Action was the newspaper of the British Union of fascists under Oswald Mosley from 1936 until 1940. This cover promotes the  ”stand by our king” campaign, which stood against the National government’s calls for monarch Edward VIII to abdicate, who was, at the very least, complimentary towards Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Hitler himself was quoted directly by Speer as having reported the regrettable situation of Edward’s abdication, insisting that, had he maintained the throne, “friendly relations” would have continued.  As for Edward himself, upon the outbreak of war, he stated that “it would be a tragic thing for the world if Hitler was overthrown,” and historians argue that if his position as king be maintained, Anglo-German relations would have aided the success of the Nazis in the second world war, and following this, allow Edward to continue a puppet monarch under a Nazi Britain. This appeared to be his intention, having said that;”after the war is over and Hitler will crush the Americans…they (the British) don’t want me as their King, but I’ll be back as their leader.”    

4:13 am  •  13 February 2012  •  11 notes

Proclamation of the Irish Republic, 1916.

The proclamation, composed by senior members of the IRB, Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army, was read out by Patrick Pearse on the steps of Dublin General Post Office on the 24th April 1916, signalling the start of the Easter Rising.

The proclamation made the executive of the IRB the government of the Irish Republic, until a permanent national government could be elected by “the suffrages of all her men and women”. The state claimed sovereignty over all 32 Counties of Ireland, even the staunchly nationalist counties that now make up Northern Ireland, and sought to create an Irish State completely independent from British Rule.

Although the Easter Rising was unsuccessful, following the 1918 election, a Sinn Fein victory asserted the legitimacy of the Republic, and it continued to assert sovereignty over Ireland during the War Of Independence. It ceased to exist as an entity after the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and the subsequent creation of the Irish Free State.

12:07 pm  •  22 December 2011  •  20 notes

The Black and Tans search an Irish civilian under the Restoration Of Order In Ireland Act of 1920.

The Black and Tans were a paramilitary force, set up by the British administration in Ireland to aid the Royal Irish Constabulary in extinguishing the activities of the Irish Republican Army, alongside the Auxiliaries. While the Auxiliaries consisted of trained and disciplined army officers, the Black and Tans were drawn from the rank and file of the British Army, who were left unemployed by the end of the war. Clad in distinctive khaki trousers, with dark green blazers and berets, the Black and Tans quickly gained a reputation for drunkenness, cruelty, and brutality against civilians as well as suspected ‘Sinn Feinners’. 

The IRA campaign of ambushing RIC men and assassinating senior members of the British administration was met with vicious reprisals from the Black and Tans, with entire villages being destroyed, as well as Cork city centre. 

The Black and Tans are most remembered for their involvement in the Croke Park massacre of 21st November 1920, in which civilians watching a Gaelic Football match were shot in a reprisal attack, after the IRA had assassinated several senior members of the RIC, and the ‘Cairo Gang’ of detectives the British used to gather intelligence on the IRA.

The conduct of the Black and Tans still sticks in the minds of the Irish population, even those who weren’t alive during the war (With my granddad referring to them as “Those tan bastards”), and in many ways advanced the cause of the IRA and Sinn Fein, as they now had the support of the population in attacking the British administration that had allowed such atrocities to be inflicted on them.

12:24 pm  •  15 December 2011  •  17 notes

cultured-fuck reblogged your photo: The Ranters were alleged to be one of many…

I delivered a seminar on these guys on thursday. I shan’t point out the one mistake, cos am nice

please do, it wouldn’t be nasty of you, it’d just help to patch up the holes in our knowledge :) any sharing of your knowledge of the subject would be greatly appreciated.

