Anti-war campaigners have unveiled plans for a string of events across the country this weekend to challenge the government's attempts to turn Remembrance Day into a militaristic propaganda exercise.

The Stop the War Coalition (StWC) warned that the traditional November 11 Armistice Day ceremony has been hijacked to glorify current wars and increasingly uses the memory of the dead to justify further imperialist conflicts.

Instead of the traditional red poppy anti-war campaigners will wear the alternative white poppy, which marks all those who have died in conflict rather than just military casualties.

Activists plan to hold Naming of the Dead commemorations across the country.

Stop The War convener Lindsey German told the Star: "We will be staging a number of events aimed at highlighting the fact that the original message of Remembrance Day was after WWI to remember the dead of that war.

"In years since, although the government and military talk about commemorating the dead of WWI, the whole thing has been geared towards supporting the army and the wars it is involved in.

"We don't have conscription per se any more but there is economic conscription and we are seeing more and more people coming out of the army with severe injuries.

"A very high proportion of former soldiers are homeless, suffer mental illness or drug and alcohol problems."

Ms German added that the majority of those killed in war are civilians and also that it is only recently that memorials have been erected for women war workers and firefighters who also lost their lives.

"The day is tied in with the government which starts the wars and the military which fights them," she said.

"This should be a day to remember all those who died."

The government was condemned by the Royal British Legion at the weekend for failing to address the "disgraceful" treatment received by war veterans and the bereaved families of service personnel.

The legion's director general Chris Simpkins warned of a "tidal wave" of redundancies among forces personnel, some of whom will be invalided out of service.

"We are seeing increased demand for our services.

"With the cutbacks in the welfare state more people are finding themselves in financial difficulties," Mr Simpkins said, predicting that the problem would get worse as the MoD is due to sack more than 22,000 personnel by 2015.