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| Conscientious objectors past and present | Conscientious objectors past and present |
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| The role of conscientious objectors in the first world war is an important theme, so it is good that the Peace Pledge Union has received a significant grant to explore this during the centenary (Anti-war activists battle to get their voices heard in events marking WW1 centenary, 9 September). | The role of conscientious objectors in the first world war is an important theme, so it is good that the Peace Pledge Union has received a significant grant to explore this during the centenary (Anti-war activists battle to get their voices heard in events marking WW1 centenary, 9 September). |
| However, this public funding for pacifist commemoration does suggest that the No Glory campaign is tilting at straw men in critiquing the centenary commemorations as an exercise in jingoistic glorification. The government is taking no official view of the conflict, its causes or its outcomes. Strikingly, it has even declined to state publicly whether it was good that Britain won the war. | However, this public funding for pacifist commemoration does suggest that the No Glory campaign is tilting at straw men in critiquing the centenary commemorations as an exercise in jingoistic glorification. The government is taking no official view of the conflict, its causes or its outcomes. Strikingly, it has even declined to state publicly whether it was good that Britain won the war. |
| There is broad consensus among the public on what they think the central themes of the centenary should be. As research for British Future shows, highlighting the value of peace is their top priority. Other themes with over 80% public support include commemorating the sacrifice of those who died; providing a chance to learn about Britain's history; and how understanding the contribution of Commonwealth soldiers can help integration today. Arguments challenging the centenary plans as likely to promote nationalism (21%), or indeed for making a "victory" theme central (33%), have a narrower public appeal. Sunder Katwala Director, British Future | There is broad consensus among the public on what they think the central themes of the centenary should be. As research for British Future shows, highlighting the value of peace is their top priority. Other themes with over 80% public support include commemorating the sacrifice of those who died; providing a chance to learn about Britain's history; and how understanding the contribution of Commonwealth soldiers can help integration today. Arguments challenging the centenary plans as likely to promote nationalism (21%), or indeed for making a "victory" theme central (33%), have a narrower public appeal. Sunder Katwala Director, British Future |
| • There were actually about 16,000 conscientious objectors (COs), not 6,000 as your article says, and none of them were executed – though some were taken to France and threatened with being shot. Over 70 COs (and the numbers are growing as we at the Peace Pledge Union do more research) did die as a result of their treatment in prison and illnesses they incurred. The PPU is working with other peace groups with connections back to the first world war, to commemorate all those who tried to stop the war at the time and who resisted taking part in it. We hope others around the country will join with us in commemorating the COs and the women in the peace movement on 15 May 2014, when there will be a ceremony in Tavistock Square, London, at the Conscientious Objectors stone. There will also be a silent vigil at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 4 August 2014, the day Britain joined the war, and we hope such vigils will take place all around the country. Lucy Beck Member of Peace Pledge Union council | • There were actually about 16,000 conscientious objectors (COs), not 6,000 as your article says, and none of them were executed – though some were taken to France and threatened with being shot. Over 70 COs (and the numbers are growing as we at the Peace Pledge Union do more research) did die as a result of their treatment in prison and illnesses they incurred. The PPU is working with other peace groups with connections back to the first world war, to commemorate all those who tried to stop the war at the time and who resisted taking part in it. We hope others around the country will join with us in commemorating the COs and the women in the peace movement on 15 May 2014, when there will be a ceremony in Tavistock Square, London, at the Conscientious Objectors stone. There will also be a silent vigil at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 4 August 2014, the day Britain joined the war, and we hope such vigils will take place all around the country. Lucy Beck Member of Peace Pledge Union council |
| • It was heartening to read about the alternative events being planned for the first world war anniversary. Unfortunately, here in Folkestone a permanent feature rather than a transient event is being planned to commemorate those soldiers who passed through the town on their way to the western front. Seemingly ignoring the fact that these soldiers are already remembered by the 1922 war memorial and a nearby brick pillar, as well as "The Road of Remembrance". | • It was heartening to read about the alternative events being planned for the first world war anniversary. Unfortunately, here in Folkestone a permanent feature rather than a transient event is being planned to commemorate those soldiers who passed through the town on their way to the western front. Seemingly ignoring the fact that these soldiers are already remembered by the 1922 war memorial and a nearby brick pillar, as well as "The Road of Remembrance". |
| Step Short, a charity chaired by Damian Collins MP, has been given permission to build a 14-metre-high stainless steel arch, only yards away from these already existing memorials at a cost of around £500,000, of which £350,000 is coming from local authority and county funds. | Step Short, a charity chaired by Damian Collins MP, has been given permission to build a 14-metre-high stainless steel arch, only yards away from these already existing memorials at a cost of around £500,000, of which £350,000 is coming from local authority and county funds. |
| Supporting what Roger Lloyd Pack says in your article, is it right in these straitened times to expend this amount of money on an unneeded further war memorial, when it could be more usefully employed in other ways, such as supporting physically injured and mentally traumatised soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? One can only hope that even at this late stage Step Short will think again. Nick Spurrier Folkestone | Supporting what Roger Lloyd Pack says in your article, is it right in these straitened times to expend this amount of money on an unneeded further war memorial, when it could be more usefully employed in other ways, such as supporting physically injured and mentally traumatised soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? One can only hope that even at this late stage Step Short will think again. Nick Spurrier Folkestone |
