November 11, 2023, is Remembrance /Armistice Day 106 — which is 105 years since World War I was ended in Europe (while it continued
for weeks in Africa) at the scheduled moment of 11 o’clock on the 11th
day of the 11th month in 1918 (with an extra 11,000 people dead,
wounded, or missing after the decision to end the war had been reached
early in the morning — we might add “for no reason,” except that it
would imply the rest of the war was for some reason).
In many
parts of the world, principally but not exclusively in British
Commonwealth nations, this day is called Remembrance Day and should be a
day of mourning the dead and working to abolish war so as not to create
any more war dead. But the day is being militarized, and a strange
alchemy cooked up by the weapons companies is using the day to tell
people that unless they support killing more men, women, and children in
war they will dishonor those already killed.
For decades in the
United States, as elsewhere, this day was called Armistice Day, and was
identified as a holiday of peace, including by the U.S. government. It
was a day of sad remembrance and joyful ending of war, and of a
commitment to preventing war in the future. The holiday’s name was
changed in the United States after the U.S. war on Korea to “Veterans
Day,” a largely pro-war holiday on which some U.S. cities forbid
Veterans For Peace groups from marching in their parades, because the
day has become understood as a day to praise war — in contrast to how it
began.
We seek to make Armistice / Remembrance Day a day to mourn all victims of war and advocate for the ending of all war.
Find information, resources, events near you, and the tools to create or join an event here.
World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war.
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