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Hiroshima Day action against glorification of war

Wrekin Stop War | 08.08.2006 09:10 | Anti-militarism | Birmingham

On the 6th August 2006 members of Wrekin Stop war took part in an action to mark the 61st anniversary of the atomic destruction of the civilian city of Hiroshima.

A bomb being used as a donation tin (a sick joke?)

The action took place at the Cosford RAF museum and training base in Staffordshire.
Many visitors come to this museum to see the sanitized history of British death culture. The facility has many modern fighter planes, nuclear warhead delivery systems and other military equipment on display.

Wrekin Stop War hoped to reach out to the public with an alternative view. The money spent on the military by the UK and USA to enrich capitalist elites and plunder weaker nations must stop. we need to spend money on health care and genuine education at home and around the world if we are to have real world peace. The UK is planning to spend billions of tax payers' money on a Trident Missile replacement. A recent report stated that the majority of British citizens believe that Trident is not needed and that resources need to be directed to social programs at home.

Wrekin Stop War activists handed out many leaflets pointing out these issues. We put stickers with slogans such as "State Terrorism is Still Terrorism", " No Trident Replacement" and " Democratic Bombs Kill Too" on displays and military equipment

There were many families there that day with young children. It was a sad sight to see these young people impressed by the death machines, subjected to military indoctrination. If only these young people could see the civilian victims next to the fighter planes and bombs, images of the lives lost, bodies smashed and communities destroyed.

Once the security staff caught sight of our actions they informed us that if we continued to deface military property with our stickers then the military police would be called to escort us from the facility. We were threatened with the prospect of them calling "the powers that be". We had run out of stickers anyway, so we moved to the reception area to hand out leaflets. Again we were told that this was not allowed, but that they would gladly take our leaflets to their superiors to vet the content! Then, if they found them acceptable they would display them for us!!! We declined this offer and carried on.

In the Trident display hanger one of the staff members told us with a straight face " If it was not for a nuclear deterrent, we would all be speaking Russian". We were also asked to "crawl back into the hole you crawled out of", maybe a hole in Palestine or Lebanon made by British bombs.

Many people took our fliers. With the on-going conflicts around the world that the UK has been dragged into by lies, we hope that we have raised important issues for ordinary citizens to think about and act on.

Wrekin Stop War
e-mail: admin@wrekinstopwar.org
Homepage: http://wrekinstopwar.org/

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

Admiration

08.08.2006 09:51

I admire your sane and pointed protest

mike d
mail e-mail: solidaritypark@hotmail.com
Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/solidaritypark

What does the RAF Cosford museum have to do with Trident?

08.08.2006 13:00

The answer is nothing! This museum is about the RAF which played a vital role in the second world war defending us from Hitler et al. Of course the children visiting it are then brainwashed into glorifying the military etc? WTF? You may have a valid point about trident but this was not a suitable venue for your protest and everything else you said was grossly inaccurate and frankly silly. Or is the WW2 era 500lb bomb on route to Lebanon? Try harder.

Arthur

is relevant..

08.08.2006 21:57

There are Trident prototypes on display here. and they are building a " cold War " museum on this site. it is not just about the second world war as there are modern fighter planes on display.
This site also trains pilots, the future fighters for the capitalist racketeer mob.
Where would you suggest a more suitable location for a demo?
Arther do you work at this site?
Most of the wars that have been fought in this and the last century were conflicts between ruling authoritarian elites plundering resources for their own greedy needs, using ideology to brainwash the masses to fight and die for them. working people have no interest in fighting these wars.
As for the bomb, who cares when it was made the end result is the same. the fact that it i now used to collect donations is a sick joke. i would rather see money go to positive social needs like hospitals and community projects.

NotNow!

War is War, Arthur!

09.08.2006 16:03

I was at the Cosford action last Sunday and found nothing 'silly' about what we were doing. I am the first to admit that I am blinded by the science of the machinery on display but it doesn't take a genius to work out that the machines have been used to take thousands of human lives. In any case, our group is lucky to have something of a boffin in our midst and he had the unfortunate task of explaining to us all the gory details behind the gleaming exhibits. I can assure you that the war machines on display cover Trident and beyond whilst the Cold War exhibition, due to open in 2007, will be an extravaganza of nuclear delights!

The Trident tie in actually came from the fact that it was the 61st anniversary of Hiroshima and that our local MP is supporting both Trident replacement and encouraging the Government to base more American missiles in the UK. However, this action wasn't just about Trident, it just happened to be a relevant point to make on an appropriate day. In general, we were challenging the culture of conflict and competition.

