working for since 1934 number 72 Winter 2016 ISSN 1350-3006 w e n e h t peace matters WORKING FOR PEACE WITHOUT VIOLENCE

“Shoulder to shoulder with all who serve.” support our work ISSN 1350 – 3006 Peace Pledge Union help build a culture Peaceworks 1 Peace Passage London N7 0BT of Phone: 020 7424 9444 Email [email protected] Web site: www.ppu.org.uk Peace Matters is published by the Peace Pledge Union. I/we would like to join the PPU www.peacematters.org.uk Annual subscription : Material published in Peace Matters does individual £21.00 not necessarily reflect PPU policy. two at the same address £28.00 Editor: Jan Melichar. low income £10.00 With help from: Annie Bebington Or subscribe to Peace Matters and Peace Works only Typeset and design: PPU Annual subscription: £6.00 Printing: Lithosphere I/we enclose £ cheque bankers order The Peace Pledge Union is the oldest or debit my card non-sectarian pacifist organisation in no Britain. Through the Resisters’ Inter - national it links with similar groups expiry date throughout the world. It is one of the security no __ | __ | __ original sponsors of Campaign Against Arms Trade, a member of Liberty and a co Name operating organisation of Landmine Address Action For information contact: Annie, PPU 1 Peace Passage London N7 0BT . or www.ppu.org.uk ONLINE www/ppu.org.uk/join Next Council meeting 9 March

To: The Manager: Bank Address

Your account number Please pay on / /2016 and on the same day each MONTH / YEAR (delete as appropriate) To: The Co-operative Bank plc, 62 Southampton Row London WC1B 4AR 08-90-61 Peace Pledge Union Main Account no 50504527 the sum of £ ______amount in words______Signature ______date ______www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 3 COMMENT

e were pleased to welcome 1500 new supporters to our white Job Opportunity Wpoppy project last year. With help from many of you around the PPU Coordinator Salary £30,000 pa. country we distributed well in excess of 110,000 white poppies. A sub - This is a big and challenging stantial increase on last year. Last year many more wreaths post requiring imagination and a mix of skills. From were laid and more white poppies have gone to Canada and New being the public voice of the Zealand where 25 April - Anzac Day - is their equivalent to Britain’s PPU to managing the PPU’s published output and proj - Remembrance Day. While in Belgium more white poppies can be seen ects to ensuring the smooth amid the deluge of the British Legion (Shoulder to shoulder with all running of the organisation, the post offers a opportunity who serve) red ones each year. Many thanks too for the generous do - to take the PPU forward nations which make our work possible. from a well-established base to challenge the war-making Remembrance Day is now only one of several events in support of values embedded in society. the armed forces that have imposed themselves on the national calen - See www.ppu.org.uk/jobpack Closing date 12 February dar. Martial values and the opaque but turbo- charged military ethos, as government ministers like to call it, or mil - itarism as the PPU calls it, is seeping largely signs and symbols unnoticed into every crevice of civil life. At Jan Melichar events and displays around the country, at ceremonies, at ‘Meet the Army’ events, in schools and in the graveyards in Flanders in one form or other the military is ever present to impress on us that their way is the only way. There is no alternative. The overt militarisation has been visibly underway since 2000 when the Ministry of Defence published ‘Soldiering – The Military Covenant’. A document that attempts to give substance to 400 years of wishful thinking. It speaks of the military person’s ‘ultimate sacrifice’ and the special bond and duty the nation therefore owes the soldier. It is silent on the considerable penalty that the citizens pay as a consequence of the soldier’s work! Soldiering and its development of a military covenant is special pleading on behalf of a dangerous institution which, together with its many supporters, is demanding our sympathy and money. Whatever sympathy one may have for individual military persons who have been injured or traumatised or for the families of those who have been killed, it must surely be tempered by the fact that in the last 25 years of Britain’s these men and women have willingly (and one might say gratuitously) invaded sovereign countries, caused mayhem and untold misery there; the consequence of their actions are all around us Laying wreaths of white poppies and have in no small measure contributed to the instability in much of in Aberystwyth under the watch - the world. After all the majority of the military personnel are no more ful eye of the military. 2015

