This is an opinion website which usually discusses violence from the outset.

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Remembrance honours the fallen who died in war and violent conflict. Pacifism, alongside it, sends a message that it must never happen again.

Pacifists oppose war and violent conflict, and in reality so does almost everyone else (whether they call themselves pacifist or not). It only seems to be a minority that seem hungry for us to be in battle again.

Pacifism generally interrogates the ideology that war could ever be a good (or necessary) idea, and challenges the thinking behind it like militarism. Pacifists generally assert that war is not inevitable and some (like this website) highlight that violence is also a choice.

That doesn’t mean pacifism is anti-military. In fact, commemorating those who died as a result of war is an important part of the peace movement’s calendar (see The White Poppy Campaign below).

Pacifism also encourages us to look back, but not as if war-time was “the good old days”. Pacifists are realists about power and what the war involved, including the cost. (The idea that pacifists live in an unrealistic utopia is a myth.)

The War “Effort”

War is never just about battles.

It’s the daily lives disrupted by chaos and terror.

It’s firefighters and other emergency services, that dig out broken bodies from crumpled buildings, while being told to “keep calm and carry on”.

It’s the women who desperately waited for brothers and sons to come home – even though many would not.

It’s the children displaced and separated from their families.

It’s the hunger.

It’s the war-related disease.

And, of course, the death.

So when pacifists reflect at Remembrance, they’re not just honouring those in uniform.

They’re holding in mind all those who suffered the horror imposed upon them, and in their memory recognising that so many sacrificed their future in the belief that, by doing so, we wouldn’t have to endure that horror too.

When you go home, tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow, we gave our today. – John Maxwell Edmonds

Defence doesn’t have to mean death

Work to end the Second World War involved a range of activity behind the scenes.

Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied campaign often cited as being responsible for the liberation of German-occupied Western Europe in WWII. But it wasn’t just one event; it was a series of careful, strategic decisions that required planning, preparation – and brilliant minds.

Efforts to achieve peace included intelligence gathering, decryption, translation and complex pattern matching much of which we now know happened at Bletchley Park – and often by women. Every day saw the intense work of deciphering codes and interpreting messages.

Winston Churchill used the phrase “the geese that laid the golden egg and never cackled” to describe the brilliant codebreakers at Bletchley Park during WWII. He praised them because their secret work decoding messages that had been intercepted gave Britain a massive advantage, yet they kept absolute silence.

Success also relied on deception, as was the case with Operation Mincemeat, and even enlisting the help of the King in the shape of Operation Fortitude.

There is also the formidable story of Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist who was recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and whose efforts undoubtably helped pave the way to freedom, without ever taking a life.

So it wasn’t just boots on the ground – who rightly deserve our respect for their incredible bravery – that brought the war to an end. It was those hidden away, who never had to (or chose not to) raise a weapon at a stranger, but still did incredible and important work, and whose names we may never know.

It means nonviolent resistance has a place in our strategic defence and in fact, research now shows it to be twice as effective as violent conflict in overpowering an oppressor.

We will remember them

Most of us have lived in the echoes of war, even if we’ve never served in one. Millions of people around the world will have close family members, including fathers and grandfathers, who served in the First and Second World Wars (sometimes both), and in conflicts since. We remember them, and their service, at key moments during the year, like D-Day, VE Day and Remembrance Sunday.

On these days we honour their memory and their service, though they are loved all year round.

For those who gave their lives, service wasn’t just about defeating the oppressor. They served because they believed in something bigger: that they were helping to create a kinder, gentler landscape for the future – for us.

The point being, people shouldn’t have to die to be called a hero, but for those that did we should remember that their lives meant something, not just their deaths; that their futures were cut short fighting a war they didn’t start against an “enemy” they’d never met, by (predominantly) men who won’t be the ones being “sacrificed”.

As a point of note, the Imperial War Museum (IWM) is “the world’s leading authority on conflict and its impact on people’s lives from 1914 to the present day and beyond”. It says its vision is “to develop and communicate a deeper understanding of the causes, course and consequences of war for every generation”. It goes on to say:

“The Imperial War Museum was founded during the First World War to make sure that we never forget what it is like to live in a world torn apart by conflict”.

It’s ok to object

Opposing war is not a new thing.

During the World Wars and since, people rejected the idea of engaging in violence, with some choosing instead to be part of the services that helped literally pick up the pieces. These included ambulance drivers, stretcher bearers and medical orderlies.

This was despite being given pejorative labels for their decision not to harm. Some were even executed during the First World War for cowardice – some of those were teenagers – though they have since been pardoned. It’s a worry that anyone would suggest those asking for peace are a problem, but war and violence are not.

To remember is to keep confronting what it costs and what it takes to prevent it from happening again. – Unite Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The White Poppy Campaign

Some people seem offended by others wearing a white poppy, as if it’s a new thing and designed to disrespect those that have died. But in fact the idea of a white poppy was first put forward in 1926 by the No More War movement, and taken up by the Co-operative Women’s Guild (CWG) in 1933.

Members of the CWG actively campaigned on a number of women’s issues and many were working women who had lost loved ones in WWI and could see the effect it had on those who survived.

The CWG’s peace certificate (featured below ) states: “I solemnly declare my firm conviction that world problems can best be settled by reason rather than by force and I therefore decide that under no circumstances what ever will I take part in, or help towards, the propagation of war.”

Today, white poppies are sold by the Peace Pledge Union and worn to remember all those who died during wartime and violent conflict, not just those in the military – just as purple poppies are used to remember animals that served and perished. They are not instead of, but as well as the red poppy.

So there is no reason to be offended by the white poppy; it is very much a sign of respect, created by those with first hand experiences of the horrors of war. If people care about peace today and don’t want others to die in service of their country, like those ladies who designed them 100 years ago, the white poppy provides that symbolism.

In any event, the next time we hold a moment’s silence in memory of those who served, we must remember what so many died for.

That remembrance is also an act of resistance.

It’s a call to anyone who thinks “we need a good war” to remember that the fallen gave their lives, so others never have to die that way again.

That’s worth remembering, don’t you think?

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