IRS Raided (1970)

On January 13, as requested in a letter from the Internal Revenue Service, I appeared at their main office with a little help from (ten of) my friends.

The IRS officials were quite disturbed by the presence of our community of Resistance. Their intended purpose of the meeting was to discuss my tax liability of $16.70 (accumulated telephone tax). Our purpose was to discuss the war in Vietnam and their complicity in murder.

Mr. Gomella, the young official who had invited me there went into immediate conference with several of his superiors, who in turn called the police.

We unrolled a huge poster of the My Lai massacre and I asked, Is this what you want me to pay for? Some of the IRS officials looked sickened and left the room. Others entered and we asked their position on the war and the killing. We told them that we knew the telephone excise tax was specifically for the war. We were all asked to leave, when Mr. Gomella offered to meet privately with me. He was promptly put down by his superiors.

As we slowly departed (we left behind a copy of the Nuremberg Principles, which they said they would read), we held the My Lai poster up high, showing it to a good many of the workers. As we passed through the official waiting area with our poster, we cried out, You can claim these people as your dependents.

All in all we kept at least ten IRS officials occupied for about a half hour, interrupting their business as usual schedule.

Instead of dismissing invitations from IRS as most of us have done in the past, we are encouraging other people to attend such hearings with as much community support as they can gather. We’re also trying to re-schedule hearings that we’ve passed up knowing that we’ll have an official opportunity to go up and hassle at least once a week.

Source: Ken Sherman 2/70

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