A long time ago (not so long actually, it was only in October of this year) in a galaxy far, far away (called “The Northeast”), it is a period of civil war. A lone rebel spaceship, striking from a hidden base (Philadelphia), won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet (the Military Industrial Complex, funded by hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars).

Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents (cops be everywhere), Princess Leia (Sam) raced aboard her starship (rental car), custodian of the stolen plans (War Tax Resistance literature) that can save people and restore freedom to the galaxy….

Leia (Sam) took a number of stops while on her way to deliver the secret stolen plans, including refueling and delivering secret messages on a few important planets (Haverford, Amherst, and Bates Colleges). She took time to explain the plans for resistance against the Empire and insure that everyone understood the plan. The Jedi Initiates and Padawans (college students) were eager to learn about the force behind War Tax Resistance and how they could get involved in the struggle against the Dark Side.

Padawans learning about the force behind War Tax Resistance (Actual footage from Sam’s presentation at Bates College)

While the future of the resistance’s plans are ultimately in the hands of R2-D2 (interpret how you see fit…), it was clear that the relationships Princess Leia (Sam) built with people along the way would carry the resistance forward on these small yet important planets. For many facing the empire’s strong presence taking over their small communities throughout the galaxy, this truly felt like A NEW HOPE.

Aight…. Now for the non-star wars fans out there, here’s a brief summary of my last organizing trip in perhaps a more clear yet *clearly more boring* fashion…. In the middle of October, I did three back-to-back presentations at colleges in the Northeast as part of a whirlwind self-dubbed Tax Resistance Education And Power-up Tour (TREAPT, another catchy acronym like NWTRCC…).

The first one was at Haverford College, hosted by Grace Brosnan and the Anti-capitalist group at Haverford. We ended up having a blast, with lots of good conversations and about twenty students trickling in as the night went on. It was clear that people were thirsty for concrete resistance steps in a time of so much societal oppression. Students were particularly excited about trying to get more money from their rich institution and rich people at the college to be redistributed to community organizers in Philadelphia.

The next presentation was at Amherst College as part of a panel discussion on divestment strategies and regional campaigns for justice. Other panelists included Anthony Tallow and Susan Theberge from All Nations Rising and the Sugarshack Alliance. The two groups have brought native and non-native people together in resistance to the proposed pipelines in the Western Massachusetts region. Another panelist talked about the ongoing campaigns at UMass Amherst and Amherst College to get their colleges to divest from prisons and fossil fuel companies. I talked about when I was a student activist and how to not get co-opted by administrators, and how maintaining radical politics and direct action is important for ourselves and others. The other panelists and many of the students there were stoked about tax resistance and wanting to learn more.

The last presentation I did was at the Queer and Trans Youth Conference of Maine at Bates College. This was a group of high school and college students. My talk and following discussion, Resisting False Solutions: How trans liberation is being defined by our participation in state violence, drew on my blog post about the “Trans Military Ban” and engaged people in an honest discussion about how we as trans and queer people could refuse to assimilate and resist all oppression instead.

All told, it was a dope college tour. It’s clear we need to do more of these, and that we should have young folks doing the presentations. Being able to bond over being young and wanting to resist was important. I still have a lot of follow-up to do that has slipped behind with getting ready for the NWTRCC gathering and all, but now I am able to catch up a bit. There were a number of students that were interested in interning with us over the summer, so we’ll see where it goes from here!

The post A NEW HOPE (Sam’s October College Tour) first appeared on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The post A NEW HOPE (Sam’s October College Tour) appeared first on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

There’s so much to share from my latest war tax resistance organizing trip, I’m not even sure of where to begin. So I’ll share some tidbits and then if you have additional questions, please comment or email me.

Most Relaxed Point

The first stop of my field organizing trip was perhaps the most peaceful. I arrived in Western PA amid rolling green hills and a garden full of wildflowers. Karen and Michael Bagdes-Canning hosted me for a home presentation on war tax resistance as an avenue for challenging white supremacy. After a delicious bowl of chili we had a great discussion with a group of people who are involved with local organizing around environmental, healthcare, and peace issues. Many of them were familiar faces from when I was doing organizing against fracking and pipelines throughout Pennsylvania. Nice to see old friends in a new context.

Most Effective Point

Hmmm, it’s always a bit hard to gauge but I think the most effective part of the trip was my presentation at the “Solidarity and Fightback: Building Resistance to US-led War, Militarism, and Neofascism” Conference in Toronto. The conference was organized by the International League of Peoples Struggle and brought together people who are involved in resistance struggles from around the world, from the Philippines to Kurdistan to Oakland. It was inspiring to hear the work of, in particular, youth activists who are working for true system change and building connections across huge divides.

I was on a panel discussion of radical activists from the United Snakes of America as well as Klanada. There were about 30 people in attendance, almost all of whom had never heard about war tax resistance, and were excited to know that this form of civil disobedience “in the belly of the beast” was alive and well. There are a number of people who are now wanting to organize presentations in their local communities (in particular, organizers who came to the conference from the Bay Area in California). I also got to meet Monica Moorehead which was a life goal! Always inspired by her organizing and life’s work.

Most Stressed Point

Partly from my own doing, I didn’t have any firm housing lined up for when I was in Toronto. I had heard from one of the conference organizers that they were working on it, but hadn’t gotten any confirmation. So I ended up driving 16 hours from Minneapolis to Toronto without any housing. Oh, and also no phone or email because I couldn’t get service once I crossed the border. I thought about stopping in Detroit and driving the rest of the way in the morning, but the folks I know there were either out of town or I couldn’t get in touch with them. I also tried to set up an AirBnb thing ahead of time, but the host never confirmed so that was no longer an option.

So I just kept driving, past Climax, Michigan which is a real place, and arrived in Drake’s hometown at 1:30 AM bumping Controlla and totally exhausted. Needless to say I found a dark sidestreet in a random neighborhood and passed out in the car. I woke up shivering a few hours later (it’s 50 degrees in Toronto in August apparently), so went to go find a Tim Horton’s (or “Timmies” for us Canucks) to try to warm up and find some wifi to get directions to the conference. It worked out eventually, but with a cramped neck and a grumpy Sam.

Personal Favorite Point

I stopped for a bit in Cincinnati, Ohio to visit some friends there and got to cuddle with their adorable puppy. But my favorite moment was once I arrived back in the United Snakes of America (coming over the “peace bridge” into Buffalo ironically enough). After another “Aghhh, I don’t have a map of Buffalo State University” hectic directions search again, I joined up with Vicki Ross from the Western NY Peace Center for her “talking peace” radio show on the university station. It was a solid conversation talking about everything from systemic racism and war tax resistance to fracking to trans issues. Unfortunately, I don’t have a recording of it, but it was nice to chat about a lot of important issues near and dear to my heart.

Post by Sam Koplinka-Loehr

Unfortunately with our website in transition (yay transitions!), we are having trouble uploading new photos at the moment. You can check out some photos of the ILPS conference here and here. So I will try to add photos back in at a later date.

The post There And Back Again: Organizing on the Road first appeared on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The post There And Back Again: Organizing on the Road appeared first on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

Following the national gathering, I did a small tour focused on resisting taxes for racial justice. I first went to Chicago. We had a lunch at the Christian Peacemaker Teams office. CPT is a spiritual group that supports frontline struggles. We had a group of CPT staff and tax resisters from Chicago. We talked about our effort this year where tax resisters are giving money to black, brown, and indigenous organizers in their communities. It was clear that this shift in our focus—to explicitly challenge white supremacy in our government and in our organizing communities—is a breath of fresh air for activists in our network.

After that, I ran to catch a train to South Bend, Indiana. Just barely made it! My first presentation in South Bend was at a Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) meeting. SURJ is made up of white people who sometimes show up for protests, and has been called out by regional and national black-led organizations to disband (read more here). 

The goal of my presentation was to talk through how white people might want to think of themselves as “anti-racist” but still be funding (and benefitting from) our white supremacist government that is killing black, brown, and indigenous people in our streets and around the world. For the people at the SURJ meeting, redirecting tax dollars is a way to use radical tactics and actions rather than just sitting around in a room talking about racism. In particular, it is part of returning money to black communities and organizations as part of large-scale reparations.

The following day I led a community presentation with Darryl Heller, the Director of the South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. We discussed tax resistance and building solidarity between movements. Darryl presented about being a war tax resister for many years in the 1980’s. He also talked about his work bringing Black and Brown people together to build community and shared resistance in South Bend. As per usual, it worked well to have the workshop co-hosted by a few organizations together. This provided space for building relationships between our groups and provided many ways for people to plug in.

I hope this gives you a few ideas about how a presentation could look in your area. It could be a workshop for an individual non-profit or activist group. It could also be a larger community presentation (hopefully hosted by a few different groups) that seeks to pull people in more broadly. The goal either way is to create a stronger regional base that you can then follow up with to build community power. If you would like to set up a presentation in your area, please email me at organizer@nwtrcc.org. 

A big thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, including hosting me, presenting together, and doing the hours of on-the-ground organizing required to pull off a community workshop.

Post by Sam Koplinka-Loehr

The post Resisting Taxes to Support Racial Justice in the Midwest first appeared on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The post Resisting Taxes to Support Racial Justice in the Midwest appeared first on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The early morning view from the train leaving New York City going towards Syracuse, NY. Photo: Sam Koplinka-Loehr

Over the course of the week, I led three presentations on war tax resistance and racial justice. There was one in Ithaca, Syracuse, and Rochester, NY. I also got to see some friends and family, which was an added bonus.

The idea for this trip started at the end of 2016 when Tom Joyce contacted me. Tom is a long-time war tax resister and organizer from Ithaca, NY. He wanted to have a gathering for war tax resisters in New York state, similar to the one that New England War Tax Resistance puts on every year.

We first discussed me coming to speak to the Ithaca Catholic Worker that Tom is a part of. After some talking, though, the idea quickly grew to include a series of presentations in three cities. We decided on two main goals. One of our goals was to highlight and support local organizing for racial justice. The other goal was to build a stronger base of people who refused taxes and redirected that money to organizers in their communities. We figured that after a series of presentations we would have enough people who were interested in making a regional gathering happen.

Some of my highlights from the week included:

• Presenting with Maria Engels from the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and Chanel Snead from Building Leadership And Community Knowledge in Rochester. We discussed defunding our white supremacist government and supporting black resistance in Rochester. 
• Eating hoagies at Subway (or i guess I should say “subs”) with Tom. We chatted about everything from sexual health to maintaining organizing energy over many years. Maybe those aren’t that different after all!
• Getting to see my aunt Mary Loehr in Ithaca. She helped out with the presentation at the Ithaca Friends Meetinghouse. It turned out to be quite the family affair, with my mom in attendance as well!
• Hearing Bernice Rodriguez present at our workshop in Syracuse, NY about her work with the Workers Center of Central NY. She is fighting for undocumented immigrants and workers rights. If you have money, the Workers Center is asking for people to support their organizing!

Between all three workshops, people were most excited about the tax redirection effort this year, which is people refusing money to the federal government and redirecting those tax dollars to radical organizing that is led by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. At each presentation, people decided to start a redirection effort in their area.

It also seemed like this organizing model makes sense. It worked well to have a few workshops in cities or towns that are relatively close to each other that are co-hosted by local activist groups, a regional organizer, and NWTRCC. The focus on getting more resource and support to local activists was critical. Now, regional organizers can build a network that wants to stay connected with projects like redirecting taxes and starting an annual gathering. So stay tuned for a gathering in upstate NY in the coming year!

Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible through hosting me, reserving the space for workshops, doing local outreach, presenting together, and so much more.

Post by Sam Koplinka-Loehr

The post Organizing Region to Region: My Travels in Upstate New York first appeared on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The post Organizing Region to Region: My Travels in Upstate New York appeared first on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.