Bertold Brecht

4 www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 PERSPECTIVE

likely to face the ‘ultimate sacri - Armed Forces Covenant insists fice’ that any of us. Though a bet - that local services should privilege ter resourced NHS might offer military personnel. What is your greater security and save more local authority doing? lives than any IED proof vehicle. [http://tinyurl.com/mfm3pun] The military covenant was Armed Forces Day, launched originally no more that a nine years after ‘Soldiering’, was grandiose aspiration. As a conse - Gordon Brown’s more muscular quence of the British military’s version of the Veterans Day he Laying white poppies at the con - scientious stone. Remembrance ‘self inflicted’ casualties and fol - launched 3 years previously. While Day 2015 lowing noisy promoting by Gen - ‘Soldiering’ was a response to eral Dannatt and the British Britain’s increasing military pur - Legion a reluctant government suits and Tony Blair’s ‘vision’ at the was forced to codify many of the time: ‘…today our Armed Forces covenant’s expectations. In its new are called upon to take action in guise as the Armed Forces many different parts of the world, Covenant it places all kinds of not so much to defend our coun - legal obligations on local councils try but to defend its long-term se - and institutions. The state has curity interests. …in truth, today never cared much for the shat - an army fights not just for terri - tered bodies returning from the tory and military superiority but wars it sent them to. As cuts in often for hearts and minds, and it local services are taking place the depends not simply on discipline,

White poppy extravagnza in Whitstable November 2015 www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 5 PPU NEWS

but also on belief’, Armed Forces Day was and is designed to embed the military world more closely, more firmly, more seamlessly into civil life and the state is anxious we are in tune with its drumbeat. While once governments prom - ised us a better future today they only promise to protect us from a fearful world full of terrorists, rad - icals, ‘money sucking migrants’ and Europe. More military ethos in schools along with renewal of Trident, closer surveillance, more cadet forces, armed policemen In a previous issue we mentioned the failed attempt during the War and plenty of drones is thought to Resisters International conference in Cape Town to paint a giant AK- 47 rifle. This has now been accomplished. The image, over 100 do the job. meters in size, by Ralph Ziman and his team shows a broken AK-47 Who do you think you are rifle wrapped in world currencies. It is situated on The Grand Parade kidding mister politician… in Cape Town. public understanding of WW1 What we are reading A Kingdom United popular response to While the two year funded term of the PPU’s challenge to narrow and narrowing un - the outbreak of the First World war in Objecting to War Project has come to an derstanding of war and more crucially to Britain and Ireland. Catriona Pennell. Oxford 2012 end we continue to object! The publicising a lack of understanding that war is not Life in the a guide for and promotion of the values that motivated inevitable. new residents. Home Office. 2013 many to become conscientious objectors in The anniversary of WW1 has done little Remembering the First World War. Bart WW1 will continue (www.menwho - to better public understanding as the Ziino Ed. Routledge. 2014 An Intimate War: An Oral History of the saidno.org) side by side with a vigorous word diagram here shows. This is based Helmand Conflict. Mike Martin. C Hurst on a YouGov survey for the British Coun - & Co. 2014 cil and shows… well you decide. Kill Chain drones and the rise of high- tech assassins. Andrew Cockburn. Verso. 2015 What are you reading? mail @ppu.org.uk militarism The PPU is making a submission to the governments’ Education Committee's 'purpose and quality of education' in England inquiry and will shortly publish a paper on Militarisation of Education (www.ppu.org.uk/militarism). If you are interested in participating in this work please get in touch [email protected],uk 6 www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 EDUCATION FOR PEACE

