New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link The Lord?s Prayer Still Most Recognised Text in English Language Wed Jul 09, 2025 09:00 | Harry Phibbs
The Church of England commissioned a poll in the hope of finding The Lord?s Prayer was disliked by most church-goers and needed updating. To its horror, the vast majority of them love it just as it is.
The post The Lord?s Prayer Still Most Recognised Text in English Language appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The ?Fair Trials for Grooming Gangs? Protests Are a Disgrace Wed Jul 09, 2025 07:00 | Laurie Wastell
The 'fair trials for grooming gangs' protests are a disgrace, says Laurie Wastell. Ostensibly advocating impartial justice, protest members call "the Rochdale thing" a lie while the leader's brother is in jail for rape.
The post The ‘Fair Trials for Grooming Gangs’ Protests Are a Disgrace appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Wed Jul 09, 2025 00:59 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Junior Doctors?to Strike Until January 2026 to Demand 29% Pay Rise ? Despite Receiving 22% Last Year Tue Jul 08, 2025 19:00 | Will Jones
Junior doctors?have voted to strike until January 2026 to demand a 29% pay rise, despite receiving a 22% rise last year, in a move that will see thousands of NHS appointments and operations cancelled.
The post Junior Doctors?to Strike Until January 2026 to Demand 29% Pay Rise ? Despite Receiving 22% Last Year appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Lucy Connolly Case Brought to America?s Attention by Wall Street Journal Tue Jul 08, 2025 17:00 | Will Jones
With Lucy Connolly now languishing in jail for over 330 days for a tweet, the Wall Street Journal has run an article highlighting her plight and the sorry state of free speech in the UK and Europe.
The post Lucy Connolly Case Brought to America’s Attention by Wall Street Journal appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Poppies: Patriotism and pyromania

category international | anti-war / imperialism | other press author Friday November 11, 2011 19:33author by pat c Report this post to the editors

James Turley writes about the criminalisation of those who have burned poppies and elaborates on the imperialist agenda behind the whole remembrance charade. Those who fell should be remembered but not to glorify imperialism.

It is that time of year, again, when the world is colonised by plastic poppies. No establishment luminary will be seen in a public forum without one of these slightly naff trinkets pinned to his or her lapel; and thousands more people around the country will likewise sport the designated symbol of remembrance for the war dead.... .

More troubling is the fate of three Northern Ireland teenagers, about whom little is known except their ages - two are 17 and one 16 - and that they were pulled up before Coleraine magistrates court, charged with ‘incitement to hatred’. The 16-year-old also faces charges relating to ‘improper use’ of a social networking site, thanks to his publication of damning visual evidence of the ‘crime’ on Facebook....
Remember, remember ... the imperialist slaughter
Remember, remember ... the imperialist slaughter

The poppy appeal is not simply about commemorating the dead, however. It is about our dead - it is about a hundred years, give or take, of British history, during which ‘our brave boys’ (and girls) have been massacred in two truly apocalyptic wars, as well as picked off in countless relatively minor scuffles provoked by the decay of the empire.

The poppy ideology is, in fact, a bait-and-switch; the very real generalised empathy of the population to those who paid for capital’s rapacious drive to war with their lives is mobilised to support the very same institution - the state - which feeds the meat into the mincing machine. Like all ideology, it is participatory: the annual ritual of pinning the poppy to your lapel seals the compact, just as a few words of mumbo-jumbo transubstantiates cheap wine into the blood of Christ. The British Legion’s orgy of emotional blackmail, which complements the whole thing - pictures of gravely wounded soldiers and bereaved families all over the tube - does not hurt, either....

Related Link: http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004614

 #   Title   Author   Date 
   poppy campaign is as much about current escapades than WWI     serf    Fri Nov 11, 2011 23:16 
   Yer right serf     Pop E    Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:30 


 
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy