Make Wars History - Non Payment Of Tax
Posted by: Belinda McKenzie in Activism Events, Events, War And TerrorThe campaign to Make Wars History is the Stop-the-War campaign with knobs on! MWH has a fighting chance (pardon the metaphor) of succeeding where STW plainly won’t (beyond making a noise on the street), namely, to Stop War Permanently.
MWH’s message and modus operandi are quite simple: there exist already a number of international treaties and laws dating back to the aftermath of WW1 (the first signed by 60 countries in 1928) which clearly make it a CRIMINAL OFFENCE to initiate or wage war under ANY circumstances, bar self-defence in the event of a direct attack which is already in motion. Pre-emptive strikes are therefore not an option, nor any other form of prophylactic aggression. Nor, according to the Nuremberg Judgement of 1946 does simply ‘following orders’ exonerate any of those engaged in the prosecution of war from liability. And Genocide in any shape or form is a criminal offence.
In other words modern war-law is unequivocal that 99.9% of modern war is ILLEGAL, therefore those who initiate it are in breach and liable for prosecution as criminals. The MWH campaign focuses most particularly on the Law Enforcement officers (police)whose job it is to apprehend criminals and bring them to justice, hence we are busy reporting the heads of our government and all those who endorsed the invasion of Iraq as criminals under international law. The police are failing in their duty if they neglect to arrest these ‘war-criminals’. Another target group is the Armed Forces; new recruits are reminded that if they enlist for service in illegal wars they themselves will be accessories to crime and liable for prosecution. But nor do ordinary citizens escape liability – if you endorse the actions of a criminal government by paying taxes in support of illegal wars you are yourselves accessories to the crime – so don’t pay your taxes!!
Neat, eh? Especially in these harsh economic times when many might wish to dodge their taxes!! However could MWH be playing some kind of game, since few will take seriously the injunction to have prominent politicians and their legal advisers and senior members of the military arrested as common criminals. Nor will those who sign up to serve ‘King & Country’ on foreign fields be regarded by the mass of the public as anything but heroes, never mind that the war was wrong to start with, those who give their lives in it are still heroes! And as for withholding taxes, well you’ll be preventing all those poor people who need benefits from receiving them. Government needs tax-money to provide welfare services and to fund the NHS in its current incarnation as well as paying for soldiers to fight wars.
To all these objectors and quibblers and folk who pooh-pooh any effort to try to end war we would remind you that you do not question the need for LAW in general as a means of ensuring social stability and as the bedrock of a civilised and orderly society. The laws outlawing war are no exception. Anti-war legislation in constraining governments from embarking on mindless violence and destruction is surely a most vital part of the whole body of law, both national and international. A crying shame that it has been to date far too little known about nor recognised.
It is MWH’s aim to redress this omission and to flag up the substantial body of anti-war law which already exists and could be utilised in helping bring about a permanently peaceful and orderly world.
One day human beings will hopefully be mature enough to be able to do without law and laws. But in the meantime our frail and fallible laws are all we have to ensure that civilisation, like the laborious progress of a climber up a sheer mountainside, continues upwards to the level to which we all aspire, whether we are builders of the New World Order, New Age visionaries or just ordinary citizens!
MWH in marrying POPULAR REVULSION AGAINST WAR, as demonstrated on February 15th 2003 (when 2 million marched in central London to try to stem the initiation of war against Iraq) to existing WAR-LAW is providing a timely means of advancing civilisation and outlawing barbarity.
A campaign and principles worth supporting, surely.
By Belinda McKenzie


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