Monday, November 08, 2004
Why I don't wear a poppy
It's that time of year again. News crews go into schools and film grade 6 classes stumbling over recitations of John McCrae's "In Flander's Fields". Old men line up on street corners, hawking plastic red poppies, their military bearing sagging under the curled shoulders of old age. Those who bought poppies giving smug glances at the poppyless, who scurry by unpatriotically.
Wearing a poppy is supposed to be about 'remembering'. Our forefathers fought in a war so that we didn't have to. We must always remember their sacrifice, lest we forget and have to sacrifice again. World War II is proof that those who forgot World War One, 'the war to end all wars', had to learn the lesson again by giving their lives.
But what are we really remembering by wearing a poppy? Is it war in general? The news is filled with war: no one living near a radio or tv can be unaware of the carnage and mayhem wrought by military action. Is it our ancestors' sacrifice? For what? World War One was a bloodbath for a few kilometers of land, which made a lot of money for a few war contractors and divided up colonial spoils amongst the Great Powers. That's not something to celebrate.
World War Two was the product of capitalism in crisis. Beneath the rhetoric, it was an attempt by a fascist German government to control mid-east oil supplies and establish world domination - something which another superpower has been doing quite handily of late, and we're not urged to remember that.
Was it a fight to save the Jews? Come on: the Canadian government turned back a boatload of Jewish refugees to their deaths. Churchill was willing to let the Nazis govern continental Europe if only they let Britain alone. The allies knew full well what the concentration camps were doing and didn't bomb the railway lines to them. Most Allied troops fought in North Africa, an ocean away from where Jews were being exterminated. World War Two was won on through the bloody sacrifice of millions of Soviet soldiers (90% of German units fought on the eastern front). We're not remembering them.
But let's say the poppysellers were genuine anti-fascists. In that case, thousands of soldiers - including North Americans - died in the Spanish Civil War fighting fascism, and no one celebrates them. What about the French resistance? In fact, our remembering is quite selective.
And that's the heart of Remembrance Day. It's not even about those old men. It's about patriotism. We're supposed to be grateful because western democracies are such great places to live.
As I write, Americans are slaughtering innocent civilians in Fallujah. They've killed 100,000 Iraqis in the last year. US & British-led sanctions have killed 500,000 over the past 10 years. And they've sustained Saddam Hussein, the butcher of Bagdhad, against his own people until he was no longer necessary. If North America is safe, it's because we take the war to other people. America & Canada are imperialist countries. I'm not celebrating that.
I'm happy to have decent wages, health care and affordable housing. However, qutie a number of people in our wonderful countries don't have those. And what we do have wasn't granted to us by those governments the soldiers died for. Our social rights were fought for by workers, during the first half of the 20th century, who also paid with their lives so we could have weekends, job protection, unemployment insurance, etc.
But we're not celebrating Workers' Remembrance Day. We're wearing the red poppies so we can be proud of our troops, who bought the lie that dying for imperial profit was a noble thing. I feel sorry for those men: I respect what they did - or rather, what they think they did. But I'm not going to encourage it by wearing a poppy.
I'll end with words by Wilfred Own, another war poet who deserves far more recognition than the jingoistic McCrae. This is from "The Next War":
Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier's paid to kick against His powers.
We laughed, -knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.
Wearing a poppy is supposed to be about 'remembering'. Our forefathers fought in a war so that we didn't have to. We must always remember their sacrifice, lest we forget and have to sacrifice again. World War II is proof that those who forgot World War One, 'the war to end all wars', had to learn the lesson again by giving their lives.
But what are we really remembering by wearing a poppy? Is it war in general? The news is filled with war: no one living near a radio or tv can be unaware of the carnage and mayhem wrought by military action. Is it our ancestors' sacrifice? For what? World War One was a bloodbath for a few kilometers of land, which made a lot of money for a few war contractors and divided up colonial spoils amongst the Great Powers. That's not something to celebrate.
World War Two was the product of capitalism in crisis. Beneath the rhetoric, it was an attempt by a fascist German government to control mid-east oil supplies and establish world domination - something which another superpower has been doing quite handily of late, and we're not urged to remember that.
Was it a fight to save the Jews? Come on: the Canadian government turned back a boatload of Jewish refugees to their deaths. Churchill was willing to let the Nazis govern continental Europe if only they let Britain alone. The allies knew full well what the concentration camps were doing and didn't bomb the railway lines to them. Most Allied troops fought in North Africa, an ocean away from where Jews were being exterminated. World War Two was won on through the bloody sacrifice of millions of Soviet soldiers (90% of German units fought on the eastern front). We're not remembering them.
But let's say the poppysellers were genuine anti-fascists. In that case, thousands of soldiers - including North Americans - died in the Spanish Civil War fighting fascism, and no one celebrates them. What about the French resistance? In fact, our remembering is quite selective.
And that's the heart of Remembrance Day. It's not even about those old men. It's about patriotism. We're supposed to be grateful because western democracies are such great places to live.
As I write, Americans are slaughtering innocent civilians in Fallujah. They've killed 100,000 Iraqis in the last year. US & British-led sanctions have killed 500,000 over the past 10 years. And they've sustained Saddam Hussein, the butcher of Bagdhad, against his own people until he was no longer necessary. If North America is safe, it's because we take the war to other people. America & Canada are imperialist countries. I'm not celebrating that.
I'm happy to have decent wages, health care and affordable housing. However, qutie a number of people in our wonderful countries don't have those. And what we do have wasn't granted to us by those governments the soldiers died for. Our social rights were fought for by workers, during the first half of the 20th century, who also paid with their lives so we could have weekends, job protection, unemployment insurance, etc.
But we're not celebrating Workers' Remembrance Day. We're wearing the red poppies so we can be proud of our troops, who bought the lie that dying for imperial profit was a noble thing. I feel sorry for those men: I respect what they did - or rather, what they think they did. But I'm not going to encourage it by wearing a poppy.
I'll end with words by Wilfred Own, another war poet who deserves far more recognition than the jingoistic McCrae. This is from "The Next War":
Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier's paid to kick against His powers.
We laughed, -knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.
