In September 2001, shortlyafter the attacks on the WorldTrade Center and the Pentagon,the WRI Council issued its “SayNo!” statement, urging “all thosewho pay tax: demand that yourtaxes are used for peace, withholdthe proportion of tax used for war,Say No!” Back from the meetingthe then WRI staff decided topractice what WRI was calling for,and asked the WRI Executive (asemployers) to withhold the propor-tion of their income tax used tofund war. This was implementedfrom January 2002 on – and con-tinues until today.

In a letter to the Inland Reve-nue WRI’s staff explained whythey had to take this action: “Butthe legal argument is only onepart. More important to us are ethi-cal issues: We stand in the tradi-tion of War Resisters' Internatio-nal’s founding statement: "War is acrime against humanity. I amtherefore determined not to sup-port any kind of war, and to strivefor the removal of all causes ofwar."

Paying the proportion of taxwhich is used to fund war wouldeffectively constitute a support towar, and contradicts our ethicalconvictions.

We – the staff of War Resis-ters' International – come from dif-ferent parts of the world: Chile,Germany, and Belgium. We comefrom different traditions of nonvio-lent resistance to war and humanrights violations, and refusing topay the portion of tax used to fundwar is an important aspect of put-ting our ethical convictions intopractice. In doing so, we follow thetradition of important nonviolenttheoreticians and activists: Etiennede la Boetie, Henry David

Thoreau, Tolstoi, Bart deLigt, Mohandas K. Gandhi.”

This was – unfortunately– basically the end of thedebate with the Inland Reve-nue. Taken to court in 2003and again in 2004, thecourts too did not reallyenter into the debate on thelegality and legitimacy ofWRI’s tax refusal – a signthat the debate of tax resist-ance as a human right simi-lar to conscientious objec-tion is still at a very earlystage (see Derek Brett’s arti-cle).

WRI continues to with-hold a part of its taxes – andsees this as an importantpart to act according to itsown declaration – not tosupport any kind of war.

Andreas Speck is WRI’s officecoordinator

Without tax refusal, we mighthave no codified human rightstoday. The cry “No taxation withoutrepresentation!” ignited the Ameri-can Revolution, transforming theideas of Paine and Rousseau fromphilosophical abstractions to prin-ciples of government.

Modern war tax resisters how-ever claim no general human rightto withhold taxes, just a specificapplication of the freedom ofthought, conscience and religionenunciated in the Universal Decla-ration of Human Rights and reiter-ated in the European Covenant onHuman Rights, Article 9, and theInternational Covenant of Civil and

Political Rights, Article 18In its definitive interpretation of

Article 18, “General Comment 22”,the Human Rights Committeewhich oversees the implementa-tion of the International Covenantsaid in 1993: “Many individualshave claimed the right to refuse toperform military service (conscien-tious objection) on the basis that

such right derives from their free-doms under article 18… theCommittee believes that such aright can be derived from article18, inasmuch as the obligation touse lethal force may seriously con-flict with the freedom of conscien-ce and the right to manifest one’s

EditorialWelcome to issue 62 of The

Broken Rifle on war tax resist-ance. While war tax resistanceis not the main focus of WRI’swork, it certainly is an issueWRI groups have been invol-ved with for a very long time.Henry David Thoreau’s classi-cal text On Civil Disobedience,written in 1849, is centredaround Thoreau’s own refusalto pay war tax, for which hespent one day in prison. Thisform of conscientious objectionto military taxation can take dif-ferent forms, as the differentarticles in this issue show – adebate of total objection orlegal recognition and alterna-tive “taxation” can be identified,very similar to the debate ontotal objection or substituteservice.

Since January 2002, WarResisters’ International itselfwithholds a portion of WRIstaff’s income tax, and thuspractices tax resistance. As aresult, WRI has been taken tocourt twice, and has been visit-ed by tax collectors twice, whotook cash equivalent to the out-standing tax. This issue of TheBroken Rifle also explainsWRI’s reasons for withholdingtax. We hope that other peaceorganisations – especially WRIaffiliates – might follow thisexample, and in doing so mightfurther the debate on conscien-tious objection to military taxa-tion. If this should lead to legalrecognition, or is mainly seenas an antimilitarist action is foryou to decide.

Andreas SpeckWRI Office Coordinator

Resisting Military TaxationWar Resisters’ International and War Tax Resistance

WRI’s war taxes on the wall Photo: Andreas Speck

Newsletter of War Resisters’ International No 62, September 2004, donation welcome

War is a crime against humanity.