whose war, whose memory? Peter Glasgow

n a Thursday evening in Novem - whether English teachers should be Ober I delivered a 20 minute pres - involved in teaching cultural history. entation to a diverse audience of With both sets of teachers, there was academics, teachers, teacher trainees clearly a relationship between popular as well as undergraduate and post perception of the war and the default graduate students at the University of topics that are taught - notably the Birmingham. The title of the lec - Western Front, trench warfare and ture/workshop was Whose War, the origins of the war. It was also in - Whose Memory? Teaching the First teresting that English and History World War in International Perspec - teachers both recognise the potential tive. Other presentations were deliv - moral dimension in teaching about ered by Professor Eckhardt Fuchs,and the First World War, and often use his two colleagues from the George teaching about the war as an oppor - Eckert Institute in , and Dr tunity to build pupils’ capacity for em - Catriona Pennell, a Senior Lecturer in pathy. For History teaching, in History at the University of Exeter. particular, this raised the question of This event was organised by Voices of approaching the war as an historical War and Peace: the Great War and its and/or emotional event, particularly in Legacy and the Institute for German the light of the emphasis placed on Studies at Birmingham University. battlefield cemetery visits both by indi - The former is a First World War En - vidual teachers, schools and the gov - gagement Centre funded by the Arts ernment (in its centenary funding). & Humanities Research Council in Following an introduction into partnership with the Heritage Lottery the work of the George Eckert Insti - Fund. The University of Birmingham tute in Germany by Professor Fuchs, Centre is a joint initiative with a num - Dr Barbara Christophe and Dr Ker - ber of universities across the UK. stin Schwedes shared with us some Dr Pennell’s presentation brought fascinating insights into the differ - us up to date on her and a colleague’s ence in approaches to the teaching latest research into how the First of the history of World War One World War is being taught by History through their analysis of school text and English teachers across the coun - books from a range of countries. try. It was interesting to note that There appeared to be a clear link be - there is an apparent tension between tween a country’s current political History and English teachers as to situation and how the War itself was how the War should be taught with portrayed in that country; this was History teachers perhaps questioning particularly highlighted by those tex - www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 7 EDUCATION FOR PEACE

The British Armed Forces Learning Resource distributed to schools presents a sanitised version of war, glorifies ’military values’ and an uncritical history of British military interventions. tual amendments that had ac - 1916, as any initial enthusiasm for soldier. Dr Pennell is currently un - companied political change in war had all but disappeared. Also dertaking research into the Russia since the demise of the raised was the absolutely seminal pupils’ perception of their trips to Soviet Union. role of women in the No Con - the Battlefields and it will be in - Both of these presentations re - scription Fellowship as well as teresting if this was to reveal any assured me that the structure of their role in the anti-war move - concerns being expressed by the presentation was appropriate. ment as a whole. learners themselves as to the As the Officer my The work of the George Eck - presence amongst them of uni - contribution differed in that it was ert Institute reminds us of the formed soldiers. clearly not an academic paper re - clear link between contemporary Later, in the discussions that lated to a particular aspect of nationalist political thinking and followed, mention was made of teaching about World War One. how WW1 is being taught across The British Armed Forces Learning After a brief introduction and Europe. I was therefore reassured Resource, a politically motivated background to the PPU the start - that I had gone on to make a link document, produced by the Min - ing point was an image of the between the military character istry of Defence and the Prime mural, that sees Keir Hardy ad - and almost hysterical promotion Minister’s Office, and distributed dressing the huge War against of Remembrance today in the UK to schools in 2014.It presents a War demonstration that took with a number of governmental sanitised version of war and glori - place in Trafalgar Square two days educational initiatives, that to - fies ’military values’ as well as an before Great Britain became in - gether surely confirms an en - uncritical history of British military volved in the First World War on 4 croachment of militarism into the interventions. The section on the August 1914. The words on the State education system. First World War contains a num - mural, It was NO then and it will Without having to go into de - ber of simplistic notions that in - always be NO, served as a re - tail, the audience’s attention was cluded the idea that Britain did minder that there was a signifi - drawn to some of the initiatives not want war but it could not be cant anti-war movement before that make up a clear strategy by avoided as well as a failure to and during WW1. the government to promote a make any mention of the British Dr Pennell’s presentation rein - ‘military ethos’ in schools. It was Empire, never mind Empire re - forced a view that contemporary appropriate though to spend a lated war aims. English and History teaching is, little time on the government in - probably unconsciously, perpetu - troduced Battlefield Tours pro - The Peace Pledge Union intends ating a view of WW1 that con - gramme that involves two to keep coming back to the the tains a number of hidden students and one teacher from whole issue of the increasing mili - histories. every state funded secondary tarisation of British society and in Continuing with a theme of school in England visiting the particular what is happening in the hidden history of the anti-war battlefields on the Western Front. schools but if the general re - movement, a brief description I was able to raise the issue of sponse of the audience at Birm - was given of the experiences, the inappropriateness of each ingham University is anything to treatment and stereotyping of coach ferrying teachers and go by people will find its message Conscientious Objectors after the pupils to the killing grounds con - not only challenging but also introduction of in taining at least one serving British timely and refreshing. 8 www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 PPU NEWS

