Records of the Peace Tax Campaign

Archive reference: Cwl PTC

The Peace Tax Campaign

The Peace Tax Campaign was started in 1977 by Stanley Keeble, initially as a Peace Pledge Union campaign. The Campaign aimed to establish the legal right to conscientious objection to military taxation, as a parallel to the established legal right to conscientious objection to military service. Peace and religious groups, as well as concerned individuals, were encouraged to lobby their MPs to support a change in the law. In August 1981 a letter to the Guardian signed by parliamentary and religious representatives publicised the campaign and resulted in many new declarations of support. By 1983 there were over 3,000 supporters and over 50 local co-ordinators.

Gerald Drewett became campaign chairman in 1980, and Margaret and Stanley Moore were appointed as joint secretaries shortly after. Stanley Keeble continued to edit the campaign newsletter until 1982 and, though he stepped down from the committee in 1985, he remained actively involved with the campaign until his death in 1996.

The Peace Tax Campaign changed its name in 1990 to conscience The Peace Tax Campaign, and in 2009 to conscience Taxes For Peace Not War. It still campaigns for “the legal right for those with a conscientious objection to war to have the military part of their taxes spent on peacebuilding initiatives”.

The Records

One of the Commonweal Archives, this material was donated to Commonweal during the 1990s. It consists mainly of correspondence, within the Campaign, with supporters, Members of Parliament, and European and other external bodies. There are also minutes, circulars, and other promotional material.

The Archive was catalogued as part of the PaxCat Project, with support from the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives.