War Tax Resisters
APRIL 2007 TEST PROGRAM REPORTS AVAILABLE HERE:
Donations No Longer Accepted
Why A Boycott?
Because, if economics are at the heart of our problems, how can we ever hope to solve those problems while still supporting their creation? That is to say Bush & Co., war, drugs on the street, environmental destruction and every other issue we care about have a common source. That source is both economic and political-but it is in the economics where we can exercise our decisive power.
There exists a group of individuals and families within global society who have abused their power, wealth and position for their own benefit, at the cost of quite possibly the survival of our species.
Represented now by the Bush administration this class of people are driving not only towards the destruction of millions of human lives in their quest for more and more wealth and power, but towards the very destruction of America and all that it stands for.
No amount of twisted logic can obscure the fact that warmongers and profiteers are bleeding the nation dry and laying waste to much of the globe. At this juncture in history if you are not a major shareholder in the largest corporations then you are about to be nobody.
The economy is collapsing under the weight of debt beyond imagining, every single safeguard that we have had to protect the common people from the abuses of the rich and powerful have been systematically destroyed.
War threatens to engulf the entire world and still they profit. Our general, across the board call for a boycott is aimed at taking the money away from those people. By hitting them where it hurts the most, their pocketbooks, maybe they will reconsider this ultimately self-destructive set of policies ....before it is too late
At the same time We hope to educate people to their options in life. We do not have to continually fuel the machinery of exploitation and destruction that has been erected around us. We can take back our lives and work together to build strong, safe and satisfying communities where the sentiment expressed on the Statue of Liberty can find a true outlet in this world of despair and meaninglessness.
By refusing to participate in our own enslavement-through refusing to buy any products that profit an ultra-wealthy "investor" class-we can then give that power to struggling enterprises and small businesses that form our best protection against becoming food for vast corporate machines.
By refusing to work as cogs within a corporate machine and showing the courage to strike out on our own, or with close friends and family, we can free ourselves from the fears that keep us chained to cubicle farms, dehumanizing service jobs and other forms of "employment". Employment that every day we continue to participate in further enriches arrogant and destructive shareholders at the cost of our youth, health and very lives.
If you long for freedom and democracy, if you want a world in which you can feel safe traveling to distant lands, if you want the freedom to be whoever you feel you really are and to not have to fear reprisal for speaking your mind or living life in your own way, then you have to be willing to sacrifice something for that freedom. The sacrifice you must make is your willingness to support an economic system that rewards the ruthless and destroys the kind.
By strengthening our commitment to our local economies we help to provide the necessary economic support that will shield us from the coming economic collapse. Small businesses and enterprises are the bedrock of a healthy economy and can provide us with all that we truly need to not only survive, but thrive.
Now is the time to take action and turn away from the gross commercialism of the age. Now is the time to begin to bring together people who long for a better world, and who are willing to do what needs to be done to bring that world into being.
It starts now, with you.
Lew Brown is one of the authors of this book, among other research and writing projects Lew has sacrificed thousands of hours and a significant part of his income to work for justice and to help bring into being an America that lives up to it's advertising.
"This book is a brilliant compilation from twenty-two of the best political analysts of our time. It presents the most comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the crimes of the Bush and Cheney regime.
It is the only one of the impeachment books to explain WHY the Bush White House has been doing these terrible things, WHY they've been allowed to get away with it, and WHY a grassroots, popular movement is an absolute necessity. AN INDISPENSABLE book to read!"
"The first reaction some people have to these suggestions is, "Yes, but I'm only one person; I can't make a difference, especially just by changing how I think". We remind you that that is the necessary lie (or "illusion", to cite Noam Chomsky) that has allowed the neo con "revolution" to prevail over compassion and sanity. Is it not what we think and do, person by person, that has brought us to this pass? Seeing through this lie-and sharing that vision...is the first act of truth that will guide the rebuilding of our civic and political culture."
