Armistice Day is a day to campaign to “end all wars,” peace campaigners said as the country marked Remembrance Sunday yesterday.
And the Peace Pledge Union called for the victims of colonial conflicts to be remembered too.
A rally in London’s Tavistock Square honoured all victims of war, with attendees vowing to work for a more peaceful world.
The National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony in London takes place every year in front of the memorial stone for conscientious objectors in the square.
A two-minute silence was observed and white poppy wreaths were laid on the memorial.
The event was hosted by activist and comedian Kate Smurthwaite, who said millions of people were caught up in war and the “best thing we can do for them is to end all wars.”
Palestinian researcher Nadine Aranki said Britain “chooses what to remember and how to remember it,” highlighting the need to “reflect on the impact of colonialism” and Britain’s complicity in war.
Another Palestinian activist, peace studies associate professor at Coventry University Marwan Darweish, said: “I am proud to be here to raise the flag of peace and justice … I share the vision of hope for the people of Palestine.”
The British government is accused of complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, with RAF bases on Cyprus used to supply the war.
Green Party co-leader and Bristol Central MP Carla Denya joined the event after representing her party at the official ceremony at the Cenotaph.
She told the Morning Star: “I wanted to prioritise being here as well, as a long-time wearer of both the white and the red poppies.
“It’s really important to me to remember the victims of all wars including civilians right up to the present day and to say never again should really mean never again.”
And Jon Nott of Campaign Against Arms Trade said: “The trillions of dollars used in the arms trade is what has put us in the position of more than 100 armed conflicts across the globe.”
Mr Nott pointed out the deep complicity of Britain in the deadly arms trade.
“Britain is not just engaging in war in Gaza but is actually profiting from it.”
Peace movement leaders told the Morning Star Armistice Day, which marks the day “the guns fell silent” on the Western Front in the first world war — November 11 1918 — was misused by the British Establishment to promote war.
Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn attended a memorial at the Manor Garden.
He said: “The archway that houses the memorial wall was originally part of the Royal Northern Hospital. They wanted a memorial that helped the survivors to live.
“As we laid our wreaths, the Reverend Hughesdon said powerfully, ‘the darkness of war is not a distant past, but an ever-present reality.’
“I read an excerpt from Dolce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, who died one week before the Armistice.
“In his honour, and in memory of all those who have been killed in war, I called for peace in Gaza, Yemen, Ukraine, Congo, Sudan, West Papua and beyond.
“Remembrance Sunday must be about bringing peace, not glorifying war.”
And Liz Payne of the British Peace Assembly, a World Peace Council affiliate, said the official commemorations were “at best, a shocking hypocrisy.
“While the government is busy shedding crocodile tears for the dead of many wars, they, with their US and EU allies, are directly complicit in the making and continuance of current slaughters, in genocide in Gaza and in preparing future conflagrations across the globe.
“The hands of the Doomsday Clock have never been closer to midnight.”
“‘No to imperialism, no to war’ must be our only message.”
Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition said over 100 years since the “war to end all wars,” “the threat of even more devastating war is greater than ever.
“There is genocidal war in Gaza and a deadly Nato proxy war in Ukraine which is costing hundreds of thousands of lives.”
Establishment politicians and royalty use remembrance ceremonies to justify “present and future wars,” she charged.
“It is right that people remember those killed in war,” she said.
“But it is wrong that this is a state-enforced event where the whole of the Establishment, from the BBC to the education system, insist that it is our patriotic duty to wear a red poppy.”
The Peace Pledge Union (PPU), which provides white poppies, representing all victims of war military and civilian, as an alternative to red ones, launched its Decolonising Remembrance initiative.
PPU member Nadja Lovadinov said: “Decolonising Remembrance is about asking ourselves, who do we remember on the eleventh of November, and who have we forgotten?
“Decolonisation is an active practice that unsettles and refuses to accept the nationalist, military narrative of mainstream remembrance, by platforming the victims of colonial wars.”
PPU remembrance project manager Geoff Tibbs said: “When we still see politicians openly celebrating the British empire, it is vital that we remember the impacts that colonial wars and violence have had — and continue to have — around the globe.”
In Bradford in West Yorkshire, peace campaigners gathered yesterday at a new memorial to Commonwealth men and women who fought for Britain in the first and second world wars.
The memorial is the first outside London to honour almost 15 million men and women from Commonwealth countries who fought in the armed forces alongside their British counterparts.
The Bradford Commonwealth Memorial stands beside the city’s Cenotaph where Yorkshire CND organised a Songs for Peace event with local choirs.
Source: Morning Star