An open letter to my fellow NWTRCC members
This is an open letter to my fellow National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) members. The NWTRCC has become paralyzed, unable and unwilling to expand the conversation, a main requirement for progression of thought, and with this loss a lack of moral direction in our rapidly devolving world. I believe the NWTRCC community has been deceived by Democratic Party talking points. This has allowed political rhetoric to indoctrinate NWTRCC membership and therefore dilute the anti-war/genocide moral imperative through the compromised ideology of blue MAGA thinking which many of our membership embrace. This is evident throughout the current NWTRCC membership as well as its organization leaders and reflected in its outreach. This could only have been achieved with the "guidance" and "leadership" of the current NWTRCC Coordinator Lincoln Rice and Outreach Coordinator Chrissy Kirchhoefer acting as gate keepers. Ask yourself why in the current climate of Trump insanity are there so few comments and interactions on the NWTRCC Facebook page and other social media, along with extremely low online and in-person conference attendance numbers.
Over the course of the last few years, I have found it increasingly difficult to insert anti-capitalist/war leftist lines of questioning and discussion into our biannual conferences. Through the expansion and greater accessibility of HD video conferencing we should be able to host a highly interactive interface with both the online and in person NWTRCC constituents. These conferences are precious little time, and our collective political literacy is lacking in this unprecedented, pivotal moment. My observation is that many in our group focus entirely on Trump as a singular, and never-before-seen phenomenon destroying the United States and with it the world. The truth is there has been for decades, a continuity of agenda of both Democratic and Republican administrations. I have been rejecting the rhetoric and propaganda of both administrations from the beginning of my political consciousness with the first Obama term. I rejected identity politics from the start and looked at the rhetoric he was espousing as just that, words. I was right, not because I had a wealth of political or scholarly knowledge to draw on. I knew he was a war criminal representative of the Democratic Party side. He was the black face in a high place in whom both the corporate duopoly and capitalist class felt confident in positioning themselves behind. Move through Hillary, Trump, Biden, and now Trump 2.0 and you can see the "ratchet effect" has moved our collective political consciousness so far to the right that we vote (blue or red MAGA) for and endorse war. The difference between Democrat and Republican can only be discussed within the privileged parts of the globe where the continuous state terrorism of the United States has not fully been realized.
It is my ardent desire that the reader of this letter take time to examine the evidence illustrated best by our November 2025 conference where pro-war/Zionist voices such as United States Representative Jim McGovern was allowed to give the opening speech. Jim's pro-war/Zionist position was obscured by the open censorship of coordinator Lincoln Rice. When the question of the anti-war/genocide authenticity of Jim was brought for discussion from the online component, Lincoln Rice unilaterally decided to block the conversation from taking place. We (the online complement of the conference) were powerless to push back against this action, having no ability to connect to the in-person portion of the conference. Please look at the below sources for yourself and ask, does this sound like a person/politician who is being truthful regarding their purported anti-war position?
1) Jim McGovern's official website highlighting his statements on National Security, Votes and his clear and unequivocal statement endorsing Zionism, war, and genocide
https://mcgovern.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400083
2) ARTICLE: Corporate Cash Still flows To McGovern, A loophole in progressives' pledges to eschew corporate PAC donations means trade association PACs still giving campaign cash to McGovern and others. [THE SHOESTRING]
https://theshoestring.org/2024/09/13/corporate-cash-still-flows-to-mcgovern/
3) SOURCE: James P McGovern [Open Secrets] Federal Congressional Candidacy Data
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/james-p-mcgovern/summary?cid=N00000179&cycle=CAREER
The heart of the issue, which I am now more fully able to understand through my experience and discussions with fellow NWTRCC members, is that there is vast confusion throughout this community regarding the idea that there is a place for not only the foreign and domestic policies of the Democratic Party but for their politicians as well. Fake left leaders represented best by Bernie Sanders (also a fully open Zionist and supporter of war/genocide) are lionized and held onto by members of NWTRCC through their moral compromise. This is a clear indication that many in our community do not represent a serious anti-war position, and this impacts our legitimacy and, just as important, it signals to new potential members and WTRs that this group is just another pro-Democratic party organization. New members who are aware of the truth will not waste their time with NWTRCC, nor should they.
NWTRCC must be unwavering and uncompromising in its anti-war/genocide position. There is no room for Democratic Party lies of any kind within a true anti-war/genocide position. We need to shift our conversation to the most relevant anti-war and revolutionary topics of this our time. NWTRCC should be a place where our collective understanding of the difference between, defense verses violence/aggression, is discussed. If I were a Palestinian living in occupied Palestine on October 7th, 2023, I would have participated in the Hamas Al-Aqsa Flood operation. This involved armed resistance, violence, casualties on all sides along with the taking of Israeli political prisoners. It was the last option available for the Palestinians to defend themselves against the Israeli tactic genocide. Can the NWTRCC community understand that it is only those (us) living safely in the Capitalist west, who can have a civil conversation about peace in the context of modern genocide. Why must we have this conversation to remain relevant? The answer: because not so far down the list of moral preeminence is the fact that all of us in the United States now are or will be soon experiencing this aggression/violence turned inward at a society where many have been able to live in peace never having to understand lived violence.
