for Peace Tax Fund and War Tax Resistance
Compiled for the Eighth International Conference July, 2000
(Based largely on Rosa Packard's work. Thank you Rosa!)
Please send in submissions to Peace Tax Fund for future bibliographies so that it can be put on the CPTI / PTF / NWTRCC websites and available for the next conference
Websites on War Tax Resistance / Refusal and Peace Tax-Paying
- Albert Einstein Institution - To find a number of important works in the field of nonviolent action produced by Einstein Institution staff, colleagues, board members, Einstein Fellows, and other affiliated researchers visit the Albert Einstein Institution at www.aeinstein.org
- Bruce Baechler's Webpage - www.BeFreeNow.org/WTR.html. (now mirrored at www.carolmoore.net/bruce/freedomnow.html) Bruce is a pacifist who has never paid war taxes willingly. His webpage describes war tax resistance and provides a link to the NWTRCC page.
- Global Nonviolent Peace Force - info@nonviolentpeaceforce.org. A Peace Force is forming to mobilize and train an international, standing force. The Peace Force will deploy to conflict areas to protect human rights and prevent death and destruction, while creating space for local groups to struggle
- Mahatma Gandhi - www.mkgandhi.org; www.gandhipeaceful.org ; www.mkgandhi-sarvodaya.org
- Minnesota Military Tax Resistance Network - www.fnvw.org/m-tax. The M-TAX website, a project of Friends for a Non-Violent World, promotes non-cooperation with military conscription through taxation.
- National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee - www.nwtrcc.org. NWTRCC is a coalition of groups and individuals actively involved with war tax resistance/ refusal and peace taxpaying, and this website, which lists local/regional contacts, is a valuable resource.
- National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund - www.peacetax.com (now http://www.peacetaxfund.org)
- This website is an excellent educational and historical resource for anyone interested in pending US Congressional legislation that would provide a mechanism for conscientious objection to military taxation.
- Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia - www.nonviolence.org/nacc
- The website of NACC is an informational and organizational tool that promotes direct action and war tax resistance in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest region of the US
- Peace Taxpayers - www.peacetaxpayers.org Peace Taxpayers' vision is peace on Earth, Its mission, as illustrated in this informative website, is to find ways to pay our federal taxes to support this vision.
- S. Brian Willson's Webpage - www.brianwillson.com/evrataxrefuse.html
- Brian Willson is a peace activist/educator/war tax refuser who has traveled worldwide promoting peace with justice, both before and after being run over by a US Navy munitions train and losing both legs below the knee. This is his thought-provoking website.
- War Resisters League - www.warresisters.org.
- [Translation web pages http://www.gn.apc.org/warresisters/ there are German, French, Spanish translation links; http://www.babelfish.com/Translations.shtml or www.freetranslation.com, who offer a free, very quick, mechanic but understandable translation of websites or some-page-long pasted texts between English and about 6 languages)]
- WRL has a long history of promoting peace and nonviolent action. This website and their printed materials promote war tax resistance as an important tactic towards achieving these goals.
Books and Articles on War Tax Resistance / Refusal and Peace Tax-Paying
- Allen, Irene. Quaker Testimony: an Elizabeth Elliot Mystery. New York: Saint Martins, 1996.
- The detective is Clerk of Cambridge Friends Meeting. The victim is a war tax resister and a member of the meeting. Each chapter is preceded by a Quaker quotation relating to war tax witness.
- Ackerman, Peter, Christopher Kruegler, and Jack Homer. A Force More Powerful. Saint Martin's Press, 2000. Available from Video Finders, 4401 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90027. ($29.00 + $6.00, shipping and handling.) See also under “film” at the end of this bibliography.
- Avery, Chel. Peace and Taxes...God and Country: a Guide for Seeking Clearness on War Tax Concerns. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1990.
- Concrete advice for Meetings and individuals on the spiritual discipline of clearness committees which allow the individual to test her or his conscience, and the meeting to discern and support tax witness as particular expression of the Quaker peace testimony.
