ANTI-WAR campaigners are calling for a protest on Saturday June 27 against an "Armed Forces Day" event in Worthing. Meet-up point is 11am at the east end of Warwick Street in the town centre, next to Steyne Gardens where the event is to be held. Some protesters will be in the guise of war victims and people are also being asked to bring banners and placards explaining why they are opposed to the state's glorification of war.
The following public statement has been issued by campaigners:
We are protesting against the staging of an event in Worthing which shamelessly glorifies war and all the suffering, death and destruction that it involves.
Commemorating conflicts in the past, such as the Second World War, when Britain really was at risk from invasion, is one thing.
However, today's armed services are plainly not being used to defend this country at all, but to illegally invade and occupy distant countries in the interests of American global strategy and to grab oil and gas supplies for Big Business.
We believe that the so-called "Armed Forces Day" is nothing but a propaganda exercise designed to whip up public support for a thoroughly discredited British foreign policy.
Waving the Union Jack to try and get people to march in step behind the Government is no way to run a democratic country in the 21st century - this sort of approach should have died a death with the end of the British Empire or with the last of Hitler's Nuremberg rallies!
Two million citizens protested in Britain against the invasion of Iraq, which is now widely seen as having been based on lie after lie.
Many of us think Tony Blair and George W Bush should be facing war crime charges, while Gordon Brown's regime is still trying to hide the truth by holding its whitewash enquiry behind closed doors!
At a time when this country is sinking into huge debt, we simply cannot afford to spend £35 billion (MoD figures for 2009/10) on helping the USA to try to control the whole world - meanwhile lining the pockets of well-connected weapons manufacturers!
If only we could invest that sort of money in healthcare, education or in developing green technologies to help us build a healthy and sustainable future for these small islands!
While young men and women join the armed forces for various reasons, we should not be encouraging them to do so. There are so many more important, and less destructive, jobs to be done in this world.
Do we really think "our boys and girls" are doing a good deed by bombing wedding parties in Afghanistan, blowing up little children with cluster bombs or causing defects in babies for generations to come by using highly toxic depleted uranium in our weapons?
And if they are killed in action can we really claim that they are "heroes" who have died for something worthwhile, or are they in fact victims - victims of a system that regards them as cannon fodder for its own insatiable greed and megalomania?
No more taxpayers' money wasted on the military!
No public subsidy for the arms industry!
No more blood for oil!
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A Soldiers Comment
28.06.2009 06:30
I left the British Army a few years ago... I have just read your article and much of what you say is true.. Why did I join the army? Because I could not find a job in Thatchers Britain.
The feeling amongst many ordinary soldiers is that they are being used and abused by the government and dying for no reason whatsoever..
I have 2 children and it would devastate me if any of them wanted to join up..
The turnover rate in the forces is huge, because many now see us used as like you say cannon fodder..
No matter how patriotic someone is to Britain and going fighting for it should read about the 1st World War.. Nothing has changed, just to a lesser extent perhaps..
You say that the 2nd World War was a different thing when we were really threatened and you're right.. I agree.. If Britian was really threatened then I'm sure we would meet the challenge, but ..... I cannot get over Colin Powells briefing to the UN about weapons of mass destruction. A total lie that many soldiers are angry about to this day.. Friends and colleges who died based on this lie is hard to accept.. Many a conversation has taken place in barracks about this lie...
The ordinary soldier needs you to keep the pressure on the goverment to not use them in illegal confilcts.. Many soldiers are good people.. Luckily I never had to pull the trigger to end a life.. If I had I seriously think I would have struggled to live the rest of my life with the guilt.. Many soldiers feel like this..
Keep up the good work...
Stuart
Stuart
War is terrible, yes
30.05.2010 23:18
But then again, this is indymedia. You're all fucking idiots.
Ross
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r
Another Soldiers view.
31.05.2010 10:43
While I completly respect your right to freedom of speech and freedom of protest. I think that what you are planning to do on the 27th in Worthing is wrong.
As a soldier who left the army earlier this year and who has served on the frontline of Afghanistan, I do not believe you are protesting for the right reasons.
You may believe that the war is wrong and that is fine, that is your opinion and I respect it. However this is day designed to show support for the Soldiers and their Familys. By turning up and protesting at this event you are no better than the extremist muslims who protested at the homecoming of the Royal Anlians in Luton last year or these people that beat and kill soldiers within hours of them returning from duty.
Also I think that having people turn up in the guise of war victims is incredibly disrespectful. I am sure there will be soldiers attending who have lost their limbs and to have people turn up in a mockery of their situation is in extreme bad taste.
British Soldiers are not out to occupy foreign countrys. While I reconise the Govornment may have its own agenda, there are actually no British Soldiers in Iraq following the withdrawls last year and British soldiers represent a minority force in Afghanistan where there is no oil but a large terrorist group and a repressed population. Having been out there and seen first hand how people are forced to live under the Taliban regime, I completely believe we are justified to be there. Have you been to Afghanistan? Are you in a position to say: "No these people do no need us, let the taliban rule them as they see fit."
Service in the Armed forces is the only option for many young men and women. No one should be discourage from doing a job where the end result is you are a confident, diciplined, proud member of a team. Without the skills I learned in the Army I would not have been able to support myself as I do now.
I do not think you have actually done your research into how the British armed forces operates in Afghanistan. We do not indiscriminatly go around blowing up anything we please. I can safely say that every target I engaged was a legitimate target. I know this because 9 times out of 10 I was shot at first. The other times these people were in the act of placing IEDs or they were about to commit an act which had we not intervened would have resulted in the death of a british soldeir or an Afghani civilian. We do not going around blowing up weddings and children with cluster bombs. The British armed forces do not use cluster bombs as there is a large potential for collatoral damage. We use high precision warheads in the hands of highly trained operators that can only be used after a series of checks and protocols to ensure it is in fact the correct target we wish to engage. As for depleted Uranium rounds, I cannot imagine where you got this information from. First, Depleted Uranium rounds are used against armoured targets (tanks etc.) to achieve deeper penetration against the armour plating. Not against soft targets and personnel as they would have little explosive/destructive effect. Second, British armed forces do not use uranium rounds as the manufacturer Royal Ordinace stopped producing them some years ago. (Source: The Telegraph Sep. 21, 2003) Third the only armament that is capable of firing DU rounds is the main armament of the Challenger 2 Main battle tank, of which there are currently and always will be zero deployed in Afghanistan.
I hope you take this information on board and re-think your actions or at least do some research before you slander mine and your countrys Armed forces.
AG88