferred on how to support war tax resisters in their churches, and out of this came "A Manual on Military Tax Withholding for Religious Employers."
Collective war tax redirection, through alternative funds, became a hot topic of interest in "The Mennonite" in 1989, as two large conferences of Mennonite congregations merged and voted to maintain their policy of not withholding federal taxes from the salaries of war tax resisting employees.
Mennonite authors like Linda Peachey and Craig Morton delved into current and past Mennonite practice about paying taxes that would be spent on shedding blood in 1990.
Imagine what might happen if every single Mennonite refused to pay taxes for war. Titus Peachey imagined it, and shared his imaginings with readers of "The Mennonite" in 1991.
By 1994, war tax resistance writing in "The Mennonite" was so rare that most of it fit in a single Tax Day issue in which the resisters Ed Olfert, Menno Klassen, Jane Pritchard, Don Kaufman, and Earl & Pat Hostetter Martin were profiled.
In 2002 "The Mennonite" finally got around to reporting on the Mennonite martyrs who paid the price for refusing to buy war bonds during World War Ⅰ.
I sum up what we've uncovered from looking through 133 years of "The Mennonite" to search for mentions of war tax (and war bond) resistance and compliance. War tax resistance began to appear in the 1950s, built to a furious climax in the mid-1980s, and then fell away rapidly thereafter. How might this be explained? Was it just a fad?
Archives of "Gospel Herald," the journal of the Mennonite Church, stretch back all the way to the U.S. Civil War (when its ancestor publication "The Herald of Truth" was active). This allows us to compare Mennonite and Quaker attitudes about paying commutation fines or paying for substitutes.
After the U.S. Civil War, Mennonites continued to make more explicit and precise the contours of their "nonresistant" conscientious objection policy in the pages of "The Herald of Truth." But war tax resistance was still off the table.
As a new century began, "The Herald of Truth" merged with "The Gospel Witness" to form "Gospel Herald". Mennonites debated whether they ought to vote, or become entangled in politics and government in any way, but by and large they taught that paying taxes was mandatory for good Christians.
Between the world wars, "Gospel Herald" writers continued to defend the orthodox opinion that Mennonite conscientious objection stopped at the door of the tax office. Good Christians pay their taxes, even taxes that mostly pay for bloodshed, and that's that.
In World War Ⅱ Mennonites tried to find a way to chip in by buying government bonds without buying "war bonds." The "Gospel Herald" has a fairly thorough record of this effort. The "Civilian Bonds" that resulted were a sort of ridiculous fig leaf, but only a few Mennonites seemed to notice this, including John M. Synder who said Mennonites had fallen for a "specious line of wishful reasoning."
1963 began with a bombshell, as John Howard Yoder's essay "Why I Don't Pay My Taxes" appeared in the "Gospel Herald." This prompted an avalanche of debate about war tax resistance through the first half of the year.
In the mid-1960s, the "Gospel Herald" seemed to retreat from discussion of war tax resistance for a while, until editor John M. Drescher reopened the debate with his 1967 editorial "Dare We Pay Taxes for War?"
By 1968, Mennonites felt left behind as the civil rights and anti-war movements erupted around them. How could the Christian vision of nonviolence and universal brotherhood move to the front of this parade? This made activist positions like war tax resistance seem more essential.
In 1970, Donald Kaufman's book "What Belongs to Caesar?" came out, finding war tax resistance's place in the Mennonite and larger Christian traditions, and increasing its scriptural respectability. "Gospel Herald" writers reacted to this development.
Coverage of war tax resistance really picked up steam in the pages of "Gospel Herald" in 1972, as the Mennonite Church became more enthusiastic about the idea. Also: peace tax fund legislation gets off the ground.
War tax resistance in the Mennonite Church was finally running on all cylinders by 1973, and "Gospel Herald" was reporting that process and helping it along with editorial support.
Duane and Esther Diller penned a letter to President Nixon in 1974, methodically explaining their war tax resistance in a way that could serve as a model for other Mennonite resisters.
Mennonite-inspired war tax resistance began to sprout in Japan in 1975, as the Mennonite Church in the U.S. and Canada continued to wrestle with the issue.
War tax resistance was on the front burner at Mennonite Church bodies and gatherings through 1976 and 1977, according to coverage in "Gospel Herald."
In 1980 there was a lot of discussion of war tax resistance, and a lot of individual Mennonite war tax refusal and redirection, but Mennonite Church institutions seemed more reluctant than their General Conference to take corporate stands supporting their war tax refusing employees.
Somehow I introduce a profane description of Christian agape by William S. Burroughs into a discussion about the state of war tax resistance in the Mennonite Church in 1983.
The debate about war tax resistance continued at a simmer through 1984, and by the end of the year it was clear that the Mennonite Church would have to have the same debate about withholding taxes from its employees' salaries that had occupied the General Conference Mennonite Church the previous year.
