Dear NvT,
After receiving inquiries and good wishes from many readers of Nonviolence
Today in relation to a number of issues over the past two years, I thought
that I would write a short response for publication in your letters column.

Since returning from the Gulf Peace Camp I have spent virtually all of my
time researching and writing the thesis which I originally commenced in 1987.
It is now finished and is titled 'The Strategic Theory of Nonviolent Defence:
A Gandhian Approach'.  While it is being examined, I have started looking for
a publisher.

Now that I have finished the thesis, I intend to resume a more balanced set
of activities.  This will include resumed involvement in nonviolent action
campaigns, the conduct of nonviolence education programs and writing a book
about the Gulf Peace Team.  The purpose of this book is to derive the
relevant political and strategic lessons from this experience in order to
provide some guidance for future attempts at nonviolent interposition.  The
potential value of this book was highlighted by the disastrous failure of the
Mir Sada ('Peace Now') project - involving 3000 activists from fifteen
countries - to organise an effective nonviolent intervention in Sarajevo last
August.

In relation to the war tax resistance, things proceed as usual.  After being
declared bankrupt in the Federal Court in November 1991, and because of my
continuing refusal to cooperate, I was convicted of contempt of court in
April 1992.  At a meeting with my new bankruptcy trustee, she confirmed the
existence of more onerous provisions in the new legislation.  Among other
points, if I continue to refuse to cooperate, I will be bankrupt 'forever'
and travel overseas will be 'impossible'.  (Some preliminary legal advice
suggests that this last point is open to challenge.)  In addition, I have
been advised by the Australian Taxation Office that they intend to take
further legal action in order to attempt to retrieve resisted war taxes for
the period 1988-1991; the previous three trials related to the period
1983-1988.

Apart from all the court action, it is tax time again! On 18 October, instead
of paying taxes in cash for 1991-1992, I will be delivering medical supplies
intended for the people of Bougainville to the Tax Office in Melbourne.  The
Bougainvillians are fighting for the right to self-determination.  The Papua
New Guinea government uses military aid supplied by the Australian government
to repress the Bougainvillians.  In this case, the link between Australian
taxes and military violence is clear cut.

One final point may be of interest.  After carefully listening to my
conscience, I have finally decided to resist paying ALL of my taxes in future
(and not just the 10% allocated to the military).  While this decision is a
direct response to my conscience, it also reflects my long-held belief that
nonviolent struggle to create a just, peaceful and ecologically sustainable
world requires, among other things, the systematic dismantling of the state
(including its parliamentary, legal and bureaucratic institutions).  I fully
realise that this message is a more difficult one to explain to the wider
public and that I even risk alienating some existing allies.  Nevertheless,
my conscience has been clear on this point for about three years now and I
have finally summoned up the courage to act on it.  Needless to say, I will
continue to pay my share of 'taxes' - in a manner which accords with my
conscience - and to promote awareness of the many creative alternatives to
the state.

Many thanks to those of you who have sent me your good wishes.
Robert J. Burrowes