- Bechtel, Judith A. and Robert M. Coughlin. Building the Beloved Community: Maurice McCracken's Life for Peace and Civil Rights. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
- Brinton, Howard A. The Peace Testimony of the Society of Friends. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: American Friends Service Committee, 1966.
- This is still a timely, concise, articulate treatment of the spiritual basis and the history of Friends' peace testimony, and its necessary unity with other Friends' testimonies.
- Brock, Peter. The Quaker Peace Testimony, 1660 to 1914. York, England: Sessions Book Trust, 1990.
- Brock describes the experience of English, Canadian, US, Irish, French, Prussian, Norwegian, Australian and New Zealand Friends. A chapter is devoted to war tax witness.
- Corbett, Jim. Goatwalking: a Guide to Wildland Living, a Quest for the Peaceable Kingdom. New York: Viking Penguin, 1991.
- Civil initiative is the name that Corbett, the Quaker founder of the Sanctuary Movement, gives to his understanding of nonviolent response. He asserts that the duty of the individual is to disobey the law when the government defiles the law by calling illegal acts legal.
- Coxe, Spencer and Rosa Packard. “Letters to the Editor.” In Quaker Life (Richmond, Indiana), January / February, 2000.
- Coxe, Spencer. Edward Snyder, Joe Volk, Richard N. Reichley, Silas Weeks, Ben Tousely, Bruce Hawkins, Thoreau Raymond. Rosa Packard and Mary Moulton. “Letters to the Editor Concerning the Peace Tax Movement.” In Friends Journal (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), December 1999; March and April 2000.
- Coxe, Spencer. Friends Journal, October 2000, pages 5 and 38 in which he rethinks his opposition to the Peace Tax Fund legislation
- Crauderueff, Elaine J. War Taxes: Experiences of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Quakers through the American Revolution. Wallingford, Pennsylvania: Pendle Hill Pamphlet 286, 1989.
- The author presents a diversity of Friends' perspectives on war taxes that mirror issues which continue to test Friends in the twenty-first century.
- David Bassett. In Quaker Life (Richmond, Indiana), April 1997.
- A personal account by the lead founder of the movement for a Peace Tax Fund Bill. David Bassett is a member of Ann Arbor Friends Meeting and active on the boards of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund and Peace Tax Foundation. He has attended seven international war tax resistance and peace tax campaign conferences, and helped organize the eighth in Washington, DC during July 2000.
- Dellinger, Dave. From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter. New York: Pantheon, 1993.
- Durland, William. The Illegality of Nuclear War. Colorado Springs: National Center on Law and Pacifism, 1983.
- Durland, William. People Pay For Peace: a Military Tax Refusal Guide for Radical Religious Pacifists and People of Conscience. Colorado Springs: Center Peace Publishers, 1984.
- William Durland is an attorney and theologian who has represented conscientious objectors to paying for war before the US Supreme Court. He articulates the legal and religious reasons for war tax refusal and witness the courts have ignored.
- The Essential Gandhi: His Life, Work, and Ideas, edited by Louis Fisher. Vintage Books, 1962.
- Gandhi believed in revealing himself. He exposed even the innermost personal thoughts which individuals usually regard as private. In nearly a half-century of prolific writing, speaking and subjecting his ideas to the test of actions, he painted a detailed self-portrait of his mind, heart, and soul.
- Franz, Marian. Questions That Refuse To Go Away. Herald Press, 1991.
- This short book is suitable for Christian congregational study. Franz asks who is Lord? God or Caesar? Christ or Hitler? Military strength or trust in power of the Divine Creator? She discusses the three positions of the institutional Christian church on war: the holy war, the just war and Christian pacifism.
- Friends in Civilian Public Service: Quaker Conscientious Objectors in World War II Look Back and Look Ahead, edited by Chuck Fager. Wallingford, Pennsylvania: Pendle Hill, 1996.
- In the context of a conference that began Pendle Hill's contribution to documenting the Quaker peace testimony in recent history, Rosa Packard comments (pages 282-285) on tax witness as a way for conscientious objectors of both sexes and all ages to engage the discipline in the present time.