War tax resistance was a hot topic of meetings and protests and study groups in Mennonite circles in 1986, but the Mennonite Central Committee seemed reluctant to take a stand.
In 1989 the Mennonite Church General Assembly would hold a long-overdue vote on whether or not to support war tax resistance as an institution. Also: on this date in 1971, a "War Tax Resistance Caravan" started out on a bicycle tour of New England.
After the Mennonite Church General Assembly voted to begin war tax resistance as a body, the general board of the Mennonite Church tried to come up with ways to avoid implementing that decision. The 1990–91 issues of "Gospel Herald" tell some of the tale.
In the early 1990s talk of war tax resistance in the Mennonite Church slowed to a crawl. It was only a few years back that such talk had risen to a frenzy, and the subject was a regular topic of debate in the Church. Now: not so much.
By 1995, not only was war tax resistance in retreat in the Mennonite Church, but congregations were even starting to admit active-duty members of the military as members in good standing.
In 1979 readers of the Messenger learned the legal how-tos of war tax resistance, while even the conservative Brethren Evangelist was willing to publish "New Call to Peacekeeping"'s summons to war tax resistance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home » Google » Neha Palmer keeps Google's data centers green
Neha Palmer keeps Google's data centers green
When Neha Palmer was a kid, she idolized Marie Curie. Reading a book about the pioneering scientist inspired her to pursue the field herself. "I think of it as the geek's princess story," she says. And now, both in and out of her role at Google, she's working to inspire others who want to find a way to translate their passion for science and the environment into a career.
Neha leads the team responsible for purchasing clean energy to fuel Google's data centers. She's helping to reach our goal of remaining carbon neutral, which we have been since 2007, and matching all of Google's energy consumption with 100 percent renewable energy, which we have achieved for two years in a row. Thanks to the work of Neha's team, Google recently announced our largest ever purchase of renewable energy and was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency with its Green Power Leadership Partner of the Year award.
For this installment of The She Word, Neha explains why renewable energy is so important, how Google has inspired companies to take action themselves and the one trick that keeps her productive, even on the busiest days.
How do you describe your job at a dinner party?
When you use Search, YouTube, and Gmail, all of that sits on a computer somewhere, and that somewhere in our network of data centers around the world. My job is to buy as much clean energy in the locations we have data centers as we can. Data centers are the largest portion of our carbon footprint as a company, driven by the amount of electricity they consume.
How does Google define clean energy?
We define 100 percent renewable as: For every year, across the globe, we match every single kilowatt-hour of electricity we use with a kilowatt-hour of renewable energy. So far, that has meant wind and solar. But now we're thinking: How do we get beyond that? If you have a solar farm, for example, it's going to produce energy during the day, but when it's dark, we still have to use the power that's on the grid, which often includes carbon-emitting resources. Our next big goal is to buy 100 percent clean, carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. That would mean resources that don't emit carbon.
I feel lucky that I have a job where I feel like I can make a difference.
Why is it so important to focus on clean energy?
The production of electricity results in around 30 percent of all the emissions in the world. From my perspective, it's the most important thing that we can do as a company to make sure we're operating in an environmentally sustainable way. What we've seen is that a lot of companies from all sectors have followed. We see the automotive industry, consumer products, even candy bar companies moving toward clean energy. Corporations have realized that this is something that is not only beneficial for their environment, but also for their business.
Climate is top of mind for many people right now, but a lot of people are confused about what they can do as individuals. I feel lucky that I have a job where I feel like I can make a difference. Seeing the impact of the work is really satisfying.
What do you do in a typical day?
I try to get big projects out of the way in the morning. If there's something I need to sit down and think about critically, I try to block out at least an hour to focus on that. If I do have a bunch of things that are top of mind, but I know I'll only have that one hour, I usually start the day by writing exactly one thing, and only one thing, on a sticky note. I stick it on my computer, and I won't leave for the day until it is done. I spend a lot of time in meetings since I'm on a very large team. And I try to sit down and have an actual lunch and be technology-free, to let my mind clear and re-energize. In the afternoons it's a scramble—I've got two small children, so I get home and spend time with them before they go to bed and end the day.
What's one habit that makes you successful?
There's so much discussion right now about work-life balance. One thing I've learned is that it's going to be seasonal. There are plenty of times where you feel stressed and you're not going to have that balance, but there are plenty of times where you feel like you are in control. Knowing that you can get back to that place gives me enough mental stability to get through the hectic times.
You spent most of your career in the utility industry, which is historically male-dominated. How have you navigated that?
I've always sought out strong female leaders, whether it's within my company or outside the company, I've also tried to think about how I can help pull people up. It might be talking to a group of high schoolers about STEM and engineering careers, or it might be talking to an MBA class about how you convert your passion for the environment into a job. There are plenty of people who are interested in the energy industry, it's just making sure that we find them, engage them and then hire them.


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