I am younger. I see NWTRCC’s aging community and wonder if anyone else notices. Where are the young people who are realizing the truth of this capitalist, colonial, war-mongering nation? There is endless room now for anti-capitalist revolutionary energy specifically in younger people who recognize they are soon going to be experiencing the full force surveillance/police state that is solidifying around them. 2028 is going to be a litmus test for previous generations who have for decades voted for the ridiculous myth of war/genocide-lite through their endorsement and vote for the Democratic Party. It is unbelievable to have to say this but many of the NWTRCC members, when asked to show the smallest modicum of courage and NOT vote for either the Democratic or Republican party presidential candidate again, are making decisions based on fear.
Can my fellow members understand why I cannot be part of a community that allows this blatant hypocrisy to continue into another election cycle? I don't know a gentler way to put this, I am calling out all of the supposedly peace-loving members of NWTRCC who will continue to have allegiance to the Democratic Party and their paid apparatchiks, whether during the midterms or the 2028 presidential election. Voting outside the two-party system is the smallest, most inconsequential way to separate yourself from the contradictions and from the pro-war/genocide Democratic Party policies. How do we have the courage to take on the real-life consequences of WTR’s activism but then are unable to muster the smallest amount of fortitude to pull the lever (or not vote because this democratic system hardly exists in the United States) for a true anti-war presidential candidate?
I have been in communication with Kshama Sawant, and the treasury secretary of Workers Strike Back, the organization Sawant founded. I explored the possibility that she could speak at the November 2025 NWTRCC conference. I requested that NWTRCC coordinator Lincoln Rice help me coordinate bringing Sawant’s fiercely socialist, anti-war/genocide voice of working-class people in the United States to the NWTRCC community in 2026. Lincoln has been a gatekeeper, saying only that she could be invited to attend and I would be allowed to have a breakout session (25 minuets?) to introduce her to members who wanted to attend this subgroup during the May 2026 conference. In two different emails to me Lincoln wrote (DIRECT QUOTES):
"It would be helpful if she had any connection to WTR or has supported WTR in any way. If she has, please let me know." [EMAIL DATE: 02/20/2026]
"I did bring up the idea of Kshama Sawant speaking at the May meeting to our last Outreach Committee meeting and the consensus was that she would not fit with our emphasis of wanting to promote war tax resistance. Sawant not appear to have any connection to WTR. If that is mistaken, please let me know..." [EMAIL DATE:03/09/2026]
I don't even know if Lincoln has looked at Kshama's website to see her radical and singular anti-war/genocide positions> https://www.kshamasawant.org/
Well, how do we form connections and initiate new supporters in NWTRCC and towards the tactic of WTR without taking a look at her platform and reaching out? What Lincoln Rice is doing is protecting the Democratic Party supporting members of NWTRCC from the unpleasant call-out of the pro-war/genocide Democratic Party fully in league with the Republicans within the United States, which Kshama Sawant will bring if she is "allowed" to speak in May. Who among you will fight for discussion and resist the temptation for the safe, civil, and respectful censorship that Lincoln Rice and Krissy Kirchhoefer are currently presiding over? I am hoping that there is enough radical energy and understanding to break through the fear we are all experiencing so that we can collectively have this conversation. We need new radical leadership and should explore this in our May Meeting. I am simply asking that we have difficult conversations in May 2026, the very essence of open democracy.
Moving forward with what should be done.
1) Invite Kshama Sawant to be the opening speaker at the NWTRCC meeting in May of 2026. Kshama is running a difficult and time-consuming campaign for U.S. congress, so we are going to need to act quickly to insure she can commit to speaking on the opening evening of the conference, Friday May 1st, 2026.
2) Prioritize national conferences so that the online component has the greatest ability available for interaction and direct participation with the live conference attendees.
3) Both the NWTRCC coordinator and outreach coordinator positions are tasked with facilitating open dialogue, discussion, and even debate as to the discussion, politics, and future direction of the NWTRCC.
4) We must encourage participation from all members and allow for democratic processes in the adoption of what is discussed, as a primary function of the bi-annual conferences. In as much as possible this should include any guest speakers or outside groups to be included in future conferences.
5) We must never partner with groups, organizations, or outside parties that platform, support, or endorse any aspect the pro-war/genocide Republican/Democrat duopoly so that we don't alienate new anti-war WTRs, not the other way around.
6) We must begin to hypothesis what life will be like for younger generations of WTRs as they are increasingly required to defend (in every sense of the word) themselves against oppression and harms which are taking many new forms inside the United States today.
