Marx in Neue Rheinische Zeitung November 1848

No Tax Payments!

by Karl Marx

Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 145 (special supplement) Translated by the Marx-Engels Institute Transcribed for the Internet by director@marx.org, 1994

Cologne, November 16. All the Berlin newspapers, with the exception of the Preussische Staats-Anzeiger, [112] Vossische Zeitung, [113] and Neue Preussische Zeitung, [114] have failed to arrive.

The Civil Guard in the wealthy south-western district of Berlin has been disarmed, but only there. It is the same battalion that dastardly murdered the engineering workers on October 31. [115] The disarming of this battalion strengthens the popular cause.

The National Assembly was again driven out of the Kolnische Rathaus [116] by force of arms. It assembled then in the Mielenz Hotel, where finally it unanimously (by 226 votes) passed the following resolution on the non-payment of taxes:

"So long as the National Assembly is not at liberty to continue its sessions in Berlin, the Brandenburg cabinet has no right to dispose of government revenues and to collect taxes.

"This decree comes into force on November 17.

"The National Assembly, November 15."

From today, therefore, taxes are abolished! It is high treason to pay taxes. Refusal to pay taxes is the primary duty of the citizen!