Marching To Remember
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
I’ve been meaning to write this all down for a while and it’s probably quite apt that I’ve finally got started on 11 November, Armistice Day, a time set aside for remembering the war dead. Every year this day fills me with conflicting emotions. I feel huge gratitude to those who died in combat as well as deep sadness for those who are grieving freshly for soldiers killed in more recent times. Battling these emotions is a fierce anger against the stupidity of war, the folly of those who keep us at war and, worst of all, the companies which profit from the misery of war.
A PARTICULARLY STUPID WAR
On Saturday 24 October the Stop the War Coalition had organised a Bring the Troops Home march and rally in London. Having always regretted missing the huge stop the war protest in October 2001 – attended by tens of thousands of people from all walks of British society – I was determined to be there this time.
One of the frustrations about being anti-war is that so many people, hyped up by the media’s ‘support our boys’ stuff, can’t differentiate between anti-war and anti-soldier. It’s nothing like the horrendous days when conscientious objectors were given white feathers and reviled for alleged cowardice, but it’s still frustrating. Why is the desire to bring our troops home from illegal or pointless wars seen as unpatriotic? At least those who died in the two World Wars had a clear idea of why they were fighting and some hope of success.
Few British people, including those who are fierce supporters of our armed forces, are able to explain why UK troops are in Afghanistan. Mumbled answers will include issues like security, democracy, drugs and the catch all war on terror. The public is becoming increasingly sceptical about the point of the war. An opinion poll published in the Independent on 11 November revealed that 46% of those surveyed felt that the presence of British forces in the US-led war actually increased the threat of attacks in the UK by creating anger and resentment among the Muslim population. Only 21% thought the threat was decreased. With allegations emerging of Abu Ghraib style torture carried out by British troops, this risk can only increase.
In the Guardian on 13 November, there was an article revealing how the US has been paying protection money to get supply convoys safely through Afghanistan. Who are the alleged recipients of most of this money? The Taliban, the deadly enemy we have been told that US and UK troops are fighting. It’s enough to make you cry. If only all of those people joining face book groups in support of our troops would go one step further and get out on the streets to demand that they be brought back from a particularly stupid war.
A DIVERSE COALITION
Arriving at Euston, I decided to stroll through the west end towards the meeting point at Speakers Corner. I felt a smug self-righteousness as I walked past hordes of people on a mission to find the next pair of shoes or latest computer game. When you get convinced of the seriousness of issues like war and climate change, it’s easy to judge those who are nearer where you were a few years before, wrapped up in the mundane and seemingly oblivious to bigger issues. Through Take The Red Pill and conversations with friends and workmates, I try to encourage people to ask questions, to consider the big issues and to challenge long held opinions. We should wage war on apathy, ignorance and media spin rather than so-called wars on terror and drugs.
Arriving at the assembly point, I was given an endless choice of banners to carry on the march. The loose coalition forming the protest is made up of people from almost every age, ethnicity, gender, religious and political hue. There were socialists, greens, anarchists, CND, Muslims, Quakers, liberals and trade unionists. I’m sure there were some Tories there but they must have slashed their banner budget because I couldn’t see them.....
When turning up for a march, it’s always worth knowing who’s organising it as this has a significant impact on the actual start time. If it’s organised by one of the unions, it will start on time. If it’s organised by the anarchists, everyone’s impressed when it starts on the right day. This one fell between the two extremes, so I turned up half an hour late and everyone was still in assembly mode.
“WE DON’T WANT NO ENDLESS WAR!”
The members of the King Blues, one of our favourite bands, were there with their famous mobile sound system, which comprises a big speaker mounted on a trailer, covered by a plastic sheet and pulled along by pedal power. While we waited for the march to start we were treated to a short impromptu gig. I’ve seen the band in a variety of places from the sweaty back room of a pub in Cambridge to a leisure centre in Milton Keynes, but Speakers Corner was definitely a first.
We love the King Blues’ music and their politics but best of all is the fact that they are out on the streets when there’s a message to send to the government. They played Save the World, Get the Girl with the legendary line, “going to war to prevent war was the most stupid thing I ever heard”, Blood on my Hands (“I won’t have blood on my hands for the sake of the economy....we don’t want no endless war”) and The Sound of Revolt (“I’m writing columns and I’m singing songs, I’m marching every time they drop them bombs”).
TOP SONGS & TOP HATS
As the march started, I stayed with the crowd around the King Blues, but soon moved further ahead to meet some of the people who’d made the effort to get out on the streets. I spoke to a gentleman from the Derby branch of the Indian Workers’ Association and then fell in step with the Cambridge Stop the War Coalition, possibly the noisiest group on the march. As we followed the standard route to Trafalgar Square (down Park Lane, round Hyde Park Corner, along Piccadilly etc.), we were led in various chants using megaphones. The songs ranged from the serious to the surreal......
“We all live in a terrorist regime” (to the tune of Yellow Submarine), “1,2, 3, 4 – we don’t want this bloody war, 5, 6, 7, 8 – stop the killing, stop the hate”, “Gordon Brown, he is scum, he takes money off my Mum, and he spends it on his bloody wars, we don’t want him anymore”
The great thing about taking the usual route through the centre of London means that you pass a whole range of people who might consider protesters to be violent / quaint / the great unwashed and their reactions are amusing to observe. There are the very posh shoppers who look at you as if you’re something unsavoury which they found on the bottom of their shoe. Then there are the tourists – many Japanese and North American – who seem to think that you might be part of some good old English historic pageant. The most surreal group is the hotel doormen – presumably working class men, but dressed in frock coats and top hats – and you just hope that one of them will suddenly think, “wtf am I doing here?”, then rush inside the hotel and insert their top hat sideways into the hotel owner’s tradesman’s entrance. Mind you, it’s not going to look good on the CV. “Wonderful welcoming manner with guests but has alarming tendency to turn superiors into Trojan horses for tall headgear”. Ah well, we can but hope.....
