Members of The Redwood Nonviolence Community of Santa Cruz, California are calling for public war tax resistance as a positive act to withdraw our consent to war with Iraq.  We invite you to read about it here, and to copy and send the Reply Form (see below) to our email or postal address.  And we hope you will join us for a Campaign Kickoff Tuesday noon, March 11, the steps of the Santa Cruz County Courthouse, 701 Ocean St., Santa Cruz.

               "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."

               - Henry David Thoreau, during Mexican-American War of 1846-48

            Dear Friends,

            Our government is spending $1 billion a day for military forces to attack Iraq while public schools are laying off teachers, eliminating vital programs, and closing schools. 

This is wrong.

Millions of people in every continent of the globe and many national governments ask the United States to use peaceful means to confront Iraq rather than destructive violence.  Our government’s commitment to superpower military forces is destroying essential services for education, health care, and housing.  When the military is our major means of foreign policy, other peoples hate us and suffer by our hand.

We are deeply concerned that our government is choosing a dangerous, destructive course of action.  While demonstrating our views is important, we believe it is time to redefine our relationship with the war on Iraq.   In the nonviolent tradition of Rosa Parks and Mohandas Gandhi we can cease to cooperate with our national government, and support social programs we believe are the true foundation of homeland security, freedom, and democracy.   As Henry David Thoreau did when the United States military attacked Mexican territories, we can refuse, even partially, to fund the war.

We each are choosing an amount to withhold from the federal taxes we owe, and paying this money instead to our local public schools.   In this way we withdraw our consent to the federal budget that allocates 47% (source: www.warresisters.org) of the federal taxes we pay to the military.  Instead, we will support essential services that are at risk in federal, state, and local budgets.

We invite you to join in this or other actions to build peace.

You may use the typical letter to the IRS provided (see Sample Letter), or write your own statement. If there is a social need other than schools that you would prefer to redirect your tax payment to, please do so. Where you send it and how much you refuse to pay is up to you.  Some of us are choosing modest amounts, others more.  Some are choosing simply to increase the “peace taxes” we contribute to schools, other vital services, and peace organizations.  The important thing is to stand together in our public refusal to support the war, and in our commitment to build peace.

To that end, we ask that you return the attached reply form, indicating how you are participating in this initiative.   If possible, please reply before March 11, when we will join for a Campaign Kickoff.  Replies after March 11 are encouraged and will add to the momentum of resistance to the war.

Join us TUESDAY, MARCH 11, at noon, for a CAMPAIGN KICKOFF, to support those choosing war tax resistance and payment of peace taxes.  We will meet on the steps of the Santa Cruz County Courthouse, 701 Water St., Santa Cruz.  Bring copies of your personal statements to the IRS, which we will deliver to U.S. Congressman Sam Farr’s office, and to the IRS across the street.

We also ask that you consider endorsing the pledge of support (see Petition) for war tax resisters which is being promoted by war tax resistance organizations across the country. Finally we ask that you take other actions to increase the visibility of this initiative, such as writing your congressperson and senators, writing a letter to the editor, encouraging friends to join, and creating more possibilities that are meaningful to you.

In peace, Redwood Nonviolence Community

Alexander Gaguine                   Don Lane                                 Nancy Wood

Anita Heckman                        Hans Brinker                            Peter Klotz-Chamberlin

Betsy Fairbanks                       Phil McManus                          Liz Klotz-Chamberlin

"Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes."
-Gen. Alexander Haig, U.S. Secretary of State, June 12, 1982

"The two decisive powers of the government with respect to war are the power to conscript and the power to tax."
-A.J. Muste, Executive Secretary of Fellowship of Reconciliation for 20 years

CONTACT US:  Email, info@SchoolsNotBombs.tk, or call Anita at (831) 423-1626 extension 307, or write Schools Not Bombs, PO Box 2066, Santa Cruz, CA 95063.