NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9325

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-14 | 46.9 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!noc.near.net!hri.com!ukma!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!daemon
From: [e-mail] (NY Transfer News)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: NYC Life & Taxes Newsletter
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 14 Dec 92 23:50:52 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Lines: 994
Approved: [e-mail]
Originator: [e-mail]
Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <[e-mail]>


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

                          New York City
                         LIFE AND TAXES

       The Newsletter of New York City War Tax Resistance
       Volume III, Issue 1                    August 1992


                          In This Issue:
 From the Editors
 Kehler-Corner Home Seized

 Inside the Lobby of the Beast: NYC People's Life Fund
   Celebrates 20th Anniversary......................Kathleen Kelly
 On the Road: With the Peace House in the South.........Karl Meyer
 An American Legacy of Individualism ..................Sallie Marx
 The Gulf War, Then and Now: Peace in the Gulf?......Betty Winkler
 A Speeding Bullet Has No Friends.....................Joanie Fritz
 Desert Storm Turned Urban Blight:
  The War Back Home................................. Robert Hieger
 Lives of Resistance, Communities of Support:
   An Organizer's Perspective........................Susan Quinlan
 A Glimmer of Hope on the Lower East Side............Timothy Mason

                               ***

                         LIFE AND TAXES
       The Newsletter of New York City War Tax Resistance
       Volume III, Issue 1                    August 1992

From the Editors

On the release of our third issue, are we facing the possibility
that war tax resistance has outlived its usefulness, that weapons
will be drastically reduced and/or eliminated, and government
spending devoted to peace?

As naive as this might sound to the experienced war tax resister,
this is a very real question to many people. As we go to press with
this issue, the "peace dividend" has proven to be a hoax as it was
voted down by Congress this past March. Shortly after the release
of our last issue, the Gulf War broke out, promising to be "the
mother of all wars." But now, a mere year since, the majority of
the American public, unfortunately all too ready, at the time, to
endorse such an armed conflict, hardly thinks of this event. In
light of the recent Rodney King verdict in Los Angeles and the
subsequent show of military force, people still don't think of the
implications of these deployed forces.

Since nuclear arsenals in both the United States and the fledgling
Russian Commonwealth are rapidly dwindling, perhaps WTR now faces
its greatest challenge -- struggle against the illusion that
because the United States is no longer engaged in armed conflict,
military spending is not the critical issue it was a year ago.
Because the Cold War has officially ended and tools of mass
destruction are being dismantled, is our work done?

Let us dispense once and for all with the illusion that the work of
this movement is finished. It has barely begun. As peace activists,
we must not allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of
security. The fact that the United States did finally pull out of
Vietnam after massive protests did not stop the spoils of the Cold
War. Weapons development continues to flourish -- from Stealth
Bomber to Star Wars. And, as we have seen, if we build machines for
war, there is an intention to use these machines eventually. The
Gulf War is evidence of that fact.

In this issue, we will examine many critical questions facing WTR
today and the positive developments of the peace movement in
general.

We welcome your ideas and support. If you are interested in
submitting material for publication in future issues and/or have
any insights you would like to share with us, please contact us at:

New York City Life & Taxes
c/o New York City WTR
339 Lafayette Street
New York, NY  10012

Thank you for your continued support.

                      ********************

                    Kehler-Corner Home Seized

ON DECEMBER 3, 1991, US FEDERAL MARSHALS ARRESTED RANDY KEHLER FOR
FAILING TO LEAVE HIS HOME, WHICH THE GOVERNMENT HAD SEIZED
FOLLOWING KEHLER'S REFUSAL TO PAY FEDERAL TAXES IN PROTEST OF
MILITARY SPENDING. WHEN RANDY REFUSED TO PROMISE NOT TO RETURN TO
THE HOUSE IN COLRAIN, HE WAS SENTENCED TO UP TO SIX MONTHS IN JAIL
FOR CONTEMPT. DURING THIS TIME, BETSY CORNER AND HER DAUGHTER
LILLIAN STAYED WITH FRIENDS.

WHAT FOLLOWS IS AN EXCERPTED VERSION OF THE STATEMENT THAT RANDY
HAD HOPED TO MAKE IN COURT:

"My refusal to give up our home is not an act of contempt or
defiance of your court order. I regard it is an act of conscience
and also an act of citizenship ... The first obligation of
responsible citizenship ... is obedience to one's conscience ...
Otherwise there is no check on immoral actions by governments ...

"There are times when all of us are confronted with difficult
choices. Betsy and I, and many others like us, feel that we must
choose between knowingly and willingly paying for war and killing,
and openly and non-violently breaking the law with respect to
federal taxes. Our consciences compel us to choose the latter ...

"The issue is larger than simply the taking of another human life
... I have increasingly come to see the larger issue as war itself
... Today the logic of peace, the logic of non-violence, is also
the logic of survival ... War today is the scourge of the planet.
What makes war even more tragic ... are the incalculable economic
social, and environmental costs that go along with it ...

