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11/11/11. Report and photos: Alternative Armistice Day Event, London

London Catholic Worker and Veterans for Peace UK | 14.11.2011 14:17 | Occupy Everywhere | Anti-militarism | Free Spaces | Terror War

Catholic Workers and Veterans for Peace held an alternative Armistice Day event on Friday 11 November starting at the Occupy LSX site at St Paul's Cathedral and concluding at the Bank of England. The ceremony outside the bank included naming the war dead in Afghanistan both civilian and military, anti-war ballads, reflections on war and its links with finance and bankers, reflections from the scriptures on nonviolent resistance, thoughts on the victims of war including the war vets who are abandoned on their return to civilian life and those who are targeted for speaking out against the wars.

Sue and Ciaron reading the names of the military and civilian dead
Sue and Ciaron reading the names of the military and civilian dead

WW2 veteran Jim Radford and Fr. Martin Newell of the London Catholic Worker
WW2 veteran Jim Radford and Fr. Martin Newell of the London Catholic Worker

Ben Griffin of Veterans for Peace UK
Ben Griffin of Veterans for Peace UK

Shrine: Bradley Manning, "Banks Reap the Profits of War", "Banks Invest in War"
Shrine: Bradley Manning, "Banks Reap the Profits of War", "Banks Invest in War"

Veterans Matthew Horne, Ben Griffin & former anti-war prisoner Ciaron O'Reilly
Veterans Matthew Horne, Ben Griffin & former anti-war prisoner Ciaron O'Reilly


Britian passes its ten year mark in the war on Afghanistan, a war that has never had any popular support and presently has no end in sight. This year's Armistice Day 11/11/11 was hyped by the media into a compulsory red poppy wearing day as a form of loyalty oath to the war without end. Compulsory for all those in public life. The wearing of the red poppy may have begun as a "Never Again" sentiment, but the government has attempted to hijack it as a recruiting tool in these long years of war. Footballers had the red poppy sewn into their jersies; the international friendly against Spain was transformed into an electronic Nuremberg Rally by the television conglomerates. All those appearing on Sky and BBC had to wear a red poppy.

The compulsory nature of this act points to a token sentimentalism of the ruling elites and functionaries in relation to the young men and women they have sent to kill and be killed in Iraq and Aghanistan over the past decade. As Phil Berrigan once remarked to me "Sentimentality is not love!" Love of those slain in previous wars would bring an end to the wars in which we are now engaged. Rather we are left with once a year tokenism, sentimentality, a government that can't break from the daily grind of bombing, kidnappings, torture and execution and a public largely disengaged and resigned to war as the background muzac to their daily lives.

Catholic Worker and Veterans for Peace have been around and about the Occupy London site, located at the historic St. Paul's Cathedral, for the past month advocating solidarity for war resisters Michael Lyons imprisoned in Colchester, Bradley Manning in chains in Leavenworth and Julian Assange electronically tagged and all but hogtied for deportation and eventual rendition to a U.S. gulag.

On Nov 11th, 25 of us gathered on the steps of St. Paul's behind a banner "Mourn the Dead! Heal the Wounded! End the Wars!". Our number included three veterans: Jim Radford of WW2; Matthew Horne of Iraq and Ben Griffin of Iraq and Afghanistan. We made our way in single file through the financial district and gathered once again outside the Bank of England. Fr. Martin Newell of the Catholic Worker's Giuseppe Conlon House, an economist by training, welcomed us and explained the relevance of the locale. The banks and bankers of this area finance wars and reap the profits of war. They need to be confronted on this day and every day the killing and dying goes on.

We read a litany of the names of the dead of the war on Afghanistan.
Both British military
 http://icasualties.org/oef/Nationality.aspx?hndQry=UK
and Afghan civilians.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_of_the_War_in_Afghanistan_%282001%E2%80%93present%29

We observed the two minutes silence at 11 am, along with a larger number of bankers on the steps opposite. Fr. Martin Newell then gave a scriptual reflection on nonviolent resistance to war and war preparations.
Jim Radford sang the anti-war ballad "The Band Played Watzing Maltida"
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY&feature=related

Ben Griffin of Veterans for Peace then spoke from experience, challenging the media hyped notions of the romance of war. He told of collecting body parts from a downed British Hercules in the middle of the night on an Iraqi field, the retribution he was involved in that followed and how such a response only contributed to a spiral of violence that held no solutions.

Matthew Horne spoke of the homeless veterans he had met while living at the Occupy London site, exploited in the prime of their youth only to be abandoned by the governments that have sent them to war.

Former anti-war prisoner of the U.S. Ciaron O'Reilly spoke of the nonviolent resistance in the U.S. military during the first Gulf War, the resistance of Michael Lyons who had been released from Colchester military prison this past week at the conclusion of serving a sentence for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. Michael had made this decision after being exposed to footage and cables circulated by WikiLeaks. Ciaron called for solidarity with Julian Assange and Bradley Manning still in the sights of the U.S. military.


 http://veteransforpeace.org.uk/
 http://www.londoncatholicworker.org/

London Catholic Worker and Veterans for Peace UK
- Homepage: http://veteransforpeace.org.uk/

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Soldiers speak out

14.11.2011 15:21

Two former British soldiers who served in Iraq address the crowd at Occupy the London Stock Exchange at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Sunday 13/11/11.

Their powerful statements speak for themselves.

Nothing heroic about Iraq War - British Soldier Ben Griffin Speaks Out -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjgTpFR4XS4

We haven't forgotten Tony Blair - British Soldier Speaks Out -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AHYfp-qNKo

Please read ‘War is a Racket’ by Major General Smedley Butler: www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf


Peace

JY_UK

jy_uk
- Homepage: www.youtube.com/justiciayauk


At Occupy Camps, Veterans Bring the Wars Home

14.11.2011 18:54

At Occupy Camps, Veterans Bring the Wars Home

In Zuccotti Park, Army Specialist Jerry Bordeleau, 24, was sitting next to a table of IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) literature. On his sweater were two buttons: an Iraq Campaign metal and one from the IWW. He served two tours in Iraq and now says he's unemployed and can't find work for over $10 an hour. And he can't live on $10 an hour. When I asked him why he's at Occupy Wall Street he says, "I went and fought for capitalism and that's why I'm now a Marxist."

[....]

I ask him what was the switch for him and when. He explained that it was WikiLeaks. It was the footage of the Apache helicopter gunning down Iraqis released by WikiLeaks in April of 2010. Up to that point he had been interrogating Iraqis and using what he describes as psychological torture. He was 10 years old when the World Trade Center was hit. He wanted to fight terrorism in Iraq. He bought into the whole thing, he tells me. He had been looking forward to signing up ever since the 5th grade and then, suddenly, last November, he found himself watching a video of his fellow soldiers gunning down Iraqis on the street and it all changed for him.

 http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/11/at-occupy-camps-veterans-bring-the-wars-home/248220/

--

Occupy Veterans
- Homepage: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/11/at-occupy-camps-veterans-bring-the-wars-home/248220/


jerry bordeleau veteran

15.11.2011 04:27

if he was 10 in 2001 how is he 24 now ???

sceptic


dear sceptic...

15.11.2011 10:06

you should read the whole article attrached before you wade in....or you just end up looking stupid....

far see kill


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