In the words of last surviving British veteran of WW1 Harry Patch, who died in 2009 aged 111 “It wasn't worth it.” As the effects of WW1 continue to ripple through each of our lives in the present, the ways in which it altered the world irrevocably for the worse continue to make themselves apparent.
A war which beckoned humanity into a century of industrial murder the likes of which it had never before witnessed.
“The English and French say they are fighting in defence of democracy, but they do not wish their words to be heard in Petrograd or Calcutta” said Bertrand Russell at the time.
His words spoke to the hypocrisy of a society in which only 18% of men could vote going to war allied with an absolute autocracy in Tsarist Russia to democratise Germany in which 22% of men could vote. His words spoke to the hypocrisy of a society whose military occupied 12,700,000 miles of the globe going to war in “defence of small nations” to guarantee the neutrality of a country responsible for millions of deaths in the Congo.
My piece Refuse2Kill is dedicated to those who had the foresight to see the trouble ahead and the bravery to let their opposition be known in spite of societal disdain and legal repression.
This song was made in remembrance of their sacrifice in the face of systematised insanity and in recognition of the way they paved for Britain’s anti-war movement.
20,000 men in Britain refused to fight
6,000 were imprisoned
80 died in prison
34 were sentenced to death.
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Written and performed By Lowkey
Film Directed by Iris Abols
Director of Photography - Winstan Whitter
Camera Operator – Chin Okoronkwo
Performers: Joseph Batchelor, Faheem Hussain, Jas Bariah, Soumyajyoti Paul, Adrien Spencer, Jacqueline Ramnarine, Sammy Heaney, Syed J Ahmed, Siana Smith, Sandra Adjei, Keisha Adjei, Garry Cordes.
Film Produced By Ruth Gibbs, Piera Buckland
Executive Producer – Derek Richards
