Archives: Examples

In June 2014, North Wales Armed Forces Day was held in Wrexham. Wrexham Peace and Justice Forum were concerned that they were being asked to ‘celebrate’ and ‘thank’ the Armed Forces ‘without any critical analysis of the recent conflicts they have been involved in’ and that the event would be used for recruitment, particularly aimed at children. Read more.

Members of Leicester for Peace/Leicester Against War and Civic Leicester have grown concerned in recent years about the presence of Army recruiting stalls in Leicester city centre and with young children encouraged to handle weapons and sit in and play on military vehicles. Read more.

Local Quakers in Chester grew concerned about the Armed Forces bringing weapons into the town centre, and children being allowed to play with them, at recruitment events such as ‘Reserves Day’ or at times not particularity coinciding with an event. Read more.

Wrexham

Leicester

Chester

Strategies & resources… Read more

• Several groups have organised vigils for peace to coincide with public military events. Others have organised film showings, for example showing the film War School, as a gentle way of inviting people to engage with the issue.
• Many groups have begun long-term dialogue with stakeholders, from their council to those who own or are responsible for various event spaces, to their local armed forces base commander. If you would like support with this, please contact us.
• If you want to find out when the military will be holding public events in your local town centre, you can use a Freedom of Information request. Here is an example from campaigners in Leicester.
• One powerful way of furthering critical debate is to use local and international press to raise concerns. See this letter, entitled War marketed as family entertainment, in the Independent.
• Are there other local groups you can connect with? Many organisations have local groups or members around the country who may be interested in helping organize, taking part in events or spreading the word.
• Over 80 local authorities in the UK are part of the global Mayors for Peace network which works for a nuclear-free world. The UK also has its own network of nuclear-free local authorities.

Militarism has been a long-standing part of British politics and society. There has, however, been a ‘new tide of militarism’ in evidence in recent years.

A helpful way of understanding militarism is to see it as:

• the normalisation of war and war-preparedness
• the prioritisation of the needs and interests of military institutions
• the extension of military culture and influence into everyday life (via education, central and local government, businesses, charities, popular culture and more).

We discuss this in more detail here. As discussed in our Warrior Nation report by Paul Dixon, the ‘militarisation offensive’ of recent years is due at least in part to backlash from unpopular wars and to the ‘recruitment crisis’ faced the military.

Examples of this militarisation process include the introduction of Armed Forces Day, Armed Forces Covenants, and increasing military influence in education and youth activities, such as cadet expansion.

These developments are active in local communities and have visible results. While the presence of the military at community events is not new, there is a sense that this is empowered and encouraged by the new formal relationships created by the Armed Forces Covenants between the armed forces and local authorities and many other organisations.… Read more