Max Sandin (June 3, 1889–September 14, 1971) was an anti-war activist who was persecuted by the United States government during both World Wars for refusal to cooperate with military conscription. He also refused federal income taxes for the same reason, beginning in 1943. A resident of Cleveland, Sandin worked as a house painter and paperhanger.
Early life and draft refusal
Born in Czarist Russia, Sandin fled to the United States in 1910 to avoid forced conscription. When Sandin was drafted into the U.S. military during World War I, he declared himself a
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
. United States law did not afford him an exemption, as his objection was political, not religious. At
Camp Funston
Camp Funston is a U.S. Army training camp located on the grounds of Fort Riley, southwest of Manhattan, Kansas. The camp was named for Brigadier General Frederick Funston (1865–1917). It is one of sixteen such camps that were established at ...
, he and other resisters were subjected to brutality.
In 1918, for refusing to obey an order to perform military duties in wartime, Sandin was sentenced to be executed by firing squad.
President Wilson commuted that sentence to a maximum of 15 years' imprisonment at
Fort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...
. Sandin was paroled on June 24, 1919, after the war ended.
In 1943, Sandin was again imprisoned for refusing to register for the World War II draft.
War tax resistance
In 1943, Sandin began
to refuse to pay taxes that would be destined for military spending.
He continued to refuse for the rest of his life. In 1949, he joined the war tax resistance pledge of
Peacemakers
Peacemakers was an American pacifist organization founded following a conference on "More Disciplined and Revolutionary Pacifist Activity" in Chicago in July 1948. Ernest and Marion Bromley and Juanita and Wally Nelson largely organized the g ...
, the first non-sectarian organized war tax resistance movement in the United States.
In 1961, the government began to seize Sandin's
Social Security
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...
benefits and small pension for back taxes, leaving him destitute. In response, he began a sit-down protest and hunger strike at the
U.S. Treasury building. The
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to American political leaders, thei ...
responded by arresting him and seeking a psychiatric evaluation. Sandin was judged sane and released in a few days.
Other actions
Sandin also took part in a blockade designed to stop the deployment of a Polaris nuclear-weapon-armed submarine in 1960. Earlier in life he was associated with the
Young People's Socialist League and the
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...
. A lifelong laborer, he also worked as an organizer for the
Painters' Union. With the assistance of a friend, Sandin wrote an autobiography, but it was not published until 2024, with further editing by
War Resisters League
The War Resisters League (WRL) is the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States, having been founded in 1923.
History
Founded in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I, it is a section of the London-based War Resisters' ...
stalwarts, Ruth Benn and Ed Hedemann, and a foreword by
Randy Kehler
Gordon Randall Kehler (July 16, 1944 – July 21, 2024) was an American pacifist, tax resister, and social justice advocate. Kehler objected to America's involvement in the Vietnam War and refused to cooperate with the draft. He, along with his ...
.
A resident of
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, Sandin died in 1971, at age 82.
Further reading
* Sandin, Max ''I Was Sentenced to Be Shot: Autobiography of a Political Objector'' NY: Max Sandin Radical Pacifist Cell, 2024.
External links
*
References
{{Reflist
American tax resisters