Wearing the poppy has always been a political act – here's why

The annual argument over the politics of the poppy is well and truly underway. LBC host James O'Brien said that they would not be able to deal with the national symbol of remembrance, because they had effectively "switched sides" and become part of the British struggle during the 20th century.

From a very different stance, Manchester United footballer Nemanja Matic has been moving to explain the role of the world in the fight against terrorism. ). And elsewhere, and the public are debating – what they do every year – the fine details of poppy etiquette: who should wear it, who can not wear it, and for how long?

Understanding the origins of the poppy certainly helps. It started in the immediate aftermath of World War I, when an American woman – Moina Michael – persuaded the newly formed American Legion to adopt the poppy as its symbol of remembrance. John McCrae, In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

As historian Adrian Gregory has explained, "The idea of ​​the child has been made in France by women, for the benefit of children".

In 1921, the British Legion was invited to participate in 1922 – in order to provide employment for disabled veterans – manufacturing of the poppy shifted from France to Britain and the recipients of the ex servicemen in need. The poppy appeal was successfully joined to the charitable fund for the former commander-in-chief of the British forces, Earl Haig.

So in many respects, the origins of the poppy appeal are praiseworthy. Yet "praiseworthy" is not the same as "non-political" – and the origins of the poppy appeal in Britain clearly linked to an organization (the British Legion) and an individual (Earl Haig) who were committed to remembering the Great War a certain way – as something horrific, yet necessary; terrible, yet worthy.

As such, the origins of the poppy are linked to some of the symbols of remembrance produced by "official" culture in the post-1918 period: the Cenotaph, the grave of the Unknown Warrior and the cemeteries established overseas by the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). The sincere (and well meant) statements of the British Legion notwithstanding, there has always been a political side to the poppy.

Poppies for peace

It is this detail that leads to the red poppy back in the 1930s. In 1933, as governments in Western Europe, the Co-operative Women's Guild started to sell a white poppies as a symbol of peace. In 1936, the white poppy was then adopted by the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) which still sells it today.

For the PPU, conscious of the rising tensions of the 1930s, the poppy had lost touch with its origins as a symbol of solemn remembrance. Instead, the PPU feared that the poppy had become compromised by resurgent nationalism. So they offered the white poppy in response – to wear it was to identify oneself as a pacifist willing to contend with the world of the world before the outbreak of World War II.

Bearing this long history in mind, what are the key issues as people discuss and decide whether or not to wear the poppy this Armistice Day, the centennial of the war's end?

First, to buy and wear the red poppy is to badociate oneself with almost a century of war remembrance, activity which has always been (and remains) "political". No society can remember its wars and mourn its dead without ascribing to violence and victims a meaning. The symbols of society – including the red poppy – carry an implicit "politics".

Understood in these terms, the fact that some choose the principle To do so is not to insult the dead, I am deeply sympathetic to such a sentiment and will quite happily defend the right of British Legion's poppy (or indeed the right to wear the white poppy in its stead).

For those who declare that such acts are unacceptable, I would simply say that they – as in the United States of America – are in a position to defend themselves and their rights. , the right to disagree, the right to follow the dictates of one's conscience.

But it is also for this reason that I will wear the red poppy this Sunday. Not a mindless expression of nationalist chauvinism, nor in order to simply make the carnage and catastrophe of 20th-century war. Rather, like so many others, I will wear the British Legion's poppy as a way to remember those who, on behalf of this nation, have gone to war and not returned.

I will wear it to remember all – men and women, adults and children – who have been killed, maimed, traumatized by conflict. And I will be in a political position while at the same time humbly acknowledging the absolute right of others to do differently, according to their conscience and their politics.

In this respect, and regardless of whether or not you choose this Armistice, you should be prepared to accept – and respect – that others might think and act differently.

More Armistice Articles, written by academic experts:

For more evidence-based articles by academics, subscribe to our newsletter.