"There is another way for us to live in the world, and another way
for us to resolve our conflicts with our fellow human beings. It is
a way that is rooted in the best of our values, the values of
generosity and justice, of human dignity and equality, of
compassion and mutual respect. The seeds of this alternative -- the
nonviolence that Dr. Martin Luther King tried to teach us --
already exist within our society, and within each person. We have
only to honor and nurture those seeds, individually and
collectively. This is a prescription based not on wishful idealism
but on practical necessity.

"The transformation required cannot be accomplished without our
accepting some measure of personal responsibility for the mess we
are in. It would be futile to expect our government, or any other,
to initiate it. In any event we cannot afford to wait. The
transformation must begin with us.

"We can exercise this responsibility by means of the choices each
of us is called upon to make. For example, we can choose to speak
out publicly against government practices and priorities we know to
be wrong. Many of us can also choose to refuse some part of our tax
money every April 15, and redistribute it to those in need. And
each of us can choose to ... find ways of living based on
simplicity, sharing, and respect for the earth. The choices we make
as individuals determine the choices we make as a nation."

UPDATE:

Randy is out of jail. He and his wife Betsy are staying with
friends across the road from their house in Colrain.
Since its sale, the house has been occupied by WTR affinity groups.
On April 15, most of the group left the house to attend a tax day
demonstration leaving only 3 people to occupy the house. At that
point, the new owners along with their support group took
possession of the house. Despite this, resistance continues with
occupations at the side of the house, where people are housed in
tents, in back of the house where a kitchen has been set up, and in
front of the house where affinity group members gather.

NYC WTR representatives went up to Colrain for the 23rd week of
occupation. Vicki Rovere, who joined the resistance that week,
suggested that the close proximity of the support group to the
house provides a unique opportunity for ongoing dialogue. She
expressed hope that this could lead to a creative solution.
Resistance is still strong and people are still needed to occupy
the house and further the interaction.

                      ********************

                 INSIDE THE LOBBY OF THE BEAST --
       NYC People's Life Fund Celebrates 20th Anniversary

                       by Kathleen L. Kelly

Every April 15th, NYC War Tax Resistance pays a visit to the IRS
offices at 120 Church Street in downtown Manhattan. The protest of
April 15, 1991 was also a celebration of sorts -- the 20th
Anniversary of the founding of the NYC People's Life Fund.

PLF redistributes tax-resisted money to community service groups
and other alternative projects. Tax Day Grants are special
unsolicited awards to groups demonstrating unusual energy and
creativity. These $500 awards place special emphasis on social
needs most severely impacted by budget cuts and military spending
-- particularly health, housing and free information.

The day was gray and rainy; the mood somber, but also surprisingly
hopeful. At noon, in the lobby of the IRS Building, war tax
resisters encountered, mingled with, and educated the busy
lunch-hour crowds of IRS employees, messengers, assorted security
types, and dazed or frenzied taxpayers seeking last-minute
information and forms.

One of the original founders of PLF, Sallie Marx, presented the Tax
Day Grants to groups chosen for their contribution to peace and
human needs, reflecting on twenty years of resisting war and
redirecting war taxes. She reminded us of the multitude of groups
funded by The Life Fund during the last two decades, and their
invaluable contribution to New York City.

The first award, given to the Metropolitan Council on Housing, was
accepted by veteran tenants rights organizer, Jane Benedict. Her
organization, which has been working to assist tenants for 30
years, usually receives contributions of $5 and $10, so the $500
award represented a very large donation. Amid all the celebration
of the "great victory" in the Persian Gulf, Benedict said, here at
home economic conditions, especially for the working poor, have
never been worse.

The second award, given to the Coalition for the Homeless, which
provides legal services on behalf of homeless people nationwide,
was accepted by its Advocacy Director, Neil Margetson. While not
the largest donation, PLF's grant symbolized a Coalition principle:
"that the government must begin to reallocate tax dollars, away
from the military and to social welfare programs."

The third award, accepted by this writer, was given to Blythe
Systems for the NY Transfer News Service, a computer-accessed
electronic news service that provides alternative news and
information to activist groups and the general public across the
nation and internationally. This people's news service, run by Bob
Richards and me, brings timely news of the anti-nuclear and
environmental movement, the feminist movement and groups working to
promote human rights and social change. Our group has worked hard
to counter government censorship and management of the media and to
inform Americans that there is indeed an active and effective peace
movement.

The fourth award was presented to Harlem Week of Prayer, a
coalition of more than 200 groups, including 60 churches which
cooperate to provide educational and counseling services to AIDS
patients and their loved ones in one of the most under-served
communities in New York City. Accepting the $500 check, Pernessa
Seele said that the PLF award would help immensely in bringing more
community churches into their AIDS initiative.

