This article by W Owl first appeared in Unity, the weekly publication of the Irish Communist Party.
REMEMBRANCE Sunday, is run by the Royal British Legion on behalf of the Establishment who turn out in force to share the day with the common people.
Of course it was the common people who sacrificed the most in the two World Wars it was originally designed to commemorate. Now it is the two World Wars and all other conflicts which invariably takes in imperialist ones and of course what we know as the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland.
In our part of the world the wearing or not wearing of the poppy reflects the divisions here. Unionists wear a poppy in some way to confirm their Britishness part of which is their support for the monarchy which basically leads the Establishment. On the other side nationalists would have an attitude that reflects hostility to the British military role in Ireland and of course the atrocities of Ballymurphy and Derry. Some of the attitudes by the poppy wearers to the none poppy wearers has led to the term “poppy fascism”. What we see now on television is news broadcasters wearing their poppies and even those being interviewed wearing the symbol. Sport is no exception with football pundits, as an example, all wearing their poppies. Whether it is by choice we do not know.
One relatively new thing is that in football the teams now wear shirts with a poppy embroidered on them. In 2012 Derry born James McClean refused to wear a poppy on his shirt and suffered appalling abuse for the decision, hence the term poppy fascism coming into being.
Mark Paul wrote in his London Letter in the Irish Times under the heading “British Media always remember to see red over Irish poppy refusnicks,” He told us that wearing a poppy to commemorate Britain’s veterans is hardly universally observed with some surveys suggesting that at least a fifth of Briton’s never don one and it seems that it must be double that proportion for younger adults.
Whilst he himself doesn’t wear one, as displaying symbols is just not his habit, he has no problem with the Irish in Britain who do.
He tells us that he had ancestors who served in the First World War one of whom was killed and has no known grave. He also says that the media has turned their attention to footballer and Arsenal captain Katie McCabe who chose not to wear a poppy on her shirt the previous weekend and is receiving much of the same treatment for that decision as McClean did.
The first British newspaper to report on McCabe’s decision was the Daily Mail. We are told that one of the papers sports reporters dug out the names of a few Irish players in the Women’s Super League, and examined team photos. The Daily Mail noted that McCabe had worn a poppy last year but chose not to this year. However, she observed the moment of silence before the game.
The paper also named-checked McCabe’s Ireland team mate Caitlin Hayes, who plays for Brighton, for her poppy refusal. The Mails sister paper The Daily Telegraph got in on the act when it named other refusnicks Haley Nolan of Crystal Palace and her teammate Abbie Larkin. Both newspapers are mouthpieces for the Establishment. As regards the Daily Mail this is a newspaper whose owner Lord Rothermere wrote a piece in the 1930’s under the headlines “Hurrah for the Blackshirts” in support of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.
We could remind the Mail that Fascism in its Nazi form cost the lives of thousands of British armed forces personnel during the 2nd World War, The Telegraph is the mouth piece of the Tory Party which is the political representative of the Establishment a number of whom were pro-Hitler in the 1930’s.
Indeed, one of its number King Edward VIII was featured in a TV documentary The Traitor King along with the “woman he loved.”
This Establishment figure and friend of Hitler was reported as telling the Nazis they should bomb the British into submission.
These patriots of the Mail and Telegraph are guilty as charged of nothing short of poppy fascism.
Yes, and how many times must a man look up-Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have-Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind——–Bob Dylan