| • In two weeks, on 21 September, the "glorious conflict" narrative of the first world war will be challenged with a conference, organised by several peace and social justice groups, entitled The Peace & Anti-War Movement on the Eve of the First World War – Lessons for Today, in the Manchester Friends' Meeting House. The conference will be opened by Martin Bell, the former war reporter, independent MP and vice-president of the Movement Against War, followed in the morning by Barry Mills, historian of the Northern Friends' Peace Board, and June Hannam on Isabella Ford, the peace activist, socialist and suffragist and the opposition of women to the war. In the afternoon, there will be three speakers giving a view on two communities on the eve of the war: Mike Crawford, historian, and Nick Wilding, film-maker and historian, looking at Calderdale in Yorkshire and, bearing in mind the remarks from the German embassy in your article, a German historian, Wolfgang Hombach, is coming to describe what was happening in his community in Germany at the time. Later in the afternoon there will be a panel and audience discussion on the lessons for today. On the Friday evening before there will be a showing of the film Benjamin Britten – Peace and Conflict. | • In two weeks, on 21 September, the "glorious conflict" narrative of the first world war will be challenged with a conference, organised by several peace and social justice groups, entitled The Peace & Anti-War Movement on the Eve of the First World War – Lessons for Today, in the Manchester Friends' Meeting House. The conference will be opened by Martin Bell, the former war reporter, independent MP and vice-president of the Movement Against War, followed in the morning by Barry Mills, historian of the Northern Friends' Peace Board, and June Hannam on Isabella Ford, the peace activist, socialist and suffragist and the opposition of women to the war. In the afternoon, there will be three speakers giving a view on two communities on the eve of the war: Mike Crawford, historian, and Nick Wilding, film-maker and historian, looking at Calderdale in Yorkshire and, bearing in mind the remarks from the German embassy in your article, a German historian, Wolfgang Hombach, is coming to describe what was happening in his community in Germany at the time. Later in the afternoon there will be a panel and audience discussion on the lessons for today. On the Friday evening before there will be a showing of the film Benjamin Britten – Peace and Conflict. |
| For further information email gmdcnd@gn.apc.org or phone 0161-273 8283. Rae Street Littleborough, Lancashire | For further information email gmdcnd@gn.apc.org or phone 0161-273 8283. Rae Street Littleborough, Lancashire |
| • It is right that these groups should have a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and they are right to highlight that there should be no glorification of war. But they should take care not to close down discussion or proper analysis of the cause of wars with simplistic and sweeping generalisations that all the great powers were to blame in 1914 or that war is always avoidable. It might be worth considering the words of Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert (1743-1790): "Those that declaim against war beat the air in vain, for the ambitious, unjust or powerful cannot be restrained by such means." | • It is right that these groups should have a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and they are right to highlight that there should be no glorification of war. But they should take care not to close down discussion or proper analysis of the cause of wars with simplistic and sweeping generalisations that all the great powers were to blame in 1914 or that war is always avoidable. It might be worth considering the words of Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert (1743-1790): "Those that declaim against war beat the air in vain, for the ambitious, unjust or powerful cannot be restrained by such means." |
| Understanding the complexities of the causes of the war might provide the insight necessary to avoid war in the future. Simply highlighting the horrors of war, alas, does not prevent wars, as has been repeatedly demonstrated since 1918. HJ Carter Devizes, Wiltshire | Understanding the complexities of the causes of the war might provide the insight necessary to avoid war in the future. Simply highlighting the horrors of war, alas, does not prevent wars, as has been repeatedly demonstrated since 1918. HJ Carter Devizes, Wiltshire |
| • I was pleased to see that you devoted the whole of page 3 in Monday's Guardian to the No Glory campaign. But I was dismayed that I could not find a single mention of the demonstration on Sunday against the monstrous biennial London arms fair, which takes place at the Excel Centre all this week. | • I was pleased to see that you devoted the whole of page 3 in Monday's Guardian to the No Glory campaign. But I was dismayed that I could not find a single mention of the demonstration on Sunday against the monstrous biennial London arms fair, which takes place at the Excel Centre all this week. |
| Activists bravely blockaded the two entrances and took possession of a roundabout to enable a family-friendly demonstration of hundreds of people against what I see as the most cynical trade, selling arms to regimes that abuse human rights like Bahrain, Israel and Turkey, and the Russian arms suppliers to President Assad in Syria. The components for the nerve gas used in Syria may well have originated here. What's more, our taxes are being used to support this event through the government. | Activists bravely blockaded the two entrances and took possession of a roundabout to enable a family-friendly demonstration of hundreds of people against what I see as the most cynical trade, selling arms to regimes that abuse human rights like Bahrain, Israel and Turkey, and the Russian arms suppliers to President Assad in Syria. The components for the nerve gas used in Syria may well have originated here. What's more, our taxes are being used to support this event through the government. |
| Demonstrations will continue all week, and I hope you'll report on it. There needs to be a much bigger outcry till the government is forced to stop funding murder, war and repression in other countries. See www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk. Morag Carmichael London | Demonstrations will continue all week, and I hope you'll report on it. There needs to be a much bigger outcry till the government is forced to stop funding murder, war and repression in other countries. See www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk. Morag Carmichael London |
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