I heard someone saying ‘that is scary’ and saw a child with a toy hand grenade, which their mother was happily buying for them

And of course there are always news from the ppu meetings to attend, conferences A year on PPU Council. Three council members share their to go to, job applications and experience of 2015. fundraising submissions to be drafted, proof-reading, checking proposed publications written by Lucy Beck writes. 2015 has been members at our events and con - the staff, packing poppies and a busy year for the PPU staff, ferences; I have the chance to other more routine work as re - and a little bit for PPU Council think about and plan the future quired, which keeps me active in members too! Peace work isn’t of the PPU; I meet and work my ‘retirement’. just about visible demonstrations with other friendly peace groups Attending the AGM and con - or , but involves de - through the First World War ference brought me up to date tailed painstaking work behind Peace Forum which the PPU with developments around mili - the scenes. I was thinking about started some years ago; I learn tarism in education and in the what I had done as a PPU Coun - about the lives of the conscien - country, which has provided cil member this year, and realised tious objectors from that war fresh stimulation for the PPU to that I was looking at it back to through the work for our web - take this issue forward in a more front - I should really write about site; I am given access to books active way than we have done what I gain as a PPU Council about the women who sup - for many years. And I was re - member. I get to meet the staff ported the conscientious objec - minded once again of the seri - regularly, to hear about the work tors and have the privilege of ousness of the issues while in a they are doing; I meet other PPU doing research into their stories. shop last week - I heard some - one saying ‘that is scary’ and saw a child with a toy hand calling all ppu members grenade, which their mother At 80 the PPU is in good shape, with more staff and more work was happily buying for them. planned than for many years - the end of war is still some way off- This may seem trivial while wars and so our work continues. rage on, Parliament decides to We would welcome your support and one way you can do this is to send bombs into Syria, the Tri - become a Council member and help oversee the PPU's work and dent renewal debate grows developments. PPU Council meets 3-4 times a year in London (usually nearer, and the UK’s arms sales an afternoon meeting on days that suit its members). Council mem - to Saudi Arabia lead to our bers are responsible for staff, fundraising and financial matters as well weapons being used to kill peo - as setting direction for the PPU's future work. Council reports on its ple in Yemen. But that mother’s work at AGMs. The present Council wishes to add to its number. purchase of a toy hand grenade If you are interested in helping with this important and responsible is a symbol of the unthinking ac - work please let us know your interest by writing to Jan Melichar at ceptance of violence in this soci - [email protected] telling us something about the ways you might be ety. Our original Campaign able to contribute to the Council’s work. We will then be able to send against Militarism in the 1980s you more detailed information. began with a soap hand grenade spotted in a shop. We www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 9 PPU NEWS

