In September 1960, three peace activists met at Hygienic Restaurant in New London, Connecticut and started to form a plan for their next big action: the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace. No other group had ever attempted a peace walk across the entire continental United States, and they only knew of one other peace group that had ever attempted to cross into the Soviet Union. And yet, working with the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), the three activists not only successfully organized the longest and most dramatic peace walk ever, but spawned several more peace walks in solidarity. (See our previous post: “Organizing the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace (1960-1961)”) One such companion peace walk was organized in eastern Connecticut. Inspired by the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace, as well as the UK’s Aldermaston to London “ban the bomb” marches that had been held every Easter since 1952, the New England CNVA (based at VPT in Voluntown, Connecticut) organized a peace walk from Kittery, Maine to the UN Headquarters in New York City. Named the “3-Week Walk for Peace,” the initial call was put out on February 2, 1961 in the Polaris Action Bulletin, about two months after the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace began. Protest marches and peace walks had been held in the past, but none of the scale of the San Francisco to Moscow Walk. Thus, this was a relatively new tactic of the progressive left at the time, and one with several appealing factors. It was fast enough to cover a lot of ground, but slow enough to make real connections between people. It brought participants directly into communities to discuss the arms race face-to-face with folks and through the local media. It reminded some of the old religious itinerant holy people or pilgrims journeying to sacred sites. It reminded others of Gandhi and the success of the Salt March. Supporters were invited to participate in a number of ways. Those who could not walk the route themselves could put walkers up for a night and provide other hospitality. Volunteers were encouraged to contact their local media to arrange interviews or public discussions. Direct financial support was always useful to fund the whole operation. And, of course, one could sign up to walk. Although most walkers only committed themselves to just a portion of the full 340-mile, 3-week walk, it was often still a significant sacrifice of time and energy, even considering that the CNVA paid for food and other expenses for the participants. But in the comparatively more religious 1960s, such sacrifice during the Easter season was part of the point; like Dr. King in the civil rights movement around the same time, using the popular religious language and imagery allowed these activists to communicate their message on multiple levels. (Click the images below to download the PDF version of the original clippings) —
Take Action The CT Committee for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons organizes pro-disarmament demonstrations throughout the year. To participate in these demonstrations against nuclear arms and in support of the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, please get in touch with us on Facebook at facebook.com/voluntownpeacetrust or email us at [email protected]. — Support Us If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Sources “Call to a 3-Week Walk for Peace.” Polaris Action Bulletin. 2 February 1961 (Bulletin #19), page 3. “Details of 3-Week Walk for Peace.” Polaris Action Bulletin. 2 February 1961 (Bulletin #19), page 4. For the last few weeks, we have been telling the story of Eroseanna Robinson’s refusal to pay taxes used for war, her imprisonment and absolute noncooperation with the prison system, and the grassroots community of supporters her story generated. She never signed anything the legal system mandated, refused to follow prison rules, and maintained a hunger strike from the first minute of her incarceration to the end. As a Black woman from Chicago imprisoned in West Virginia in 1960, “Sis” Robinson took great risks by challenging the sentencing judge, the correctional officers, and the rest of the punitive institution that kept her. And yet, she was released after serving just a quarter of her sentence. Why? (See our previous posts to learn more about Eroseanna Robinson and her arrest: - Eroseanna Robinson: Black Olympic Athlete, Desegregationist, War Tax Resister - "This is Why Eroseanna Robinson Refuses to Pay Taxes", 1960 - Solidarity with War Tax Resister Eroseanna Robinson, 1960) Members of the Peacemaker movement (to which Eroseanna Robinson belonged) had picketed outside of IRS offices and other federal buildings in various cities around the country, generating greater publicity to Robinson’s situation. Clergy and regular people wrote to the sentencing judge, Judge Robson appealing to his conscience and urging for leniency. Meanwhile, other peacemakers had protested outside of the Alderson prison at scattered opportunities during those months of her imprisonment, but in the week before Robinson’s release, ten people had set up a more permanent Peacemaker encampment outside the