Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War

Conscience is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom. Its full name is Conscience: Taxes for Peace Not War. It was founded in 1977 as The Peace Tax Campaign by Stanley Keeble, a Cornish Quaker.^[1] Conscience campaigns for and promotes international peacebuilding in the UK by redirecting taxes usually used for the military towards conflict prevention, conflict management and other non-violent interventions. Much of this has recently focused on the Conflict Pool, a UK government fund which ‘seeks to reduce the impact of conflict and instability around the world’^[2] via non-military means. Primarily, Conscience raises awareness via parliamentary lobbying and releasing information and resources. Conscience aims to change the law to allow conscientious objectors to military taxation to allow their taxes to instead be spent on peacebuilding and conflict prevention.^[3]

History

The Peace Tax Campaign

Conscience began as The Peace Tax Campaign in 1977. A Cornish Quaker, Stanley Keeble sought to establish the legal right to conscientious objection to military taxation. He suggested that the proportion of tax that was used to fund the military should instead be used for peaceful purposes. Having already been involved in peace campaigning, Keeble contacted peace organisations to begin his campaign. In October 1977, he sent out a leaflet announcing the beginning of the Peace Tax Campaign. Keeble began a campaign of letter writing, lectures and organising meetings to bring together those with similar ideas. People were encouraged to write to their MPs to change the law. Eventually, a letter to the Guardian signed by both MPs and religious leaders brought the campaign to national attention in 1981. Over 3,000 supporters and 50 local co-ordinators joined the campaign. In 1981 Alex Lyon MP put an amendment to the Finance Bill to allow those with a "conscientious objection to paying for expenditure on defence" to pay the military part of their taxes to the then Ministry of Overseas Development.^[4] This, though unsuccessful, was the first of many attempts to enable such legislation. An Early Day Motion in 1982 to establish a Peace Fund to receive taxes diverted from military uses was supported by 31 MPs. Several international Peace Tax Campaign conferences were held by the group, the first in Germany in 1986.^[5]

Conscience: The Peace Tax Campaign

The Peace Tax Campaign changed its name to "Conscience: The Peace Tax Campaign" in 1990. Conscience campaigned for a Parliamentary Bill in 1994 "to allow those who have a conscientious objection to the use of their taxes for military purposes to register their objection, and to divert this portion of their taxes into a non-military fund, to be used for the promotion of international understanding, study of the causes and resolution of conflict". The bill was supported by 45 Members of Parliament.^[6] Conscience also helped form The Conscience and Peace Tax International (CPTI)^[7] who worked with organisations from other countries to campaign for a Peace Tax. This included the UN where it now has consultative status.^[8] Conscience was one of the founders of the Peace and Security Liaison Group (PSLG) in 2004.^[9] PSLG brought together other non-governmental organisations with similar aims and sought to allow meetings between these groups and the UK government. PSLG gathered think-tanks, academics, UK government officials and non-governmental organisations to discuss peace and security around the world. As Conscience: The Peace Tax Campaign, the organisation won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation's 2008 Conflict Resolution Award.^[9] The award was presented by then Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street^[10]

Conscience: Taxes For Peace Not War

Conscience changed its name once again to Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War in 2009. The organisation moved towards campaigning for national security based upon non-military rather than military means. However, they still campaign for the legal right of conscientious objectors to have the part of their taxes that go on the military instead be spent on non-military aid. Conscience campaigns for greater transparency of the Conflict Pool and its successor, the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund in order to achieve this.

Conscience was featured alongside Nelson Mandela, Caroline Lucas and Taha Muhammad Ali in an issue of The Spokesman, the journal of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in 2014^[11]

Controversies

In 2005, one of Conscience’s supporters, Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin was criticised for his views.^[3] Letwin at the time was listed as a supporter on Conscience’s website along with over 75 other Members of Parliament. He received criticism from Conservative Lord Tebbit who said "The idea that we can pick and choose where our taxes are spent is just plain silly". Criticism also came from Labour’s election co-ordinator, Fraser Kemp who said "For Oliver Letwin to consider something that could threaten the defence of the realm is unbelievable".

Recent Activity

Conflict Pool

The Conflict Pool was set up in 2001^[12] as a way to fund conflict prevention and peacebuilding projects around the world. The fund has a budget of £300 million and is shared between the Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence. The three governmental departments bid for money from the Conflict Pool to support various projects around the world. Conscience advocates for peacebuilding based upon an increase in funding and transparency of the Conflict Pool including via an Early Day Motion in Parliament.^[13]

The Conflict Pool has received criticism including from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) who published a critical report in 2012.^[14] Around the time this report was published, Conscience began campaigning around the Conflict Pool. Although the Conflict Pool is not the Peace Tax that Conscience has been campaigning for, they have said in the past that "it is the closest such entity created by government so far".^[15] Conscience lobbies for an increase in transparency in how the fund is being used and to stop further militarisation in order to keep the Pool being used for non-military security projects.^[16] Conscience advocates peacebuilding and conflict prevention based upon an increase in funding and transparency of the Conflict Pool including via an Early Day Motion in Parliament.^[13] In response to the criticisms found in this report, the Conflict Pool will be replaced by the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) in 2015 with ICAI’s report forming the model for the new fund.^[17]

Conflict Stability and Security Fund

The British Government will provide more than £1 billion in 2015-16 for a new Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). This builds on the framework of the Conflict Pool by bringing together existing cross-departmental expertise and resources from across government.^[18] The CSSF will fund a broader range of activity to help prevent conflict that affects vulnerable people in the world’s poorest countries, and tackle threats to UK interests from instability overseas. This will include actions the UK delivers directly or through third parties to help prevent conflict and instability, and support post-conflict reconciliation.

Priorities for the Fund will be set by the Government’s National Security Council^[19] to ensure a stronger cross-departmental approach that draws on the synergy of defence, diplomacy, development assistance, security and intelligence. It will also enable the British Government to tackle the root causes of conflict abroad with programmes such as developing human rights training, strengthening local police and judiciaries, and facilitating political reconciliation and local peace processes.

Peace Tax Bill

Conscientious objectors to military taxation believe that under the UK’s current tax system people are not able to express their freedom of thought, conscience, or religion by not paying for war.^[20]

They campaign for an update in UK law, so that people with a conscientious objection to war can have the part of their income taxes currently spent on military activity – approximately 6% – spent on peacebuilding and conflict prevention instead.^[21] Conscience campaigns on behalf of British citizens who do not wish to fund the military through their taxes. Given Conscience's roots in the Quakers conscientious objection movement,^[22] conscientious objectors to military taxation believe that they are effectively conscripted into military taxation.

Conscience has campaigned for decades to build a Parliamentary coalition which will support a ‘Peace Tax Bill’ that would enable income tax payers to indicate their Conscientious Objection to Military Taxation and have their proportion of taxes currently spent on financing the MoD redirected towards non-military forms of security.^[23]

Publications

• Non-military security solutions: peacebuilding alternatives to military responses (PDF) (Report). July 2013. 
• Engaging Afghanistan (PDF) (Report). April 2011. 

See also

• Conscientious objection to military taxation
• Peacebuilding
• Conflict resolution
• Nation-building
• Peacemaking
• Peacekeeping
• State-building
• Environmental peacebuilding
• Religion and peacebuilding
• Peace and conflict studies

References

External links

• Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War
• Peacebuilding blog
• Conflict Pool