From the book-Cynthia Boaz and Michael Nagler
Top Target Corporations
click for links
By holding back on our spending, with discipline and
resolve and in sympathy for the millions who live in misery because of this administration's policies, we not only show our concern for the pain of others, we also put a little fear in the hearts of those who have
profited from this travesty.
The Center of Economic Resistance to Fascism
The Plan
2/3 of our economy is driven by your daily spending. That cup of coffee you bought this morning at Starbucks went to benefit the majority shareholders in that corporation. That tank of gas sent another $20.00 in profits to the majority shareholders of the oil company. Every dollar that leaves our hands goes to somebody-we owe it to ourselves to keep that money from ending up in the hands of sociopaths-of spoiled rotten rich kids full of greed, arrogance and vanity.
Too much of anything in one place at one time is a bad thing. One cat in your house can be a pleasure-two tolerable-500 a nightmare. Money works the same way-enough to provide for a high quality of life is a good thing-too much and you end up with waste, fear and resentment. Golden toilets, fleets of jet aircraft-pimp style "cribs", mass layoffs, environmental destruction and warfare-rather than food for the hungry, health care for the sick and an education that teaches critical thinking and the use of reason to our children.
Too much money in too few hands has led to an unfair system in which the rich kids keep rigging the game in their favor while kicking mud in the faces of the rest of us. To fight back, all we have to do is say "NO!"
From November 25th until January 1st of 2007 we pledged to observe an
OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS
We did not buy any products from corporate retail outlets, we made our gifts, gave to the poor and avoided all unnecessary spending. Last Christmas we made a commitment to PEACE by refusing to pay for WAR.
Well, it worked. As of January 22nd 2008 the effects of our action are beginning to show. Now the time has come to step it up. By making the economy the central topic of the 2008 Presidential campaign we can help to change the entire course of the debate. War will become unaffordable, social services will become necessary and with trillions of dollars evaporating overnight we will be in a position for a new "New Deal" that can perhaps lead to a truly "Great Society".
What to do ?
There is only one thing that you need to pay attention to if you want to make sure that your money isn’t going to promote global destruction-shop small. In each of your purchasing decisions bear in mind that the money you keep in your community goes to protect you and your family from any coming economic collapse while at the same time costing the ultra-wealthy a small fraction of their annual income. To take a dollar away from Coca-Cola doesn’t matter much to the shareholders of Coke-but it does matter to the family that makes “Stewart's” or “Moxie” soda. Giving the money you would otherwise give to multi-national corporations to small businesses instead strengthens America and provides more jobs and self-sufficiency at the local level.
Buy Used
A new car or major appliance is usually a terrible financial decision to begin with. The costs of manufacturing those appliances are measured in depleted natural resources, pollution and the abuse of workers in factories all around the world. Those appliances and machinery are designed to fail-so that you will have to buy another one in a specified period of time or continue to have that appliance serviced and upgraded at a constant cost to you. Of course there is also the issue of dealer mark-ups usually reflecting 2 to 3 times the actual worth of the object. Don’t be a sucker-if you are going to buy an appliance or car buy it used from an individual rather than from a retail outlet. In doing this you take the profits away from those who cause so much harm and you enrich a single individual as well as secure for yourself, if not the exact model, a functional appliance at a fraction of the cost.
Shop Mom and Pop
McDonalds CAN make something vaguely resembling a hamburger, but the practices that go into producing the meat, bread, condiments, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes you are eating are nothing if not gross. There is a reason they call it an “all beef patty”----It’s ALL THE COW! Corporate food is dangerous, unsustainable and ultimately unhealthy for everyone involved-from the people in the meat packing plants to the people over the fryers. Think about how one misstep on a corporate farm can introduce e-coli through the supply chain of a major food manufacturer. One error and tens of thousands of people are at risk for becoming violently ill.