Alderson prison gates. They were of mixed genders, roughly half of them Black and half white. Most of them had taken up a hunger strike in solidarity with Eroseanna. All of them were willing and eager to talk with local people to explain why they were there. And all of this was announced to the Alderson community through a statement in the town newspaper — which caused many local people to go and hear for themselves the Peacemakers’ vision for a world without war. Judge Robson and the Alderson prison warden Nina Knisella both maintained that the letters and picketing did not influence the decision to release Eroseanna Robinson early, but that it was because her resistance had become too great of a burden on the prison medical staff who had to force-feed and monitor her. This may be true, but it should also be noted that the federal strategy toward the antiwar movement at the time was to ignore and downplay its actions to prevent the movement from growing — such pronouncements of denial should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, if Robson and Knisella are to be believed, it is perhaps an even more incredible story: that a northern Black woman imprisoned south of the Mason-Dixon line in 1960 would be released just one-quarter of the way through her sentence simply because through nonviolent resistance and noncooperation, she made her own imprisonment too difficult for the prison system to maintain. When Robinson was released, the prison bought her a ticket to Chicago and sent her directly to the train station, trying to avoid the publicity moment with the Peacemakers encampment outside of the prison gates. But the Peacemakers quickly made chase and met up with Robinson at the train station, where the correctional officers watched impotently as Robinson let the train leave without her and then drove off in the car with her Peacemaker friends. (Click the images below to download the PDF versions of the original articles) --
Take Action Visit the War Resisters League (WRL) page on war tax resistance to get an overview explanation of the movement. The WRL website is also where you can find the pie chart of federal income tax distribution, as well: https://www.warresisters.org/war-tax-resistance Learn more about war tax resistance, including how to resist war taxes yourself, and get involved in today’s national war tax resistance movement at the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee website: https://nwtrcc.org/ — Support Us If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Source “Pacifists Camp At Prison Gate.” The Charleston Gazette. 16 May 1960. “We at the Gate to Alderson Prison Speak.” The Alderson Times. 19 May 1960. “Prison To Free Hunger Striker.” Beckley Post-Herald. 20 May 1960. “Victory Celebrated by ‘Peacemakers.’” The Charleston Gazette. 21 May 1960. “Robinson Released; Still Won’t Pay Taxes.” The Peacemaker. 28 May 1960, Volume 13, Number 8. Page 1. Over the course of February and March 1960, in the weeks following Eroseanna “Sis” Robinson’s arrest for war tax resistance, people across the United States in the Peacemaker movement expressed their solidarity with Robinson and took action to find justice for her: they protested outside the IRS offices in three major cities, wrote to the ruling judge appealing for leniency, and some became war tax resisters themselves if they weren’t already. And while other publications covered her story, Sis Robinson was an active member of the Peacemakers, and that organization’s newsletter covered her story the closest. (See our previous posts to learn more about Eroseanna Robinson and her arrest: - Eroseanna Robinson: Black Olympic Athlete, Desegregationist, War Tax Resister - "This is Why Eroseanna Robinson Refuses to Pay Taxes", 1960) Indeed, the articles and notices we have now have become a part of the story itself: how an independent newsletter created such a wide-ranging community of supporters for Sis Robinson in multiple cities so quickly, and the success of their efforts. This week, we see that Robinson’s story from previous issues had generated greater interest in the finer details of war tax resistance. On page 2 of the March 5, 1960 issue, the editors included three specific methods to resist supporting war through income taxes. We also see that people answered the earlier calls the Peacemaker had made for solidarity actions. At least one other Peacemaker, Karl Meyer, even caused a bit of “good trouble” in protest, drawing even more attention to the case. But it wasn’t just individuals who were making and distributing leaflets about Robinson’s case; other local groups joined in the work of educating the public, like the committee from the Washington Park Forum mentioned in the “Chicagoans Support” story. This combination of small local organizations active in their own communities, audacious individuals willing to take a stand, and a broad national movement invested in widely sharing these stories and calls to action — altogether made a real difference to Sis Robinson as she continued to resist cooperation with the authorities. (Click the images below to download the PDF version of the original clippings) -- Take Action Visit the War Resisters League (WRL) page on war tax resistance to get an overview explanation of the movement. The WRL website is also where you can find the pie chart of federal income tax distribution, as well: https://www.warresisters.org/war-tax-resistance Learn more about war tax resistance, including how to resist war taxes yourself, and get involved in today’s national war tax resistance movement at the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee website: https://nwtrcc.org/ — Support Us If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Source “Chicagoans Support Sis Robinson.” The Peacemaker. 