“THE POLITICISATION OF RED POPPIES HAS MEANT THAT REFUSAL TO WEAR ONE OFTEN BECOMES AN ARGUMENT ABOUT THE NATURE OF BRITISH IMPERIALISM ITSELF.”
Remembrance is one of the biggest cultural events in the annual calendar, but the first world war may never be marked in quite the same way as it was two years ago. After the 100th anniversary of the armistice was marked in 2018, similar events may never carry so much gravitas in future.
Regardless, remembrance becomes a political flashpoint each year, with demands to wear the red poppy in every sphere of the public space becoming greater as time goes on. Many people do want to remember the war dead, and often do so with a poppy, but there is a growing gap between the establishment’s way of marking the war and ordinary people’s. This is often driven by widespread rejection of imperialism today.
It is estimated that tens of millions of people in Britain took part in some way to mark the centenary from 2014 to 2018. Almost all of these acts of remembrance continue to take place under the officialdom of the state’s commemoration.
The British state, its allies and rivals orchestrated the first world war, so it’s not so surprising that they would seek to control its memory. But for those who seek a true reckoning with the reality of the first world war and its real horror, there will always be something deeply problematic with the idea that countries still engaged in imperialist warfare should maintain ownership of its legacy.
There is a real hypocrisy about a government, which on the one hand is knowingly selling weapons to Saudi Arabia used in the murder of civilians in Yemen, claiming to possess the moral authority required to undertake remembrance. Welsh Government are also complicit, allowing military infrastructure in Wales to assist in the training of Saudi pilots.
It would seem that the awareness of this contradiction is not something confined to the fringes of society. The white poppy – associated with peace and not aligned to the military – broke its record for the total number sold in 2018, shifting 119,555 five days before remembrance.
This year they are focussing on the war on Yemen, where 20,000 have died and some 10million have been left on the brink of starvation. The Peace Pledge Union who produce the white poppies say that schools this year have ordered 280 of their new education packs, up from just 59 in 2019. They have also announced a first ever Welsh language white poppy and welcomed the fact that the BBC have shifted their position to allow presenters to wear them on air.
Given the ubiquitous nature of the red poppy in public life (they are even plastered onto leotards for the rehearsal sessions of Strictly Come Dancing), and the shaming of those who don’t conform, it is impressive that so many have broken ranks and chosen the white one.
The politicisation of red poppies has meant that refusal to wear one often becomes an argument about the nature of British imperialism itself. In 2018, the Stoke City and Republic of Ireland forward James Mclean refused to wear a poppy for the 6th year running when his side went out to face Middlesbrough on 3rd November 2018. He was promptly abused by a section from both sets of fans and used his Instagram account to hit back, quoting the freedom fighter Bobby Sands: “They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn’t want to be broken”.
Previously, Mclean has taken the time to explain that the reason he refuses to wear the poppy is because of the bloody Sunday massacre in Derry, where British troops shot dead fourteen civil rights marchers. Mclean – from the Creggy estate in Derry where 6 of the killed came from – will not countenance wearing a symbol that officially remembers the soldiers who unleashed such horror on his community. This explanation has not stopped the player receiving death threats, however.
A more high profile player, the Manchester United midfielder Nemaja Matic, broke his silence two years ago to say that he would not wear a poppy, saying it was “a reminder of an attack that I felt personally as a young, frightened 12-year old boy living in Vrelo, as my country was devastated by the [NATO] bombing of Serbia in 1999.”
Aside from anything else, these examples are reminders that British or Western imperialism faces huge opposition in society and that the First World War’s death cannot be easily used by our ruling class to cover up the crimes committed by our military and justify war today. And ever since the huge movement to stop war in Iraq, the British war machine has never regained its legitimacy. This is partly why remembrance has become less an activity of masses of people, and increasingly confined to celebrity and establishment figures.
But despite these cracks, the British state still maintains its hegemony over the commemoration. In defending this role, it relies on people to accept the state’s legitimacy in being the standard bearer of the war’s memory. This is mainly done through the existence of the poppy, 14 million of which are produced each year. But beyond this, it must also call upon the more reactionary sections of society who believe that allegiance to the British military, imperialism and the state are the key aspects of commemorating the first world war.
