imageWhite poppies are for peace, and a challenge to the continuing drive to war.

The first artificial white poppies appeared in 1933 on what was then called Armistice Day but started being called Remembrance Day after the Second World War. They were sold by the Co-operative Women’s Guild.

Founded in 1883, after 1918 ‘the Guild’ became more involved in peace activism, concentrating especially on the social and political conditions that encouraged or gave rise to war, as well as opposition to the arms trade.

This white poppy was not – and has never been – intended as an insult to those who died in the First World War – a war in which many of the white poppy supporters lost husbands, brothers, sons and lovers.  The white poppy was – and is  – a challenge to the continuing drive to war.

The idea of decoupling Armistice Day, the red poppy and later Remembrance Day from their military culture dates back to 1926, just a few years after the British Legion was persuaded to try using the red poppy as a fundraising tool in Britain.

American soldiers started off the red poppy connection with the First World War. They had arranged for artificial poppies to be made by women in war-ravaged northern France; the funds raised from selling the poppies were for children who had suffered because of the war.

Many of the British men returning home from the First World War, the Great Gar, the war to end all wars, were wounded or disabled or suffering the effects of gas and shell-shock. Many were physically or mentally unable to work; many others found that there were no jobs anyway.

So ex-servicemen’s societies united in 1921 to form the British Legion.

A Frenchwoman who was helping to organise the production of artificial poppies in France suggested that the British Legion might like to sell them to raise money. The 1.5 million they made for 11 November 1921 sold out almost at once.

The British Legion then decided to set up its own poppy factory. It is now a very large, corporate-style charity, and the Poppy Appeal a main source of income.

This year, girl band The Saturdays launched the British Legion’s Poppy Day appeal at a glitzy concert with their song Notorious  – with lyrics including: ‘I’ve been a bad girl / I’m a bad girl / I’m notorious’ and ‘I’m the head of game here / Pleasure and the pain, yeah’ and not much more – as a cloud of poppies fell from the ceiling and the crowd cheered.

And this year leading arms manufacturer BAE announced on its website that it contributes to the work of The Royal British Legion, and it  sponsors the British Forces Foundation which stages morale boosting concerts and events for servicemen and women and UK4U –a charity which gives Christmas gift boxes to UK forces serving away from home.

And this year the Poppy appeal slogan is ‘Shoulder to Shoulder with all who serve’ which is not about remembering the dead. It is about supporting the armed forces.

The First World War was the last major war in Europe when the bulk of casualties were military. Now the vast majority of victims of war are civilians, but they are largely ignored. Not even counted by the combatant sides.

Last year’s figures reckoned that the total number of civilians who have lost their lives in the armed conflict in Afghanistan over the past six years came to 14,728. British troop deaths reached 445 in mid October this year.

The number of deaths caused by the Iraq war has been a source of intense controversy, as Al Jazeera reported. The latest and perhaps most rigorous survey, which was released last month, puts the figure at close to 500,000.

The researchers estimated that 60 percent of those deaths were violent, with the remaining 40 percent occurring because of the health-infrastructure issues that arose as a result of the invasion.

In 1933 women who had lost husbands, brothers and sons in the First World War did not want to see Armistice Day used to make war acceptable.

And in 2013 a growing number of people are concerned about the poppy’s association with military power and the justification of war.

In 1933 the first white poppies appeared.

Women today still have cause to wear them.

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