4:53 pm  •  27 November 2011

The Ranters were alleged to be one of many religious sects in the early modern English Commonwealth (the seventeenth century), and were regarded as heretical by the established Church of that period. They were promoted as such, with pamphlets and other materials condemning the group, along with other religious so-called sects such as the Anabaptists and She-preachers. The Ranter’s beliefs centred on the concept that God itself, as a spiritual entity, existed only within ones person, and not as an outside force, and so denounced religious institutions. They embraced antinomianism, believing that moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation. Because of this, the Ranters gained an unfavourable reputation, seen as hedonists known for their excesses with drinking, smoking, sexual practices etc, such as the image suggests, with (controversially for the time) women presented as prominent members of the community, lewd sexual practices, and nudity. Pamphlets such as this one helped to marginalise the group, and due to their distinct lack of a plan of action, very little are known from evidence in print of the Ranter’s actual nature. 

6:33 am  •  26 November 2011  •  15 notes

Suicide In The Trenches - Siegfried Sassoon 

I knew a simple soldier boy 
Who grinned at life in empty joy, 
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, 
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum, 
With crumps and lice and lack of rum, 
He put a bullet through his brain. 
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye 
Who cheer when soldier lads march by, 
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know 
The hell where youth and laughter go.

To me, this poem represents the folly of patriotic support of troops who have to live out hell for seemingly no cause. And the reason I have placed images of the current war in Afghanistan next to pictures of the battlefield at the Somme river, along with Suicide In The Trenches, is to highlight that very little has been learnt from the horror of WWI, less than you might have thought. Although the slaughters of Verdun, The Somme, Passchendaele and The Marne are not present in modern day conflict, the legacy of the aggression, intimidation and imperialism that triggered WWI remains, and manifests itself in the current war in Afghanistan.

Military action is far from the way forward, no war has ever resulted in a truly positive outcome, and in today’s global culture, military action can never be in any way beneficial to the civilian populations of the belligerents or defenders.

9/11 was a tragic event, made only more tragic by the martyrdom of the victims in the name of the war on terror, which to this day has claimed almost 2 million civilian lives in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the thousands of soldiers who have died, and are dying yet in a senseless and un-winnable conflict.

Tomorrow is 11/11, when Britain and the Commonwealth remember the dead of World War One and honour the sacrifice of soldiers in subsequent wars, and when I participate in the 2 minute silence, my thoughts will be with all those suffering in the world, and it will be my fervent hope that 2012 is the year in which the world seeks to repair the damage done by armed conflict.

(Source: elementsofthepast)

3:00 pm  •  10 November 2011  •  3 notes

The Battle Of Culloden 17 April 1746.

The Jacobite Uprising of 1745 saw Charles Edward Stuart attempting to overthrow the Hanoverian George II, and restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne of Great Britain. 

After a successful campaign in England, Charles returned to Scotland under the false pretence that a large English army was blocking their way to London, waiting for him in Scotland was an English army of 8000 under the Duke Of Cumberland.

The demoralised and under equipped Highland army met with the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden Moor, and faced up against musket troops who had been drilled to combat the highlander’s style of fighting, were repulsed, and then slaughtered after a demoralising retreat.

The aftermath of Culloden was murderous, the English force gave no quarter to the wounded, killing all who remained on the field, and when Cumberland chased the remaining Jacobites into the Highlands, he slaughtered all those who sheltered the rebels, earning him the nickname ‘Butcher’.

The Legislation that followed more or less destroyed the Highland way of life, banning traditional weapons, tartan and bagpipes, as well as confiscating the land of many resident; and to me indicates a sadder truth about British Imperialism. As much as we look back on the history of Empire and remark on how it has made us a multicultural nation, tolerant of all the cultures we have encountered, it is impossible to ignore incidents where entire ways of life were annhilated when they came to be at odds with ours.

2:42 pm  •  20 October 2011  •  28 notes

A primitive Methodist chapel, taken in 1912.

Methodism is a denomination of Christianity, founded by Theologian and Anglican Minister John Wesley, as a movement within the Church Of England (Later splitting in 1791 to form a separate chruch, after Wesley’s death). Methodism focused on a methodical (‘Methodist’ was originally used as a term to insult Wesley, as he studied to become an Anglican minister at Oxford) approach to interpreting the scripture, and lessons in Gospel rather than ceremonies and traditions that dominated the Anglican Church; Methodism harnessed the spirit of the reformation, preaching that the common man could communicate with god, and that the establishment was not needed to experience Jesus’ love. 