The ceremony ended with Margarett Jolly's moving reading of the
People's Life Fund Manifesto, written 20 years ago, and --
unfortunately -- still applicable to our situation today. While we
all felt saddened and angry that so many of this country's
resources are still being directed toward death and destruction, we
also felt energized and encouraged by one another's efforts and
accomplishments, and especially by the recognition from the
People's Life Fund -- a group of indomitable activists whose 20
years of dedicated work prove how much power we all have within us
to make real change a reality.

                      ********************

        On the Road -- With the Peace House in the South

                          by Karl Meyer

The cold snows of winter were beginning to swirl into Chicago when
I finished building the Peace House in late November last year. My
house has an attractive sign on each side that reads, "Peace House
-- Nonviolence -- Sharing -- Simplicity -- Service to Others --
Reverence for Earth." Its ten display windows feature quotations
and photographs of Gandhi, King, Dorothy Day, Tolstoy, Thoreau,
Helen Caldicott, Phillip Berrigan, Albert Schweitzer, Anne Frank,
Thich Nhat Hanh, Dr. Spock, Jane Addams, the Dalai Lama, Black Elk,
Rosa Parks, Einstein, A.J. Muste, and other peacemakers.

My wife Kathy and I headed south on December 16, arriving in
Atlanta on December 31. Kathy took off for Amman, Jordan to join up
with the Gulf Peace Team. She spent the first ten days of the Gulf
War in a nonviolent witness camp on the border between Iraq and
Saudi Arabia, staying on through June, ccordinating convoys of
medical aid to Iraq and organizing two peace walks through
Jerusalem and the West Bank.

I spent the first two weeks of the new year in Atlanta, quickly
engaging myself with those who were working to protest the
impending war. On the night of January 15 I hosted many of my new
friends for tea in the Peace House, parked outside of the Ebenezer
Baptist Church, after about 5000 of us marched in pouring rain to
rally against the war.

The next day I took the Peace House to Fort Benning in Columbus,
Georgia. After driving several miles, I came to The School of the
Americas, where several of the Salvadoran soldiers who carried
out the murder of the Jesuit priests and their housekeepers in
San Salvador, received military training from the US. There I
stopped and rang the bell mounted in the alcove in the roof of
the Peace House.

A couple miles further on, I was pulled over by several carloads of
Military Police armed with automatic rifles. Because of the
presumed threat of Iraqi terrorism, the base was on heightened
alert, so they wanted to search the Peace House for bombs. Being a
realist, I consented. They thoroughly searched cabinets filled with
books and displays on nonviolence.

Soon a lawyer arrived from the Provost's office, pleasantly
inviting me to follow him to Military Police headquarters. I told
him that I am one of the owners of the base (as a US resident) and
wanted to look over the property with a view to persuading the
other owners to join with me in selling it, or putting it to other
uses. I was detained there for two hours of discussion and waiting.
I assume they were running through my record with the FBI and the
CIA. In the end he apologized for the delay and allowed me to
continue my tour of the base.

I spent most of the winter in the St. Petersburg-Tampa area. I
connected quickly with the Friends Meeting and the American Friends
Service Committee and became engaged in weekly vigils with them at
MacDill Air Base in Tampa, the home base of General Schwarzkopf and
the Southern Command.

There were no mass demonstrations in the conservative Tampa-St.
Petersburg area. Those opposed to the war expressed feelings of
helplessness and isolation. The Peace House became known all over
St. Petersburg. Every new person that I met had seen it on the
streets or at a shopping center somewhere. If they were against the
war, they were encouraged by its presence as a continuous visible
witness on behalf of nonviolence.

Set back by the recession in the South, I had to go to work at a
day labor pool. The dispatcher at Labor-Rite sent me out almost
every day at $4.25 an hour. St. Petersburg loved the way I swept
and picked up trash.

My co-workers were very cautious. They'd ask me if I built the
Peace House myself, and how long it took, but shied away from all
questions about my racial and pacifist politics. I was cautious
too, because I needed work and didn't want to jeopardize my chances
by getting into political arguments.

The message of nonviolence on the side of the Peace House is clear
and strong, but it is not confrontational. In the whole year that
I have been on the streets with the Peace House, there was no
vandalism. Hundreds of people have told me how much they appreciate
the visible witness and message of the Peace House.

                      ********************

               An American Legacy of Individualism

                          by Sallie Marx

It was 1970 and anti-Vietnam sentiment was cresting. I was in
Stockholm attending the university, an American woman in the middle
years, studying, exploring Swedish life and culture, in an odyssey
that would lead to a dramatic change of direction in her life.

I saw an admirable health system accessible to all; men joining
women to fashion a more equitable life for all; a people whose life
expectancy was among the highest in the world; in short, a people
unusually rich in things public and, I might add, a country without
war for over 150 years.

It was during this crucial year that I came in contact with an
American deserter, and it was Willie who passed on antiwar
publications from War Resisters League, of which I had next-to-no
information.  WRL urged its readers to refuse the Federal telephone
tax, a war tax, and  rechannel moneys into the community. Withdraw
support from the war machine and feed the public sector. It seemed
eminently sensible!

