 April 2002
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Paying for Peace, Not for War Larry Dansinger is a Maine tax resister and peace activist. As proposals for larger and larger increases in military defense spending are announced, are you unwilling to pay more of your tax dollars to the Pentagon while human needs programs like health care, jobs, education, and environmental protection are cut or go unfunded? Are you disturbed that money is being poured into national security while nothing is done to address the root cause of terrorist attacks? If so, you are not alone; there are millions who find current US spending priorities to be misguided or dangerous. Thousands throughout the country are reducing or eliminating their tax liabilities so as not to finance these harmful policies. Some are reducing their incomes so that they owe no money in taxes. Others are taking legal deductions which reduce or eliminate any taxes owed to the government. Many engage in war tax resistance, where they simply refuse to pay any money owed to the IRS but instead "re-direct" that tax money to community groups who are short-changed by current federal government priorities. While war tax resistance is not legal, war tax resisters in the US have been successfully redirecting their tax dollars for over 50 years. Some have had that tax money seized by the IRS, a handful have been jailed or had property seized, but the majority have successfully avoided seizure of most or all of the money the IRS has claimed they owed. In addition to federal income taxes, war tax resisters have refused to pay the federal excise tax (currently three percent) on telephone bills for over 30 years. While the United States recognizes the right of conscientious objectors to refuse to serve in the military, it does not give a similar right to taxpayers to refuse to have their money used to pay for others to kill on their behalf. Such legislation has been proposed since the 1970s but has never come close to passage. If you are no longer willing to pay your taxes for programs you find wasteful and morally offensive, you can be a war tax resister. There are many ways to do it, and it is more effective and empowering to do it with others.
Information is available on the how-to's and the consequences
by writing to the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee,
PO Box 6512, Ithaca NY 14851; 800/269-7464; nwtrcc@lightlink.net
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