Peacemakers was an Americanpacifist organization. The name of the group is taken from a section of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
The group was founded following a conference on “More Disciplined and Revolutionary Pacifist Activity” in Chicago in July, 1948 to advocate nonviolent resistance in the service of peace, particularly draft resistance and tax resistance.[1] The group’s members vowed:
(1) to refuse to serve in the armed forces in either peace or war; (2) to refuse to make or transport weapons of war; (3) the refuse to be conscripted or to register; (4) to consider to refuse to pay taxes for war purposes — a position already adopted by some; (5) to spread the idea of peacemaking and to develop non-violent methods of opposing war through various forms of non-cooperation and to advocate unilateral disarmament and economic democracy.[1]
The “Tax Refusal Committee” of Peacemakers is credited for founding the modern American war tax resistance movement. Peacemakers published the first guide to war tax resistance in 1963.
References
^ Gross, David (ed.) We Won’t Pay!: A Tax Resistance ReaderISBN 1434898253 pp. 446-447