In the early hours of 15th June, the offices held by the Armed Forces at 35 St Giles since 1936 were targeted in an expression of independent anti-militarist direct action. Red paint, emblematic of the unneccesary deaths of innocents and servicemen and -women at home and across the world, was poured over the front door and steps in order to cause maximum inconvenience to those who make war possible while masquerading as members of the local community. This was done to impede as far as possible the continuation of business from that location.
It is hoped that the red paint will remain a permanent reminder to passers-by of the crimes against humanity that are committed just as frequently by this country as by the worst regimes which are demonised in our media. It is regrettable that our strongly-held moral beliefs have driven us to take this destructive action against a listed building, but the moral imperative requires all people to take direct action wherever and whenever possible, especially when the crimes of militarism and aggression are not merely allowed under law, but given protection and tax breaks. We have no doubt that our actions are vindicated. Mark Twain wrote that it is 'curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare', and in an age when heroism is defined almost solely in terms of military obedience, the importance of individual action in line with our inner convictions is even greater.
We stand against: war, militarism; the arms trade; the reliance on hard power in international relations; interventionism both military and neoliberally economic; the maintenance of immoral and artificial national boundaries; the disproportionate spending on useless military expenditure in times of ideological spending cuts; the idea that anti-militarism is in some way impractical or naive; and above all the State and its claimed monopoly over legitimate violence.
We stand for: peace, co-operation; international mediation and diplomatic solutions to conflict; the divestment of all educational institutions from the arms trade; the decommissioning (forceful if required, but not violent) of all stages of the arms trade; and above all removal of the causes of all violent conflicts, which is to say all varieties of oppression, results of the class divisions created by monetary and profit-based economics.
We stand in solidarity with: all anti-militarist and pacifist groups and activists within a broad diversity of tactics, including especially Oxford Anti-War Action, SmashEDO, War Resisters International, the Peace Tax Seven, Bradley Manning and others too numerous to mention; anti-cuts and No Borders activists; and all anarchist, grassroots democratic, and libertarian communist groups working to create alternative institutions and smash those which currently encumber and divide the human race.
Photos to follow.
We stand against: war, militarism; the arms trade; the reliance on hard power in international relations; interventionism both military and neoliberally economic; the maintenance of immoral and artificial national boundaries; the disproportionate spending on useless military expenditure in times of ideological spending cuts; the idea that anti-militarism is in some way impractical or naive; and above all the State and its claimed monopoly over legitimate violence.
We stand for: peace, co-operation; international mediation and diplomatic solutions to conflict; the divestment of all educational institutions from the arms trade; the decommissioning (forceful if required, but not violent) of all stages of the arms trade; and above all removal of the causes of all violent conflicts, which is to say all varieties of oppression, results of the class divisions created by monetary and profit-based economics.
We stand in solidarity with: all anti-militarist and pacifist groups and activists within a broad diversity of tactics, including especially Oxford Anti-War Action, SmashEDO, War Resisters International, the Peace Tax Seven, Bradley Manning and others too numerous to mention; anti-cuts and No Borders activists; and all anarchist, grassroots democratic, and libertarian communist groups working to create alternative institutions and smash those which currently encumber and divide the human race.
Photos to follow.
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