This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Milwaukee 14, in which fourteen men (during the planning stage there were also two women in the group, but that’s another story) raided a federal office in downtown Milwaukee, removed around 10,000 draft files, and burned them with home-made napalm. Though the fourteen faced decades in prison, each served about one year. Though largely forgotten today, the action made national headlines in 1968 & Howard Zinn served as an expert witness at the trial for the defense.

An event was held in Milwaukee this past September to commemorate the event. Joined by friends & family, most of the fourteen that are still living made the trip to Milwaukee. The event was a mix of celebration and reflection, with time dedicated to discussion with local leaders of current social justice movements. Though the event happened fifty years ago, the action was still a source of raw emotions for those involved. I would like to share some of what I heard, but I will omit names since the session is not online & I did not ask anyone’s permission to share their stories (though the event was open to the public).

None of the members stated that they regretted participating in the action, but it was clear that many wished that had been more intentional. The average age of the Milwaukee 14 participants was 25 years-old and the planning occurred a few weeks before the action. It also caused a great deal of stress in their relationships with spouses & significant others. Some missed the birth of children and others greatly missed their children. One member shared a crayon drawing that his six-year-old drew of him behind bars with a smile. This father wished that Fr. Daniel Berrigan had challenged him more about leaving his family behind for a year. He was not saying that he would have changed his mind, but he was cognizant of the fact that he had not sufficiently assessed the consequences.

Most of the group also expressed reservations about their interactions with the cleaning staff. Keys were commandeered from one of the cleaning staff & they kept her and another one of the cleaning staff locked in a room until the action was over.

Although the conference was not about war tax resistance, it gave me pause to reflect on my own WTR and the manner in which I counsel others in WTR. Though I still strongly believe that WTR is the right decision for me, I did start when I was 21 years old. I was a bit more arrogant at that point.

Though I feel comfortable with the decisions I have made with WTR and my few arrests for civil resistance, I try to be careful when I counsel others. At the same time, I rarely meet any prospective WTR who wants to jump right in. The fear of the IRS that seems to be ingrained into every American is so strong that most prospective WTRS are contacting me to find out if their fears are legitimate. Perhaps if someone came to me without any fear of WTR, I would find myself asking them, “Are you sure you’ve thought this through?”

The next NWTRCC conference is the weekend of November 2-4 in Cleveland. Sunday afternoon will include a Counselor Training, with a focus on what makes a good WTR counselor. The discernment process of the Milwaukee 14 will definitely be in the back of my mind during that session.

-Lincoln Rice

The post Milwaukee 14 – 50 Years Later first appeared on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The post Milwaukee 14 – 50 Years Later appeared first on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

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.

Image created by Sam Koplinka-Loehr, NWTRCC

There has been renewed interest in war tax resistance following Trump’s inauguration. Something has clicked in the minds of thousands of people across the country… we don’t want to pay for Trump’s agenda! While many of the reasons people are fed up—extreme militarism, mass incarceration, police brutality, and mass deportations—are part of the foundation of our country, it is exciting to see many new people contacting NWTRCC and wanting to organize in their communities.

We have a series of webinars coming up in the next few weeks to support this new wave of resisters. Join us online to learn more about war tax resistance and our redirection effort for this year!

Webinars

UPDATE: These webinars are over, but you can see recordings on our YouTube channel! And check out the analysis below by NWTRCC’s field organizer.

War Tax Resistance 101 with Erica Weiland, NWTRCC Social Media Coordinator
Saturday, February 18th, 1 – 2 pm EST

Redirecting Taxes to Black, Brown, and Indigenous Resistance! with Sam Koplinka-Loehr, NWTRCC Field Organizer
Saturday, February 25th, 2 – 3 pm EST

War Tax Resistance 101 with David Gross, a long-time war tax resister
Saturday, March 4th, 2 – 3 pm EST

War Tax Resistance 101 will cover the history of war tax resistance, which modern taxes go to war and militarism, reasons to resist, and ways to resist. There will be time for Q&A at the end.

Redirecting Taxes to Black, Brown, and Indigenous Resistance! will cover the collective redirection initiative of war tax resisters around the country this year. It will also include information on the logistics of redirection, and how tax resistance can be a tactic for racial justice.

RSVP is required for the webinars; please register here.

NWTRCC is hoping to support independent organizing efforts as well as provide some vision during this period of increased resistance.

***

To help frame this time in history, I want to address the glue that binds the whole system together: white supremacy.

Whether we are looking at drone strikes in Pakistan, police killings in Philadelphia, or the national guard holding checkpoints out at Standing Rock, there is one common theme: our government is escalating violence against Black, Brown, and Indigenous People. This is not new—indeed, white supremacy and violence have been the bedrock of our country since its founding—but the Trump administration has taken the extra step to raise the thin veil, making the system of white supremacy explicitly clear.

During the first days in office, the Trump administration took a series of actions reinforcing white supremacy. While some of them were very well publicized, like the Muslim immigration ban, others were more subtle. One of the first things on the new White House website was a policy statement that read, “The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump Administration will end it.” This effectively put Black Lives Matter organizations and any group that is challenging racist police violence on notice. Then, just yesterday the administration approved the Dakota Access Pipeline, the path of which crosses directly through the territory of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

Image created by Erica Weiland, NWTRCC

War tax resistance takes direct action to challenge this racist system. During a workshop I helped lead in Philadelphia last month, I was reminded of Wally Nelson’s saying, “What would you do if someone came to your door with a cup in hand asking for a contribution to help buy guns and kill a group of people they didn’t like?” But in my mind it shifted to, “What would you do if a random organization wanted to build hundreds of prisons, give people guns on the streets, build tanks and fighter jets, all to lock up, kill, and oppress Black, Brown, and Indigenous People?” We would see it for what it is—a white supremacist organization—and many more of us we would refuse to pay.

Tax resistance is just one piece of the puzzle though; redirecting that money is the next piece. This year, I am excited to announce a new initiative that war tax resisters are taking on across the country, to redirect tax dollars to Black, Brown, and Indigenous organizers who are fighting for liberation. To read more about this critically important effort and to get involved, check out our website! You can also join me for a webinar, Redirecting Taxes to Black, Brown, and Indigenous Resistance, that will be on Saturday, February 25th from 2 – 3 pm eastern time.

Onwards in the struggle together!

Sam

The post Upcoming Webinars on War Tax Resistance and Redirection first appeared on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The post Upcoming Webinars on War Tax Resistance and Redirection appeared first on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

War tax resisters have a unique message to bring to these actions, especially at this time. There is a growing faction on the left that is disenchanted with electoral politics and is wanting to take direct action. Already, the NWTRCC office has been contacted by a number of people who are fed-up and don’t want to pay for a trump presidency.

So what can we do about it? Well, war tax resisters are organizing around the country to march, disrupt, and do community education about tax resistance. Check out our facebook event to get in touch with tax resisters in your area who are wanting to march or do an action together on the 20th or the 21st.  

January 20th

The goal of the actions on the 20th are very clear, to disrupt the inauguration as best as possible. There are a diversity of groups and tactics, including nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience. The organizers are encouraging people to help shut down the inauguration in DC as well as disrupt business as usual in cities around the country. On their website, Disrupt J20 writes,

“Trump stands for tyranny, greed, and misogyny. He is the champion of neo-nazis and white Nationalists, of the police who kill the Black, Brown and poor on a daily basis, of racist border agents and sadistic prison guards, of the FBI and NSA who tap your phone and read your email. He is the harbinger of even more climate catastrophe, deportation, discrimination, and endless war. […] From day one, the Trump presidency will be a disaster. #DisruptJ20 will be the start of the resistance. We must take to the streets and protest, blockade, disrupt, intervene, sit in, walk out, rise up, and make more noise and good trouble than the establishment can bear.”

There are currently solidarity actions planned in over 15 cities around the country. The call, to become Ungovernable in 2017, starts on the 20th but is proposed to continue throughout the year and beyond. Read more about the Ungovernable platform and the planned uprisings here.  

January 21st

Hundreds of thousands of people are mobilizing for the Women’s March in Washington, DC on January 21st. Can’t make it to DC? There are Women’s Marches happening around the entire country, such as this one in San Diego and another in Portland, Oregon.

All told, organizers are expecting close to 300 simultaneous marches around the world with millions of people in the streets. This promises to be a powerful showing against the patriarchy and sexism that dominates election cycles, our movements, and the very foundation of our society.

On their website, the Women’s March organizers write,

“We support the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities. We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all.”

You can read more about the Women’s Marches here.

What You Can Do

Organize a war tax resistance action group in your area and let us know so we can publicize the great work that everyone is doing around the country. Check out our facebook event and help coordinate war tax resisters in your area to plan an action or march together.

If you want materials to leaflet with at the actions—Divest from War, Invest in People cards are free to you!— please contact Ruth (nwtrcc@nwtrcc.org) as soon as possible so she can send them to you in time.

(In this piece, lower-case letters are used to challenge the domination of the office of the president of the united states and donald trump)

Post by Sam Koplinka-Loehr

The post War Tax Resisters Plan To Protest The Inauguration! first appeared on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The post War Tax Resisters Plan To Protest The Inauguration! appeared first on National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.