And so that year marked a turning point in my life. I started to
act instead of talk. I began to tax resist and simultaneously work
with a WTR group of seven core members who met and began evolving
a structure for resistance. Soon the Life Fund was formed. Ever
since, I have been active in both groups. Why? One might say I
began to develop a vision of the possibility of a better life and
that I knew the importance of building a movement to attain
that possibility.

So from the outset my actions were associated with the group as
well as struggling with my personal decision regarding war tax
resistance. This, I might add, was true of others in the group,
some of whom have left New York City. Despite change and distance,
we remain in touch. Political activism birthed personal links and
close friendships. We recognized individual struggle to be
inextricably bound with a strong community of support. Today it is
far more difficult to build functioning communities of support.
It's my contention that often a conflict exists between the
individual of strong conscience and group effort. Hannah Arendt, in
her essay "Civil Disobedience," clarifies the difference between a
moral and political stance. Thoreau said he "came into this world
not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it
good or bad." He could not be an agent of injustice to others and
therefore he broke the law and refused to pay taxes that promoted
slavery.  Thoreau said he "wasn't responsible for the successful
working of the machinery of society," and was "not the son of the
engineer." Therefore his individual resistance, his act of
conscience was sufficient to wash his hands of evil.

In terms of collective action, strong conscience might also be
considered its greatest weakness. Does the introspection associated
with the searching mind make it more difficult to cross the
boundaries of self and meet with others?

Or, to consider other possibilities that might explain the
difficulty of building support communities, is the lack of group
cohesion in big cities, New York, for example, a reflection of the
fragmented, disintegrating lives we lead today? We spend enormous
time trying to capture security, never quite reaching a secure
state, and the time left for political activism dissipates.

Or perhaps more than the nature of war tax resistance activity, or
problems of urban living in the modern world, is it the American
legacy of individualism -- the self-reliant independent,
self-sufficient person we are taught to admire, that undermines the
development of group activity?

The rugged individualist, the man (for somehow I always associate
it with a man) who could survive under enormously adverse
conditions is a 19th century prototype. Today one often hears the
word "survivor" (used for both men and women) to describe those who
keep their heads above water in the precariousness of modern life.
Survivor, transferred from the vocabulary of the Holocaust, has
come to mean modern man or woman in a turbulent sea of change just
managing to hold on to the life raft. Hanging in, hanging on. From
rugged individualist to survivor  always alone.

Is it a test of strength of character whether we can endure or
overcome by ourselves? Perhaps it is. Then to admit we need others
is to admit weakness.

Or is it to admit that we need others, and not only need but want
them, an admission of strength, an admission of being human and
social, another part of us speaking? This social part, it seems to
me, is absolutely essential if we want to change the political
climate, which many war tax resisters accept as their ultimate
goal.  And on the other side of the coin of "wanting others" is the
very important need to contribute or to assist others. Perhaps this
is one of the least developed traits in American society. We need
to do more than individually withhold taxes from the government.
What else?

We must speak to others, publicize, educate -- I suppose many of us
do that on a one-to-one basis, but for effective outreach meetings,
workshops, forums, newsletters, all means of communication, are
indispensable. Who plans, works on, carries out such activities?
Who speaks before groups -- churches, political and social
organizations if we fail to set up mechanisms, if people fail to
join together for planning?

Obviously, WTR neophytes and old-timers need to support and
energize each other -- not only in private struggles but in pursuit
of a more effective outreach and in galvanizing the peace and
social justice movement.

People contribute their energies, and when they're good a strange
and wonderful process takes place. Energies mingle and multiply.
They expand way beyond our initial hopes or dreams, and we're all
the richer for it.

This energizing is the most important task on the agenda. I know
it's an uphill battle. We have others continuing personal and
political struggles. But the attempt of war tax resisters to
concentrate some time on the "common pot," the energy pot, is
essential. You may never do what you'd like to do. But
understanding the importance of contributing a portion of your
energy, doing what you can, is a first step. It is we, individually
and collectively, who transform possibility into reality.

                      ********************

                  THE GULF WAR -- THEN AND NOW
                       Peace in the Gulf?

                         by Betty Winkler

They say it is peace in the Persian Gulf and yet this sadness
within me. Believe me, am so very glad there wasn't more loss of
life more violence. This sorrow, disappointment. In what seems to
me to be the majority of Americans (and don't know how many
Europeans, Canadians, Mid-Easterners, etc.). Sorrow at this
blindness, at their not being awake.

Should be used to this by now. Blindly following barbarians.
Blindly following violence. Blind not being able to see history, to
see globally, to see within, to see themselves, to see other views,
other possibilities ...

And I am afraid. Afraid of people who so willingly blind follow a
leader. Perhaps any leader but especially one whose basic tenet is
violence and therefore evil and immorality.

