Lest We Forget - a pacifist's remembrance of the centenary of ANZAC Day - Part 1

When one thinks of anti-war poetry, 
more often than not it is the poetry of World War 1, 
of the horrendous battlefields of the Western Front
of the poetry of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. 
Wilfred Owen is the author of what may be the best known anti-war poem,
Dulce et Decorum Est
Please go here for Dr Andrew Barker's analysis of Dulce et Decorum Est

As I write this, on the centenary of the landing at Gallipoli, thousands of Australians have left their homes to attend Dawn Services across the country, to keep alive the ANZAC tradition.  Other thousands of Australians have left their homeland to commemorate the Australian war dead in Turkey and France.  I have chosen to stay at home and write this reflection.

My own commemoration was done on Thursday night as I watched on television Kate Aubusson's wonderful remembrance, Lest We Forget What?.  Kate's film is the best thing I have seen or read about our ANZAC tradition - the research done, the people featured in the film, the things we didn't know and which are seldom revealed.  

I think this day on the war-time service of the men in my family - especially of the one who didn't return home, my great uncle Claude Gallaway.  He perished on the Western Front in France.  He was 26 years old.  Through the Australian War Memorial records we have been able to see the heart-breaking letters written regularly to the powers-that-be from my great grandmother and my three great aunts reminding them that their son and brother was still missing.

My grandfather, Jack (Rupert Franklin Gore) Gallaway, and his brother William Gallaway were Lighthorsemen. 

In World War 2, my uncle Roland Gore Gallaway served as a Coastwatcher on Manus Island and later in Japan with the Occupation Forces. My uncle, Jack Franklin Gallaway, served in the Royal Australian Navy in World War 2 and in Korea. Jack wrote The Last Call of the Bugle: Kapyong, Korea.  The title of the book refers to Korea being the last Australian conflict for which the call went out for volunteers.

My father, John Joseph (Jack) O'Carroll, served in Malaya in the 2/10th Field Regiment of the Eighth Division.  He was invalided home six weeks before the fall of Singapore.

For my generation, Vietnam was an issue and a horror.  It was then I became a pacifist. I have seen no reason in the decades since to resile from this decision.

Across history we have seen one conflict begetting another. World War 1 begat World War 2.  The American invasion of Iraq in recent decades has certainly influenced the current violence in the Middle East. There is the history of foreign military involvement in Afghanistan.  In recent generations, we have developed the so-called proxy wars. Australia is becoming enmeshed in these wars of empire.

I believe that pacifists fulfill the slogan we say each Anzac Day.  We are there to remind people of the cost, the horror, the futility of war ... Lest We Forget.

The Ode of Remembrance

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

Lest We Forget.

A step too far: Woolworths puts its foot - and its trademark - in Anzac memories

From Inside Retail

Woolies pulls pin on controversial Anzac site

Woolworths have apologised after its Anzac commemoration website caused social media outrage by inviting users to share war tributes under the slogan “fresh in our memories”.

The site was taken down on Tuesday night after receiving widespread criticism on social networking site Twitter, with users labelling the marketing stunt crass and insulting to Australian diggers.

In a statement issued after the campaign was taken down, the supermarket giant apologised for branding the site.

“We regret that our branding on the picture generator has caused offence, this was clearly never our intention,” Woolworths said on its Facebook page.

“Like many heritage Australian companies, we were marking our respect for ANZAC and our veterans.”

Woolworths urged people on the site to share stories and profile style pictures of veterans by uploading images to the website, which then branded them with the Woolworths logo and the phrase “Lest we Forget 1915-2015. Fresh in our memories”.

The food retailer said the site was developed to give staff and customers a place to put their stories to mark the centenary of Anzac.

“We continue to be proud supporters of the RSL and Camp Gallipoli in this important year and look forward to working with them into the future,” the company added.

On Wednesday morning, the fallout from the furore continued on Twitter.

“I’m still amazed at the utter ghoulishness of Woolworths shoehorning the word ‘Fresh’ into community memories of war” one user tweeted.

“@woolworths very on the nose and in bad taste Woolies. Sack the person who approved of this campaign,” another tweet read.

RSL president rear admiral, Ken Doolan, labelled the Woolworths campaign “unfortunate”.

“I think they have taken the right action … pulling it down,” he told Network Nine.

“There is a very fine line to be judged here, where you are dealing with such sensitive issues and the Australian public speak very clearly and very loudly when that fine line is crossed.

“On this occasion unfortunately it was crossed, it was insensitive, it has been taken down.”

Australian minister for veterans’ affairs, Michael Ronaldson, said Woolworths did not seek permission to use the word ‘Anzac’.

Under law, permission is needed for the use of the word Anzac in any such material and it must be granted by the Australian Government.

“In this instance, permission was not sought by the campaign proponents, nor would it have been approved,” he said in a statement.

As soon as the Woolworths campaign was brought to his attention, he contacted the company to end it.

The word Anzac cannot be trivialised or used inappropriately, he said.

NSW minister for veterans’ affairs, David Elliott, described the Woolworths campaign as “distasteful”.

He said Anzac Day is to be commemorated, not celebrated.

“For these firms, and there a number of examples, to use the Anzac and the veteran and the whole notion of sacrifice and service for their own commercial gain, or indeed personal gain, I find highly distasteful,” he told Fairfax Radio.

AAP

From the #ANZAC Centenary Peace Coalition - Peace in Australia: the untold story

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