2008 War Tax Boycott Redirects over
$325,000 from War to Peace!
War tax resisters met in Birmingham, Alabama, over the weekend of May
2-4, 2008, and held a press conference at the Greater Birmingham Ministries
in downtown Birmingham on May 3. Antor Ndep from the Common Ground Health
Clinic in New Orleans was on hand to accept checks and pledges for $50,329.61.
Staff members of Direct Aid Iraq who provide health and support services
to Iraq Refugees joined the press conference with a live internet hook
up. DAI received $44,396.46 and expressed their gratitude for money that
was taken from war to care for people. Over 500 people around the U.S.
joined the war tax boycott and gave another $232,000 to humanitarian programs
of their choice, including food banks, programs for the homeless, books
for prisoners, environmental projects, peace groups, and hundreds of other
nonprofit organizations.
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| The press conference with the Jordanian staff of DAI on screen with
live internet communication. Photo by Ruth Benn. |
Antor Ndep, Executive Director of Common Ground Health Clinic in
New Orleans, is pleased to accept contributions for their health care
to Katrina survivors. Photo by David Gross. |
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| Bill Ramsey, Boycott Organizer from St. Louis, speaks with a local
TV station. Photo by David Gross. |
Checks redirecting tax dollars from war to peace. |
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news stories from
the press conference
A People’s Campaign to Defund the War
For over five years peace activists
have voted, lobbied, marched, and taken direct action to first prevent
and then end the war in Iraq. Courageous soldiers have refused
to fight the war. But Congress repeatedly votes to appropriate billions
of dollars to continue the war and appears ready to authorize a future military
attack on Iran. It’s time for taxpayers who oppose this war to join together
in nonviolent civil disobedience and show Congress how to cut off the funds
for this war and redirect resources to the pressing needs of people.
This campaign to boycott and redirect war taxes was launched in September
2007 as Congress began its consideration of a Bush Administration request
for an additional $190 billion appropriation for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. It was begun in the fall, ahead of tax season, so that those
who want to refuse to pay for war could explore the options, decide what
to do, and prepare to resist well before 2007 taxes are due.
This campaign was initiated by the National
War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee and is being promoted
by Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War
Resisters League, the National
Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Veterans
for Peace, and the Nonviolent
Direct Action Working Group of United for Peace and Justice. The
campaign is being promoted by peace activists around the country and
is partnered with CODEPINK's “Don't
Buy Bush's War" campaign.
Redirection Projects
“If a thousand [people] were not
to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and
bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to
commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the
definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is
possible.”
Henry David Thoreau
during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48
Refusing to pay taxes because of war is an act of civil disobedience,
but it also provides the opportunity to use that money for positive, healing,
and rebuilding programs. War tax boycott participants are encouraged
to redirect their resisted taxes to a project
providing health care among Iraqi refugees in Jordan
and Syria, a health care center in New Orleans providing
care to survivors of Katrina, or to a humanitarian project of their own
choosing.
