For Peace!

Desertion, mutiny and refusal to work emerge whenever the state makes a claim on citizens' bodies for warfighting. While many refuse to serve in the army on religious or moral grounds, others are inspired by class solidarity, under the banner: No war, but class war. This is a sentiment that is echoed by many conscripted in WWII and organised resistance was fostered by the No Conscription League through public pledges. Publications like Peace News and the radical anti-militarist and anti-war publication War Commentary fomented disaffection and an understanding of the war as a conflict between different imperialisms. Concerned that the revolutionary message in the pages of War Commentary would find fertile soil once the soldiers started returning home, the British government arrested and prosecuted its editors.

In the Glasgow exhibition we featured examples of anarchist responses to conscription. Local Glasgow anarchist activist Guy Aldred was the founding editor of 'The Word' which ran from 1939 until 1966. It was affiliated to the No Conscription League whose Bridgeton offices were on 548 London Road - a short walk from the Glasgow Women's Library. They inspired and supported those like 18-year old Allan Burnett. We feature a record of his appearance at the Glasgow Sheriff court from 'War Commentary'. Echoes of this resistance flared up in Glasgow in 2014, for the centenary of WWI. The White Feather Collective - a group of women and non-binary folk committed to direct action against a ‘culture of militarism and imperialism' pasted the city in posters of black poppies. In all, 16,000 of them went up, each representing a conscientious objector who refused to fight in the First World War.