Showing posts with label ww1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ww1. Show all posts
Monday 17 March 2014
Saturday 1 March 2014
There Is No Glory In Blood Letting.
Across the country there are groups organising to stop the Cameron millionaire cabal from taking what was a bloody imperial land grab, known as World War 1, in which at least 15 million people, almost entirely drawn from the working class, were killed, and turning it into a spectacle, where our duplicitous dignitaries stand under flags, lauding it as a war for democracy. We can't allow the deaths of over 15 million people to be demeaned by this vulgar garish lie. Before, during or after the slaughter, democracy was never on their agenda, nor did it arrive after the blood letting was over. Those who did come back from that hell on earth, came back to abject poverty and unemployment. The truth of that indictment against the powers that be, must be shouted from the roof tops. It was a clash of greed driven empires, a battle between aristocrats where they threw the people against each other to grab as much territory as possible. The cost in lives was of no consequences, it stopped because they were running out of bodies to throw. The aristocrats and empire builders do not know the meaning of democracy, and would never engage in any struggle that might bring it about.
This from Stop The War Coalition:
Campaign Against Glorification of World War One
In 2014, Stop the War, No Glory and a range of peace organisations are organising meetings, debates and cultural events to mark the First World War centenary.
We oppose the attempt by David Cameron, Michael Gove and others to use the centenary to "celebrate" a slaughter that killed 15 million people as a "just" and "noble" cause.
Here is our calendar of events organized by Stop the War and other organisations. The latest events will be updated on the Stop the War web site. Full details of each event can be obtained by clicking on the links below.
If you would like help setting up a debate or cultural event in your area, please telephone 020 7561 4830 or reply to this e-mail.
Please consider joining a group in your area, or starting one, to stop this using the dead as a propaganda exercise to glorify the war mongers and power freaks.
Monday 13 January 2014
The Blood Of Empires.
As the Cameron gang of lame-brain fascists attempt to turn the pointless slaughter that was the WW1 into a pompous spectacle for their power based ideology, we must keep up the flow of truth, to destroy their hypocritical distorted history. We owe it to all those ordinary people who lost their lives in that bloody empire grab for territory, power and wealth.
This from Stop the war Coalition:
1) Britain's foreign wars a central issue in 2014 - the campaign goes
on
Last year we helped stop a new intervention in Syria, please help us keep the war makers on the run in 2014.
Last year we helped stop a new intervention in Syria, please help us keep the war makers on the run in 2014.
- As we approach the withdrawal date of troops, a debate is raging on the Afghan war. Many troops and bases are proposed to remain, further prolonging a conflict which has lasted longer than the first and second world wars put together, and which has not been about helping the Afghan people but about strategic control of the region. The rivalry with China and Russia makes the need for this western control even greater. We must campaign to ensure all troops and bases leave now.
- We will be protesting against the NATO summit in Wales in September and joining the international day of action against drones on 4 October. Full details about these campaigns will announced shortly.
- The 100th anniversary of the first world war will feature prominently in 2014. The government and its allies want to use the anniversary to highlight and promote the role of the military in society. Various 'revisionist' historians are arguing that this was a war for democratic freedom, despite the evidence that it is was an imperial war between rival powers, highly industrialised, which ended in revolution and major social change because of revulsion at its consequences. The government's plans have already run into high profile opposition, with 10,000 people signing the No Glory petition protesting these plans and there will be events across the country challenging their revisionism.
- The government's attempt to rehabilitate the military is extending to promoting 'military values' in schools. Anti-war campaigners and teachers should oppose such moves, arguing that children should learn the truth about war.
- The Chilcot report on the Iraq war is due to make its belated appearance in the New Year. It is our chance to demand a holding to account of Tony Blair, Jack Straw and the rest who took us to war in Iraq based on lies. There should be full disclosure of all secret documents and an indictment of Blair.
These priorities are explored amongst others in War
and peace in 2014 on the Stop the War web site.
One of my Xmas presents was The Great War by Joe Sacco. It is a wonderful piece of art, a 24 page panorama of July 1 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Originally inspired by a pull out book of the Manhattan skyline, it also draws on the Bayeux Tapestry that depicts the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It is a series of connected tableaux which begin with General Haig walking in the grounds of his chateau behind the lines and progress through ever darkening scenes to the deaths and mayhem of injured and dying on the battle field.
