The Horrors of War, the Possibilities of Peace: Peace Quest’s White Poppies Campaign
On Thursday, October 30, Peace Quest Cape Breton launched its annual white poppies campaign, a season of solemn remembrance of all victims of all wars: combatants, civilians, all lives and life forms destroyed and damaged by armed conflict and violence. At an event at Cape Breton University co-sponsored by CBU”s Disability Rights and Disarmament Initiative, PQCB Campaign Coordinator Sean Howard noted that “the white poppies campaign was started by the Cooperative Women’s Guild in Britain in 1933, in concern that the great powers were again sleepwalking towards world war, and in protest at the militarization and nationalization of war remembrance across the British Empire.” Today, he added, we are witnessing similar sleepwalking towards a third word war humanity cannot, in the nuclear age, expect to survive; and for this reason, the famous pledge of the ‘Peace Pledge Union,’ based in Britain but supported around the world, is more urgent and relevant than ever –
“War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determined not to support any kind of war. I am also determined to work for the removal of all causes of war.”
The white poppies are available free of charge, with any voluntary contributions donated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Palestine, over 300 of whose aid workers have been killed during the genocidal Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip following the atrocious Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. PQCB repeats its call for a complete and permanent cessation of hostilities in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories (Gaza and the West Bank), and for urgent steps to deliver statehood, dignity, peace and prosperity for the long-persecuted people of Palestine.
“From the Earth to the Sky”:
White Poppies Campaign Launch
Peace Quest Cape Breton and the Disability Rights and Disarmament Initiative,
Cape Breton University
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Opening Remarks
Welcome to the opening of Peace Quest Cape Breton’s annual white poppies season, co-sponsored this year by CBU’s Disability Rights and Disarmament Initiative, an international campaign (launched in 2023 by Tammy Bernasky and myself) to raise the profile of disability issues in disarmament spaces in the United Nations and beyond. Because it is relevant to the white poppies campaign, I would like to read from the civil society statement our Initiative presented at the UN First Committee on Disarmament and International Security on October 17, delivered by one of our closest colleagues, Janet Lord of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability.
The statement quoted Heba Hagrass, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, reporting in June on “the dire reality for persons with disabilities” in so many war-torn places including Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and, of course, Gaza, where, the Special Rapporteur said, persons with disabilities “feel utterly abandoned – cut off from the most basic necessities like crutches and hygiene items. They said [to me] there is no dignity left, only death.” Our statement concluded: “Disarmament is integral to restoring dignity to all persons, and persons with disabilities should be integral to all national, regional, and international disarmament processes. Like all human beings, they deserve freedom from, and well as protection in, armed conflict, and they can help design and build the war-free world envisioned in the United Nations Charter,” with its solemn promise to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
The white poppies campaign was started by the Cooperative Women’s Guild in Britain in 1933, in concern that the great powers were again sleepwalking towards world war, and in protest at the militarization and nationalization of war remembrance across the British Empire. The white poppies were not intended to replace the red, but rather to broaden the focus of remembrance from the military dead of particular nations to all victims – combatant and civilian – of all wars.
The white poppies soon became the symbol of the Peace Pledge Union, whose pledge was soon signed by hundreds of thousands, many of them veterans of the Great War. It is still open for signature, by people around the world; some people here have signed it, including myself. It reads: “War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determined not to support any kind of war. I am also determined to work for the removal of all causes of war.”
So it’s a pacifist pledge, but one that commits every pacifist to be an activist, to combat militarism by building alternatives to it, opening paths to a future of common, cooperative security. Ensuring that the peace movement is such a double-movement – against something evil and false, for something good and true – has always been crucial. In the nuclear age, the success or failure of that movement may well help determine ‘the Fate of the Earth’.
One of the most important ways a pacifist can be an activist is as a conscientious objector, and the white poppies campaign is an opportunity to honour such profiles in non-violent courage. This year, War Resisters’ International collected statements reflecting “the conviction and resilience of those who choose peace over violence.” “At a time of ongoing conflict and growing militarisation,” the group added – a time, indeed, not so much of drift as slide to World War Three – “their words remind us of the power of conscience and the importance of protecting the right to refuse to kill”: the rejection of the idea, as an objector from Thailand stated, that “obedience is more important than conscience.” I’d like to read briefly from a few of the statements.
Inan Mayis Aru, Turkey: “Those who refuse to fight are subjected to what’s called ‘civil death.’ We are denied legal employment, the right to vote, and access to basic services. [Yet we continue to] stand in solidarity with all those affected by the horrors of militarism… Conscientious objection is not just a personal right – it’s a global act of resistance against war.”
Andreii Konouvalov, Ukraine: “In Ukrainian society, we are experiencing pressure being exerted on men…to be ‘real men’…to wage war… After three years of war, after hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides, it is clear to see that weapons and war cannot achieve the goals of the military-minded politicians. … What is now being presented to us as having no alterative, war, has proven to be ineffective.”
‘Sasha’ (real name withheld) from Russia, who was forcibly conscripted: “I tried to hold onto my beliefs. I was surrounded by brutality, oppression and injustice, but I refused to become a part of it. I helped people where possible…[but] despite these small acts of kindness, the mental strain of being part of something I fundamentally disagreed with was unbearable. I managed to escape.”
Itamar Greenberg, Israel: “I’m a 19-year-old Jewish man. This past August, I refused to enlist in the military. As a result of that refusal, I was sentenced to a total of six months in military prison. … For many years, the world has been shaped by the fixed belief that violence and war are normal – something we just have to live with. But in a just world, there would be no need for laws of warfare, because the only law would be this: war is not an option. … My refusal to serve is a moral choice – but also a political one. It’s a declaration: we can, and must, fight for change without picking up weapons. Precisely by refusing to pick them up.”
Finally, Halil Karapasaglou, Cyprus: “From the earth to the sky, everything is surrounded by weapons. The human has forgotten to share the sky with the birds and the earth with the ants. … Conscientious objection is civil disobedience to the master. The conscientious objectors of the world must unite with the oppressed of the entire world.”
Addressing the UN General Assembly on September 25, the President of Bolivia, Luis Alberto Catacora, suggested that “we should declare the world as a zone of peace and promote demilitarization as far as possible. … Just 1/3 of military expenditure would give us better education, health and housing guaranteed for everyone. The UN has to become a pact for peace and for life as the shared destiny of everyone who believes in living together.” Well, that’s always been the goal of the white poppies campaign, and the declared aim of the United Nations.
A Pact for Peace, a Zone of Peace: from the Earth to the Sk