have a long way to go and need ate contact with the press, radio This year's Remembrance cov - all the help we can get! and television - and even when erage was reasonably typical: one 2016 is a important year of we do, it doesn't always result in moment I might be running WW1 anniversaries, including any coverage. But luckily, they round London from studio to stu - the Battle of the Somme, and for often come to us! Although jour - dio, taking part in three live radio the , the intro - nalists sometimes want "a mili - programmes in a day ... and then duction of conscription in 1916 tant pacifist" to give a distinct nothing for a couple of days. The and the very first right of consci - line on all sorts of issues of war ones which are probably most entious objection to military serv - and peace, much of their interest useful for the PPU in terms of get - ice established in the UK after in what the PPU has to say cen - ting our message across - and the the campaigning of our prede - tres on Remembrance and white ones I tend to enjoy most - are cessors 100 years ago. I hope poppies. In some years, we get as the longer discussion pro - you will help locally and nation - much press interest in the few grammes, where I get to go head ally to take the PPU’s work for - weeks surrounding Remem - to head with some pro-military ward in whatever way you can. brance as we do in the rest of the type for half an hour or so. Al - year put together. though journalists interviewing Requests sometimes come me are rarely particularly sympa - from journalists we haven't dealt thetic to a pacifist worldview, with before (but who've done their challenges are at least their homework!), and at other (mostly) fairly polite; but some of times I or the PPU office will get the "opponents" I end up in a a call from someone we already studio with seem to think that know, who's aware of the value is inherently barmy, and and interest - or at least the con - don't hold back from saying so. troversy value - of what we have I think a reason that we get in - to say. There is sometimes inter - creasing amounts of press interest est from print and on-line publi - around Remembrance is precisely cations, and from television, but because the government and the the most frequent interest is military are more and more using from radio stations. the emotions around Remem - Our radio coverage is most brance as a way to increase sup - commonly on local stations (they port for (and recruitment to) the have a lot of airtime to fill!), but forces: a perspective which re - Albert Beale writes . One of the also on national networks from fuses to accept that the armed voluntary jobs I do for the PPU - time to time. The majority of news forces should have any role at all alongside being a member of the or discussion programmes we're in the world is seen as especially Council which oversees the or - invited to take part in are on BBC objectionable, even offensive, in ganisation's work - is to take on channels, but some speech-based that context. much of the PPU's interaction commercial channels also show An example of this is a Radio 5 with the media. an interest, as do some commu - programme I was on one Remem - There isn't always time to initi - nity and student broadcasters. brance weekend evening a few 10 www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 PPU NEWS

Our submission for the 2016 Armed Forces Bill has focussed on two issues - conscientious objection and under-age recruitment.

years ago. I spent half an hour refus - into the system. ing to discuss the relative de-)merits For Armed Forces Bills a House of of specific military activity, and the Commons Select Committee receives degree to which we should sympa - evidence from interested organisa - thise with the military's suffering; tions as to particular aspects of the rather, I made it clear that from a Armed Forces, and suggested im - pacifist perspective we ruled out re - provements. From 2001 the PPU has sort to armed force taken part, alongside organisations completely, and that such as Child Soldiers International the military being (previously, Coalition to Stop the Use commemorated of Child Soldiers), Forces Watch and (precisely because At Ease. Such focus on the British they'd chosen to armed forces at present coincides take up arms) were with renewed efforts by the PPU and not the main victims others to counter militarism in Britain of the horrors of generally. Evidence is published as war, but the main part of the Select Committee’s Re - cause of those hor - port, a Parliamentary paper perma - rors. One of the BBC nently available on record, researchers told me establishing the PPU as a responsible afterwards that I'd body with evidence-based argument. come close to In the PPU’s submission for the breaking the record 2016 Bill, I focussed on two issues - for the number of conscientious objection and under- "string 'im up" hate age recruitment. calls ever generated From WW1 the question has by a speaker on arisen of people volunteering for the their weekend armed forces, but after a time com - evening discussions. ing to realise that they are involved in activity contrary to their conscientious Remembrance Day PPU 2015. Bill Hetherington writes . Ever since scruples and seeking a way out – Tavistock Sq London. the 1688 Bill of Rights, keeping a with the difficulty that armed forces standing army in Britain has been contracts are not subject to simple unlawful unless sanctioned by Par - and immediate resigning. In WW1 liament. For centuries Parliament was court-martialled passed an annual Army Act to keep for trying to resign his officer com - the Army, but since mid-20th cen - mission, but went on to become the tury this has been reduced to every first General Secretary of the PPU. In five years (with intervening Statu - WW2 there were more such men, to - tory Instruments), and the Navy and gether with others who originally ac - Air Force have been incorporated cepted call-up, but developed a www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 11 PPU NEWS