The Somme is perhaps the epitome of the horror of the First World War, at least from the point of view of Britain. It was a major, planned onslaught against German trenches that was organised with industrial precision. Railways were built, cables laid, trenches dug in order to prepare for an offensive, which was mean to destroy the German defences and allow the British to gain a key advantage which would end the war. A huge week long bombardment of artillery was planned which would knock out most of the enemy, crucially take out their machine gun posts and allowing the British army to take over virtually empty trenches.
It was a total failure; the bombardment was 'impressive mainly for its noise' in the words of Adam Hochschild, who wrote the booklet accompanying the panorama. Many of the shells were duds, and two thirds were shrapnel, which was fairly useless in destroying barbed wire or machine gun emplacements.
The thousands of men who went over the top that morning therefore faced barrages of machine gun fire from troops from whom they thought they would meet little resistance.
Read the rest of the article here
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
Thursday 9 January 2014
The Prince Of Darkness Laughed.
2014 has hardly taken its first
faltering steps and those arrogant dinosaurs of empire are out with
their megaphones spouting that WW1, was a glorious victor for
democracy, a noble cause, a just war for freedom. They want to mark
the centenary of the start of that event, that soaked Europe's soil
in the blood of ordinary people, as a glorious part of our history.
History is to be re-written, what was a greed driven squabble between
the aristocratic owners of empires, that sucked in and slaughtered
the best of Europe's youth, is to be lauded as something of which we
the ordinary people should be proud. The massive misery, suffering
and deaths of that unnecessary, avoidable carnage, is set to be used
as a bandwagon, by the millionaire flag waving parasites. It will be
abused and misrepresented, in an attempt to portray that crap slogan
“We're all in this together”. It will be used as a pompous
platform of grandeur and splendour, to take our eyes of the poverty stricken state of our present society.
We must continue to shout the
truth about that disastrous ego driven aristocratic grab for power
and territories, we owe it to all those who died under those pitiful,
miserable, avoidable conditions. We cannot allow their unjust
slaughter to be used by a bunch of well-heeled hypocrites, to further
their own political ideology. At every turn we must counter their
lies with truth. There was no aim for democracy in their plans, there
was no defence of freedom on their agenda, it was a thrust for power,
and land grabbing, on a grand scale, and as usual in their plans, we
the ordinary people were to pay the price.
The following is an extract from an excellent article in the Guardian:
This is all preposterous nonsense. Unlike the second world war, the bloodbath of 1914-18 was not a just war. It was a savage industrial slaughter perpetrated by a gang of predatory imperial powers, locked in a deadly struggle to capture and carve up territories, markets and resources.Read the full article HERE:
Germany was the rising industrial power and colonial Johnny-come-lately of the time, seeking its place in the sun from the British and French empires. The war erupted directly from the fight for imperial dominance in the Balkans, as Austria-Hungary and Russia scrapped for the pickings from the crumbling Ottoman empire. All the ruling elites of Europe, tied together in a deathly quadrille of unstable alliances, shared the blame for the murderous barbarism they oversaw. The idea that Britain and its allies were defending liberal democracy, let alone international law or the rights of small nations, is simply absurd.
At the Cenotaph.
I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff,
Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph:
Unostentatious and respectful, there
He stood, and offered up the following prayer,
'Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial
Means; their discredited ideas revive;
Breed new belief that War is purgatorial
Proof of the pride and power of being alive;
Men's biologic urge to readjust
The Map of Europe, Lord of Hosts, increase;
Lift up their hearts in large destructive lust;
And crown their heads with blind vindictive Peace,'
The Prince of Darknes to the Cenotaph
Bowed. As he walked away I heard him laugh.
Siegfried Sassoon.
Tuesday 7 January 2014
WW1, Aristocratic Greed, Not Patriotism.
As 2014 starts to write its story, we have artists, in this case con-artists, the Cameron Gang of millionaire parasites, attempting to paint it as the year of patriotism. They will endeavour to drown us in patriotic bullshit, using the horrible slaughter of the disastrous and unnecessary World War 1, attempting to paint it as a wonderful achievement. This horrendous human folly will be re-branded as part of a glorious past. A blood bath brought about by the wealthy, greedy, power hungry, aristocrats squabbling over lines in their empires. This disagreement between the parasites resulted in 37 million, military and civilian casualties. There were over 16 million deaths, and more than 20 million wounded. Disease claimed more than 2 million and another 6 million went missing presumed dead. For what?
Photo from Google.
Photo from Google.
We should not allow the pampered, millionaire Oxbridge parasites to use this horrendous event as a smoke screen to conceal the effect of their vicious policies. It would be demeaning to those who died in that pointless blood bath. All of those who died were our people, the ordinary people, and they died because of other people's egos, stupidity and greed.
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