- Goldberger, Peter. “Conscience, Citizenship and the Road Ahead.” In Friends and The Vietnam War: Papers and Presentations from a Gathering for Recollection, Reappraisal and Looking Ahead, edited by Chuck Fager. Wallingford, Pennsylvania: Pendle Hill, 1998.
- Goldberger is a Philadelphia lawyer who has represented many Quaker conscientious objectors, including the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Priscilla Adams and Rosa Packard. He is General Counsel for the Central Committee for Conscientious Objection. He reflects on the legal context of conscientious objection in the US.
- Goossen. Rachel. Women and the Good War: Conscientious Objection and Gender on the American Home Front, 1941 - 1947. University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
- A groundbreaking book on the role of women in conscientious objection by a Mennonite scholar, who understood herself as a conscientious objector during the early 1980s when the US Congress was considering requiring women to register for the draft. Women were conscientious objectors in their own right even in World War II.
- Grossman. Dave. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Little, Brown, 1995.
- Grossman is a military psychologist who understands that the natural condition of human beings is not violence, but conscientious objection to violence. He asserts that the purpose of military training is to train people out of the natural condition of conscientious objection, so they will kill. He observes that we live in a culture that has adopted the methods of military training as a cultural pattern. While believing in the necessity of having a military, he warns against the violent social consequences of a militarized society, especially affecting children.
- Grundy, Martha Paxson. Tall Poppies: Supporting Gifts of Ministry and Eldering in the Monthly Meeting. Wallingford, Pennsylvania: Pendle Hill Pamphlet 347, 2000.
- A helpful and concise exploration of the traditions and dilemmas facing Friends called to vocal and pastoral ministry, and to the ministry of furthering concerns. The relationship of the Monthly Meeting to the individual member led to ministry is the focus of the pamphlet.
- Handbook on Military Taxes and Conscience, edited by Linda Coffin. Philadelphia: Friends Committee on War Tax Concerns (sponsored by Friends World Committee on Consultation), 1988.
- Currently available without charge from the War Tax Concerns Committee of New York Yearly Meeting. A comprehensive look at Quaker war tax witness with chapters on biblical context, Quaker history, testimony of Churches, international responses, legal options and consequences, spiritual leadings, the search for legislative accommodation, and personal and corporate experiences of tax witness.
- Harrison, Rachel Avery. Gender and Conscientious Objection. Unpublished manuscript.
- A Quaker intern at the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund during 1998-2000, Harrison explores her understanding of the role of the military in distancing men and women from each other, and of the opportunity in the movement of conscientious objection to taxes for them to rediscover their unity.
- Irons, Peter. The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court. Penguin Books, 1990.
- The author is an attorney who was jailed for draft refusal in the Vietnam era. One of the sixteen is Dan Seeger, whose case established a broader applicability of conscientious objector status.
- Kaufman, Donald. The Tax Dilemma: Praying for Peace, Paying for War. Herald Press, 1978. What Belongs to Caesar? Herald Press, 1969.
- These books are biblical and theological classics, but out of print.
- Keim, Albert N. The CPS Story: an Illustrated History of Civilian Public Service. Good Books, 1990.
- Eager to avoid a repeat of the harsh treatment their young men had experienced during World War I, historic peace churches fashioned a program acceptable to their peace convictions and the highly militarized US government.
- Kornhauser, Marjorie. “For God and Country: Taxing Conscience.” In Law Review (Madison, Wisconsin), Volume 1999, Number 5.
- Kornhauser published her seventy-page treatise on three Quaker test cases (Priscilla Adams vs. the US; Gordon and Edith Browne vs. the US; and Rosa Packard vs. the US ) just before the three cases were denied certiorari by the US Supreme Court in early 2000. Kornhauser reviews the legislative and judicial history of war tax witness in the US, and favors the passage of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill.
- Lewis, John, with Michael D'Orso. Walking With the Wind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.
- An inspiring autobiography by the lead cosponsor of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill in the US House of Representatives. The author, now a Representative from Georgia, was president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement, and was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War.
- Mayer, Herbert. All On Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New York: Saint Martins Press, 1998.