conscientious objection, and eventu - erately focussing on that age for re - ally the system for conscientious ob - cruitment, on the principle that if jectors was adapted to cover them. they are not “caught” (that is the After abolition of conscription in actual word used) then, they might 1963 a version of that adaptation has go on to further education, appren - remained for regular members of the ticeships or whatever and be lost to armed forces, but there are problems. the armed forces, whose relentless One is that, unlike conscientious “need” is valued above the personal objection to conscription 1916-19 development and education of and 1939-63, it is not written in law young people. but a non-statutory concession. It is The Army, which recruits far little known, and not easily found more people (adults and youngsters) within differing administrative pro - than the other two forces together, cedures of the three armed forces. exacerbates the problem by requir - Another problem is that applica - ing under-18s to sign up to a longer tions for discharge on conscience contract than adults. grounds are very few, so that experi - ence in dealing with such cases never develops within the armed forces or within the Advisory Com - mittee on Conscientious Objectors, a lay body chaired by a lawyer set up to hear appeals from applicants after rejection as conscientious ob - jectors at initial application within the navy, army or air force hierarchy. Also, it is little understood that in Remembrance Day PPU 2015. Britain so-called “political” grounds These policies have been repeat - Tavistock Sq London. for objection have been eligible for edly condemned by the UN Com - consideration on the same terms as mittee on the Rights of the Child, religious, moral or humanitarian the Joint Parliamentary Human grounds. Recommendations for im - Rights Committee, the Duty of Care provement have been urged. Report of the Commons Select Britain has a long, and, we Committee on Defence, and even argue, dishonourable, history of re - past Select Committees on Armed cruiting boys, and now girls, as soon Forces Bills. as they are able to leave school, The PPU submission draws atten - originally at 14, then 15, and now tion to all these reports and urges 16. It is not simply a matter of ac - an immediate end to the UK’s cepting those especially keen at that pariah status as the only country in age, but a calculated policy of delib - Europe still recruiting at age 16. 12 www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 PERSPECTIVE

where are we now? Ben Copsey he Objecting to War Project ten. So what have we found, and Tcame to the end of it’s second what have we added to the CO year - unbelievably - two years of story? research and outreach, coordinating A major aim of Objecting to War volunteers, designing exhibitions was simply finding the COs them - and talking to as many people as selves. Though separated by only possible about the courageous and 100 years from their decision to pit principled Conscientious Objectors themselves against war and mili - of the First World War. tarism, records are sketchy and in - Looking back on the project, it’s complete at best and all too often easy to tally up the talks and lec - missing entirely. The project has tures (38), the education sessions delved into archives and library col - (13), the public workshops (8) lections around London and be - and the exhibitions (2), and see yond, digging up the slightest hints that in terms of talking to the to reveal new caches of informa - public, we’ve worked hard and tion, new names and new experi - had a great deal of success. ences. We’ve added hundreds of More people know more new names to the list of Britain’s about the key questions of Conscientious Objectors, gathering Conscientious Objection - information from sources as varied the who, what, where, as previously inaccessible archives in when and, crucially, why - major collections, local libraries, than did when I wrote my newspaper archives and even first article for Peace Mat - wikipedia. These new names come ters back in September with new stories and new informa - 2013. tion, but often new challenges and It’s harder to think inconsistencies, leading our about what we’ve Archivist, Bill and I to ferret out de - learned on the project. Not tails like full names, dates of Tribu - just in how to work with partner or - nal hearings and length of prison ganisations to produce great mate - sentences. This research work will rial on COs around London, but also never be finished, but we can be what we know about the Objectors proud of the amazing work we’ve themselves. One of the great tasks done, and our volunteers have of Objecting to War is research - done, finding these forgotten histo - finding the men and understanding ries. their experiences so we can tell The sad corollary of these investi - those stories to anyone who will lis - gations is to reveal an ever growing www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 13 PERSPECTIVE