Methodism was one of a number of nonconformist churches that formed in the Industrial Revolution, their popularity can be attributed to the traditional Parish system of the Church Of England not applying to new industrial cities.

The changes that Methodism brought about in society are still felt today, the idea that a working man, or even an impoverished beggar could communicate with God inspired people to demand political change, the bible study sessions enabled workers to learn how to read, and the idea of a mass movement of workers defying the traditional establishment contributed to the ideals of Socialism (Although John Wesley is spinning in his grave as I type these words)

1:42 pm  •  15 September 2011  •  7 notes

prince Leopold of Hohenzollern.

The Hohenzollern candidature incident involved the transferral of power to a new monarch following the abdication of queen Isabella of Spain in 1868. Leopold, a member of the dynasty, was suggested to take the appointment. Wilhelm of Prussia was encouraged by the French to refuse the position to him, as it would have meant increased hostilities between the two nations as the essentially German candidate would be expected to propose anti-French policy from Spain if his candidature were to be secured. Wilhelm approved Leopold’s position, who then refused it. in order to secure the extension of Prussian power, Bismarck sent large sums of money as bribes to ensure Leopold took the position, and following this, Leopold agreed. French anger ensued, and again Leopold withdrew his position. Bismarck was enraged by this, and upon receiving a telegram from the French about the matter, struck out sentences and words of the telegram, known as the Ems Telegram, in order to make it appear as an angry response to French rejection to the rule of Spain by the Hohenzollern candidacy for all time. The receiving of this telegram would be such a slight upon French honour that Wilhelm would state, with insight, that “this is war.”

9:16 am  •  2 September 2011  •  10 notes

Members of the Sturmabteilung holding signs encouraging citizens not to shop in the Jewish owned department store Israel’s, April 1st 1933.

Israel’s, like many other Jewish owned businesses was boycotted after the rise of the Nazi Party in 1933, and was ransacked on the night of the 9th November, in what would later be know as kristallnacht (Night of broken glass). After kristallnacht, Israel’s was handed over to a gentile businessman, this will be the main focus of this post.

Millions of pounds of property was seized by the nazis, and handed over to German families, and not only businesses but family homes, and with the resettling of Jews to ghettos, huge districts of Warsaw were emptied of their rightful owners. To this day, there are still descendants of those evicted from their now valuable homes in central Warsaw, who claim legal ownership of the property, and several high profile legal battles are now progressing, trying to establish whether the Jewish or German relatives own the properties seized by the Nazis.

Obviously, one would leap to the conclusion that it belongs to the Jews, they had it stolen from them, and they have the right to claim it back, however, the descendants of the Germans have as much claim, how attached are they to the crimes of the Third Reich? They weren’t born when the crime was commited, and why shouldn’t they be entitled to inherit the house they grew up in?

This case serves to remind me, if not all of you that even though WW2 seems like centuries ago, the implications are still with us, and they are as tangible as a legal battle over a house. History often feels like something that lives in the past, but that’s far from the truth, we live with it every day.

6:01 pm  •  1 September 2011  •  23 notes

The siege of the Four Courts in Dublin during the Irish Civil War (June 1922)

After the signing of Anglo-Irish treaty, the IRA split into factions opposing the treaty (Who would remain the IRA) and those who ratified it (Who became the army of the Free State). This divide was made clear by the IRA seizing Four Courts in Dublin, and many other buildings in the area; effectively declaring war on the Free State.

The then leader of the Free State, Michael Collins was initially reluctant to use force against the IRA, trying desperately to avoid civil war, but by June 1922, he was forced to fire on his comrades, in what was probably one of the most heartbreaking acts of his military career. 

The fighting spread across Dublin, but the superior forces of the Free State eventually ended the uprising, but started a war that would create more devastation than the War Of Independence.

7:11 am  •  25 August 2011  •  15 notes

picturesofwar:

East German soldier Conrad Schumann, age 19, jumping over the Berlin Wall in its third day of construction (at this point a short barb wire fence) and into West Germany after being instigated by West Berliners.  He was then driven away by a speeding car to freedom.

