British army forced to withdraw from Derry jobs fair

The British army has been forced to withdraw from a jobs fair in Derry today (Tuesday 9 September), after local councillors voiced their disdain at the potential appearance from a military currently participating in genocide.

British army forced to withdraw from Derry jobs fair

The Derry and Strabane Cross Border Job Fair describes itself as providing:

a wide range of employment opportunities from local and cross-border employers.

It is run by the Department for Communities, with assistance from the local council. The event is held on council property at the Foyle Arena leisure centre.

Quoted in the Derry Journal, Sinn Féin councillor Christopher Jackson said:

The British Military has had a negative impact in this island over centuries, they’re not welcome on this island, and from our perspective they’re not welcome in any council event or venue.

Currently the British war machine are involved in atrocities right across the world, and we would not encourage any of the young people from our city and district to become involved in that.

The strong opposition to a British Army presence in Derry is the result of the many crimes it has committed there, most notoriously the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972, in which soldiers fired upon unarmed protestors in the Bogside area of the city, resulting in 14 killed and 16 injured.

Committing atrocities ‘right across the world’

The “atrocities right across the world” referred to by Jackson are best exemplified by Britain’s assistance to so-called Israel, as the Royal Air Force conducts spy flights above Gaza, pumping data to the Israeli Occupation Forces to aid their war crimes. Britain also continues to supply military equipment to the Zionist terror regime.

Shaun Harkin, councillor for People Before Profit, raised the possibility of disruption from protest, saying:

It would be a disaster when it comes to the point of the actual event, which is to encourage people to come and look for employment.

Opposition to the Derry councillors pushing the army out has inevitably come from Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson, who is quoted by the BBC accusing nationalist parties SDLP and Sinn Féin of preventing young people from hearing about potential careers, saying:

No-one will be conscripted or press-ganged into the Army by attending this fair.

Quite how much enthusiasm there might have been from the young people of Derry about going off to die in another pointless act of British adventurism is another matter. A YouGov poll in January 2024 showed:

38% of under-40s…would refuse to serve in the armed forces in the event of a new world war

This was with 30% not interested even if Britain was facing imminent invasion. Such figures would likely be drastically higher in Derry.

Jobs fairs are ‘not a place for British military propaganda’

Despite this clear anti-military sentiment, Europe’s leaders seem intent on dragging the continent into a future conflagration, with Emmanuel Macron quoted in the Canary today seemingly expecting the prospect of 50,000 wounded flooding the hospitals of France next spring, as the country revs up the prospect of war with Russia.

Britain is intent on pursuing growth via military Keynesianism, rather than investment in anything useful, with a promise of 5% of GDP spent on defence by 2035, a move likely to increase the wealth, and consequent political power of arms companies, who will lobby for more war to boost their profits.

Sinn Féin’s Jackson pointed out that the job fair in Derry was “not a place for British Military propaganda”, and to ward off a future marked by perpetual war, this will have to become the default stance for all similar sites across Britain and Ireland.

Featured image via the Canary