And very afraid of a person, a nation, a group of nations who
achieve their aims through terror and fear. Afraid of a world of
humans who accept such means. For this is the same tactic as the
drug dealer with the big Uzi submachine gun to protect his street,
his goods, his dealings ...

One is imprisoned, the other elected ... but the same means ... the
same ends ... oh but we go 'round ... trickle-down influences and
role-models ... the gall of the people who feed the hypocrisy and
their gall for not seeing it as such ...

Peace?

More heinous doublespeak. The big sticks carried in the Persian
Gulf will be the envy of every country. The international
military-industrial complex will be put into overtime. For a long
time. Hi-tech ... hi-speed ... hi-kill armaments will be on
everybody's shopping list.

Good for the economy? A few more jobs here and there. Maybe. Old
status quo, though ... CEO's and wheeler-dealers will profit.

The same goes for rebuilding the decimated Kuwait.

Costs of the stupidity called war = less money for domestic needs
because it will go to paying for the labor and arms and rebuilding
of the war plus re-stocking (and increasing) weapons. So, here too,
the cost of war = lives. Diseases spreading ... too many people
with no jobs, no work ... in the streets, in the shelters, no food
or gutter-food or lousy food ... lives lost ... unaffordable
medical care ... ever-costlier community needs ... feeding the
wheel of drug dealing and drug taking ... violence begets violence
... more lives ... more blood ... the Persian Gulf War is the
macrocosm of the inner-cities ... my turf vs. yours ... my greed
vs. yours ...

Greed for oil ... not once has Bush mentioned alternative fuels ...
American soldiers fight to make the world safe for consumption.

What loss of life and what agricultural and ecological costs to the
Gulf region? ... to the entire globe which will be affected by wind
currents, food exportation, etc., because of the hundreds of
burning oil wells, of massive oil spills ... skies darken ...
fields become unarable ... oil everywhere, not allowing plants to
grow ... acres and acres of land, of fields, of what should be food
... hundreds and thousands and thousands of people, children, human
beings, starving ... dying ... no food ... no oxygen ...

Lives lost ... without a bullet in the bodies ...

Remember feeling, seeing ... slimy grit and grime in windows and
sidewalks in a middle-class community in Northern California (was
it Contra Costa County?) ... hill overlooking a Shell refinery ...
talking with parents whose children played in a field, between the
houses, on that hill ... until the cancers, the allergies, and the
respiratory problems started ... 3-5 times the average and within
a very short time ... cars that got covered with protective plastic
whenever parked on the street ... protection from oil and chemical
residues ... these dangers, these death-threats without the
explosions ... what impact on lives, on generations, breathing and
living within range of the burning wells of Kuwait!

All life ... animal and plant ... massive ...

And what will it take to at least discuss, let alone try to solve
the Palestinian issue?

Perhaps the US military will prevent wars, battles, international
violence in the near future ... due to terror. But not in the long
run. The object is supposed to be understanding, compassion,
awareness, harmony. Not fear.

Reminds me of Reagan, the most popular president until that time
... yet never went to greet his loving constituency without his
bullet-proof car.

Biggest contradiction in history.

Sadness ... at the complacency of so many ... sheepishness ...
Hitler in Mein Kampf told the German people they were sheep and
would follow anyone ... we must be aware of all possible Hitlers,
all possible sheep.

Happiness and Balance ... with all the people I know -- friends,
colleagues, acquaintances ... many who do see, do understand ...
complexities ... grays ... layers ... hypocrisy ... who help to
wake people up ... help to open people's eyes ...

                      ********************

A SPEEDING BULLET HAS NO FRIENDS

The Five-Star General says:
"A speeding bullet has no friends."
Oil spill in the Persian Gulf elegantly coats
Unsuspecting birds with oozing black death
Sludges down the Coast into "Allied" waters
Iran and Iraq, in the throes of conflicted courtship
Are bound together in Shiite linens
Sharing the same bed, love-hating the same tribe
Yes, all the tribes are at war

This is a poem
A soldier says:
"I'm not in love with death
But I guess I'll do the job
And hopefully get out of here."

Another poem
The New York Times advertises gas masks
A real bargain, only $39.98
"The newest fashion of the nineties"
Daycare workers in Israel instruct children to
Decorate the boxes their gas mask accessories
Are portentously stored in
The news commentator reports smilingly,
"It makes the equipment seem friendlier"

All right, then
These are not poems
War has no intrinsic form
It's just blips on a screen
And stickpins on maps
Once the safeties are off
And the vitriol unleashed
War takes its own form

Unaccounted-for scenarios develop daily
Predictions drop from the sky, backfire on civilians
Land mines, planted carefully to reap death
Actually detonate  not necessarily on schedule
People die, they really die
Whether they're from Khadji, Baghdad,
Tel Aviv or the Bronx

"A speeding bullet has no friends."
Children graduate from playground to
Competitive sports to the battlefield,
Still following orders

-- Joanie Fritz
   2 February 1991 NYC

                      ********************

      Desert Storm Turned Urban Blight -- The War Back Home

                         by Robert Hieger

"... A thousand points of light," said President Bush during his
election campaign four years ago. Could any of us have imagined
that all of those thousand points would converge in the skies of
Baghdad? On the other hand, could any of us have imagined that the
United States would engage in a battle that outwardly claimed to be
a struggle for the liberation of Kuwait from "barbaric" Iraqi
forces, but in reality resulted in many thousands of deaths not
only to "the enemy," but to people not wearing military uniforms?


