Poster 1: The great case of Bodkin v Bodkin Poster by Emily Johns

The world is my country

Two local peace campaigners, Emily Johns and Gabriel Carlyle,have combined energies to create ‘The world is my country’, an insightful, thoroughly well-researched website and free workshop, celebrating the people and movements that opposed the First World War, writes HOT’s Zelly Restorick.

Women’s Peace Crusade Poster by Emily Johns

The event is based on war registers from around the globe and a series of ten inspiring posters created by Emily last year to mark the WW1 centenary.

Emily Johns said: ‘The First World War centenary (2014-2018) is being accompanied by a tidal wave of events, exhibitions, TV series, books and commemorations. However, the histories and stories of the people and organisations from around the globe that opposed the slaughter are receiving little or no attention. Neither saints nor superhumans, these people nonetheless exhibited a form of heroism that can inspire and strengthen us all today: the moral courage to stand up for your principles – often at great personal risk – despite massive social pressures to do the opposite.’

Here’s a quote from 70 year old Charlotte Despard – one of many quotes and pictures that caught my eye – who opposed the concept of war as a wise way forward for humanity.  ‘In 1917, she became a stalwart of the Women’s Peace Crusade, telling an audience in one speech: ‘I should like the words “alien” and “foreigner” to be banished from the language. We are all members of the same family.’ 

That about sums it up for me. Until we humans can accept this fact, we will continue to create wars and mistakenly call ourselves civilised.

“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind”                                                     (Saying frequently attributed to Mahatma Gandhi)

Copies of Emily’s posters and accompanying 100-page booklet will be available to purchase at the event, which is being organised by Hastings Against War.

The world is my country: Free workshop and talk celebrating the people and movements who opposed WW1: 7.30pm, Tuesday 16 June 2015, the Friends Meeting House (5 South Terrace, Hastings, TN34 1SA ) 

Check out Emily Johns’ website here.

Nsala sits with the hand and foot of his five-year-old daughter, Boali, 1904. The systematic cutting off of hands by Belgian colonists and their proxies was widely practiced in King Leopold’s Congo. Photograph: Alice Seeley Harris. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Also in: Hastings People