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.
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.
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Admiration
08.08.2006 09:51
mike d
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What does the RAF Cosford museum have to do with Trident?
08.08.2006 13:00
Arthur
is relevant..
08.08.2006 21:57
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
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
Arthur
a nuke is a nuke!
09.08.2006 22:41
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
When Then
Oh, Arthur!
10.08.2006 16:08
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!
The Purple Pacifist