26 March 1960, Volume 13, Number 4. Page 3-4. “Ideas for Action.” The Peacemaker. 5 March 1960, Volume 13, Number 4. Page 1. “Nonpayment of War Taxes and Nonfiling of Returns.” “Unity with Sis Robinson in Three Cities.” “Literature on Sis Robinson.” “Militant Unity with the Best.” The Peacemaker. 5 March 1960, Volume 13, Number 4. Page 2. Following in the tradition of such great Americans as Henry David Thoreau, Black Olympic athlete and social justice activist Eroseanna Robinson was arrested on January 26, 1960 for her refusal to pay her income taxes. The main concern in her day was the threat of nuclear weapons and their radioactive fallout. To US war resisters like Robinson, the fear was not merely that they themselves may fall victim to a nuclear attack, but that their own government might be responsible for a nuclear attack and all of the attending death and suffering that would follow — once again, not two decades out from the first attacks made on Japan. (See our post from last week here to learn more about Eroseanna Robinson and her arrest) There has been much discourse in the last several years about taxes, how high or low they should be, and what kinds of people in our society should pay them. Former-President Donald Trump still remains embroiled in the scandal of his alleged tax fraud. Activists constantly remind us that tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg and their respective industry giants have never paid their fair share. Indeed, few Americans are not aware of the existence of the tax breaks and other loopholes the ultra-rich use to hoard their wealth and avoid paying taxes. The refusal to pay taxes due to a refusal to participate in the war economy is a different matter altogether. Many war tax resisters, like Eroseanna Robinson, choose to live extremely simply so as to make less than a taxable income. Other war tax resisters purposely make enough income to be taxable — whether just barely or at an average income level. Some resist 50% of their income taxes — about the percentage that goes to the military. And the military budget of the US government only continues to grow. It grew under Bush for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; it grew under Obama, even as he promised to end the war in Afghanistan; it grew under Trump, even as he promised to close off-shore military bases; and it continues to grow under Biden as the military-industrial complex demands upgrades and replacements to Cold War nuclear missiles and other doomsday weapons. As we have watched in horror the Russian invasion of Ukraine lately, many of us have felt powerless to do anything about the situation. The invasion has been shown clearly to be an unjust act of aggression. Even more disturbingly, the Russian nuclear weapons system has been put on alert in anticipation of a direct NATO military intervention. But let us recall that NATO was established to oppose the Soviet Union, which has been gone for over three decades, and that NATO persists to this day primarily because it is too profitable for the military-industrial complex to give up. And the war-profiteer corporations like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics depend largely on government contracts paid for by US tax dollars and, increasingly, funds from other foreign governments eager to keep up. The refusal to pay war taxes in the United States is the refusal to participate in the funding of “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” (Click the image below to download the PDF version of the original clipping. See also the pie chart from War Resisters League “Where Your Income Tax Really Goes FY2022” to see how much of your tax money goes to the military-industrial complex — an updated chart for FY2023 will be out in a few weeks.) -- Take Action Visit the War Resisters League (WRL) page on war tax resistance to get an overview explanation of the movement. The WRL website is also where you can find the pie chart of federal income tax distribution, as well: https://www.warresisters.org/war-tax-resistance Learn more about war tax resistance, including how to resist war taxes yourself, and get involved in today’s national war tax resistance movement at the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee website: https://nwtrcc.org/ — Support Us If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Source “Federal Budget Card.” The Peacemaker. 5 March 1960, Volume 13, Number 4. Page 8. “Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes FY2022.” War Resisters League. https://www.warresisters.org/store/where-your-income-tax-money-really-goes-fy2022 |
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