- A more male-centered version of the nineteenth century nonviolence movement, making clear the connection between the development of religiously and morally based nonviolent social change methods to end slavery and achieve women's rights.
- McCarthy, Ronald. Nonviolent Action: A Research Guide
- a 700 page annotated bibliography of English language books concerning cases, history, methods, and theory of nonviolent action. Includes Dr. McCarthy's insightful introduction on ‘The Possibilities of Research on Nonviolent Action’.
- Miller, Alice. For Your Own Good; Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence. New York: Farrar Straus, 1983.
- Miller delineates the effects of traditional child-rearing methods on “almost all of us”decent people who were once beaten. She discovered the path of art to be healing.
- Montessori, Maria. Education and Peace, translated by A.M. Joosten and Maria Montessori. Chicago: Henry Regnery; 1949.
- Individual conscience emerges in early childhood and is the key to ending war. The child's inner guide or conscience is often oppressed by traditional education that supports a war mentality.
- Nelson, Juanita. A Matter of Freedom and Other Writings. San Francisco: Peace and Gladness Press, 1988.
- Nonviolence in America: a Documentary History, edited by Staughton Lynd and Alice Lynd. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1998.
- Source materials that address war tax witness are found in John Woolman, pages 6-8; Adin Ballou, 17-21; Henry David Thoreau, 21-38; Maurice McCracken, 175-77.
- Noonan, John T. The Lustre of Our Country: the American Experience of Religious Freedom. University of California Press, 1998.
- That religion has caused many acts of violence and perpetuated many hatreds is a datum of history. Humankind cannot do without religion. For the evils, at least for most of the evils that religion brings, a sovereign remedy exists - free exercise!
- Peace Pilgrim. Her Life and Work in Her Own Words. Santa Fe: Ocean Tree, 1983.
- Powers, Roger and William Vogels, editors. Protest, Power, And Change
- “A major encyclopedia of nonviolent action - remarkably comprehensive treatment of the field in one volume.”
- Regier, Austin, with Susan Miller Balzer and Raymond Regier. The Courage of Conviction: The Correspondence of a Conscientious Objector. Raymond Regier, 2000.
- Letters tell the story of Regier's peace pilgrimage, including Civilian Public Service, military draft registration refusal, and civil rights work, including integrated housing in Chicago with Joffre Stewart.
- Religious Society of Friends. Quaker Faith and Practice: the Book of Christian Discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain. London: 1995.
- Discipline is not now a popular word. Its roots lie in ideas of learning and discipleship. Discipline in our yearly meeting consists for the most part of advice and counsel, the encouragement of self-questioning, of hearing each other in humility and love.
- Resources for Radicals, edited by Brian Burch. Toronto, Canada: Toronto Action for Social Change.
- This is an annotated bibliography of print material of interest to those involved in movements for radical, non-violent social change. Periodicals as diverse as Earth First! Journal, The Catholic Worker, Highgrader and Shelterforce are included, as well as books from authors as varied as Dorothy Day, Emma Goldman, Petra Kelly, Peter Kropotkin, Thomas Merton and William Kilbourne.
- Richmond. Ben. “J.E. McNeil, a Skeptical Advocate for Peace.”] In Quaker Life (Richmond, Indiana), December 1999.
- Ben Richmond, editor of Quaker Life, a publication of Friends United Meeting, is on the board of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, and is a war tax refuser. J.E. McNeil is a Quaker tax lawyer and director of the Center on Conscience and War.
- Rosenberg, Marshall B. Nonviolent Communication: a language of Compassion. PuddleDancer Press, 1999.
- Nonviolent Communication is the lost language of humankind, the language of a people who care about one another and long to live in harmony. Using stories examples and sample dialogues, Dr. Rosenberg provides everyday solutions to perplexing communication problems.
- Schmitt, Hans A. Quakers and Nazis: Inner Light in Outer Darkness. University of Missouri Press, 1997.
- Focuses on the heroic acts foreign and German Quakers performed under the Nazi regime, offering fully documented and original information regarding the Quakers' commitment to non-violence and relief of the victims.