all of our research has led to an inescapable conclusion - the CO story isn’t as straightforward as we thought it was list of Conscientious Objectors suspicion, but open friendliness revealed the same stories - the who died during the war. by the people of towns and vil - Absolutist, the Alternativist, the Whether finding men who died lages around them. Medical worker - they’ve been abroad while serving in non- We’ve revealed more about stories of men who arrived at combatant roles in the army, or the process of becoming an ob - similar conclusions in different in far flung parts of the world, jector and the complex decisions ways, and vice versa. There was - finding these men is always that led to men refusing, or in - n’t a single ‘CO story’ and there tragic, but our research ensures deed accepting, conscription. wasn’t a single party line. Even they will not be forgotten. Even the CO organisations have within close-knit communities of Aside from the men them - not escaped scrutiny, and re - COs, or organisations, or among selves, the system of Conscien - views like our monthly look at men that shared both experi - tious Objection has been given the No-Conscription Fellowship ences and motivations, there more of the attention it de - newspaper The Tribunal have were complex difficulties and serves. Pieced together from in - revealed that the NCF was as webs of loyalties and obligations dividual biographies and official factionalised and concerned with that led men down different sources, some of the byzantine consensus politics as any organi - paths. Every story might seem politics, economics and daily op - sation! the same, but the more that we eration of the Government’s All of our research has led to find, the more we realise that

www.menwhosaidno.org Some of the conscientious objectors and the women who supported them policies towards COs have been an inescapable conclusion - the every one is different. revealed. Of particular interest CO story isn’t as straightforward The stories we’ve unearthed has been the Home Office as we thought it was. Far from and the results of our research Scheme - work camps set up for being unassailable paragons of can be found on our website Re - COs in 1916 - which has long pacifist virtue, who arrived at membering the Men Who Said been treated as a uniform sys - their conclusions swiftly and eas - No. It’s an endlessly expanding tem of punishment. Slowly, ily, held their heads high through resource looking at COs in every we’ve pieced together a more all that the military and civil au - way we can manage, telling sto - complex story where men had, thorities could throw at them, ries, providing analysis and shar - at times, a surprising degree of their motivations and experi - ing the information we’ve found freedom, held concerts and put ences were as complex as the sit - on the project. It will grow for a on plays and were, in cases, uation they found themselves in. long while yet - research is never treated not with hostility and While a lot of our research has over. Watch this space! 14 www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 PERSPECTIVE

Paul Rogers

Joanna Bourke ne day, while working in the self at all. I wanted to tell him of the excitement, despair, brutal - Oarchive of the Imperial War that we would keep together so I ity, and sheer horror of trench Museum in London, I opened a grabbed his hand and we went warfare”. Note that excitement file and read about one man’s ex - over [the top] together as we had comes first: and they promise de - perience of the Battle of the gone to Sunday school, hand in spair, brutality and horror, also – Somme, in September 1916. The hand. but not too much – because it is author was a young man, barely 100 years later, we, too, can play supposed to be fun. After all, they out of his teens. He recalled that “Over the Top”. It is a first person tell children and their parents, it is he was steadying himself for shooter video game aimed at “part history” but also “part ad - going “over the top” when he school children. It is described as venture game”. spied an old school friend. “I an “interactive adventure game The producers promise that it looked at Herbert”, he recalled, that allows you to experience life has a high level of “replayability”. adding in the trenches during the First Players are required to “make a I could see his lips move – I World War”. It promises players decision” and then shouted but I couldn’t hear my - that they can “live through some click on your choice and read the Joanna Bourke speaking at PPU’s Remembrance Day event at the CO stone in London www.peacematters.org.uk winter 2015/16 15 PERSPECTIVE

