war taxes – Engaging Peace

People United

Posted on December 29, 2014December 28, 2014 by kathiemm

A dear friend of mine complained that often when she often reads my blog she is left feeling sad and discouraged. The posts remind her of all the things wrong in the world, and the many injustices done by and within our own country, and she doesn’t feel she can do much about any of it. But she can make a difference. We all can.

I can understand how she feels; I can empathize with her sense of discouragement, her wish to be distracted from the evils of racism, the horrors of war, the barbarism of torture. But ignoring the problems won’t lead to peace of mind or safety or a future for our children and grandchildren.

As 2014 ends, and we move into a new year with new possibilities to make a difference, Engaging Peace offers reminders of some of the more positive posts of the past year—the beacons of hope and the guides for the new year.

January 2, 2014. We rang in the New Year with appreciation for the work of non-profits resisting war, combating arms proliferation, and promoting peace and nonviolence. http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7466

January 20, 2014. The post “I, too, have a dream” celebrated Martin Luther King Day. http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7515

January 23, 2014. Guest author Sununda Sharma reminded us that heroism is not out of the reach of a young girl: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7524

February 16, 2014. Dot Walsh took us along with “Mandela: Long walk to freedom.” http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7586

February 17, 2014. We honored a modern peace president: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7610

March 27, 2014. Guest author Ian Hansen began a series on whether nonviolent resistance works: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7704

April 7, 2014. This post raised the question: Is paying taxes is a war crime?: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7704.

April 10, 2014. We suggested that organizations, like individuals, can be morally engaged and nominate a few exemplars: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7771

Those examples of individuals and groups working for peace and social justice come from fewer than six months’ worth of engaging peace posts. Join their efforts in 2015. Engage in resistance to violence, racism, and other forms of social injustice. That’s one way to get to feel better.

Are YOU guilty of a war crime?

Posted on April 7, 2014April 4, 2014 by kathiemm

To put the question differently: Do you pay taxes?

If you do, you may be committing a war crime.

Tax Rebellion, a group active in the United Kingdom, argues that “Under the international laws of war, it is a criminal offense to pay tax to a Government which is waging illegal war.”

The group goes on to argue that the wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya are all illegal, violating the Treaty for the Renunciation of War of 1928 (also known as the Kellogg-Briand Pact) and the United Nations Charter.

They quote the judges from the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II:

“War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

The United States government is involved in acts of aggression around the world, with most of these kept successfully out of the awareness of ordinary citizens.

Iin the United States, one group that is devoted to educating the public concerning financial and human costs of aggression and promoting the use of tax money for peace, not war, is the Peace Economy Project. Visit their site and learn all kinds of things you probably didn’t know—including the “wide range of operations in Africa, including airstrikes targeting suspected militants, and night raids aimed at kidnapping terror suspects…”

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Uncle Sam wants YOUR money!

Posted on April 15, 2013April 14, 2013 by kathiemm

Correction: Uncle Sam wants your money unless you are among the country’s largest U.S. corporations (e.g., GE, Microsoft, IBM, Exxon, Chevron). As reported in that radical rag, the Wall Street Journal, 60 of those large corporations “parked a total of $166 billion offshore last year” shielding anywhere from 40 percent to 100% of their profits from U.S. taxes.

It takes taxes and bonds poster — Image in public domain

While avoiding payment of taxes in the U.S., these corporations relied on the U.S. government to protect their interests from, for example, those who object to extraction of their natural resources by American companies.

Today is April 15. You have probably filed your 2012 income tax return, but in the coming year it would be wise to attend to proposals being made by the President and Congress regarding who will pay taxes and how the money will be spent.

You may have heard about proposed cuts in Social Security and medical and social welfare programs. Do you also know that President Obama is proposing a half billion dollar shift of funds from nuclear nonproliferation programs to upgrading the U.S. nuclear program?

Are your priorities the same as the government’s?

Historically, Americans have found many nonviolent ways to protest or rebel against taxes they judged to be unfair or immoral.

In 1773, to protest the tea tax imposed by the English government to finance its wars, colonists in Boston dumped English tea into Boston Harbor;
During and after the Revolutionary War, many Quakers, Mennonites, and members of other peace-oriented religious denominations refused to pay taxes intended for military expenditures;
Henry David Thoreau refused to pay a toll tax levied to support the Mexican War, spent a night in jail, and wrote about it in the essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.”
Since World War II, many individuals (e.g., Noam Chomsky) have formed groups to protest using tax dollars to finance war. You can learn more from the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (http://www.nwtrcc.org/ ).

War tax resistance may not be the right choice for you, but do consider this question: Are the issues raised here important enough so that you will make your own voice heard?

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Conscription of our money for war (Don’t wanna pay for war no more, Part 2)

Posted on April 5, 2012April 1, 2012 by kathiemm

[Second in a series by guest author Ed Agro.]

Anti-war protest — Photo by Bill Hackwell

Thinking about the conscription of our money for war led me to recognize that modern America’s wars are waged mostly in behalf of an addiction to well-nigh mindless consumption without concern for true costs, the “externalities” beloved by those economists who labor to convince us that we live in a world of infinite plenty; that is, in heaven.

The earth is small, and what it has to give is limited. The more it’s depleted, the more fiercely nations and corporations compete to be the ones to gouge it.

We don’t have to be the gluttons amongst the 1% in order to take part in the fouling of our nest. All we have to be are ordinary folk, accepting the ordinarily assumed right to take and to have without the burden of considering the consequences to anything beyond our wallets.

Over time these thoughts led me to a life of less stuff, less interest in leaping to buy whatever was offered. There was no struggle or heroism about this clearing of the decks, it just seemed to be a part of sensible living.

Yet diligent downward mobility was accompanied by a continual reduction in my tax liability. I was still a fan of paying for public good while refusing to pay for public evil, and still wanted to savor the contradiction of doing both at once.

Awhile ago it reached the point that the only war tax available to me was the phone tax. It’s gone up and down since it was first imposed, most often going up to meet the financing requirements of this or that war. There’s more than a little justification for calling it a dedicated war tax.

[Note from Kathie Malley-Morrison: Ed has provided us with an example of how one anti-war activist decided to signal and continue signaling his resistance to war. What is your view of his decision? To what extent do you think he can promote public good while refusing to pay for public evil? Have you found other ways to express your distress over war?]