2011 Tax Day

Tax Day protest sign

Sign in the AFSC office window in New Hampshire.

Photo: 

Arnie Alpert

Copyright: 

AFSC

AFSC staff, volunteers, and partners marched, chanted and made signs to mark Tax Day.  From Los Angeles to Boston, Indianapolis to Pittsburgh, dozens gathered, and garnered much positive reaction from onlookers.

They participated in a variety of events, from counter demonstrations at a Chicago Tea Party rally to a penny poll asking Pittsburghers to show how they’d allocate tax dollars, to draw attention to the economic inequality that allows over 100 corporations to avoid paying any federal taxes. They also shared the message that taxes are important for schools, roads, healthcare — but that 60 percent of the discretionary budget is going to the military.

At an event at Boston University with Pakistani journalist, Beena Sarwar, acclaimed scholar activist Noam Chomsky posited that Tax Day should be a day when we celebrate all that we are doing to create programs and to serve members of our communities and our families — but in our society, with military spending and the inequities, it is something else.

In Kansas City, AFSC organized an event featuring the “Statue of Liberty” – on crutches – and “President Dwight Eisenhower” warning the nation to beware the military-industrial complex.  

And youth working with AFSC’s Atlanta office and We Are Change Atlanta painted a dramatic mural showing that the federal discretionary budget provides very little for services and programs that communities really need. 

AFSC’s economic justice program analyst Arnie Alpert says, “More and more people understand that there is no way to revive the economy and support those still suffering from the recession – without raising taxes on the wealthiest and shifting money away from the bloated military establishment.” 

See pictures and media coverage on our Tax Day blog.