On Sunday I had a stall of my work at Momentum’s The World Transformed arts and politics festival at The Black-E in Liverpool. Some of my anti-army recruitment work was on display: ‘Join the Army‘ and my ‘Make Stuff Dead‘ mugs along with flyers for Action Man: Battlefield Casualties. This work is supported and endorsed by 100s of veterans, but why would the right-wing press let that get in the way of an opportunity to smear Jeremy Corbyn?My favourite part of the whole thing was Tory MP Johnny Mercer calling me a “Britain hating anarchist who knows the value for nothing” in The Sun’s online article. The story was originally posted by Guido Fawkes and picked up by the Daily Mail who went fully haywire and claimed the stall was actually at the Labour party conference. But the journamislm required to find out that wasn’t the case would have detracted from the DISGUSTED OUTRAGE. It was also strange to see the press such as The Times claim soldiers were deeply offended by my ‘Make Stuff Dead’ mugs while my twitter feed was full of soldiers asking me where they could buy one. (Here, in case you were wondering) Today Veterans for Peace UK have released a statement about the press reaction to this work. It is a powerful and eleoquent refutation of the media’s use of soldiers for political ends. You can read the full thing on their website. Here’s an excerpt: VETERANS BACK “SICK TOYS” “Let us be clear. The superb ‘Army, Be The Meat’ project and the ‘Action Man: Battlefield Casualties‘ films, which were launched 18 months ago, are nothing to do with Labour or Momentum.The credit belongs to the artist who conceived and created it and, spiritually, to the hundreds of veterans who endorsed it. This work […]