- Sterling, Dorothy. Abby Kelley and the Politics of Antislavery. New York: Norton, 1991.
- Kelley, a Quaker, was a pioneer organizer in the antebellum arena of women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and nonviolence.
- A Testament of Hope: the Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by James M. Washington. Harper Collins, 1986.
- Here, in the only major one-volume collection of his writings, speeches, interviews, and autobiographical reflections, is Martin Luther King, Jr. on nonviolence, social policy, integration, black nationalism, the ethics of love and hope, and more.
- True, Michael. An Energy Field More Intense than War: the Nonviolent Tradition and American Literature. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
- True, a Quaker and a leading peace studies scholar, emphasizes the power of the written word to influence social change. In a chronological approach from colonial times to the present, he affirms pacifist experience and stimulates the desire to learn more about this underreported aspect of US history.
- Vogler, Michael. Unjobbing: the Adult Liberation Handbook.
- This is a good how-to book that intersects the needs, lifestyles, and aspirations of would-be simple-living, peace-taxpayers. The author speaks to the problems of earning too much supporting things we don't want in life (namely, war).
- Willson, S. Brian. On Third World Legs. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing, 1992.
- Wink, Walter. The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. New York: Doubleday, 1998.
- An excellent explanation of the Biblical understanding of nonviolence, which the institutional church has often turned upside down. Wink explains the cultural setting of the active, creative and responsible responses to oppression that Jesus lived and taught. He understands all of us, institutions and individuals, are good, are fallen and that we must be transformed. He advises that neglecting any of these three aspects of our spiritual life increases the violence of principalities and powers.
Film and Television on War Tax Resistance / Refusal,
Peace Tax-Paying, Women's Suffrage and Nonviolence Movements
- A Force More Powerful. Ackerman, Peter, Christopher Kruegler, and Jack Homer, two videotapes, total length, 3 hours. Available from Video Finders, 4401 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90027. $39.95 (for both tapes), + $6.95 shipping and handling.
- An Act of Conscience. 1997, 90 minutes, color, 35 mm. Narrated by Martin Sheen. Filmmaker Robbie Leppzer, Turning Tide Productions (in association with Cinemax Reel Life), POB 864, Wendell, Massachusetts 01379, Telephone: 508-544- 8313, Fax: 508-544-7989
- A personal and profound film that depicts the significance and devolution of life of long moral and political commitment and the contractions that impact any act of political resistance. The story of a couple who have form many years refused to pay their federal income taxes as a protest against war and military spending. The government auctions off their home, and the complicated story of their relationship with the working class couple that moves in and the encampment of friends and supporters is engrossing.
- Compelled by Conscience: Why We Need a Peace Tax Fund. 1993, 21 minutes. Available from the NCPTF office, or producer Carol Coney (see below).
- A documentary presenting background leading to the development of Peace Tax Fund legislation in the US, including footage of the hearing before the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the House Ways and Means Committee, May 21, 1992.
- Not for Ourselves Alone. Executive Producer, Ken Burns. The American Lives Film Project, Inc. 1999. Florentine Films.
- Public Broadcasting System miniseries about Elizabeth Caddy Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and the struggle for women's suffrage.
- One Woman, One Vote. Public Broadcasting documentary, 1 hour 52 minutes, produced by WGBH for the American Experience, 1995.
- PBS miniseries on the history of women's suffrage movement in the US, leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which granted women the right to vote in August, 1920.
- Separate But Equal. 193 minutes, two VHS cassettes, Republic Pictures Home Video. Available at: http://www.us.buy.com/videos/product.asp?sku=40052770
- The dramatic events leading from a small rural classroom to the Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation are powerfully reenacted in this contemporary screen classic. Beautifully scripted and superbly portrayed by Sidney Portier, as Thurgood Marshall; Burt Lancaster as John W. Davis, the opposing counsel; and Richard Kiley as Chief Justice Earl Warren, who rallied the previously split 5-4 against Court to the unanimous landmark ruling.
- Paying for Peace: War Tax Resistance in the United States. 1993, 30 minutes, VHS.