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Home » Armed Forces Day

Armed Forces Day

Armed Forces Day 2023: militarism comes to Cornwall

This year the national Armed Forces Day event is being held in Falmouth, Cornwall. Many other events are being held around the country. We outline our concerns, including how the event is marketed, its promotion to young people and schools, and the inclusion of recruitment activities that allow young children to handle weapons.


Warrior Nation podcast: Unpacking Armed Forces Day

June 2022


Embedding the Covenant

Over the last decade, local authorities and thousands of private and public organisations across the UK have pledged to promote the military through events such as Armed Forces Day. We explore how the Armed Forces Covenant enables this and how plans to further embed it in law are more widely problematic.


Warrior Nation podcast – What’s wrong with Armed Forces Day?

June 2020

In the first episode of our second series, we talk about Armed Forces Day with Symon Hill of the Peace Pledge Union, the pacifist campaigning organisation.


Armed Forces Day is a propaganda tool for arms firms and the military – and the public are footing the bill

29/06/2019Joe Glenton, The Independent

Joe Glenton in The Independent about the 10th year of Armed Forces Day, an annual day of 'family-fun' and celebration of militarism, with heavy costs to local councils and the involvement of some of the world's largest arms companies.


#ResistMilitarism on Armed Forces Day 2018

In the run up to Armed Forces Day on 30 June we provide background information on how this and other public events are part of a concerted effort to increase general support for the military amongst the public, stifle criticism and recruit young people. We list events that challenge the militarism of Armed Forces Day with messages of peace and resistance.


The concerted effort to increase the power of the military across society must be challenged

As support for the military is paraded in streets across the UK at Armed Forces Day events, politicians charged with fighting the military's corner are waging their own war on public and political opinion. This article was published in The Morning Star on 2 July 2018  


Warrior Nation – ‘the hidden power of the military’

The apparent threat by the Defence Secretary to bring down the Prime Minister should she fail to stump up more billions for the armed forces formed the background to the launch of a major new report on 25 June. Warrior Nation: War, militarisation and British democracy examines the relationship between recent conflicts and the wider power of the military in society and politics.


War Hurts Everybody

Leicester for Peace report on their 'War hurts everybody' vigil at Leicester Armed Forces Day on was 23 June.


Protesting Armed Forces Day in Liverpool

A tale of two cities: a personal reflection on the display of the UK's potential for armed violence on the streets of Liverpool alongside its more radical history. This article was originally published by Souciant Magazine.


