Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Close Dalston Army Showroom, Resist War on Afghanistan

London Catholic Worker | 18.08.2010 18:25 | Anti-militarism

Report to follow







Report to follow as comment

London Catholic Worker
- Homepage: http://www.londoncatholicworker.org/

Additions

Report

18.08.2010 19:26

As the British war dead reaches 331in Afghanistan, British expenditure on both wars flows over £20 billion, Blair promises conscience profits form his autobiography to the British Legion and Bradley Manning remains in custody for the wikileaks revelations - the recession meets the need for more cannon fodder in our local low income neighborhood of Dalston.

The army are running a "showroom" in a shopping centre on Kingsland Rd.. The showroom is "home to a virtual battlefield simulator which gives vistors a chance to use their friends as target practice with a replica handgun . Outraged Mothers Against Guns, Lucy Cope, have stated it is grossly insensitive to house the showroom in a borough that has been plagued by gun violence." Hackney Gazette

The showroom which is the first of its kind in the country provides a virtual battlefield simulator for use for those 14 years and over. The British and Russian militaries are the only European militaries that recruit as young as 16. The military plans to open such showrooms across the country....next one is planned for Croyden.

Non-officer recruitment in Britain draws mostly on young people from 16 years of age living in disadvantaged communities. At the Showroom children are introduced to the potential benefits of a forces career but not to its risks. At the Showroom warfare is glamourised and sanitised.


The Army's Six Year Trap for Under 18's

A new recruit may give 14 days notice and leave - but only between the second and sixth month of service, after that they must remain in the army full time until 22 years old. They cannot buy themselves out. If the recruit is under 18 years of age the Commanding Officer has discretionary power of discharge but this may be refused. After leaving the army they must remain in the reserves for another six years. They may not be free to leave even when over 22.if they signed up for certain army training courses. The MoD estimates that that 2,200 soldiers go absent without leave (AWOL) each year,risking a criminal conviction an detention

In the Catholic Worker tradition to "vigil" is to stay awake while society slumbers. After vigiling outside the Showroom today, it is evident that nine years into this war on Afghanistan there is no popular support for this war on the streets. Alas, there is also little evidence of popular or visible oppositon. We spoke to two young women who had just enlisted. Our oppostion to the war was affirmed by a number of mostly older folks. One man who had lost his father in the final year of WW2 was disgusted that the British Legion was accepting "blood money" from Blair. One young man interpreted our vigil as anti-soldier. We informed him tha the most significant opposition and resistance to this war is presently coming from within the U.S. and British military and from military families.

We will continue to return to the Army Showroom in Dalston on a weekly basis. Our sister Catholic Worker communities carry out vigils in Oxford the town in which the post mortems on the British military war dead are carried out and at Northwood Headquarters.


* Thanx to Forces Watch
www.forceswatch.net

London Catholic Worker
- Homepage: http://www.londoncatholicworker.org


Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. a bit of compromise! — jo blogs
  2. Good — Resist War
  3. Awesome action, but... — Armchair
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech