Lest We Remember

War and Anzac Day

Peace Action Wellington completely condemns the commitment of military support for the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. We also condemn the government’s use of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people at Gallipoli in 1915 as some sort of mantle to cloak another colonial war by the West against the people of the Middle East.

In 2015, as the country got ready to commemorate the loss of thousands of New Zealand lives 100 years ago at Gallipoli, the government was preparing to commit us to another brutal intervention in Iraq – a war that the American government expected ‘could last years’ and is still occurring today. When asked why New Zealand might join an ANZAC badged unit, the prime minister replied ‘one argument could possibly be the 100 year commemorations of Gallipoli.’

We place the blame for the situation in Iraq and Syria directly at the feet of the US government and its allies in the so-called ‘war on terrorism’.

For more information about our campaign organising, please contact us peacewellington(at)riseup.net.

Resources

Lest we remember revised (A4 double sided leaflet folds to A5 PDF)

Lest We Remember short version (2 to a A4 page, A5 double sided)

Lest we remember poster design 1  (can be printed to any size)

No part of a warmongers club (Peace Action media release, 27 January 2015)

Links

Armageddon or Calvary: The Conscientious Objectors of New Zealand and “The Process of Their Conversion” 

The horrifying story of the conscientious objectors as told by Harry Holland in 1921 from the Electronic Text Centre at Victoria University

World War One Centenary Peace Project – Peace Movement Aotearoa

Has information about the National Peace Workshops, Peace vigils and media links

Irish Anti-War Movement Statement on World War 1 Commemorations

Robert Fisk: My father threw away his poppy in disgust (The Independent UK)

My family was haunted by my father’s experience on the Somme and the loss of his friends. Why do we pay homage to the dead but ignore the lessons of their war?

Robert Fisk: Remembering the First World War: The flood of 1914-18 memorabilia has begun – and it will break your heart (The Independent UK)

On the brink of WWI overload, Alastair Paulin, Nelson Mail
“My concern is that the steady stream of Anzac coverage is sending us the wrong message. The tidy symbolism and euphemisms of the way we pay homage to the soldiers of WWI risks glorifying and sanitising the reality of war and our focus on the events of 100 years ago blinds us to the realities of war now.”