Many towns still have mom and pop burger stands-while burgers may not be the best food for us to eat on a daily basis buying from a mom and pop shop guarantees that your business will be appreciated and that the money you just spent doesn’t leave your town and head to the pockets of some majority shareholder Saudi Prince, hell bent on maximizing his families wealth and power at the expense of everything he despises-democracy, freedom and fair play.
Beware the Banks
Most folks aren’t aware of the role that the worlds major banking institutions play in creating poverty, warfare and injustice. But the largest banking houses have always made their money from serving up the poor, and serving the interests of the ultra-wealthy. In recent years major banks have been found complicit in vast money-laundering schemes, predatory lending practices and unfairly rewriting banking laws to enable them to rip off people at a rate forbidden by not only scripture-but ANY sense of decency.
If you make less than $150,000 a year you should NOT be banking at any of the top twenty predatory banks. Their function, in terms of how they view you the customer, is to take as much of your money as they can to create greater and greater amounts of debt and to pay greater and greater dividends to their shareholders-like that unnamed Saudi Prince who decides that CitiBank hasn’t made enough of a profit in one year and who then calls on the CEO to cut 19,000 jobs and send others to cheaper communities.
By closing your accounts with the big banks and opening new ones at small credit unions or local banks that can’t be sold off to BofA you are removing yet another fraction of the power the ultra-wealthy derive from the structure of our economy-and at the same time empowering yourself and your community.
Live Together-Work Together-Play Together
Most of the pressures we face from the system that we are trapped in are directed towards keeping people not only apart-but pitted against one another in a sham competition. Where one person on minimum wage cannot even survive for long-ten pooling their money can do much better. Use the economies of scale to your advantage. Move in together with family and friends and learn to support one another. In the old days we had the family farm or business that provided everyone with security and a sense of purpose in life-today our families have been ripped apart by the policies of so-called “Pro-Family” millionaire politicians and business leaders. Strike back in any way you can-refuse to work for large corporations by working for less at smaller companies. Stop thinking in terms of needing more and figure out how much is enough. Remember that wealth is NOT the key to happiness, the contrary wealth brings paranoia, resentment and arrogance. Happiness comes from being safe, well fed, free to express yourself and from the love and support of a small circle of family and friends. It doesn’t take a lot of money to become happy-it does take a positive attitude and realistic expectations.
Top Target Corporations
click for links!
"It's the Economy....stupid!" -Clinton Campaign Slogan 1992 This is the homepage of the social and economic resistance to the Bush Administration and those who profit from their crimes. Join today to help organize an international boycott of ALL corporate goods and services. Take Your Money Out of The Big Banks Do Not Buy From Multi-National Corporations Give That "Stimulus" Check to Charity Now with over 3,000,000 participants! The Great Boycott of 2008
Click the Zombie to Join our Social Network!
If those of us who long for peace, justice and prosperity simply refuse to give our money and time to the corporations who front for the world's power elite, then we CAN bring down the Bush Administration, end the horror of this "forever war" and change the course of American history.
Media 101
How to Impeach the Bush Administration, End the War in the Middle East, Eliminate Poverty, Crime, Hunger and Environmental Destruction Through Economic Resistance WARNING: This web site provides resources and information, some of which may be considered to be dangerous or subversive by members of the power elite. While the underlying facts that drive our species to the brink of destruction are simple to understand -the world's most wealthy families control the actions of global corporations and governments- the specific mechanisms that are used to ensure our compliance are vast in number and can be overwhelming to comprehend. The following article offers an outline of the causes of war, poverty and environmental destruction and sketches the general plan from which the Bush Administration is working. This is not a liberal or conservative "perspective". This is an objective analysis of the economic realities that are ruining our lives and sacrificing the future survivability of our very species. This experiment in economic resistance was designed to illustrate the hidden power we have as "consumers". We have the ability to turn away from those who would engineer the destruction of our freedom, liberty and prosperity for their own personal gain. We call upon all of those who simply wish to live a peaceful and productive life, free from fear and tyranny, to do what they can to understand their options and to use the power of "NO" to stop the juggernaut that has been unleashed. Many of us understand freedom to be the ability to say yes, to do something that someone else may want to forbid. Freedom is also expressed by a refusal to act. When we determine that we will not tolerate being used or lied to and that we will not participate in any game that is rigged by people who would destroy us, we have then set ourselves apart from the herd and must find the courage and wisdom to act properly in order to both promote freedom and stop tyranny. This web site will help you to use the power of "NO" to bring an end to this war and to help reform the institutions of both America and the world so that the human race can begin to move forward to our bright and shining destiny. "Shock Doctrine"
Click Santa to Join our Social Network Kind of like MySpace-only with a purpose
Only ONE Day?
