The closed doors were not a complete surprise to the resisters, who had predicted that the IRS would duck the issue to avoid publicizing the fact that there are people in the United States who regularly flout the tax laws with impunity. “We attempted to turn ourselves in,” said longtime resister Robert Randall of Georgia, “but the IRS doesn’t want to deal with us.” The six other resisters were Carol Moore of Washington, Dan Lundquist and Judith Felker of Minnesota, Clare Hanrahan and Steve Megan of North Carolina and Bill O’Connell of Alabama.

When they were unable to find an IRS official to surrender to, the protesters—some of whom have resisted federal taxes for more than 20 years—gave a helpful officer of the Federal Protective Services documents they had prepared as part of their challenge to the tax agency. Officer Bill Kunkle promised to deliver the documents to an IRS official as soon as he could find one.

As usual, participants in WRL’s July 10 “penny poll” on the Washingon Mall voted for far less military spending than the U.S. Congress does. Photo: Tana Devietti

A form of conscientious objection, war tax resistance—holding back all or part of federal taxes in order to prevent their use for war—has a long and honorable history in the United States, dating back to the colonial era and including such famous resisters as Henry David Thoreau. The IRS has not prosecuted a resister for decades. A letter from Randall that was among the documents given to Officer Kunkle explained why he and his fellow resisters were now challenging the tax agency:

The surrender was part of a day-long protest against militarism in the federal budget priorities held by the War Resisters League and the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. It began at 9:00 a.m. at the base of the Washington Monument, where demonstrators held a penny poll in which about 200 passersby “voted” on federal budget priorities they would like to see. The results were:

Those results—83 percent for human resources and 6 percent for military expenditures—are consistent with similar polls held across the country in recent years, revealing that the public’s priorities diverge substantially from those of the Congress on the issue of military spending. According to WRL’s “Where Your Income Tax Really Goes” brochure for 2000, the current federal budget allocates 33 percent of federal outlays for human resources, 23% for current military expenditures and 24 percent for past military expenditures.

The penny poll and war tax resister surrender were part of a 40-day People’s Campaign for Nonviolence sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation with broad participation from peace and justice organizations including WRL and the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

Chris Ney is WRL’s Disarmament Coordinator.

International War Tax Confab

ore than 130 people from 31 countries shared how-to strategies, organizing tactics and personal stories about keeping their money out of the hands of the warmakers in Wasington July 6-9. They were attending the Eighth International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Funds at Catholic University. Voices from Spain to Nigeria, Japan to Norway, Russia to Guatemala, spoke out against their governments’ uses of pesos, krones, rubles—and dollars—for killing.

Arya B. Bhardwaj of India’s Gandhi in Action addresses the Eighth International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Funds. Photo: Ruth Benn

On the one hand, many of the groups have seen their numbers shrink through the 1990s, some finding that the use of military forces for “peacekeeping” has made arguments against the military more difficult; the public sees this use of the military as positive. On the other hand, organizers of the legislative peace tax campaigns have formed an organization, Conscience and Peace Tax International, which has NGO status and is looking into setting up an office to facilitate lobbying at the U.N. level.

Held in the United States for the first time, the conference was sponsored by the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund an the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. The first conference of this sort was held in Germany in 1986, uniting activists who cannot in good conscience pay for war.

— Ruth Benn