RALLYING ‘THE TROOPS’
In Trafalgar Square, we were addressed by speakers including George Galloway, Tony Benn and Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, an AWOL soldier who is facing a court martial and up to a ten year prison sentence for refusing to return to Afghanistan, saying that the war is an illegal occupation and calling for the withdrawal of British troops. Glenton defied military orders to become one of the first serving soldiers to attend an anti-war protest since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The rally ended with the King Blues singing Save the World, Get the Girl and lead singer Itch reading out one of his legendary poems, encouraging the protesters to go beyond simply protesting within the constraints set by the police. The police wanted minimal disruption whereas what was needed was maximum disruption in order to get the message across. Less than two weeks later, ex-US presidential candidate Al Gore was extolling the virtues of civil disobedience.
RACISTS, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES
There were a couple of other points about the day. While Tony Benn was speaking, a large white – and apparently ignorant – male, standing at the top of the steps at the back of the square, started shouting out abuse. Words like “traitor”, fairly predictable stuff from someone unable to see a link between opposition to war and supporting the troops. Very politely several women asked him to be quiet. He ignored them. Several others asked the same. No response. By now, he was attracting attention and good policing would have removed him from the scene. Instead, it was left to some of the male protesters to ask – less politely – for him to shut up. Ignoring all these requests, he began to dish out racist abuse to some of the crowd. Then it all kicked off.
The bloke and two of his mates - who appeared from nowhere - were pursued through several back streets by a mob chanting anti-racist slogans. At first the pace was pedestrian but it picked up as the crowd grew and some tried to get at the target of their anger. Finally the police turned up, perhaps recognising this as a public order situation which actually needed their involvement. There was a bit of a standoff as the police tried to disperse the crowd and the crowd tried to reach the racists, but in the end the police had to turn up en masse in several vans and take the three men away. I’m not sure if they were nicked or if it was just for their protection.
The incident left me with more mixed emotions. I was pleased that people spouting racial abuse had been chased off the streets but was unsure about the level of violent intent in the pursuing pack. I’d expect to see a lot more scenes like this as dodgy groups like the English Defence League arrange meetings in ethnically diverse areas of the country.
GOVERNMENTS LOVE WARS, NOT SOLDIERS
When the conversation gets on to the subject of “supporting our boys”, the public are now turning on the government too. Most of this anger is caused by the controversy about poor or non-existent equipment and the shabby treatment of returning soldiers. The stupidest one was all the bollocks about Brown making some spelling mistakes. A young man had died and the Scum newspaper was trying to make political capital for Dodgy Dave. What’s amazing is that it’s taken us so long to realise that governments don’t love troops – apart from as pawns in their warfare games – they just love wars and the spoils of war.
Although nobody is forced to join the armed forces in this country, economic conscription occurs because of high unemployment, a lack of alternative job opportunities and recruitment drives, targeted at deprived areas, which glorify life in the forces without too much mention of the nasty subjects of killing and dying.
When our soldiers return, there is no widespread rejoicing over their exploits because few people understand why we’re in Afghanistan. Then the government challenges damages awarded to injured soldiers. Maybe that’s why thousands of ex-soldiers fill our prisons. Promised glory, desensitised by the horrors of combat and neglected on their return, many ex-soldiers find it almost impossible to slip back into everyday life. Many end up in prison (the Guardian reported on 25 September 2009 that there are 20,000 veterans in the criminal justice system, with 8,500 behind bars, almost 1 in 10 of the prison population).
Those who don't slip into crime may be worse fathers or husbands as a result of their experiences, becoming unable to communicate with their families. Many have terrible mental health problems. Edwin Starr famously sang, “War – what is it good for? Absolutely nothing”, but today we should simply be asking, “this war, what is it for?”
How could anyone watch current politicians laying wreaths on Remembrance Day and not feel sick? These same politicians have not learned from the Great War or The War to End All Wars, which weren’t great and didn’t end all wars. Now we start wars, and the politicians’ mates and, through our murky arms industry, rich shareholders get a financial boost.
I wore a white poppy again this year. It wasn’t just because I wanted to be different but because I feel that I can only truly honour those who’ve died in the past if I’m fighting to stop any being killed in the present and the future. The money raised from poppy sales should be unnecessary. Why should ‘heroes’ depend so much on charity? I thought that we loved our brave boys so why don’t we support them from our taxes when they’re home? It seems that as a nation we’re very good at remembering the dead, but not very good at learning the lessons about why they died. Let’s hope the next generation does it better.
LINKS
BBC Report on the Stop The War protest in October 2001
Guardian Report on US Paying Protection Money to the Taliban – 13 November 2009
Why Should I Be Pressured Into Wearing A Poppy? - Mark Steel
LINKS TO SIMILAR ARTICLES ON TAKE THE RED PILL
Blessed Are The Bombmakers (WMD Remix)
Ordinary Heroes Changing The World