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Today, on Saturday, June 24th, Liverpool is hosting Armed Forces Day in Britain. Armed Forces Day is a relatively new occasion in the UK; it began as Veterans’ Day, in 2006, and was then renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009 in response to declining public support for the armed forces. Events take place across the UK (this year there are over 350), and local councils bid to host the national event – for which they receive a small amount of government funding and sponsorship, and also spend significant amounts of their own money. As someone who has spent much of her life near Liverpool, I am surprised and dismayed by how a city with so much radical history is now being treated as a celebration ground for the British military. I grew up in a small town near Liverpool, and in my teenage years, the city centre was my weekend haunt. My favourite street was right outside Liverpool Central Station – Bold Street, lined with independent and ever-changing cafes, shops and food from all over the world – leading up to the bombed-out church, as we called it (I only know now, years later, that it’s called St Luke’s Church). One of my favourite places to visit was News from Nowhere, a radical bookshop that feels vibrant, warm, open, outspoken and welcoming – like the city itself.… Read more
Today, on Saturday, June 24th, Liverpool is hosting Armed Forces Day in Britain. Armed Forces Day is a relatively new occasion in the UK; it began as Veterans’ Day, in 2006, and was then renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009 in response to declining public support for the armed forces. Events take place across the UK (this year there are over 350), and local councils bid to host the national event – for which they receive a small amount of government funding and sponsorship, and also spend significant amounts of their own money. As someone who has spent much of her life near Liverpool, I am surprised and dismayed by how a city with so much radical history is now being treated as a celebration ground for the British military. I grew up in a small town near Liverpool, and in my teenage years, the city centre was my weekend haunt. My favourite street was right outside Liverpool Central Station – Bold Street, lined with independent and ever-changing cafes, shops and food from all over the world – leading up to the bombed-out church, as we called it (I only know now, years later, that it’s called St Luke’s Church). One of my favourite places to visit was News from Nowhere, a radical bookshop that feels vibrant, warm, open, outspoken and welcoming – like the city itself.… Read more
Today, on Saturday, June 24th, Liverpool is hosting Armed Forces Day in Britain. Armed Forces Day is a relatively new occasion in the UK; it began as Veterans’ Day, in 2006, and was then renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009 in response to declining public support for the armed forces. Events take place across the UK (this year there are over 350), and local councils bid to host the national event – for which they receive a small amount of government funding and sponsorship, and also spend significant amounts of their own money. As someone who has spent much of her life near Liverpool, I am surprised and dismayed by how a city with so much radical history is now being treated as a celebration ground for the British military. I grew up in a small town near Liverpool, and in my teenage years, the city centre was my weekend haunt. My favourite street was right outside Liverpool Central Station – Bold Street, lined with independent and ever-changing cafes, shops and food from all over the world – leading up to the bombed-out church, as we called it (I only know now, years later, that it’s called St Luke’s Church). One of my favourite places to visit was News from Nowhere, a radical bookshop that feels vibrant, warm, open, outspoken and welcoming – like the city itself.… Read more
Today, on Saturday, June 24th, Liverpool is hosting Armed Forces Day in Britain. Armed Forces Day is a relatively new occasion in the UK; it began as Veterans’ Day, in 2006, and was then renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009 in response to declining public support for the armed forces. Events take place across the UK (this year there are over 350), and local councils bid to host the national event – for which they receive a small amount of government funding and sponsorship, and also spend significant amounts of their own money. As someone who has spent much of her life near Liverpool, I am surprised and dismayed by how a city with so much radical history is now being treated as a celebration ground for the British military. I grew up in a small town near Liverpool, and in my teenage years, the city centre was my weekend haunt. My favourite street was right outside Liverpool Central Station – Bold Street, lined with independent and ever-changing cafes, shops and food from all over the world – leading up to the bombed-out church, as we called it (I only know now, years later, that it’s called St Luke’s Church). One of my favourite places to visit was News from Nowhere, a radical bookshop that feels vibrant, warm, open, outspoken and welcoming – like the city itself.… Read more
Today, on Saturday, June 24th, Liverpool is hosting Armed Forces Day in Britain. Armed Forces Day is a relatively new occasion in the UK; it began as Veterans’ Day, in 2006, and was then renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009 in response to declining public support for the armed forces. Events take place across the UK (this year there are over 350), and local councils bid to host the national event – for which they receive a small amount of government funding and sponsorship, and also spend significant amounts of their own money. As someone who has spent much of her life near Liverpool, I am surprised and dismayed by how a city with so much radical history is now being treated as a celebration ground for the British military. I grew up in a small town near Liverpool, and in my teenage years, the city centre was my weekend haunt. My favourite street was right outside Liverpool Central Station – Bold Street, lined with independent and ever-changing cafes, shops and food from all over the world – leading up to the bombed-out church, as we called it (I only know now, years later, that it’s called St Luke’s Church). One of my favourite places to visit was News from Nowhere, a radical bookshop that feels vibrant, warm, open, outspoken and welcoming – like the city itself.… Read more
Today, on Saturday, June 24th, Liverpool is hosting Armed Forces Day in Britain. Armed Forces Day is a relatively new occasion in the UK; it began as Veterans’ Day, in 2006, and was then renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009 in response to declining public support for the armed forces. Events take place across the UK (this year there are over 350), and local councils bid to host the national event – for which they receive a small amount of government funding and sponsorship, and also spend significant amounts of their own money. As someone who has spent much of her life near Liverpool, I am surprised and dismayed by how a city with so much radical history is now being treated as a celebration ground for the British military. I grew up in a small town near Liverpool, and in my teenage years, the city centre was my weekend haunt. My favourite street was right outside Liverpool Central Station – Bold Street, lined with independent and ever-changing cafes, shops and food from all over the world – leading up to the bombed-out church, as we called it (I only know now, years later, that it’s called St Luke’s Church). One of my favourite places to visit was News from Nowhere, a radical bookshop that feels vibrant, warm, open, outspoken and welcoming – like the city itself.… Read more

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