All people recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to and to resist the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable – Henry David Thoreau, on his refusal to pay the Massachusetts poll tax levied for the war resulting in a night in jail.
People are paying taxes to enable the genocidal war on Gaza. They come from many countries Australia, European Union, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the United States. The military industrial complex has been 100% behind Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. How do workers resist? One way is to refuse to pay tax that goes towards the military expenditure in these countries.
Where are my taxes spent?
Australia has numerous defence contracts that directly support the USreal genocide in Gaza (munitions, bomb parts, F 35 parts, electronic surveillance and targeting systems at Pine Gap etc). It is easy for workers to find out how much of our taxes go towards the military industrial complex (defence). If you login to your myGov account you will see a message in your inbox from the ATO, titled ‘Information about your income tax return’. When you open this message you will see a link to your ‘income tax receipt’. This will open your personalised breakdown of where your tax dollars have been spent. The receipt breaks down where your money has been spent, including how much went to welfare payments, defence, health, education and even interest on government debt.
American War in Vietnam
War tax resistance gained international publicity when Joan Baez announced in 1964 her refusal to pay 60 percent of her 1963 income taxes because of the war in Vietnam. In 1965 the Peacemakers formed the “No Tax for War in Vietnam Committee,” obtaining signers to the pledge “I am not going to pay taxes on 1964 income.” By 1967 about 500 people had signed the pledge.
Eureka
Australian workers are no strangers to refusing to pay tax when the system is unjust. In 1852, gold miners refusal to pay tax (licence fees) led to the rebellion at the Eureka Stockade. This led miners leader Peter Lalor to declare: “We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.”
Consequences
The Australian tax office is charged with the responsibility with recovering unpaid income tax and other tax related liabilities. Liability to pay tax is a civil one and failure to pay tax exposes the worker to civil but not criminal remedies. The Commissioner of Taxation may impose large penalties on unpaid tax and may recover those penalties in a court of competent jurisdiction. Tax avoidance is a large industry in Australia and so the Commissioner of Taxation has a lot of resources to recover unpaid tax. Even though governments rarely conscript people to fight in wars we still have to pay for those wars through our taxes. To have any practical effect the refusal to pay tax would have to be on a mass scale. This has been achieved in the past by religious groups such as the Quakers and secular organisations like the war resisters league.
Given the Australian governments declared intention to support Israel’s prosecution of the war on Gaza, it is likely that the Australian tax office will give priority to the prosecution of the people who object to pay tax for military expenditure. Australian government ministers have already been referred to the International Criminal Court for their role in the genocide they are doubly committed to the United States and Israel’s prosecution of that war on the Palestinian people. The opposition in government would be no different.
Genocide tax
One way of overcoming Australian government support for Israel is for workers and their unions to make a tax deduction for military expenditure on the genocide. That deduction may then be given to Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA) and UNWRA which already have aid projects in Gaza and in refugee camps in occupied Palestine, and in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Australian PM and ministers face prosecution for being accessories to war crimes in Gaza
Ian Curr
17 March 2024
