(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
For several years, the Friends Society Quakers have been working on a bill that will give nonviolent supporters the right to have the portion of the tax that goes to military activities transferred to a fund for constructive peace-building work.
- We have approached 47 parliamentary representatives about the peace tax case. On the basis of the terrorist attacks on 11 September and the West's reaction, it is urgent to present a bill so that a broad report can be obtained on the matter, says Bjørg Berg, one of the members of the Quakers' working committee for peace tax.
The letter to the parliamentary representatives was sent on November 8 this year. As of today, only SV as a parliamentary group has responded to the request. The answer was negative.
- Terrified
- I have received the letter from the Quakers, and it was I who raised the matter in the parliamentary group, because I thought it was a good idea. I am in and of myself still for the idea behind it, but was convinced by others in the SV group that we should not support it, says Inga Marte Thorkildsen.
Thorkildsen believes that the problem with the peace tax case is that it can create a dangerous precedent for other types of conscience exemption in relation to the tax.
- I am terrified that Christian fundamentalists can use this to argue for denying taxes because of, for example, the abortion case. I believe that we should rather work to get a strong peace movement and public opinion that demands that less money goes to the military, and that the content of the civil service is made more relevant, says Thorkildsen.
- Should not lie awake
SV Representative Hallgeir Langeland is among those in the parliamentary group who should have seen the party in favor of peace tax. One year ago he addressed the matter in the Storting in a so-called Document # 8 proposal.
The case did not receive support when it was dealt with in the Finance Committee, but SV's committee member Øystein Djupedal wanted a broader review of what implications religious and religious freedom can have on tax law, among other things.
- I will gladly do my part for the case to be taken up again. But since SV's group treatment ended as it did, we are dependent on the case being kept warm by others, says Langeland.
He points out that warfare today involves expensive high-tech weapons, and that it is primarily professional forces that participate. For people who oppose attempts to resolve gun-power conflicts, there is a moral difference between firing deadly weapons and paying others to do so.
- People should not have to lie awake at night and think that the tax they pay goes to the military and weapons production, Langeland believes.
- Dangerous precedent
The head of the finance committee Øystein Djupedal (SV) has sympathy for the Kveks' cause, but does not agree that peace tax serves the purpose.
- The tax system is universal. Everyone pays into the community, where elected representatives from municipality to state make priorities and decide what the tax money is to be used for. I think it is right that it should be like this, says Djupedal.
He believes that conscience is an elusive concept that cannot be unleashed on the tax system.
- Some will then refuse to pay taxes to public hospitals that perform abortions, others will invoke conscientious objection because they are against immigration. There is no collective conscience; it is individual, Djupedal believes.
He rejects that church tax can be compared to peace tax.
- The church tax is a membership fee, which the individual can decide which denomination should receive. The appropriations for the church and pastoral positions are decided by politicians regardless of how many people choose to transfer the contingent to others than the state church, says the finance committee leader.
Djupedal agrees that individual conscience has had an impact on the right to refuse military service. But peace taxes will create a dangerous precedent, he believes.
- SV has come out crooked
SV veteran Stein Ørnhøi is one of the celebrities who has signed the Quakers' demand for peace tax, and sees the problem that such a law could set a precedent for other types of tax evasion.
- But we have already violated the state's right to impose constitutional obligations on citizens several times. This applies both in the church tax case, where people who opt out of the state church can pay taxes to other denominations, and conscription, where you can refuse military service based on your conscience, says Ørnhøi.
- I agree with the bill on peace tax. But I have to admit that the party does not always agree with me. In this case, I believe that the parliamentary group must be free, he adds.
- SV has unfortunately come out crooked in this case. Hallgeir Langeland is very positive, but the parliamentary group has opposed the bill because they believe that it can lead to tax denial for all possible reasons. But this is freedom of conscience on a par with the church tax, says Fredrik Heffermehl, leader of the Norwegian Peace Council, which is one of the organizations that support the Quakers' initiative.
- Incomprehensible
- If people do not protest and rebel, nothing happens. We will therefore continue to lobby for the bill. As a protest, I myself have deducted the war tax on my tax return and sent a copy to the Ministry of Justice, says Bjørg Berg in the Quakers' peace tax committee.
Berg points out that the UN has declared this decade "the UN's decade for a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world", and believes that the use of tax money is not a morally neutral area.
- At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the proportion of civilian victims in war was five percent. A UN report from 1996 shows that more than 90 per cent of war victims are now civilians, and that children are the worst affected. In the bombing war against Serbia, as far as is known, all the victims were civilians. With these facts as a background, it is incomprehensible to us that no maximum effort is now being made to prevent war, says Berg.
