Peace Movement Starts Easter Marches

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Peace Movement Starts Easter Marches

Demonstrators took to Germany's streets Friday, kicking off the traditional Easter peace marches. This year the main issues of protest are the social effects of German government reforms, plans to expand the German military's activities abroad as well as calls for condemning the Iraq war. But participation has so far been low, especially compared to last year's turnout, when ten thousands of protesters voiced their opposition to the Iraq war. Around 350 demonstrators took part in the march in Chemnitz, organizers said, the biggest so far. Events, including demonstrations on bicycle and religious services calling for peace, are planned in more than 60 German cities over the Easter holiday. The largest activities are expected Sunday. Peace marches have been held in Germany since 1960, two years after they were first kicked off in London by British philosopher Bertrand Russell.

http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_1166224_1_A,00.html



It seems the Peace symbol surfaced on letters from the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War in its original form as early as March 1958. Bertrand Russell was a member of this committee and through his writings has left us with an unmistakable history of when, where and who created the Peace Sign. Here are quotes from letters Bertrand Russell wrote in response to H. Pickles from Lichthort Verlag who wrote to complain that the peace symbol was a death symbol because the arms pointed downwards. Russell's reply: ``I am afraid that I cannot follow your argument that the ND badge is a death-symbol. It was invented by a member of our movement as the badge of the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War, for the first Aldermaston March. It was designed from the naval code of semaphore, and the symbol represents the code letters for ND. To the best of my knowledge, the Navy does not employ signallers who work upside down.''

So there you have it, the Navy code of semaphore is the flag signalling system. The letters


D:


N:

Surprized??? Well it does make sense in a way. But who created the symbol and why?? Read on,...

"Gerald Holtom is in fact widely credited with the design of the nuclear disarmament symbol (aka the peace symbol). The earliest reference I could find is in American journalist and playwright Herb Greer's _Mud Pie_ (London: Parrish, 1964). A little before the first Aldermaston march at Easter 1958, Holtom showed up at the offices of _Peace News_ in London with drawings for banners and the symbol: "On a purple square was superimposed a white circle with a purple cross inside it, or almost a cross. The arms had slipped and were drooping against the lower sides of the circle. Holtom had made the design by combining the semaphore letters N and D: N for nuclear and D, naturally, for disarmament." (P. 30) Holtom was a commercial artist with, it seems, a "visual aid factory". Greer says he put his factory in Twickenham to making "lollipop signs" marked with the droopy cross. In a recent correspondence through email he added, "I was actually there on and before the first Aldermaston March for which it was created. I visited Holtom, I saw the original sketches and discussed it with him. The reason for the symbol being upside down (D over N) is that semaphore is a military code. Upside down, anti-military." For a much later account by a famous march organizer who witnessed Holtom's presentation, see Michael Randle, "Non-Violent Direct Action in the 1950s and 1960s", in Richard Taylor and Nigel Young, _Campaigns for Peace: British Peace Movements in the Twentieth Century_ (Manchester: Manchester U. Press, 1987), p. 134. The symbol was to appear at either end of banners stretching from one side of a streetful of marchers to the other."

Now you may say is there anything else you can tell us about the Peace Sign?? Of course!!

"From a design point of view, it is interesting to note that the original sketches are preserved at the School of Peace Studies, Bradford University (ibid., p. 159). The original symbol wasn't just sticks in a thinly bounded circle. The ends of the "arms" and "legs" thicken and splay out noticeably as they approach the circumference. And the circle itself is thick -- when it has an outer edge. (Thus there are at least 2 designs.) You can see the original symbol on the banners and "lollipops" of the marchers in plates in another book by Taylor, _The Protest Makers_ (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1980). The thickening itself has two versions: in one, all the straight strokes are thickened; in the other, only those in the lower half of the circle. Both are amply represented here in literature preserved by Bertrand Russell from his days at the head of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Committee of 100. Some are eminently scannable, too. The original designs are much nicer than what might be termed the sanserif abstraction that took over the banners by 1961."

So there you have it !

http://www.peaceday.org/pcsign.htm





Bush says it's ``hard to tell'' if casualties will keep mounting ...
http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&oi=news&start=0&num=3&q=http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg%3Farticleid%3D1564

American opposition to Iraq war grows with violence, casualties
http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&oi=news&start=1&num=3&q=http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/79630/1/.html

UN alarmed over number of casualties in Iraq
http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&oi=news&start=2&num=3&q=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/610546.cms

Iraq Coalition Casualties
http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

Casualties in Iraq - 2004
http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/casualties.html

Iraq Body Count
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

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1. happy easter

Goin' to the in-laws

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2. kick

:kick: