Rust never sleeps. Neither (or so it would seem) does the United States military. The Fiscal Year 2003 Budget allocates roughly $776 Billion dollars to military spending ($437 Billion for current military, and $339 for past military) -- 47% of the entire discretionary budget of the federal government. For full details, see the War Resisters League's valuable Federal Funds Pie Chart.
Crucially, the military commands close to 50% of the budget in times of "peace" as well as in times of "war." However, the fine tradition of war tax resistance -- withholding and/or redirecting all or a portion of one's annual income tax toward socially useful means -- tends to rise and fall with the tides of overt U.S. invasions.
The United States learnt its lesson in Vietnam, and since has taken to fighting short "wars" against mostly defenseless "opponents" by dropping enormous numbers of bombs from extremely high altitudes (so as to minimize the number of American casualties and thereby minimize the probability that the war will elicit any sort of broad-based protest here at home). Often, owing to that high altitude and a distinct lack of concern, those bombs fall upon helpless civilians, leaving the devastated population to fester in its own rubble while the U.S. moves on to destroy its next victim. The "war" in Afghanistan has so far generally followed this pattern, demonstrating that the "War on Terrorism" is naught but a sick euphemism for "Business as Usual."
While courageous lovers of peace began sowing the seeds of nonviolent resistance to the war machine well before the dust had settled in New York City, a broad-based, visible, effective taking to the streets has yet to coalesce. The seeds may indeed have already taken root, and a large-scale resistance may well flower as winter melts into spring; around the country and in Washington, major anti-war protests are being organized for April 20, and underneath the media's radar, local groups are organizing in a variety of ways in communities large and small. At the same time, though, and resoundingly counter to the bleatings of the mainstream media, peace-minded citizens far and wide are desperately pining for some way to meaningfully oppose this war -- and all wars -- right now.
NACC would like to humbly offer a list of actions which individuals may undertake to help, in their own small way, resist the 775 billion pound gorilla known as the U.S. military. (See article below.) One of the most personal and direct is to consider how each of us contributes to peace, and to war, through our jobs and our labors.
Those of you who have been following along at home are well aware that as NACC's core has dwindled, and as its members' energies are often directed elsewhere, NACCers still retain a deep commitment to resisting militarism. And as we have struggled to define precisely what NACC itself can do to help facilitate these actions, we have come to the realization that perhaps the most helpful role NACC can play in these troubled times, in addition to our expanded granting process initiated last year, is to continue to offer resources for current and prospective war tax resisters.
This is nothing new. NACC maintains the nation's largest fund of resisted war taxes, the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign Escrow Account. But the account currently boasts only about 300 active depositors. Only about one-fourth of the people and organizations in NACC's database are escrow account holders.
War tax resistance, as with any act of civil disobedience, carries with it potential consequences. Though these consequences are not as life altering as popular myth would have you believe, they are real, and they can certainly become a nuisance. Added to this a feeling that one person's, or one thousand persons', resisted taxes will not amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things, may well leave one wondering, "Why bother?"
One the other hand, dedicating oneself to undertaking the practice of refusing to pay for killing is incredibly personally liberating, and can imbue one with the courage to further dissociate oneself from the vagaries of militarism which dominate our lives, and to commit more time and energy in countering them. Further, war taxes redirected to the CMTC escrow account will help fund, through NACC's granting process, vibrant groups that are performing enormously valuable works of resistance.
The foregoing perhaps sounds much more like a "sales pitch" than it ought. NACC/CMTC after all, has maintained the escrow account since the twilight of the Carter administration. But we haven't done much in the way of advertising that fact, or directly soliciting depositors.
So here's the point. We hereby invite our fellow travelers in the peace movement to consider resisting war taxes. If you're not ready to take that step, we invite you to deposit funds in the account all the same (knowing that the interest will fund resistance, and the principle won't be invested in icky, nasty World Bank bonds). And we invite you to help spread the word as well. NACC not only offers individual counseling, but is also more than happy to hold WTR workshops for your church, office, garden party, family, school, etc. NACC is also slowly but surely embracing the so-called "World Wide Web" -- placing not only updated WTR materials online, but also helpful flyers and talking points helpful for convincing those in your social circles that violence is not an acceptable response to violence. It never had been, and, as the "War On Terrorism" is proving anew, it never will be. --Eddie Tews
For resources regarding tax resistance for reasons of conscientious objection to military spending, contact NACC at (206) 547-0952, NACC's new web site, or nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com. Info is also available through the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee at (800) 269-7464.
This year, there is a national effort, being organized from California, to get a large number of people to refuse to pay $10.40 as a response to the "War On Terrorism". For more information surf to One Million Taxpayers for Peace.
In Seattle, a public workshop on war tax resistance will be offered from 2-5:30 PM on Sunday, April 7 at the University Friends Meeting, 4009 9th Ave. NE in the University District. For more info, contact NACC at the above number.
Also in Seattle, information on ongoing anti-war organizing is available from an excellent and frequently updated calendar of local peace and social justice events: Jean Buskin's Peace Calendar.
Welcome to the Spring 2002 issue -- imagine a Mel Brooks spoof of "Springtime For Dubya" -- of the NACC newsletter. It's tax season again, and, unfortunately, the "War On Terrorism" gives us a not only appropriate but urgent reason to once again highlight the issue that, 23 years ago, gave birth to what is now NACC: conscientious objection to military taxation.
At this writing, we're a half year into the War On Whatever, and so far it appears to be little more than a flimsy excuse for expanding the U.S. military into an oppressive force able and eager to plant our plutocracy's talons into every square inch of the planet. The U.S. armed forces now maintain a presence in over 140 countries worldwide; with Bush's dramatic increases in military spending, proposed for fiscal year 2003, the U.S. now spends more on killing than every other country in the world combined. The bodies stack up in Afghanistan, troops patrol a half dozen other countries, the so-called "Plan Colombia" sucks the U.S. further into a rapidly escalating Andean war, Strangelove wannabes plan the Pentagon's militarization of space and the and target the United Nations' membership list (including with nuclear weapons, it has now been learned) here on Earth, and aggressive weapons sales programs arm every despot whose favor the U.S. curries (that is, all of them) -- all to the effect of inspiring far more would-be terrorists than we interdict. The question is once again unavoidable: if you work for peace, why pay for war?
Since 1979, NACC, through the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign Escrow Account, has administered what for most of that time has been the country's largest fund of resisted war taxes. It enables resisters to retrieve their money quickly in the event of collection or other need; in the meantime, we invest the principle in socially responsible projects and grant much of the interest to radical peace and social justice organizing -- working to create the kind of world our government should, but doesn't, work for. It's a powerful personal witness, but also a powerful way to demand social change, and we devote much of this newsletter to it.
Beyond our WTR counseling and support work, there's a war going on, and much is happening, locally and nationally, to call our new, permanent war into question. Here in Seattle, regular weekly downtown vigils are being sponsored by Women in Black and the 911 Peace Coalition. An anti-war march and rally is being planned for April 20, to coincide with national demonstrations in Washington and elsewhere. And the work of building equitable, sustainable economies and environmental practices continues both globally and locally, terrorists or no.
With the war, we're doing more to publicize and support WTR; we've issued our second, expanded cycle of grants; and we've finally gotten our electronic act (more or less) together and now have much of our WTR and newsletter material on the web. (Thank you, Dave Ihnen!) (Most of our records, of course, are still oriented to the non-digital world -- so we have e-mail addresses for very few of you. We could use the updates -- e-mail them to nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com.)
As usual, money helps; the more we have -- either through escrow account interest or directly through your donations -- the more we can support the anti-war efforts underway. And of course, new volunteer energy and insights are always welcomed at Chateau NACC (specifically, a third-floor office in a former sanctuary-church in Seattle's University District). Planning meetings are held in said office (the church itself is located at the corner of 47th and 12th) the third Wednesday of every month, at 7:00. We'd love to see you there!
The challenge is tremendous. Thank you once again for your help, your vision, and for the commitment each of you brings to your communities, your conversations, your lives, in this difficult, challenging, and ultimately hopeful time. Many thanks!
--Geov Parrish, Coordinator, NACC
Tax resistance has a long history as a means for grass roots movements to bring about social and political change. In the 20th century alone, tax resistance was a vital part of Mohandas Gandhi's campaigns for Indian independence from Britain; Hungarian independence struggles against Austria and later the Soviet Union; resistance in many countries to occupying Nazi and Japanese forces during World War II; and most recently, in the Palestinian intifadas against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The United States revolution is associated with protests against repressive British taxes (e.g., the Boston Tea Party). Whenever a citizenry has found itself faced with a government that does not respond to its needs -- or that enriches itself at the expense of the people it allegedly serves -- tax resistance has been an important point of leverage to produce change.
The war tax resistance (WTR) movement in the United States has waxed and waned in direct proportion to popular anti-war sentiment. This country's most famous early tax resister, Henry David Thoreau, took action in response to U.S. militarism. The least popular and most costly wars have provoked the most resistance: most recently, during the Vietnam era, and during Ronald Reagan's expansion of the Cold War in the 1980s.
Robbing The Poor
Today, for many in the U.S., the wars begin at home: wars against civil liberties, wars against people of color, wars against women, wars against immigrants, wars against funding for education and housing, wars against the poor and the middle class. These are wars fought with economic policies that benefit the rich and leave the majority without decent jobs, affordable health care, or, all too often, hope for the future.
While U.S. military bombs or occupies third world countries (including, since the late '80s, Panama, Kuwait, Iraq several times, Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Kosovo, and now Afghanistan again), U.S. cities are ravaged from within. Money spent on the military is money being taken away from programs that most benefit the majority of taxpayers; it is money stolen from our pocketbooks and our future. And with the declaration of an indefinite "War on Terrorism," there seems to be no limit to the places the U.S. wants to invade, or the amount of money it will divert from our own human needs to do so.