I am therefore determined not to

support any kind of war, and tostrive for the removal of all causes

of war.WRI declaration, 1921

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Tax Refusal in the Context of Human Rights

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religion or belief….”If conscientious objection to

military service can be derivedfrom Article 18, why not conscien-tious objection to military taxation?The two have sometimes beendirectly connected; in Switzerland,tax refusal has focussed on themilitary tax imposed on all men(including COs) excused fromserving. In some countries onecan pay a proxy or simply buy cer-

tification of having completed mili-tary service; thus, crudely, the richpay while the poor give their bod-ies in their country’s service. Butdoesn’t that in effect happen too incountries with all-volunteer ar-mies? In “Fahrenheit 911” MichaelMoore challenges members ofCongress to volunteer their ownsons for military service like theunemployed youth of his hometown – a theme echoed in thecampaign over the death in Iraq ofScottish soldier Gordon Gentle.

And of course (except in Israel)conscientious objection to militarytaxation has usually been the onlysort available to women. Sadly, the Human Rights Commit-tee itself has not yet accepted theanalogy. In the early 1990s it de-clared inadmissible “communica-tions” from citizens of Canada, theNetherlands and Germany whocontested being forced to pay mili-tary taxes, stating “Refusal to paytaxes for reasons of conscienceclearly falls outside the scope ofprotection of Article 18”. However,no case has forced the Commit-tee to re-examine the issue in thelight of its own General Comment,which includes: “Article 18 is notlimited… to religions and beliefswith institutional characteristics orpractices analogous to those oftraditional religions.” and “Article18.3 (“Freedom to manifest one’sreligion or beliefs may be subjectonly to such limits as are pre-scribed by law and are necessaryto protect public safety, order,health, or morals or the fundamen-tal rights and freedoms of oth-ers”)… “is to be strictly interpret-ed: restrictions are not allowed ongrounds not specified there, evenif they would be allowed as restric-tions to other rights protected inthe Covenant, such as nationalsecurity. Limitations may beapplied only for those purposes forwhich they were prescribed andmust be directly related and pro-portionate to the specific need onwhich they are predicated.” Crucial concepts are “manifesting”religion or belief , and “proportion-

ality”. Is tax resistance by a “peacechurch” member or a humanistpacifist a manifestation of beliefany less fundamental than, say,the dietary restrictions of a “tradi-tional religion”? And what is theoverriding public interest in deny-ing it? This argument is also cen-tral to the case now being broughtunder the British “Human RightsAct” which incorporates the Euro-pean Convention’s provisions indomestic law; although the UK hasnot accepted the right of individualpetition under the InternationalCovenant, British cases had previ-ously joined those brought, unsuc-cessfully, before the EuropeanCourt of Human Rights. To be able to challenge or disobeya law which breaches one’s hu-man rights is the ultimate safety-net. Rights are best guaranteed bylaws which recognise and protectthem – the objective of peace taxmovements world-wide.Meanwhile, the actions of individ-uals (and supportive employerslike WRI), who, with nothing togain personally, willingly suffer thecosts and consequences of appar-ently futile resistance to the autho-rity of the state, are essential testi-mony to the reality and depth ofthe issues of conscience andbelief involved.

Derek Brett is the UN representative ofConscience and Peace Tax Internatio-nal (CPTI). This article was written in apersonal capacity, and does not reflectthe opinion of CPTICheck out http://www.cpti.ws/ for con-tacts in different countries.

Spanish war tax resistance to military spendingWhile the new Spanish govern-

ment has withdrawn troops fromIraq, Spanish troops remain inAfghanistan and on hand for fur-ther interventions. Weapons facto-ries; the traffic in arms; the distor-tion of scientific research ... Thereis no underlying change. Yet if itseems that our protests areignored, more than we imagine wehave in our own hands the possi-bility to counter the pervasive influ-ence of militarism.

We claim that “peace is ouraffair” and demand the right toconstruct, through our civil disobe-dience, a demilitarised and partici-patory society, capable of handlingits conflicts without resorting toviolence. Such a transformationwill take many forms of action:insumisión (total resistance to bothmilitary and civilian conscription),Education for Peace, dismantlingthe military machine, research andprotest about the manufacture andsale of arms, research into militaryspending, the preparation of alter-native methods to defend what wevalue, and – contributing one moregrain of sand – tax resistance tomilitary spending.

The war tax resistance inSpain is:

Active. We are not resigned topassive laments, hoping that otherpeople will lead the social transfor-mation to which we aspire. We willnot delegate our capacity foraction to any party or representa-tive.