Even after the Berlin Wall fell he was hesitant to go back to the east and see his parents and old comrades/friends.  

Suffering from depression, he killed himself in 1998 at the age of 56, nine years after the wall fell.

August 16, 1961 - 50 years ago today.

(Source: picturesofwar, via enigmaland)

5:17 pm  •  16 August 2011  •  50 notes

In post WW1 Britain, unemployment reached two million as men returned from the military in search of work, and war contracts were completed. The resulting unrest included the strike of workers in Glasgow, whereby over 100,000 workers turned out to attend demonstrations, to demand prevention of further job cuts and the maintenance of wages that could be alleviated by the reduction in work hours. The name “bloody Friday” had been given to the event, after police forces enforced a baton charge upon the allegedly peaceful crowds, starting large scale violence between protesters and police officers.

9:05 am  •  16 August 2011  •  7 notes

The Ulster Covenant was a document signed by just under half a million unionists during the reading of the 3rd Government Of Ireland Act (Home Rule). It detailed loyalty to the King, and Ulster’s eternal bond with Great Britain and her Empire, as well as mentioning how disastrous Home Rule would be on the “material well-being of Ulster as well as of the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire”. Some were so devoted to the idea of Unionism that they signed the document in their own blood.

The Ulster Covenant highlighted the vehement opposition Asquith was going to face in imposing Home Rule in Ulster, and led to the establishment of the UVF, an organisation sworn to fight to the death to prevent Home Rule being enforced in Ulster.

It’s difficult to imagine what possessed Asquith at this point, he continued with his much berated ‘wait and see’ policy, hoping that Carson and Craig would eventually concede ground and allow Home Rule to continue, despite the creation of a paramilitary force and almost half a million ulstermen binding themselves to god in their conviction to destroy Home Rule.

2:39 pm  •  11 August 2011  •  29 notes

Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi and SS senior storm-unit leader, and was an infamous leader of proceedings during the holocaust. Eichmann was charged by Heydrich with the organization of the mass deportation of Jewish populations to ghettos or concentration/extermination camps from areas of Eastern Europe occupied by Germany.

Following his serving in the general SS, Eichmann applied to, and was accepted in the active duty regiments of the SS, and was promoted to squad leader, whereby he was delegated to an administrative position in the Dachau concentration camp. However, following this, Eichmann was later promoted to the SS security service, and head squad leader. Eichmann was also involved in the assessment of the possibility of Jewish emigration from Germany to Palestine. The British refused German entry to Palestine to negotiate with leaders over the issue of emigration, and the Arab population objected to a Jewish state in Palestine, so the possibility of the deportation of all the European Jews to Palestine was abandoned. Eichmann would be offered the authority to form the central office for jewish emigration upon his promotion to 1st lieutenant with his organization of SS forces in Vienna following German occupation of Austria with the Anschluss of 1938.

During ww2; Heydrich disclosed to Eichmann in 1941 that the entirety of the Jewish population in German-controlled Europe were to be murdered. Eichmann was put in charge of all the trains that would carry Jews to the concentration camps in the territory of German-occupied Poland, and Hungary, from which 430,000 people were killed. In the closing stages of ww2 it was ordered by Himmler that evidence of the extermination camps and the deportation of Jews to be destroyed, following this, Eichmann went against orders and continued work in Hungary. Following the soviet invasion of Hungary, Eichmann fled and avoided being called up for active service duty by maintaining false identities that allowed him and his family to relocate to Argentina.

During the nineteen fifties it was revealed that the CIA had intelligence on the whereabouts of Eichmann, but did not act upon it, stating that “While the CIA has a continuing interest in the whereabouts and activities of individuals such as Eichmann, we are not in the business of apprehending war criminals, hence in no position to take an active role in this case; that we would, however, be alert for any information regarding Eichmann’s whereabouts and pass it on to appropriate authorities (namely the West German Government) for such action as may be indicated.”

7:28 am  •  27 July 2011  •  13 notes