How About Making It A Way Of Life? Background Is this the most powerful decentralized political campaign in history? Or are we just psychic? In April of 2007, we instituted a broad based Internet drive to educate those opposed to the policies of the Bush Administration in the use of economic force as a tool to gain political and social power. With little more than $3,700 a pilot campaign was organized to test the potential effects of an across the board corporate boycott on the general economy. The results were stunning-showing the potential that we have to bring the schemes for global domination promoted by an ultra-wealthy elite and their henchmen to an end and usher in the conditions necessary to break down the two party system and promote a broad-based popular progressive agenda of peace, prosperity and freedom. In October of 2007 we called for a boycott of corporate shopping for the Christmas season. The results, again, were stunning. As of January 2008 the stock market is taking it's predicted plunge, the Fed is scrambling to slash interest rates, foreign governments are desperate to bulk up the failing financial institutions and the vultures of greed are coming home to roost. Information Warfare Targets You! Meanwhile the PR machine is cranking up to a shrill whine as the marketers and psychological warfare experts attempt to control your behavior through information warfare. Soon the powers-that-be will attempt to bribe the poor into spending money at corporate outlets. The irony is that these are the same people who balk at providing essential services at the grassroots level for free, but they will hand out hundreds of dollars (perhaps thousands) per person expecting that money to return to grow and return to them through foolish spending. Don't fall for it. When you get that extra money in your tax return hold on to it. Either put some aside for the coming deluge or spend it at the yard sales that will soon be springing up in the "better" neighborhoods. This web site exists to provide those who truly wish to end this war and bring the Bush administration to justice with the missing piece in their ongoing battles for truth, justice and the "American Way". No social or political change has ever occurred in history without the use of some form of force. By directly opposing an intransigent regime with physical violence, revolutionaries and reformers around the world and throughout time have attacked buildings and people that symbolize the power of their oppressors. In 21st century America, an anarchistic assault on private property is not an option. This administration has seen to it that any overt act of opposition to their corruption will meet with swift reprisal. Why attack the symbols of the wealth that keeps the power elite in place anyhow? Why, especially, when the source of that wealth and power lies in your own hands? The Source of Power The source of wealth and power lies in control of resources. Getting in between a person and what they need or want to thrive and survive has always been the key used by kings and potentates to solidify their command over the people. Establishing inflexible rules for trade and work in order for lesser people to even eat and sleep is the bedrock of an economy built on exploitation and the source of fear, warfare and injustice. In America, our economic life has been purposefully engineered to keep the majority of us exhausted and in debt to those who need not work. Our economy is what drives the Bush Administration to control the resources of other lands and promote horrific policies of warfare that kill the innocent through starvation and disease. Without drawing away our contributions to an economy that promotes evil on a vast scale we cannot claim to be honestly fighting for the future-we are only spitting in the wind and easily ignored by the power elite as they simply opt not to pay attention to our protests, letters, phone calls and events. The Threat The threats to our freedom and well being posed by the ultra-wealthy are real and dire. Already there have been moves to criminalize any dissent and preparations have been made for the mass-arrest of Americans in the event of a popular uprising. Our economy is bulked up by trillions of dollars stolen over decades from the budgets of every executive branch agency and diverted through the black budget to front companies and operatives around the world who engage in the drug trade, human trafficking, terrorism and the merciless destruction of human dignity and potential. Disgustingly those same agencies then promote the institutions of policies that call for tapping more billions from taxpayers to combat the very problems they have engineered-all the while their controlling interests get richer and richer. "Official" organizations such as the IMF and