Folly of the New World Order

Few people will forget where they were at the time of Bush's
national televised address announcing the aerial attack on Iraq.
This came on the heels of ardent demonstrations in major cities
throughout the country. When asked for his response to the
protests, he said there was no opposition to this war. He
rhapsodized about the preparedness and bravery of our "all
volunteer" army; of the hope for a restructuring of an ailing
global community and for the birth of a "new world order." He very
conspicuously omitted any reference to what that new order would
consist of or who would set it into place.

Despite media claims to the contrary, this was not the popular war
George Bush and Norman Schwarzkopf would have us believe. While it
is undisputed that Saddam Hussein was a despot and that his actions
constituted an aggression, what must be questioned are the motives
for launching an attack against his soldiers -- a completely
demoralized and exhuasted group who no longer had the slightest
desire to do battle. Is it heroism to shoot fleeing soldiers in the
back because our President refused to allot a reasonable amount of
time to withdraw Iraqi troops? In this case, the reasonable
request of a despot was belligerently denied by the leader of a
"civilized country."


Ulterior Motives

Were we truly interested in the liberation of Kuwait and the
unification of Arab countries against Saddam Hussein? Might it be
questionable to unite the entire Arab world against one man, no
matter how much of a tyrant he might be? Or is this merely an issue
of land ownership? Iraq believed in its right to the territories it
occupied; Kuwait disagreed; the US intervened. And not only because
of the natural resources Kuwait had to offer. This represented an
opportunity for the United States to assert itself as a world power
after a long period of being perceived as a paper tiger. Certainly,
diplomatic measures were not given the slightest opportunity to
influence this chain of events. Even as diplomats desparately
scrambled to avert armed conflict, Operation Desert Shield was
already a fait accompli!


War Starved Economy

It is instructive to look at the economic state of affairs prior to
the launching of Operation Desert Storm. The final quarter of 1989
was an economic catastrophe, punctuated by a stock market crash
momentarily giving people pause to think that another depression
was upon them. There are still those who believe that war
stimulates the economy, despite all evidence to the contrary. But
this viewpoint neglects the inevitable boomerang of war debts and
resultant economic slumps. Perhaps corporations engaged in
military contracts reap momentary profits, but even they suffer the
loss after a truce is declared. The ultimate question is how
prudent it is to murder people in foreign lands to stimulate an
ailing economy.

The United States' modus operandi is a do-or-die directive to
remain on top of the heap. And at whose expense do we feed the war
machine, which indeed produces a heap of human wreckage? The
statistics speak for themselves. Even before the notion of aerial
bombardment was entertained, this was a war against the
economically and politically underprivileged people on our own
shores. As troops shipped out to the Middle East, President Bush
boasted that this "all volunteer fighting force" took pride in its
training and brought honor to the uniform it wore. But who was it
that wore that uniform?

If we look back to the days of Operation Desert Shield, it would be
evident who wore that uniform with pride, or more appropriately
with resignation. These soldiers -- primarily Black and Hispanic --
represent the most economically starved segments of this country.
Isn't it interesting that these are the same young people who had
almost no other options, given the economic climate before the war?
This is like saying that concentration camp survivors were
volunteer inmates.

According to a special report by Congressman Ted Weiss (published
October 1991), between 1981 and 1990, cuts in federal aid to New
York City totaled approximately $19 billion. Housing, the worst hit
area, lost $17.5 billion. Employment and training funds suffered a
$265 million dollar decrease. Here two of the most rudimentary
human needs were brutally excised from the federal budget. Where
did all that money go? It is clear that the Gulf War was no
ordinary war. It was a first glimpse of Bush's pet project -- Star
Wars.  Operation Desert Storm was  a space age, high tech war in
which the people pulling the triggers didn't even get to see who
they killed. Nor was there much doubt that they would prevail. Such
killing machines are no bargain basement affair.


The War Comes Home

When the troops came home to "The Mother of All Parades," they also
came home to a greatly depressed economy. As of July, the
unemployment rate in New York actually passed the 11% level. The
same economic disparities are deepening, and rather than invest in
the communities that suffer the most, government response is the
increasing use of force. Such was the case in the closing of
Tompkins Square Park.

The Los Angeles riots this past May are perhaps the most grotesque
example of this callous lack of regard. These riots were a cry of
outrage at the propogation of a lie, the implications of which
were that it is okay for police to beat a Black motorist to
within an inch of his life and then deny that excessive force was
used. The barbaric treatment of Rodney King is by no means an
isolated incident.

It is necessary to understand the source of rage behind the Los
Angeles riots. What recourse do people in poor neighborhoods have
when faced with the bitter reality of their daily lives? Of course
they were outraged about Rodney King's brutal treatment by the
police, but they were also enraged at their own state of affairs.
As we've already seen, any help that poor people in this country
get is rapidly disappearing. Opportunites for the poor and racially
repressed are constantly diminishing. As the government continues
to pull services from these greatly stressed communities, the
deficiencies grow. A state of misery persists in the poor
neighborhoods of this country. In Los Angeles, Bush's response was
to send out 4,000 troops of the United States armed forces!

Deployment of armed forces will not address the needs of the poor
who are poor in large part because of increasingly overt and
rampant racial discrimination. This ugly fact of American history
must be faced before it completely explodes. This is a nation whose
very foundations were built on racism as evidenced by colonial
slave trade, as evidenced by the Three Fifths Compromise, as
evidenced by historical instances far too numerous to mention.

Now more than ever, the need to explore alternatives to a
militarized world and the monied interests that support that world
is urgent. It should be evident that the war did not begin in
January of 1991. It began long ago. It began with a system that
ignores the needs of its constituents and then seeks to enforce the
resultant misery through the deployment of force.

It is clear that we cannot rely on the government to alter this
whirlwind course of hatred sweeping the continent. But then we
never could. The answer has always lain within the collective
consciousness of all people throughout the world. That answer is
very illusive because we have been taught for centuries that
without government we are chaotic and violent. Well, we are
certainly presented with thousands of examples of how organized and
non-violent our world is now as a result of placing our lives in
the hands of governments.

Until we recognize that the only "enemy" to peaceful co-existence
is the hierarchical structure of friend and foe, country and
citizen, we may very well be doomed to a state of enforced misery.
The question is not whether war is sometimes necessary, whether we
must use force to subdue angry masses. Rather, the question is
whether we are ready to listen to one another, and in that
listening, unravel the threads of oppression so woven into the
fabric of the world community.

                      ********************

         Lives of Resistance, Communities of Support --
                   An Organizer's Perspective

                         by Susan Quinlan

Lives of Resistance, Communities of Support, a day-long conference
on war tax resistance and other forms of activism, was held on
February 23, 1991 in Berkeley, California. Over 300 people
attended, many of them new to war tax resistance. The conference
featured a keynote address by Juanita Nelson as well as fifteen
workshops on topics such as "Self Employment and War Tax
Resistance," "Racism and War" and "Resisting IRS Collection."

It took about a year for the concept of the Lives of Resistance,
Communities of Support Conference to gel. We knew we wanted to
create an event that would satisfy the needs and interests of
seasoned war tax resisters as well as newcomers. We also hoped to
use the event to make connections with other peace and justice
groups and to make war tax resistance more visible within the
community. As it turned out, our year-long deliberations led to the
Conference falling right smack in the middle of Bush's war on Iraq
-- a coincidence which probably tripled participation and added
greatly to the excitement, sense of purpose and headaches involved
in pulling the day together.

The key element we wanted to address was community support. For
each of us, the act of resisting taxes is done within the context
of personal, political and often logistical support from those
around us. While it may be possible to act in conscience as an
individual, sustained resistance almost always depends on some
level of connection with, and nurturance from, our community. If we
are to build an increasingly powerful non-violent resistance
movement, it will only be through broadening and deepening the
support we are able to offer each other.

Juanita Nelson was our featured speaker. Her life and experiences
as a long time war tax resister attracted many people, and we found
that it was much easier to promote someone from out of town as the
special guest that indeed she was!

The workshop panelists were drawn from different races, ages,
genders and sexual orientations. We included a broad range of
people from the various branches of peace and justice organizing.
In addition to enlisting the help of every war tax resister we
could get our hands on, we invited environmentalists, homeless
activists, veterans, AIDS activists and even a couple of
progressive tax preparers! As a result, over forty organizations
endorsed the conference and ten had literature tables there that
day. Though most participants were from the immediate Bay Area,
there were a significant number from outlying rural areas, and a
few from as far away as Arizona, Los Angeles and New York City.

By working out a co-sponsorship arrangement with the Peace and
Conflict Studies Program at U.C. Berkeley, we were able to reserve
a great location on campus -- for free! It was important to us that
the day be as pleasant and comfortable as we could make it, so we
incorporated meals, childcare and entertainment into the program.
We also made sure that there was time in the schedule to relax a
little and enjoy each other's company.

