Poppies and 'Heroes'

Some early formative experiences, quite apart from all the other reasons, have always made me politely decline when offered a poppy. This letter by former participants in a number of colonial adventures points out that the annual appeal is now explicitly a promotion of imperialist war. The Poppy Appeal is once again subverting Armistice Day.…

Liam

November 6, 2010

1–2 minutes

Some early formative experiences, quite apart from all the other reasons, have always made me politely decline when offered a poppy. This letter by former participants in a number of colonial adventures points out that the annual appeal is now explicitly a promotion of imperialist war.

The Poppy Appeal is once again subverting Armistice Day. A day that should be about peace and remembrance is turned into a month-long drum roll of support for current wars. This year’s campaign has been launched with showbiz hype. The true horror and futility of war is forgotten and ignored.

The public are being urged to wear a poppy in support of "our Heroes". There is nothing heroic about being blown up in a vehicle. There is nothing heroic about being shot in an ambush and there is nothing heroic about fighting in an unnecessary conflict.

Remembrance should be marked with the sentiment "Never Again".

Ben Griffin (Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Iraq)

Ben Hayden (Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Iraq)

Terry Wood (Northern Ireland, Falklands)

Ken Lukowiak (Northern Ireland, Falklands)

Neil Polley (Falklands)

Steve Pratt (Dhofar, Northern Ireland)

7 responses to “Poppies and 'Heroes'”

prianikoff

November 6, 2010 at 12:27 pm

2 years before his death in 2009 at the age of 111, Harry Patch, the last survivor of Passchendaele described war as the:-

“Calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings…War isn’t worth one life.”

Between July and November 1917 it’s estimated that 325,000 Allied and 260,000 German troops died fighting over 5 miles of muddy ground.

During the battle, Patch came face-to-face with a German Soldier, but couldn’t bring himself to kill him.
Instead, he shot him in the shoulder, which made him drop his rifle.
The German carried on running towards Patch’s Lewis Gun, so he then shot him above the knee, and in the ankle.
“I had about five seconds to make the decision. I brought him down, but I didn’t kill him.”

By June 1917, 43% of the French Army had been affected by disaffection and were refusing to go to the front.

In September 1,000 British and Commonwealth troops rioted against the brutal training regime at the at Étaples training camp.

Russian troops revolted en-masse, supporting the Bolsheviks and leading to the overthrow of the pro-war Provisional Government in October.

By October 1918, the German Navy had mutinied at Wilhemshaven , the Kaiser was deposed and the German Revolution began.

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Jason

November 6, 2010 at 2:40 pm

I think Liam is right that the poppy campaign conflates memorial of those killed in war with celebration of war and for that reason I never wear one.

However, it is probably also true that for many people the meaning is to do exc;usively with remembering and honouring dead soldiers (though I suspect that many who wear it are simply following convention).

The best way to honour the dead is to struggle for a world without war which means a struggle against the pro-war capitalist governments who continue to send working class men and women to blow up and kill other working class men and women in order to defend their profits and system.

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rwillmsen

November 6, 2010 at 5:57 pm

I’ve seen to my dismayal quite a number of people wearing oversized poppies, including one woman I saw today sporting two. Reminds me of the episode a couple of years ago when the one minute silence became two and then three minutes. There’s something about this trend I find deeply disturbing, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. Maybe because people are insisting louder and louder on the importance of their almost insignificant commemorative gestures, perhaps as a means of avoiding the need for more radical ones, ie. taking a public stand against wars that are currently being waged, as the letter implies.

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prianikoff

November 7, 2010 at 9:16 am

This could have been very kitsch, but works brilliantly in my opinion. Especially as it’s in front a German audience in Dortmund, 2003:-

“What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
–Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells”

from Wifred Owen’s “Anthem for a Doomed Youth”

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john

November 10, 2010 at 12:24 am

I was walking through Lisburn, one of the most loyalist towns in Ireland. I estimated poppy frequency at about 3%, and heavily skewed to the elderly. Yet every time I turn on the Brit TV frequency rises to 100%. The level of official coercion is inversly proportional to the level of spontaneous popular support. Oh! for a left that didn’t follow the imagined zeitgeist!

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Adamski

November 10, 2010 at 2:19 am

“War is nothing like a John Wayne movie. There is nothing heroic about being blown up in a vehicle, there is nothing heroic about being shot in an ambush and there is nothing heroic about the deaths of countless civilians. Calling our soldiers heroes is an attempt to stifle criticism of the wars we are fighting in. It ……leads us to that most subtle piece of propaganda: You might not support the war but you must support our heroes, ergo you support the war.!”

“It is revealing that those who send our forces to war and those that spread war propaganda are the ones who choose to wear poppies weeks in advance of Armistice Day.”

A recent article from the Wales on Sunday expands on the letter:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news//2010/11/07/ex-sas-soldier-blasts-poppy-appeal-as-a-political-tool-91466-27614172/?campaign=Wales_email_newsam%3A20101107

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Liam

November 10, 2010 at 8:14 am

John – I was at a meeting last week at which someone said – and this is a direct quote – “we have to catch the zeitgeist”. I laughed on your behalf.

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