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Activist News Tax Day in Oregon More than $1,500 in resisted federal income taxes was given to two peace groups at an April 12 rally in Portland’s Pioneer Square. More than $1,000 was redirected from the Pentagon to the Mennonite Central Committee for their work in service to the victims of our war on Afghanistan. More than $500 was withheld from the war budget and given to the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition for their militant nonviolent opposition to all war. Then demonstrators left for Portland’s federal building, in which the IRS and a number of other offices are located, where 75 people burned tax forms and blockaded the street, unfurling a banner that read, “Pardon us, friends, for the fracture of good order, for burning paper instead of babies.” The quote was sent from prison during the Vietnam War by activist-poet Father Daniel Berrigan, about his role in burning Selective Service files at the Catonsville, MD, draft office. We were offering our apologies for burning tax forms instead of Colombian villages, Palestinian schools, Iraqi hospitals, Filipino mosques and Afghan homes. There were no arrests. Two days later, Portland activists held a successful workshop on war tax resistance in the Multnomah County library.
On April 15, Tax Day proper, the Oregon Community for War Tax Resistance did a penny poll and found the Pentagon would receive about 10 percent of the tax monies from the 101 people polled. (In a penny poll, passers-by are invited to vote on how they think the federal budget should be allocated by distributing 10 pennies in jars labeled with budget categories.) Other results were: general government, nine percent; debt reduction, 10 percent; human resources, 47 percent; physical resources, 24 percent. Protesters also leafleted with WRL pie chart flyers and other materials, and new war tax resistance converts joined the activities. Salem, OR, activists also held a penny poll April 15; Salem’s results (based on 65 participants) were: human resources, 37 percent; physical resources, 23 percent; military, nine percent; general government, 11 percent; debt, 20 percent. In Eugene, war tax resistance has made an annual showing at the downtown post office at least since 1970, according to Charles Gray, who has been in Eugene most of those years. Military Tax Resistance of Lane County and Eugene PeaceWorks were out at the post office on Tax Day, distributing information on the federal budget and how to resist taxes for war. A penny poll was conducted at the Eugene Saturday Market and all day on Tax Day. About 250 people participated, voting far and away for human resources with 1,331 pennies, or 53 percent. Other categories were: general government, 203 pennies, or nine percent; national debt, 283 pennies or 11 percent; military, 127 pennies or five percent, and physical resources, 564 pennies or 22 percent. Another event during the day was the donation of redirected taxes to various groups. Participants of Military Tax Resistance contributed $1,500—much of it redirected taxes—to 19 local and international organizations which, in their opinion, provide life-supporting services. The groups receiving grants included the Mennonite Central Committee, to aid in its Afghan relief program; the International Solidarity Movement, to help continue its support of internationals who live with and thereby offer some protection to Palestinians in the recent escalation of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and other peace and environment groups.
Other Tax Day-related activities in Eugene included a silent “Taxes for Peace Not War” candlelight vigil the evening of April 14; the “Military Tax Variety Show” by Urgent Carnival on April 13; and leafleting in various nearby locations. —Chani, Peter Bergel, Tom H. Hastings and Peg Morton Events, etc. June 15-20, New York City:
The Power of Nonviolence—Exploring Alternatives, biennial conference of
Fellowship of Reconciliation/International Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Speakers include Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire and antiwar activist Amber
Amundson. Information: (845)358-4601; www.forusa.org. |
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