Collective. This campaign iscarried out by many people who indifferent ways are in the sameprocess of disobedience to allsocial militarisation, be it in thebarracks, the school, the work-place, etc. Rather than being a pri-

vate concern in our own name, weare a collective movement findingits own strength in building from ...

Public. We want to be heard. Asociety without voice is easy tomanipulate. Our disobediencetakes place in the settings ofeveryday life – family, work, freetime, with our form of consumptionor non-consumption; with eachsmall daily gesture we are makingit clear that we do not agree withhow our taxes are used. Pursuingsuch an attitude has a pedagagi-cal and multiplicatory effect amongthe people we know.

Nonviolent, part of an ethic thatis concerned with both ends andmeans. We do not see “the other”as our enemy. We believe that westrengthen ourselves every timewe handle a conflict positively.

Political. We seek the abolitionof armies and all the measuresthat benefit social militarisation.We are guided by the political prin-ciples of justice and solidarity thatought to regulate social institu-tions.

When we fill in our tax declara-tion forms, we adjust the finalamount due to the state to removethe percentage budgeted for mili-tary spending. Then we handwritea PS to the printed form: “For wartax resistance ... euros”, putting inthe amount we have withheld andsent to an alternative project. Thisproject might be one we recom-mend state-wide, and so themoney is sent to the centralaccount, or it might be somethingchosen by objectors who sendtheir money direct to one of theNGOs promoting war tax resist-ance to fund their own projects.The tax collection authorities usu-ally take no action, although theydo have the power to withdraw

money directly from someone’sbank account. The point of ouraction is to construct a critical atti-tude towards social militarisation.

The state-wide campaign ofwar tax resistance has been car-ried out for 20 years. At first, thealternative projects were mainlysocial support. However, it is rela-tively easy to fund the constructionof a well, a hospital or library,whereas it is more difficult to raisefunds for the activities of a groupthat aims to end the militarisationof its own country. Therefore weswitched to supporting groups whodefined their objectives in an anti-militarist framework. Thus we havecome to know objectors and paci-fists in Paraguay, Guatemala,Turkey, Colombia, Women inBlack in Belgrade, the Soldiers’Mothers of Saint Petersburg,groups in Israel and Palestine.Within the Spanish state, we havecooperated with campaignsagainst the militarisation ofschools, against firing ranges, andagainst the militarisation andunjust trading practices of theEuropean Union. Currently we arein the process of getting to knowgroups working with nonviolentstrategies for democracy inZimbabwe. We have consistentlycooperated with Peace BrigadesInternational and have cooperatedwith specific projects of WarResisters’ International, including15 May actions and the BalkanPeace Team.

Our contact with the groups wesupport goes much further thansimply sending money diverted bytax resisters. We learn about eachother’s situation, strategies,methodology; we debate andexchange ideas, we support and –if the situation permits – visit each

other. In many cases we have builta relationship of friendship andcooperation difficult to forget.

We are looking at other waysof campaigning against how mili-tarism is financed. Increasingly thegovernment is trying to deduct taxat source and to phase out thepersonal tax declaration form,while it collects significant sumsfrom indirect taxes such as VAT.Also we want to address the roleof banks in financing the armsindustry and spreading discrimina-tory values.

In contrast to many groupselsewhere, the Objeción Fiscalgroups of Alternative Antimilitarista– Movimiento de Objeción deConciencia (aa-moc) in theSpanish state do not favour legis-lation for “peace taxes”. We wouldsee this as primarily an expansionof the existing provision for makingtax-deductible donations to chari-ties. In view of experience of legis-lation for conscientious objectionto military service, we believe thatsuch laws operate to suit thosewho enact them. When our ulti-mate aim is complete demilitarisa-tion, we cannot resign ourselves toa law that merely allows individualobjection. For us, the act of objec-tion is as much a matter of politicsas of conscience.

Last year the results of ourannual campaign were by far thebest in our history. The alternativeproject was based in work forpeace in Israel and Palestine, andin our central account we receivedmore than 48,000 euros (com-pared with 31,000 in 2002). This isan open path along which manymore people may travel.

Yolanda is an activist with ObjecionFiscal.

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The Broken RifleThe Broken Rifle is the news-letter of War Resisters’ Inter-national, and is usually pub-lished in English, Spanish,French and German. This isissue 62, September 2004. This issue of The Broken Riflewas produced by AndreasSpeck, with help from ObjecionFiscal, QUNO, and many oth-ers, who provided the informa-tion used in this issue. This issue was made possiblethrough the financial support ofThe Joseph RowntreeCharitable Trust. If you want extra copies of thisissue of The Broken Rifle,please contact the WRI office,or download it from our web-site.

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