the WTO attempt to lock poor people around the globe into slavery to multinational corporations. In America multi-nationals close their manufacturing plants, service centers and other investments and move the jobs that once provided us with a thriving middle-class to other countries-countries that allow the abuse of workers and who provide a source of greater and greater wealth for the majority shareholders in those corporations. Meanwhile the very methods by which statistics are gathered to inform and educate the public are altered to produce positive sounding reports-while hiding the true costs of these disastrous policies. For instance the term "unemployed" obviously means without a job-but over the last decade that term has been redefined time and again to reflect ONLY those few who are actually drawing unemployment benefits and actively seeking work-creating an official lie using the old GIGO method-garbage in, garbage out. At the top of the heap, we have a handful of ultra-wealthy families who communicate within a tightly controlled network of global insiders. Controlling somewhere between 40 and 60 Trillion dollars in global assets these are the people that the Bush Administration truly represent. Their ultimate goal, behind all of the rhetoric and posturing, is to centralize the control of the world’s resources while weakening the power of any government to stand in the way of a new corporate feudalism. To do this they seek to "drown the US government in a bathtub" and at the same time seek to cripple the ability of the UN, World Court and ICC to do anything to oppose their plans. FEAR The primary tool that the ultra-wealthy have to control the American public is fear. Because the media are owned by the same interests who profit from conflict and bloodshed they tend to promote and exaggerate the dangers of the world while failing to examine the underlying causes. By selling FEAR on a massive scale the elites are able to ensure that a percentage of the population will become incapable of reason and will therefore accept whatever suggestions they are given by those who would control them. DESIRE By promoting discontent and instigating the desire for more and more goods, the elites create a demand for their useless products. By selling us all on the idea that being rich is the only goal worth having and that the world is a vicious and competitive place the elites pit us against one another as we jump through the hoops they have erected in a circle-all the while drawing their wealth from our efforts. LAW By rewriting the laws to their benefit the ultra-wealthy have helped to ensure that in business the biggest company will always have the advantage and will be able to destroy or absorb any competitor in time. They have also ensured that their personal wealth will continue to grow while they minimize their contributions to the maintenance of the nation. All the while the public relations teams who represent elite interests promote privatization as some kind of efficiency model-not as what it truly is-a scheme to milk trillions of dollars from the taxpayers. Trillions spent not on programs to help build a more just, sustainable and progressive society but spent on useless weapons systems or other overpriced and poor quality goods. The amount of "Welfare" that has gone to a handful of ultra-wealthy investors over the last ten years alone dwarfs all social spending-but they won't investigate and report those facts in the newspapers that they own or on the television channels that they control. Their Plan for YOU It is simple: first the inauguration of a forever war in which your children will be obliged to fight. In that process, they will be systematically dehumanized and traumatized into supporting any atrocity. Second, they will continue to instigate, allow or engineer increasingly dramatic "threats" in order to do away with the rule of law and institute widespread martial law and conscription. In order to bring about the conditions necessary for that they have to first ensure a global economic collapse happens on their timetable-so as to preserve their assets while plunging the global economy into a depression of the worst sort. The coming depression will create desperation for billions, who will then be ready to submit to a corporate feudal state as a necessity for survival. In short the plan that has been put into motion by the Bush Administration and their allies leads to the destruction of democratic ideals, prosperity and peace-ultimately culminating in a world gripped by terror and controlled by an unimaginably wealthy class of arrogant and vain children. YOU will not be invited to their parties-but they may dangle that hope in front of you so that you devote your very life to the possibility of being included. They will make of you a slave.
