![[Freelance]](../gif/fl3H.png)
Every casualty counts
FOR London Freelance Branch 2025 has been a year of vigils held for the unprecedented number of journalists assassinated reporting the genocide in Gaza. November is the month of official remembrance and on Sunday 10 November the annual National Alternative Remembrance Service was held in London's Tavistock Square, in front of the memorial stone for conscientious objectors - also with a focus on the meaning of the White Poppy.
Sir Mark Rylance addresses the National Alternative Remembrance Service
At the ceremony Rachel Taylor from Every Casualty Counts, along with others, read names of those remembered on the website Memorial 2025; and Sir Mark Rylance read a letter (below) calling on journalists and governments to remember children targeted and killed in wars and genocides: he called for their protection, asking why we allow our arms industries to murder children.
At the London Freelance/UCU event to mark the UN day to end impunity for crimes against journalists on 2 November at King's College London, Tayab Ali - lawyer and founder of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) - reminded us: “Every journalist killed, detained, or tortured is a warning that democracy can die not with a coup, but with a cover story. When journalists are silenced, atrocities go unseen. When the press becomes a threat, justice becomes a target and when truth itself becomes dangerous, law becomes a lie. The protection of journalists is not charity; it's self-defence for our civilisation.”
In our current reality, where more civilians than soldiers are killed in wars and genocides, we must never forget that journalists killed reporting war and genocide are civilians, not military personnel, and are not an enemy target. The Freelance is honoured to publish Sir Mark's letter read at the National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony - we recall that so many of the journalists killed in Gaza are under 30 and they picked up the camera and the microphone to do their duty for their people, we must do our duty and seek justice for these young people targeted for telling the truth.
Note to editors: on the white poppy
Dear Editors,
Some angry comments have been made in the press about my support for wearing the white poppy as well as the red poppy at this important time when, as a nation, we remember those who lost their lives or suffered physical and emotional injury due to war. It has been suggested those wearing white poppies have “hijacked” the red poppy traditions and are “spitting in the face” of the fallen.
But much of this anger arises from misunderstanding. The white poppy was created after World War One to remember BOTH military AND civilian casualties of war. It is not in any way a “hijacking” of the red poppy and is certainly not a spit in the face to those remembering lost comrades, family or friends. Quite the opposite.
If you wish to discover more about the white poppy I advise a visit to the Peace Pledge Union website. And I would also ask you to look at how we treat our brave veterans, which the red poppy purports to support. Do we do enough for them? I don’t think so.
To further explain my thinking, I have written the piece below calling on the counsel of one of characters for which I am best known as an actor, the sage royal adviser Thomas Cromwell. I imagine pictures of me as Cromwell are readily available. Its publication now, as we approach Remembrance Day, would be timely...
Children should not be harmed by adults
An open letter from Sir Mark Rylance, calling on the counsel of his Wolf Hall persona Thomas Cromwell, in the face of recent criticisms of my support for the White Poppy and the question of civilian casualties in war.
WHEN people recognise me in the street I try to guess who it is they are recognising.
Often, they don’t know my actual name, just the name of a not-so-big friendly giant, a Savile Row cutter, an avatar from Ready Player One or the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. And they know much more about the characters I play than about me, as actors are generously granted the personalities of people we only pretend to be.
Of all the characters I have played I wish I had Thomas Cromwell’s mind, at least as Hilary Mantel perceived it in Wolf Hall. Particularly when I feel overwhelmed, as I often do these days, by the world’s troubles. Cromwell was so good when times were bad.
What would Lord Cromwell advise, I ask myself, in our present situation as a nation? And who would he advise? Our King Charles no longer governs in the way of Cromwell’s boss, Henry VIII. Though it may not feel like it, we the people now govern ourselves through elected representatives. So what would Cromwell, the first common man to counsel kings, say to us the common people now?
I think he would carefully consider who we are and what, if anything, we have in common with each other. What fundamental beliefs do we share?
For me, the first cornerstone that comes to mind, with which Cromwell would surely agree, is that children should not be harmed by adults. It’s not right. Anywhere. In our families, our schools, our places of faith, our workplaces, in the street, even in prison. A prisoner who has harmed children often requires isolation to avoid retribution from other inmates.
Children should not be harmed by adults. So here is my question: Why do we approve of it in our international relationships? Not only approve; we encourage it, if the cause is considered “just”.
I feel certain you are as challenged as I am by the daily news of children suffering and dying because of adult conflicts. Am I fair to imagine Cromwell asking us: “No child is responsible for conflict between adults, are they?”
If there was an armed conflict in your neighbour’s house and children were involved, would our police force charge in without regard for the lives of the children? No. The children would be their primary concern, as we would all expect.
My Lord Cromwell, you regularly advised King Henry VIII to avoid war, but what can we do about it?
Statistics recently released show that 2025 is already the most violent year globally since the end of the Second World War. And such violence is up 65 per cent on last year.
Like it or not, and I don’t, we are all involved. Seven per cent of the tax we pay each year goes towards military spending. We arm other nations as well as ourselves, we train soldiers, we make fighter jets, artillery shells and mortar bombs.
And to make matters worse, the targets and victims of this military onslaught have changed. In the early 20th century, roughly 90 per cent of casualties in war were professional soldiers. Now 90 per cent are civilian. Including children.
So, my shrewd and sage Thomas, how can we express our outrage?
He would tell us that in 1916 the English people were the first on the planet to be granted by their government the right of conscientious objection to the killing of people in war. Do we not still have that right? And should it not apply to the seven per cent tax we pay to aid and abet the murder of innocent children? Should we not withhold that tax if our government refuses to extend our collective abhorrence of harming children? Could it not be redirected towards the care and support of our veterans? I don’t believe one of them joined our armed forces to advance the slaughter of children. Quite the contrary, they risked their lives to prevent it. Some of their trauma, much more intense than our civilian trauma watching the news, is caused by this.
I truly believe Thomas Cromwell’s advice to me would be: “Demand your citizens’ right to conscientious objection and give your defence tax to the veterans.”
As I watch so many British citizens of conscience being arrested for protesting, I wonder if Thomas would thus be charged with incitement to break the law? And I wonder also how many of us it would take for the Government to grant us our right of conscientious objection to the murder of children, anywhere in the world.
Remember this quotation: “The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
Who said it? Hermann Goering.
If you wish to discover more, go to Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War at www.conscienceonline.org.uk