outcome of your decision. A poor Day. The blurring of entertain - decision might mean trouble or, ment and war (“militainment”) worse, disaster. But don’t worry, and the advent of warbots – a you can always start over and try generic term for drones, robotic a new adventure…. So pick up weapons, unmanned vehicles, your rifle, put on your helmet, and suchlike – has led many of us and get ready for a truly unique to take for granted that war is experience! without end and without borders. Such fun: young people are All of us have effectively been encouraged to seek drama with - turned into citizen-soldiers. Actual out tragedy; the virtualization of combat is only the crude manifes - violence. tation of omnipresent violence in Of course, “war as pleasure” our society. is not new. It is deeply embedded One of the first steps, then, is in everyday life. Contrary to the to bring to public attention the assumption that war is an event ways in which war and military vi - that peace activists must work to olence are embedded in our soci - Wounding the World: How Military counter and outlaw, it is more re - ety. When I was writing Violence and War Play Invade Our alistic to think of war as a pres - Wounding the World , I was Lives. Joanna Bourke. Virago, 2015 ence, deeply embedded in the amazed by the number of times “liberty”. The last time such con - games children play, the media people assumed that a book cepts were banded about with we watch, the books we read, about militarisation was a book gusto was during the war against and the surveillance techniques about American, rather than Hitler and National . that infect our lives. British society. Although no one Courage, honour, and glory fea - Military practices, technolo - disputes that America has a seri - tured loudly. Millions of people gies, and symbols have invaded ous problem with militarized vio - solemnly recited the poetry of our everyday lives. We rarely even lence, we also need to look closer Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert notice it. And, when we do, we to home. The eruptions of com - Brooke, but it was hard to avoid don’t seem to care too much. Our memorations of the centenary of hearing in the tremor of their garrisons are maintained through - the First World War (including the voices, a vicarious thrill accompa - out the globe yet the military computer games mentioned) nying imaginings of “the horror, campaigns we wage abroad seem were shocking in their return to a the horror”. as real to most of us as the rhetoric more familiar to 1914 or A deluge of history books, tel - metaphorical wars on drugs or 1939 than today. The “new mili - evision and radio programmes, obesity. It is not uncommon to tarism” of the post-9/11 world, newspapers, and museums show - hear people waxing lyrically about involving the bellicosity of west - cased grandfathers, grandmoth - the sanctity of life – including that ern nations in conflicts in the Mid - ers, great uncles and aunts, and of the two-cell embryo – while dle East as well as the ubiquitous other “ordinary people” who cheering on the troops and nature of the “war on terror”, has were physically or psychologically proudly pinning red poppies to given a new life to the problem - wounded during that war. We their clothing on Remembrance matic rhetoric of “freedom” and might be forgiven for not becom - By passively accepting militarist encroachments, we also close down encounters with strangers we might have learnt from, laughed with, and loved. ing aware of the role of British servicemen and women as inflictors of lethal vi - olence. One of the main things that we as people who are passionately against militarist excursions into our lives, and, even more, into the lives of our vic - tims, is to provide alternatives and ways of resisting. In other words, what can be done? The first step requires persuading people that it doesn’t have to be this way: we can decide not to remain helplessly enthralled to military ideologies, practices, and symbols. The military is not as powerful as it wants us to believe. In other words, one of the most debilitating myths for people seeking to forge more peaceful worlds is the assertion that armed conflict is inevitable. But militarism serves instrumental purposes; it involves the investment of trillions of dollars, pounds, euros, rubles, or yuan. It is a social activity. As such, they can be unmade as well as made. We have buried our heads in the sand and there is only one way out: to re - turn to a politics that recognises that in wounding the world we wound our - selves and our loved ones. By passively accepting militarist encroachments, we also close down encounters with strangers we might have learnt from, laughed with, and loved. In fact, the strategies open to us are legion. In the three-volume The Poli - tics of Nonviolence Action (1973), Gene Sharp catalogues nearly 200 different ways people can engage in nonviolent protesting. Each of us possesses pro - clivities, skills, and spheres of influence that enable us to make a difference in our own local contexts. Wherever we are situated – as teachers, homemakers, academics, labourers, shopkeepers, secretaries, publishers, journalists, civil ser - vants, entertainers, novelists, artists, lawyers, doctors, scientists, unemployed, and so on – we can make a difference globally. There is only one rule: a refusal to “outsource” political engagement. I began this talk by conjuring up a young man, who held his school friend’s hand as they went over the top. One of them did not survive. I also started with a video game aimed at school children called “Over the Top” and prom - ising children a good time in the trenches. Both that young soldier’s innocence and war gaming cynicism can be resisted.In contrast to ’s fa - mous phrase “There is no alternative”, we can make that act of faith in our future and that of our children.