Book Encourages Nonpayment of Taxes for Iraq War

War Resisters League
339 Lafayette Street
New York NY 10012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Book Encourages Nonpayment of Taxes for Iraq War

New York, NY -- The War Resisters League has just published "War Tax Resistance, A Guide to Withholding Your Support from the Military," which advocates the nonpayment of federal income taxes as a means protest military spending.

This 144-page book comes at a time when there is a dramatic upsurge in Americans looking for ways to withdraw their support from the war in Iraq, in addition to marches, rallies, letter-writing to elected officials, and civil disobedience.

"There are a lot of anti-war people in this country who feel their protests against the U.S. war in Iraq are being ignored," said Ed Hedemann, author of the book. "Many of these people are seeking for ways to protest that cannot and will not be ignored by the government. War tax resistance is one very effective way to do that." Hedemann is speaking from experience as someone who has been rerouting his federal tax dollars away from the IRS to nongovernmental organizations continuously since the Vietnam War.

"War Tax Resistance" not only deals with how to refuse to pay taxes to the military and the likely consequences, but also the philosophical and political questions of this kind of civil disobedience, which taxes are the war taxes, the history of military spending in the United States, as well as personal histories of people -- in the U.S. and in other countries -- who have taken this dramatic step and what has happened to them.

The publishing of "War Tax Resistance" comes on the heels of the release of An Appeal to Conscience, a statement whose signers announce their support for those who are or will become war tax resisters. Among the signers of the Appeal are Joan Baez, Father Dan Berrigan, Noam Chomsky, Rev. William Sloan Coffin, Dave Dellinger, Daniel Ellsberg, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, David McReynolds, Grace Paley, Howard Zinn.

See http://www.warresisters.org/ for more information.

Contact:
Ruth Benn, 718-768-7306
Melissa Jameson, 212-228-0450

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