The U.S. government's protection of vast corporate wealth is a primary motivating factor in its budget priorities, which routinely limit social services to those in need, and provide instead an expansive military presence in every comer of the globe. These warped priorities are being funded by the U.S. taxpayer. About half of all federal tax dollars directly or indirectly go to the military (a figure likely to rise); still more go to benefit the rich through corporate welfare, while with repeated tax cuts for the rich, the wealthy foot less and less of the bill. Meanwhile, programs for education, job training, affordable housing, health care, and economic development continue to be cut back or eliminated.
Creative Change
Such priorities can only be changed slowly, and only from below. Demanding change -- nonviolently coercing change -- requires a wide variety of strategies for pressure, both inside and outside the Iegal system: lobbying, electoral politics, demonstrations and citizen initiatives, civil disobedience actions, the creation of alternative institutions, and so on. One of the most effective means of forcing government to be more responsive is financial: the refusal to provide the money for militarism by paying federal taxes.
War tax resistance -- the refusal to bankroll immoral and unconscionable policies -- is a powerful way to demand change. WTR can be an important personal symbolic statement as well as a powerful tool for working toward a more just society. Many war tax resisters redirect their refused war taxes into social change movements and human needs organizations. War tax resistance is not tax evasion; most resisters would gladly pay for programs that provide real social benefits. War tax resistance is a redirection of money away from wasteful, greedy and/or murderous government spending and toward helping meet our communities' needs.
Successful nonviolent activism requires both non-cooperation with injustice and positive action for change. War tax refusal and redirection does both. Through war tax resistance, we withdraw our consent from militarism, reclaim our own power, and create a powerful force for change.
The Conscience and Military Tax Campaign (CMTC), operated by Seattle's Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia, provides a variety of services for war tax resisters and persons considering war tax resistance around the country. Our Escrow Account funds allow resisters to reinvest their refused tax money in socially constructive projects, while being able to retrieve it
when needed. We have literature, counselors, and a network of contacts that can help people to support each other and to make more informed decisions about the actions and risks they are able to take.
War tax resistance is an act of civil disobedience, and as such, needs to be undertaken with a full understanding of the risks and benefits involved. For many thousands of people whose conscience or common decency will not allow them to fund militarism, war tax resistance is well worth the risks. It is both a strong personal action and a powerful, effective means of helping, with other resisters, to bring about radical political and social change. --From the CMTC literature series, much of which is available online.
In early March, NACC finished its second annual process of making substantial grants to radical and progressive organizations. Originally, our grant cycle was scheduled to conclude later this spring, but September 11 changed the timetable. We felt an urgent need to support anti-war organizing around the country, and to get funds flowing as soon as possible. So, we set a February 1st application deadline, and in our outreach placed emphasis upon funding anti-war work. By stretching our budget a bit, we were able to allocate $8,700 for grants this year, up from $6,000 in our first cycle last year. As many of our readers know, money for grants derives from interest earned on the CMTC Escrow Account of resisted war taxes, and also from donations given in response to our fundraising efforts. At the end of 2001, we sent out a fundraising letter that received a particularly strong response, and we believe this is because our supporters want to fund activities opposing the violent abuses and war mongering of our government.
Here Are This Year's Grantees
As discussed in the previous issue of Nonviolent Action, NACC is working on overhauling its database. It's not been the speediest of projects, but progress is being made.
This winter has seen an overhaul of CMTC Escrow Account depositors' database records, and our first Account Update mailing in many moons (yay!).
We've now finished updating our e-mail database, and if you've not received recent e-mails from us, the odds that our records do not reflect your current e-mail address are in the range of 100%. If you'd like to receive notices of website updates, upcoming actions, and general information, please do take a few moments to send your current name and e-mail address to nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com. Additionally, if you'd like to be entered into NACC's snail-mailing database (generally speaking, this-here newsletter twice or thrice per annum, and an autumn fundraising letter) please don't hesitate to also include your terrestrial address as well.
Since 1979, the CMTC Escrow Account has reinvested the resisted tax dollars of folks philosophically opposed to paying for killing. We've placed the money in socially responsible community development banks across the country while using the interest to fund war tax resistance organizing and counseling work, peace and social justice activism, and grants to support nonviolent activism around the country and the world. We need depositors! Your money helps us continue this vital work, and the principle is returnable to you at any time. For more information regarding opening a CMTC Escrow Account, contact the NACC office: Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia, 4554 12th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98145; (206) 547-0952; nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com; http://seanacc.org.
At left find a display of proposed oil and gas pipelines for South Asia, courtesy of the Department Of Energy's website. (Refer to the site to remain abreast of the DOE's latest plans for the region's energy reserves.)
At right find a display of current (predominately new) U.S. military bases in the region. (Source: Global Security.) Select quote, from Mr. Colin Powell: "America will have a continuing interest and presence in Central Asia of a kind that we could not have dreamed of before."
Please note that, relative placement of these images notwithstanding, NACC cannot be held responsible for any inferences which may or may not be drawn by the reader. (When thinking becomes a crime, NACC shall always be counted upon to head for the hills!)
The Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia
P.O. Box 85541, Seattle, WA 98145. An affiliate of the
War Resisters League and NWTRCC
Tel: (206) 547-0952, Fax: (206) 547-2631. E-mail: nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com