The campaign was started in 1978 by Stanley Keeble, whose vision and energy sustained the campaign through its early years. Stan worked long hours in the late seventies, bringing in 1,000 supporters in the first year and then doubling that number after a letter to The Guardian, signed by 25 notables. As the campaign grew, Stan carried out less of the day-to-day work as others took on responsibility and the campaign appointed first a chairman, then paid joint secretaries. Stan continued to edit the newsletter until 1982 and, though he stepped down from the committee in 1985, he remained actively involved until his death in 1996.
The first chairman, Gerald Drewett, served from 1980 until 1986 and is still active in the campaign having returned to the Executive Committee to serve as Treasurer from 2001 to 2002. Gerald is currently withholding the military portion of his taxes.
Alex Bryan was one of four campaigners who met with a group of MPs in 1980 and was active in the campaign until ill-health forced him to stop his regular volunteering in the office in 2000. Another of the four was Harold Holloway, one of the first people to try diverting his tax to the Overseas Development Administration as a way of ensuring that he did not pay for the MoD.
From the start, the campaign involved both those whose wanted to stay within the law whilst campaigning to change it and those who felt driven to follow their conscience, even if that meant breaking the law. These different approaches have usually proved to be complementary. Indeed, when Jenny Aste attempted to divert her war taxes in 1981, her correspondence with Alex Lyon MP lead to his putting an amendment to the finance bill - the campaign's first parliamentary activity.
By 1983 the campaign had over 50 local co-ordinators and over 3,000 supporters. Martin Howard ran a separate network with its own newsletter, Tax Direction Now, which "co-ordinated and cared for" tax diverters. One of the most famous war tax resisters, Canon Paul Ostreicher went to court in 1983.
Roger Franklin began his "tax strike" in 1985 and was made bankrupt in 1986. Roger has been imprisoned twice as a result of his refusal to pay any taxes whilst the government possesses genocidal nuclear weapons and has recently been declared bankrupt for a second time.
In 1986 Nicholas & Ruth Gillett had their furniture seized by bailiffs and Arthur & Ursula Windsor's tax resistance lead to Arthur becoming the first CO imprisoned for refusing to pay war taxes. On 26 March, the day of Arthur's release, Dennis Canavan MP introduced the first Parliamentary Bill with the intention of re-establishing the right of conscientious objectors.
1987 was a time of change as the campaign decided to become a formal membership organisation, Mike Garnier was appointed chair and John Tasker, who had served as Treasurer since the establishment of a formal committee stepped down. John was followed as Treasurer by Chris Marsh (87-93), Dave Wadge (93-99), Phil Rimmer (99), Ron Barden (99-00) and Gerald Drewett (01-02). The current Treasurer is Monica Frisch, who started her war tax resistance in 1985 and joined the committee in 1991.
Nigel Wild was next to join the select ranks of those who have been imprisoned for their refusal to be made complicit in killing. Nigel is a baker and his 1990 offer of 182 bread buns as payment in kind was refused and he was sentenced to 28 days.
Brenda Boughton, a member of the Executive Committee since 1987, was taken in court in 1993, appealing an order to pay on grounds of conscience. Justice Butler Sloss refused to allow the case to go forward, but left the door open by suggesting that her decision may have been different if the European Convention on Human Rights, the cornerstone of Brenda's case, were part of British law. The ECHR was incorporated into British law by the Human Rights Act in 2000. Brenda and other war tax resisters are hoping to have the opportunity to pursue a test case in the near future.
Later in 1993 Roy Prockter was taken to court for his war tax resistance and although he was refused leave to appeal, the judge recognised Roy's dilemma as genuine and said that it was a matter for Parliament. Had the Human Rights Act been in place in 1993, this would have amounted to a "declaration of incompatibility" and forced a discussion by MPs.
Neil Gerrard MP introduced the second Peace Tax Bill in 1994 and an associated Early Day Motion, which gained the support of 17 MPs who had not previously supported the campaign.
1996 saw campaigners from 16 countries travel to the UK for the 6th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns. Many of the people involved in the organisation of the conference have been mentioned elsewhere in this article, but one who has not is Eleanor Barden, who has been involved in the campaign since the beginning and who served for many years as the Quaker representative on the Executive Committee.
Without the dedication of so many committee members and volunteers over the years THE PEACE TAX CAMPAIGN would not be where it is today.
Thank you all.
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