Leicester: International Conscientious Objector Day

Leicester memorial stone honours 250 men who refused to fight in WW1

Conscientious Objector Day was marked on Saturday with many events around the world. Theresa Alessandro writes from Leicester:

Leicester has a memorial stone for conscientious objectors on Peace Walk in the city's Victoria Park. Members of Leicester CND, including Penny Walker, worked hard to get this stone placed in 2016. It reads:

"The right to conscientious objection was hard won. We honour the 250 known and many unknown from Leicester and Leicestershire who refused to fight in WW1."

At the time, Penny reported that the original wording was censored by the city council. The peace activists had wanted it to read 'who refused to fight and kill…'

On International Conscientious Objectors Day, Leicester peace campaigners had a presence at the conscientious objector stone for a few hours, giving out leaflets and inviting passers-by to lay a flower. Despite the rain, we gave out 84 leaflets and had many interesting and moving encounters. One group of students, while placing flowers, spoke about an overseas student friend who has decided not to return to his home and family in order to resist conscription into that country's armed forces.

Andrew Bolton of the Community of Christ (a member of the Network of Christian Peacemaker Organisations), led us in preparing an interfaith online event with the theme 'Conscientious Objector for Life'. It was attended by more than 70 people - even though we clashed with the evening's FA cup final which Leicester City went on to win! People joined us from a range of countries and Andrew had organized simultaneous translation into three more languages.

At the event, we were inspired by stories of those who conscientiously resisted war and violence in the past, locally in Leicester and elsewhere in the UK and Europe. There were Lutheran, Quaker, Catholic, Secularist, Community of Christ, Buddhist and Jain stories. In particular, I shared the story of Catholic brothers Peter and Thomas Allen from Nelson in Lancashire. We gained a broader overview of the issues through contributions from: Cyril Pearce who spoke about his latest book 'Communities of Resistance'; Karen Norton, a Masters student, who explained more about European Human Rights Law and Conscientious Objection today; and Kees Nieuwerth, active in Church and Peace and the Council of Churches in the Netherlands, who gave his own peace testimony and made some practical suggestions.

Finally, we lifted our spirits with peace songs from the local choirs, Red Leicester and Global Harmony.

You can watch the one-hour event recording here: https://youtu.be/K8GJm1a3Wnk

'Oh deep in my heart I do believe, we shall overcome some day!'

(With special thanks to Valerie Flessati and Matt Jeziorski of Pax Christi England & Wales who gave some additional background on Peter and Thomas Allen.)