The Facts: "It's not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible because of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact." -George Orwell From birth American's are perhaps the most lied to and manipulated people that the world has ever seen. Manipulation of our behavior begins with the first cartoons we watch as children, cartoons designed to create a desire for plastic crap or unhealthy food. The lies and manipulation continue through our lives, with myths of patriotism and an idealized vision of "rugged individualists". These myths have served only to keep working and middle-class Americans pitted against one another while our bosses, politicians and the majority shareholders of American corporations sell us out. The world's spiritual leaders have long pointed out that the root of all evil lies in selfishness. If we look around at our decaying communities, never ending warfare and rapidly dying environment with open eyes we will see that behind all of the problems, all of the ignorance and hatred, all of the waste and stupidity there lies a common cause. GREED Why is this so-called "war on terror" continuing long past even the duration of the Second World War? Greed Oil companies make billions, Arms manufacturers make billions, contractors with bloated paychecks make billions because of the drive towards "privatization" of all government duties-meaning the politicians want to make sure that their rich friends get richer by leeching off of the taxpayers. The thieves cripple the ability of our government to care for the poor and sick, educate our children and bring into being an age of compassion and productivity. Why? Greed Because the majority shareholders of these corporations are the same people who pay for the campaigns of the politicians and then hire their friends as lobbyists at huge salaries to continue getting more and more of YOUR money. Think about it-why does most everything you buy at Wal-Mart say 'Made in China"? Greed Those companies that USED to provide jobs (and tax revenue) to American's closed their plants and moved their corporate offices offshore to make more money for people who, by any reasonable estimate, already have too much. Greed has cost us our self-sufficiency as a nation and has weakened our ability to provide for our families and ourselves. Why do the talking heads on television constantly harp about the benefits of "de-regulation", "globalization" and "privatization"? Greed Deregulation is like having a championship football team suddenly convince the commissioners to allow them to play without any rules at all. How nice for those few who have most of the power and money to be able to remove any protections for their workers, consumers and competitors-it creates a state of anarchy in the marketplace where only the most ruthless survive. Privatization is nothing more than welfare for the rich. Think about it. Why do we pay a premium to companies to produce our military equipment at hugely inflated prices-prices that ensure that billionaire investors become even bigger billionaire investors? All at the expense of the taxpayers and the men and women in our military. We pay our taxes to provide for the national defense-but instead of hiring engineers and scientists directly to work in a unified department of defense with oversight and coordination we give away billions to rich people to manufacture systems that don't work and manage hospitals, bases and training that do little to help in the primary mission-but a lot to make the rich richer. "What an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite, I call you my base." -George Bush (2002 "Journey's With George") Sign the Pledge and take a stand against those who would destroy life for their personal gain. Stand up for peace, justice and prosperity today. Help us to organize the economic resistance and to build a strong network of community minded activists in each Congressional District that can take on the Democrats and Republicans in 2008.Fill Out The Pledge If You Want to Be Included On The Mailing List. Otherwise Just Build a Personal Page and Communicate Directly With Others Here or You Can e-mail us at wearenotbuyingit@gmail.com The Cost of the War in Iraq
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Coalition Organizations as of April 2007 |
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Impeach 07 , Gold Star Families for Peace, After Downing Street, Backbone Campaign, Center for Constitutional Rights, Citizens Impeachment Commission, CODE PINK Women for Peace, Constitution Summer, Consumers for Peace, Democrats.com, Democracy Rising, Gold Star Families for Peace, Green Party of the United States, Hip Hop Caucus, Impeach the President, ImpeachBush.org, Military Free Zone, National Lawyers Guild, Patriotic Response to Renegade Government, Progressive Democrats of America, Independent Progressive Politics Network,Velvet Revolution, World Can't Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime, Pledgetoimpeach.org., California Greens and many more............................................................................................. |
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