For those abusing Mclean, the rejection of the poppy is an act of treachery which must be called out. The state condones such attitudes because it is aware of the danger in allowing the act of remembrance to be taken up by those who are against British imperialism today. It risks delegitimising the UK’s war efforts abroad, whether that be in direct conflict or in arms sales. For the warmongers of today, this cannot be allowed to happen.
What sometimes gets lost is that despite this deep politicisation of remembrance and its usefulness to Western leaders beating a nationalist drum, many people involved in commemoration do not share the sentiments of the establishment. Millions of people want to show that they remember and care about those who died in the first world war and not celebrate the leaders who sent them to die. Obviously, many people indicate they care and remember by wearing a poppy. A lot of the people who want to take part in official remembrance events I imagine would be open to anti-war arguments, and this is surely part of the reason of the growth in the white poppy.
When I was walking in Pembrokeshire a couple of years ago, I came across a tiny village with barely any houses just off the coast. Inside the small chapel there was a plaque with the names of those from the area who had died in the war. There must have been at least 30 names on it – a majority of young men in the village. The state entered every corner of the country and demanded young working class lives were sacrificed in the pursuit of its imperial requirements. With the effects felt more directly than any other conflict in British history, is it any wonder that official remembrance is such a contradictory affair, with the likes of Boris Johnson on one hand and the participation of millions of ordinary people on the other?
Nobody is simply celebrating the war, because the sheer scale of the bloodshed is too profound to be able to do that. Rather the tension comes from the way in which the act of remembrance is corralled into a space that is limited to not asking hard questions about why the first world war was so horrific and who or what was to blame. (Infact the mere act of pressing these points is enough to see you accused of ‘attention seeking rubbish’ by the likes of Tory MP Jonny Mercer.)
The tension between memory and propaganda can be witnessed in much of the output around the centenary. The broadcaster Dan Snow has written fairly revisionist stuff about the war, trying to impart a sense of wider purpose to the whole thing that almost justifies it. At the same time, he has shown a commitment to highlighting the voices of those who experienced it firsthand, who give a completely different account.
The podcast he hosted, Voices of The First World War, was incredibly moving, giving us long, uninterrupted accounts of the war. One in particular is of the battle of Passchendaele, which killed over half a million people from either side and which barely advanced the allied forces who started the offensive. Few individual events could better express the industrialised slaughter which symbolises the war.
It’s worth finishing with this account from John Palmer, a signaller in the battle who had been involved in the war from the start. His job was to fix telephone wires on the battlefield, searching through the thick mud and dead bodies for a piece of cable that he had to put back together. Here he describes his attempt to get injured so he could be taken home:
“The Germans were sending over quite a barrage and I crouched down in one of these dirty shell holes. And then I began to think of all those poor devils who had been punished for self inflicted wounds. Some had even been shot. And I began to wonder how I could get out of it….
“The next night my pal came out with me… After the Germans had stopped shelling for a while we heard one of their big ones coming over. And normally within reason you could tell whether one was going to land anywhere near you or not. If it was, the normal procedure was to throw yourself down to avoid the shell fragments. This one we knew was going to drop near. My pal shouted and threw himself down. I was too damned tired even to fall down.”
“I just stood there and next thing I knew I had a terrific pain in the back and the chest and found myself face downwards in the mud. My pal came to me, he tried to lift me up and I said to him: ‘Don’t touch me, leave me. I’ve had enough. Just leave me.’ The next thing I found myself sinking down in the mud and this time I didn’t worry about the mud. I didn’t hate it anymore. It seemed like a protective blanket covering me and I thought to myself: “Well if this death, it’s not so bad.”
John Palmer lived to talk – 50 years later – about his experiences of the war. His story is undisputed and it exposes the war for what it was. Surely it is accounts like these that we should remember today and understand that imperialist war is something we must campaign to end.
The writer is an editor of voice.wales
