For the next four years, commemorations of World War I will be happening around the world. They will focus on the horrors of war and the tens of millions dead. WWI involved such a level of carnage that any other focus would be impossible.
While this focus is important, there are equally important aspects that won’t be in the media spotlight.
Such as the fact that millions of people around the world actively opposed the war, and many were imprisoned and killed for their opposition to it. Such as the fact that it was only through subverting the democratic process that many of the main participants in the war were able to join the fight. Such as the fact that this was a war for empire, the end of which saw the victorious powers dividing up the world. Divisions which have caused inestimable amounts of carnage since, and to this day.
Lyrics:
A hundred years ago today the arms race was at an end
If there was a soul alive who could begin to comprehend
The suffering to follow, the hell that would transpire
When the soldiers were lined up and the men began to fire
A hundred years ago today, all around the world
There were hordes of marching men with flags of empire unfurled
And then there was the opposition who wouldn’t stay on bended knee
Who said we’ll fight for neither king nor kaiser, neither God nor country
A hundred years ago today the streets were filled to burst
With millions of people who said they had no thirst
For the blood of other workers who lived across the sea
They said we’ll fight for neither king nor kaiser, neither God nor country
A hundred years ago today referendums were ignored
Democracy was something no empire could afford
Sedition laws were passed and they filled the penitentiaries
We’ll fight for neither king nor kaiser, neither God nor country
A hundred years ago today the executions were at dawn
Bomb blasts filled the air, the battle lines were drawn
The muddy fields were all red, a voice echoed amid the bodies
We’ll fight for neither king nor kaiser, neither God nor country