In addition to Juanita Nelson's speech and a Panel discussion at
the end of the day, there were three hour-long workshop sessions
with five choices in each session. Each session offered workshops
that addressed the needs of "advanced" and "beginning" war tax
resisters as well as those who were interested in other aspects of
non-violent resistance. By including many interesting speakers and
workshops on diverse subjects, we had the chance to build
connections among the different forms of activism with which many
war tax resisters are also involved.

As our day together ended, we got news that Bush had started the
ground war against Iraq. My first feeling was shock and disbelief,
not just at the stupid cruelty of launching a new level of
destruction, but because, caught up in the momentum of our day, I
couldn't believe we hadn't made some impact on the larger world.
After spending one day immersed in the lives of 300 non-violent
activists, I simply couldn't believe there could still be wars! I
guess that one moment of naive disbelief captures the power that
the Conference had for me -- the ability to imagine that by
building communities of support we can actually create a world in
which violence and injustice are unthinkable.

In the years to come, I hope that those of us who attended the
Lives of Resistance, Communities of Support Conference will be
strengthened by the vision we shared that day, as we continue to
meet the challenges of our war tax resistance, and go about the
difficult work of organizing for social change.

                      ********************

            A Glimmer of Hope on the Lower East Side

                         by Timothy Mason

During the past decade, I think many in this country felt as I did:
powerless in the face of devastating urban poverty, hunger and
homelessness. The situation is becoming critical throughout the
United States, but because of widespread press coverage, New York's
Tompkins Square has become a national emblem of this crisis.

I want to tell you a little bit about the Lutheran Parish of
Trinity Lower East Side and its work with the poor, the hungry, the
homeless and the youth of the Tompkins Square neighborhood.

The original Trinity was founded by a small group of immigrants in
1843. Today a new kind of immigrant lives in the neighborhood
served by Trinity: the hungry and the homeless poor. Nearly 30% of
the families here live below the poverty line. During the '80s,
rents were driven up and many of the neighborhood's long-time
residents found themselves "immigrants" on their own ground.

In the 1970s the original Trinity was deemed structurally unsound
and was demolished. All that remains of the old Trinity is a parish
house on East 9th Street. Services are held in a rented room in an
old building on 6th Street, which also houses a shelter for
homeless men. Soon, the lease on these rooms will run out.

The parish house, however, has become a real hub of activity.

Emergency Assistance

A staff of two with the help of volunteers prepares and distributes
about 3,000 meals per week.

Transition

Trinity's shelter offers 10 men a clean bed, hot meals and help
with employment and the search for housing. Unlike
one-night-at-a-time shelters, they're given a safe home for six
months. And the success rate, from unemployed to employed, from
homeless to "homed," has been impressive.

Intervention

Clearly, the long-term hope for a troubled neighborhood lies in its
children. Trinity intervenes to break the cycle of poverty and
alienation by the simplest means: trained staff and volunteers
tutor 45 local children with their school work. They give them a
nourishing snack. They treat their children with respect, affection
and dignity. And they give them a place to pursue activities that
have nothing to do with the often dangerous activities of their
own streets.

I've lived in this neighborhood for 11 years. I've not seen the
city government doing anything like this, nor the federal
government. I'll never forget the first time I helped hand out
Sunday meals in Tompkins Square Park (this was before the City sent
police and bulldozers into the Park on a pre-Dawn raid to evict
them all). People came running. People were all but groaning with
hunger. And now they no longer have even the park to sleep in; they
sleep on the streets.

Trinity Lower East Side is a small group, but its impact in the
area is great and its community of activists are determined that
Trinity will not become homeless itself when its lease expires.
Nearly a year ago they engaged an architect to design and build a
new home on the site of the original church which would house a
chapel, a community center, classrooms, an enlarged soup kitchen
and a pastor's apartment. The blueprints are now drawn, the model
has been built, and the fundraising program has been launched. The
building is modest but even so its estimated cost is in the
neighborhood of $1,000,000.

The hungry are fed. The naked are clothed. The shelterless are
sheltered. And the children are nurtured. That's what Trinity Lower
East Side is doing, and must continue to do, if one of the few true
hopes in this part of the world is to be kept alive.

                      ********************

                         PLEASE HELP US

We hope that this newsletter has proven informative and enjoyable.
As we are an organization comprised entirely of volunteers, of
course, one of our primary concerns is that of budget. Our WTR
Mutual Assistance Fund continues to be a source of help for many in
the movement. With your help, it will continue to grow and better
meet the needs of its supporters. We also need your help to
continue the work of New York City Life and Taxes. As a vital link
of communication to the WTR and peace activist community, we are
committed to continuing our publication. Please help us make the
goals of MAF and New York City Life and Taxes a reality.

Yes, I want to support New York City WTR:

NYC WTR Mutual Assistance Fund  $ _____________

New York City LIFE AND TAXES   $ _____________

Please make all checks payable to New York City People's Life Fund
and send to New York City WTR, 339 Lafayette Street,
New York, NY 100012.



 NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
 Modem: 718-448-2358  *  Internet: [e-mail]