After all, war is war and to me (and I think the rest of those on this action), the glorification of war perpetrated by museums like the one at RAF Cosford is all part of the bigger picture. That is, the Governments drive to convince people that a society built perpetual war to protect capitalist interests and wanton consumption is in fact in the interest of democracy, freedom and wider humanity.

The indiscriminate bombing of Iraq by B-52 bombers was made possible by those good old boys from the RAF as were many other crimes against humanity, so let's not pretend that they are any more noble and just than any other branch of the military.

Why is dropping bombs on civilians from thousands of feet up considered more respectable than a suicide bomb or rocket attacks?

As for the relevance of children asking their mummies and daddies if they can drop some pennies into the nicely polished WMD, it makes me wonder how Arthur fails to see the relevance of this.

Our collective is small but both as a group and individuals we are very active on a variety of issues. I think all of us always strive to ‘try harder’, mainly to bring about a safer future for people and our planet but also to rid the world of twisted, patronising logic on display both at the Museum and in Arthur’s post.

The Purple Pacifist

Not now not ever!?

09.08.2006 16:22

Hiya, er no I don't work at RAF Cosford, why do you ask? Now just being picky you claim that there are Trident prototypes here? Think carefully about this, I'll try and help you. Trident is a nuclear missile fired from a submarine? Hmm would it therefore be at an RAF museum, there's a clue here can you guess the answer? Yep the RAF does not have submarines that's the Navy, oh if I'm wrong and there was a prototype of a flying submarine please let me know, last time I checked the RAF had planes and the Navy ships but never mind eh? I know that was a bit low and even obnoxious of me to point out just one of the ludicrous inconsistencies of your arguments but I did it to try and help you and stop you appearing stupid. I'm going to spend even less time discussing your point about the wars of the 20th century being organized by profiteers. I think it had more to do with ideologies such as Nazism and Marxist Leninism and being invaded and bombed by genocidal dictators, and then facing a huge Stalinist military at the gates of Western Europe that required a suitable deterrent (perhaps the cold war museum you refer to may mention this). Where should you have your protest? Well if it's Trident that gets your heckles then try Faslane or a Navy base, they're usually by the sea admittedly Staffordshire isn't and you would have a way to travel to get up to Scotland, plus you would find it cold so on balance waving a few placards and making delirious comments to the bemused visitors to a historical site is perhaps all you are really capable of.

Arthur

a nuke is a nuke!

09.08.2006 22:41

I am sure that the nuclear technology's developed for bomber planes is also as bad as ones fired from subs, military spending is a waste of human resources unless you like war.

On the subject of ideologies i seem to remember Adolf Hitler writing in " Mien Kampff " how much he admired the British Empire and it's success in military imperialist expansion. so much that he wanted to create his own version. of course the British one was just " helping " savages to become more civilised by taking their resources by means of violence. so i think most wars have been power struggles by the ruling elites trying to line their pockets at the expense of the domestic population and foreighn. also fear of an Evil Enemy is a great way to control the people.

Any sane person would reject this kind of psychopathic behavior when carried out by Germany, Britain, USA or the Russians.

Oh Boy

trip to Scotland...

09.08.2006 22:54

Maybe the peace activists who took part in this action have busy family commitments, are holding down jobs in the wage slave system, or do not have the time or money for a trip to Faslane on a Sunday morning. so the nearest military site will have to do for now, the anti-war message is universal and needs to be raised in locations such as Cosford ECT, unless you like wars Arthur?

When Then

Oh, Arthur!

10.08.2006 16:08

Your concern for our group's reputation is most touching, Arthur, but, as my last post quite clearly stated that our Cosford protest wasn’t just about Trident, you might want to improve your basic reading skills before questioning the capabilities or intelligence of others.

You claim to desire a factual analysis but do not extend the same courtesy to our group, of which you obviously know nothing (other than that our open minds offend your bubble of blissful ignorance). If you had read any of our other reports, readily accessible in various on-line locations, you may have been aware of our various actions, arrests and imprisonments at Faslane, Aldermaston, Devonport, Menwith Hill, etc, etc, going back as far as the 1950s. (Why I’m justifying myself to this guy, I don’t know!)

Although, as you still subscribe to the myth that the 20th Century's wars were fought on issues ideology, perhaps factual analysis isn't your favoured approach after all.

You seem to be dipping your hand into the melee of history and pulling out tasty morsels to satisfy your own blinkered world view. A bit like your namesake in that cat food advertisement. Oh how childish of me, I’ll be making wise cracks about flying submarines next!