The masses on the march: will the demo demanding a general election have the support of this one (the People’s Vote march from 2018?
Posted for information:
I got this reminder the other day from the Arise Festival of left Labour ideas that there’s a demonstration organised in London demanding a general election. I can’t go, but I’m putting it up for those who may be able to.
The People’s Assembly is asking for your continued support to help us take our simple message onto the streets – General Election Now! Let’s say No to another unelected Tory PM.
Full details & spread the word here – Labour bloc details here.‘
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Ugly: this image from Priti Patel’s speech to the Tory conference last year, outliing why she wants to steal your freedom of speech and protest, could illustrate her reactions to the protests against her Policing Bill, across the UK, on January 15. She HATES people and she will do everything she can to grind you into the dirt.
Take a look at this clip from the BBC’s Question Time, in which an audience member points out that, while the possibility of removing a prime minister may be very exciting, it is also a distraction from major issues – like the Tory plan to end democratic protest:
Yes. We are being distracted while meaningful democracy and fundamental rights are being dismantled in plain sight https://t.co/7ZuD7OSUhc
Note the way Fiona Bruce shut the issue down. Clearly it was against the BBC’s agenda to allow anybody to talk about this.
Besides that, though, the audience member was wrong. The attack on our right to protest is connected to the fact that Tories like Boris Johnson thought they could have parties when we weren’t allowed to do the same, and the reason is simple:
They want to be able to do anything they like and know that there will be no consequences for them – because they are shutting down our ability to protest.
The Tories think they can party against the rules and simultaneously imprison us for up to ten years for raising our voices in protest.
Part of that agenda can be revealed by pointing out the lack of BBC – or any mass news media – coverage of a huge number of demonstrations, up and down the UK yesterday (Saturday, January 15), against Priti Patel’s plan to ban protest.
Many thousands of people took to the streets to raise awareness of the threat to our fundamental right of free speech, but the BBC and others did their best to silence them.
It was good to see some Opposition politicians join them – although the support was not wholehearted:
Solidarity with those Labour MPs speaking out against the #PolicingBill today .Have I missed a statement from the Labour front bench and Shadow Home Secretary?
None of Labour’s current top team said a single word about the greatest threat to democracy in our time. It seems they support it.
On the other hand, Jeremy Corbyn – the former Labour leader that Keir Starmer (TelAvivKeef, as he is dubbed here, for reasons explained elsewhere) had booted out of the Parliamentary Labour Party – was exactly where they should have been: with the people, explaining why the protest is necessary:
Number of tweets about today's #KillTheBill protests by Labour's "forensic four":#TelAvivKeef: 0 Rachel Reeves: 0 Yvette Cooper: 0 David Lammy: 0
Remember that when they claim to be on *your* side.
You need to be aware of what is happening, though.
And you need to contact your MP to demand that it is stopped.
With their overwhelming numerical superiority in Parliament, the Tories are going to push through this crime against your rights – which will come with a prision sentence of up to 51 weeks if you are caught breaking the new law – unless they are made to believe that it will make them unpopular.
Recent history, though, shows that most people are happier just curling up into a ball and hiding on their sofas while our Parliamentary parasites run roughshod over them.
Did I just describe you?
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Police at one of the Easter Saturday ‘Kill the Bill’ demonstrations: who do you think is being more violent here?
Dozens of demonstrations against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill took place across the UK on Saturday (April 3).
I held off reporting on them because I wanted to see how the national media covered the protests first.
Remember my article on how the media try to turn the public against ordinary people by slanting their stories, from a few weeks ago? Here’s a reminder:
First the press [respond] … by reporting it in ‘passive voice’. Reports stated ‘clashes occurred…’ or ‘clashes between protesters and police’. Words carefully chosen to not indicate who had started the clashes (the police) and who had been on the receiving end of the majority of the violence (those attending…)
They will report on any police injuries ‘six police received medical attention due to the protest’ they might say… It is very rare that figures are collected for how many protesters were injured, and the assumption may be that this means that number is zero, and the police were thus on the receiving end of more violence than they dished out.
Many news outlets chose to term everyone present as ‘protesters’.
Politicians… chime in condemning the ‘violence’ caused by ‘protesters’.
Now let’s have a look at some reports from the police and the mainstream media.
At least one officer has been injured after clashes between police and demonstrators at a "Kill the Bill" protest in central London.
Today’s policing operation is still ongoing and arrest numbers may rise, but at this time, 26 people have been arrested for a variety of offences. Ten police officers received injuries during the operation; none of these are believed to be serious.
— Metropolitan Police Events (@MetPoliceEvents) April 3, 2021
Two police officers were sent to hospital in Bristol after a protest against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. https://t.co/k2XBJix758
— Twitter Moments UK & Ireland (@UKMoments) March 22, 2021
How many members of the public were injured?
Manchester Kill the Bill march ends in disorder as fight breaks out amongst crowd and police swarm on protesters sat on tram trackshttps://t.co/OGsFMdegHz
Agents provocateurs? Police plants? We’ve seen evidence of those in recent demonstrations.
Members of the public saw matters from a different angle – such as the following, showing a policeman very clearly kneeling on the neck of a member of the public. Shades of George Floyd?
A slightly clearer angle of this incident, sent to me by someone else, that appears to show a police officer with his knee on the neck of a #KillTheBill protester in Parliament Square. pic.twitter.com/wCeCSMj4gU
The best that could be suggested is that the Met’s spokespeople may have been accidentally looking at a different incident in which somebody was indeed kneeling on a person’s back. Of course, this would imply that they make a habit of attacking members of the public in this way. Not a good look!
And their images of protests around the UK were similarly divergent from the impression being pushed by the police and the press:
— The Churchill Project (@WinstonCProject) April 3, 2021
The ‘Kill the Bill’ protests (which are about terminating the Police Bill, not the ‘Old Bill’ which is a colloquial name for the police themselves) have been supported by opposition MPs like Jeremy Corbyn…
Mr Corbyn said the bill would prevent protest without police approval.
Speaking in Parliament Square in central London, Mr Corbyn invoked figures such as the suffragettes and Nelson Mandela as he urged the crowd to oppose the bill.
“Stand up for the right to protest, stand up for the right to have your voice heard,” he said.
“I want a society where it is safe to walk the streets, where you can speak out, you can demonstrate and you don’t have to seek the permission from the police or the home secretary to do so,” he said.
… and Zarah Sultana:
Our rights were won through protest, from the right to vote to anti-discrimination laws.
The Tories know there’s power on the streets. That’s why they’re attacking the right to protest.
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Napier barracks: I believe this is one of the images that led to the police arresting Andy Aitchison. But if he was behind a camera, how could he have been carrying out criminal damage?
Whoever would have predicted that the United Kingdom would descend to this?
The Conservative government, under xenophobic Home Secretary Priti Patel, has opened a series of concentration camps where they have dumped hundreds of asylum-seekers.
The camps have inadequate and poorly cooked food, no privacy, and inadequate shower and toilet facilities.
Camp residents are unable to socially distance, or to take proper precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
They have to sleep in dormitories of up to 28 people – which is probably why more than 100 people at the Napier Barracks camp in Kent have contracted the virus in the last two weeks.
The Home Office reaction was to blame people living in the camp, saying residents (inmates would be a better word) refused to self-isolate or follow social distancing rules that they could not have followed because of the conditions forced on them by the Home Office.
Conditions there led to activists protesting outside the site on Thursday morning, where they allegedly threw buckets of food colouring, water and shampoo or conditioner – fake blood – at the gate and on the ground in front of the gate.
Demonstrators had signs reading: “Close Napier now” and “Priti Patel: there will be blood on your hands”.
Freelance photographer Andy Aitchison attended and took photographs, some of which appeared in local press reports of the protest.
Around six hours after the protest, matters took a sinister turn when police arrived at Mr Aitchison’s house and arrested him for criminal damage.
Really? Criminal damage? He took some photos of a demonstration that was embarrassing to the Conservative government and to Priti Patel and this arrest looks like suspicious use of the police for political purposes.
On Friday afternoon (January 29), a fire broke out in the camp – cause unknown. Fortunately Mr Aitchison can’t be blamed – one of his bail conditions is not to go to the camp.
Patel herself had the cheek to publish a statement accusing people at the barracks of vandalising property, threatening staff and putting lives at risk.
She actually told us that this behaviour was “deeply offensive to the taxpayers of this country”:
Napier Barracks has been deliberately run down for decades. Surrounded by housing development as the land was sold by the MofD. It is nothing but a slum that could make even the Gorbals from the 60's appear luxury in comparison. https://t.co/PmtGaTU0b4
No, Priti Patel. You are deeply offensive to the taxpayers of this country. You have made us complicit in providing facilities of such poor quality that they actually endanger the lives of the people you force to live there.
This Writer thinks there should be an investigation into what is happening at Napier Barracks and any connection between that and Patel.
I think the use of the police to intimidate a photojournalist for doing his job must also be probed.
Sadly, I know the UK’s institutions are as corrupt as they come. No such investigations will happen and if there has been corrupt behaviour, those responsible will be protected. Over the last 40 years, it’s what we’ve all been voting for.
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The rally – which crossed the line into rioting very early in the proceedings – was held to oppose a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration planned for that day, but BLM organisers cancelled their event because they can recognise a gang of ugly, thugly racists when they see it.
It’s a shame the BBC can’t – especially as the Corporation’s child-facing arms have been so good at addressing the issue of racism for our younger citizens. Consider this, from the Blue Peter presenters…
And we can’t help but note that this behaviour is at odds with the Beeb’s treatment of left-wing protestors, or even the anti-racists of Black Lives Matter:
Media talk in the new normal:
Far-right fascists – Counter-protestors. #BlackLivesMatter protestors – hard-left extremist Marxist anarchist cop-smashing fundamentalists inspired by the bearded demon Corbyn and anyone that ever supported him.
What’s the matter, BBC news editors? Are you frightened of a few beer-bellied, tattooed twits?
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Nazis: it seems Tory MP Henry Smith shares their view.
People often forget that Karl Marx was Jewish.
Isn’t it interesting, then, that among all the clamour for statues of racists across the UK to be removed from positions glorifying them, a Conservative MP thought it was appropriate to have a stab at Marx?
Tories 2015-2020: Let's deflect from all the racism and bigotry in our own party by banging on about how bad antisemitism is.
Tories now: Let's desecrate a Jewish grave because we hate his critique of capitalism. https://t.co/nuLMgVuRPb
The typical claim is that “socialist”* regimes have killed “100 million” people. This always includes famines and other things that are blamed on socialism and its supposed inefficiency, for instance, the 36 million people that died during the Chinese famine.
UNICEF, RESULTS, and Bread for the World estimate that 15 million people die each year from preventable poverty, of whom 11 million are children under the age of five. ( one of many sources)
So in 10 years, capitalism kills more children under the age of 5 than socialism did in 150 years.
“But that’s not capitalism’s fault! That’s just scarcity/underdevelopment!”
So why are you blaming 36 million deaths of the Chinese famine on socialism and its inefficiency?
Has a Communist society ever existed as determined By Karl Marx?
No. Even Marx distanced himself from those who had already began distorting his writings in the late 1870’s. Communism as determined by Karl Marx has never existed and would take centuries post revolution to create.
Henry Smith, Tory MP, has a Union Flag symbol on his Twitter handle – which explains a lot:
Will the Conservative authorities take action against their rogue agent here?
No.
But if they don’t, then we can cheerfully conclude that there is at least a group within the Parliamentary Conservative Party that supports the Nazism we saw on our streets yesterday.
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This story will be full of apparent contradictions. It is, in fact, about betrayal.
It features Nazis making stiff-armed salutes next to the Cenotaph, and claiming to be supporting Churchill.
The same people, who say they love the rule of law, have attacked police.
And while claiming to deplore violence at the Black Lives Matter demonstration in London last week, they flew to it within minutes of starting their own demonstration.
There is sense to it – although it’s hard to see because people in authority would prefer you to remain confused – and the mass media support them in that.
This story is best told from the response to the removal of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol last week – triggering a movement to remove other statues glorifying slavers and racists including calls for the removal of the statue to World War II prime minister Winston Churchill in London – and its actual defacement. In fact, the story started decades ago, as we will see.
The threat to Churchill’s effigy seems to have brought every far-right-wing lunatic in the United Kingdom out of the woodwork to demand action to protect a man they claim as an inspirational, ideological leader. Figureheads demanded that every “patriot” – take note of the language – should be in London to defend the statue during the next scheduled Black Lives Matter demonstration in London – on June 13 (today).
Black Lives Matter organisers weren’t having any of that; their demos are always intended to be peaceful and there was a clear threat of violence in the so-called “patriots”‘ call to action. They pulled out and left London to the lunatics.
Meanwhile, the authorities boarded up the statue, leaving nothing for the “patriots” to protect.
They went anyway – and caused scenes that have been branded in the mildest possible terms as a “national disgrace”.
To learn why the far right thought it necessary to scandalise the country – possibly the world – we need to go back many decades, to examine the career of their idol Churchill.
The claim is that they are protecting the legacy of the man whose leadership saved us from Nazism and the politics of Hitler. But the people saying that are the same people who, today, threw Nazi salutes at the cenotaph in an insult to everybody who died to protect us in the 1939-45 war.
These people are not celebrating a victory over fascism!
So what are they celebrating?
Churchill was a racist and an oppressor of his own countryfolk. That is the Churchill the far-right revere.
Look at the Tonypandy riots massacre in Wales in 1910. As Home Secretary, Churchill sent first Metropolitan police officers, then the 18th Hussars – who shot down the striking miners. It is widely believed that he ordered the use of live rounds, although he denied it.
Or shall we talk about his actions in Liverpool, the following year?
How in the name of all that is holy is this the first time I have ever heard about this? I knew about the Welsh miners. I had no idea about this whatsoever. https://t.co/6iguOH2efz
— CrémantCommunarde#ActivistLawyer ⚖️ 😷 ✋ (@0Calamity) June 12, 2020
I’m sure there are other examples but let’s look at the racism:
According to his biographer, John Charmley, Churchill believed in a racial hierarchy and eugenics, and that at the top of this were White Protestant Christians.
He said it was ‘alarming and nauseating’ seeing Gandhi ‘striding half-naked up the steps of the vice-regal palace’ in India. He also said ‘I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion’. So it should be no surprise that he allowed three million people to die in the Bengal famine of 1943, in which Churchill refused to deploy food supplies.
The Bengalis starved because their grain had been sequestered as back up supplies to feed British troops. In the end they weren’t needed. Churchill also said that the famine was their fault for having too many children.
I'm not allowed to say Churchill was responsible for the deaths of 3 million people in Bengal without mentioning his leadership in WW2, but I am allowed to mention his leadership in WW2 without mentioning the 3 million deaths he helped cause. Apparently.
— Jessie is so tired. (@TheJessieKirk) June 12, 2020
This racist also said that ‘Keep Britain White’ was a good slogan for the Tories to go into the 1951 general election.
Let’s look at his attitude to World War II. Boris Johnson has claimed that the former prime minister “saved this country and the whole of Europe from a barbaric fascist and racist tyranny, and our debt to him is incalculable”.
But according to historian of fascism Martin Pugh, Churchill wasn’t opposed to fascism in itself; he was simply concerned that Nazi Germany threatened British interests in the North Sea.
And Peter Hitchens has pointed out that Churchill wasn’t interested in saving the Jews; he was simply honouring treaties with Poland and France. He knew about the extermination camps but neither said nor did anything about them until they were liberated during the allied invasions of Germany and Poland.
My 92 year old father is an expert on Jewish history and anti-Semitism. He has never forgiven Winston Churchill for knowing about the Nazi death camps but failing to act on that knowledge. FDR and the Red Cross were similarly grossly negligent.
So it should be unsurprising that people of good conscience have reached the logical conclusions about Churchill:
The way Churchill is remembered in the UK has always been tied up with ideas of white superiority. Why do you think so many people of colour are critical of the way he's celebrated? The way the far-right are behaving today is terrifying but not surprising.
I have already mentioned Boris Johnson’s history-denying defence of Churchill as a fighter against fascism, when he was no such thing. Is it any surprise, then, that after he was told to “grow a pair” and defend the continuance of the statue (by people like the boxer Tyson Fury), he leapt to it?
“The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny,” he wrote on Twitter yesterday.
“It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should today be at risk of attack by violent protestors. Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial.
“We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history. The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations.”
Sadly, here he is undermined by the UK government itself, which has indeed edited and censored the UK’s collective past:
British Establishment:
“People cannot just go around erasing British history if they don’t like it!”
The news story refers to the destruction of records detailing crimes committed by the British Empire in its colonies, during its final years. Apparently Mr Johnson thinks it is perfectly acceptable to edit and censor the past when it reveals inconvenient facts.
He has attracted appropriate criticism:
Johnson clearly anxious here that any possible future statue of himself not be immediately thrown in the sea. https://t.co/zX7iWjJRXj
What conclusions may we draw so far? That far-right-wingers in the UK made an issue of defending Churchill’s statue because they are racists, just as he was? That they hoped to disrupt the planned Black Lives Matter demonstration in order to beat up black people? That they relied on Boris Johnson for support because he is a racist (“picaninnies with watermelon smiles”, remember. “Letterboxes” and “bank robbers”, remember)? That the Nazi salutes in London today were as much for Johnson as they were for Churchill?
That they were relying on a rise in racism in the UK caused and promoted by successive Conservative governments since 2010 – most especially around the UK’s membership of the European Union and Brexit?
From ‘legitimate concerns’ about immigration to Nazi salutes at the Cenotaph in four years flat. These goons are just a symptom. The disease begins with media & politicians.
The UK urgently needs to recognise what has been unleashed and normalised by Brexit because that is a vital context for what is happening today. Sure, EDL etc have been around for much longer, but the fact is that the far right has never been more emboldened.
— Prof Tanja Bueltmann (@cliodiaspora) June 13, 2020
We should also take note of another aspect of the far-right-wing malady: exceptionalism. They adopt what it suits them to adopt and ignore the inconvenient facts – such as the fact that their ally in support of Winston Churchill, Boris Johnson, also presided over the ejection of Churchill’s grandson from the Conservative Party:
This exceptionalism is especially strong with regard to statues of slavers, racists and other oppressors who, we are told, made Britain “great”:
The statue obsession is another bit of English exceptionalism. We know all about Communist propaganda statues, about the Nazis – some even know about the history of the Conferederate statues in the US – but don’t see that ours are in any way the same.
See, Katarzyna b-m was saying anyone who is uncomfortable with the way people behave in their home (or indeed, home country) – such as their choice of decoration – is welcome to leave. The comment may be considered dog-whistle racism towards Ash, who is a person of colour. But Ash just batted it away with the pertinent observation that, when the British invaded other people’s homes in the time of Empire, they did the exact opposite; instead of leaving, the British changed those other nations and didn’t give a fig about the feelings of the natives.
With these statues, of course, it is native Britons who want rid, so the argument is nonsense. But that’s right-wing exceptionalism for you.
We’re getting close to the events in London today, but should first consider two more elements in this mix: the police and the press. Both have been put between a rock and a hard place.
The police, you see, were prompted into action last week against Black Lives Matter demonstrators – although members of Avon and Someset Constabulary wisely avoided a confrontation with those who pulled down Edward Colston’s statue, even though it was done illegally. The far-right extremists who planned to challenge any demonstration this weekend were claiming to be upholding the rule of law – but their subsequent actions made it clear that this was not true. What were the police supposed to do with them?
And the news media have been instrumental in supporting the rise of racism in the UK over the last few years – faithfully reporting the Tory governments’ claims that immigrants have been responsible for many of the nation’s ills, among other questionable practices. The extremist demonstration in London today was a logical result and progression of these reports – but what sort of treatment did reporters expect if they pointed their cameras at the violence that happened today?
Right-wingers are doing Nazi salutes in front of the Cenotaph … yet the media want you to believe it's the left who don't respect British history!pic.twitter.com/wzqlDoY1vQ
It tells us that racism is still alive and well in the UK and that most of the people in this video clip are there to stick it to the blacks.
Next thing we knew, these people who claimed to be celebrating Churchill the man who led us to victory over the Nazis were performing Nazi salutes in front of the police (and also in front of the cenotaph in an insult to the people whose deaths that monument represents):
Far right thugs, emboldened by their pin up boy Boris Johnson, attacking police. This is what happens when you vote a man into office who has not only said many racist things, but who has declined any opportunity to apologise for them pic.twitter.com/MpLRj3SLDM
Interestingly, the Nazis doing the saluting were again contradicting themselves; they’re all for police brutality against black people (because they’re racists) – but if the cops turn a heavy hand to them, it’s a different story and they react with violence:
I thought they loved the Police and wanted to protect them?
How are you defending Churchill’s statue on the basis that he defeated the Nazis and then doing Nazi salutes in front of his statue?!? The state of it all.
Just to make this clear #BLM in London was cancelled. So no one try to say the peaceful protests are in anyway connected to this 👇 at all. Ever. https://t.co/RDB9fnt22H
— Юридически привилегированный Londongrad (@LPrivileged) June 13, 2020
Bottles, cans and smoke bombs thrown in the last half hour at police and their horses in Parliament Square by football firms/far-right protesters. Anyone who is thought to be media is also being threatened. pic.twitter.com/m0nv91uAsO
Turns out it's the far-right who are the thugs after all. You'd think the opposite from Britain's media, especially of the last 5 years. https://t.co/QbucIzYWAd
A photographer has just had his nose broken at Parliament Square by far-right anti-BLM protestors. I’ll be waiting for the condemnation from the PM and the media.
Right-wing thugs on their anti-black protest in London have broken a journalist's nose. Others shout "wanker" at him and throw stuff as he moves to safety.
Wow the BBC have not reported the Nazi salutes at all and are even giving Paul Golding a quote….wtaf? They are promoting the far right+ still saying BLM are the violent group.
BBC News – Black Lives Matter: Police impose restrictions on London protests https://t.co/g2ilTL0lPf
The United Kingdom remains a hopelessly racist nation.
It is racist because the history we learn reeks of it. Our monuments venerate it. Our government promotes it. And our (white) people take their cue from all three.
This situation will not change because our government – and the most powerful people in the UK – want to keep it the way it is.
It puts us at each others’ throats instead of at theirs.
And why is it about betrayal?
Simple. This overt racism is a betrayal of everyone who has been led to believe that Britain is better than that.
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Over it goes: could there be any more clear ‘down with racism’ demand than the toppling of the statue to slaver Edward Colston in Bristol?
Having been born in Bristol, This Writer is aware of the unsavoury slaver history of Edward Colston, and the reverence in which he has been held has confused me for years.
But, being part of a Bristol family, it was hard to criticise him directly. Many of us have historical links with slavery and until earlier this week, I had believed that my family had such links.
Apparently I was mistaken. A BBC documentary about former Mayor John Kerle Haberfield (a great-(many times)-uncle revealed that he had not been involved with the slave trade and nor were any other of my family on that side. It’s possible that other ancestors were, although I have no evidence to suspect it.
I attended St Mary Redcliffe & Temple School, where around a fifth of the pupils were members of Colston House, named after the slaver. The school changed the house name last year (2019) in favour of African-American female mathematician Katherine Johnson. I was a member of Francombe House, which was less controversially named after a former head teacher of the school.
Campaigners have been working to end the veneration of the slave trader Colston, who ran the Royal Africa Company that enslaved around 12,000 children, for many decades. My understanding is that calls to tear down the statue of Colston were taking place 40 years ago, at least.
So, WHO blocked the removal of the statue which has been demanded by reasonable people for years?
Edward Colston (1636–1721) was a Bristol-based slave trader whose ships transported 84,000 men, women and children from West Africa to the Americas. 19,000 died during the crossings. Yet in Bristol his memory has been honoured for centuries. https://t.co/jobMUnFjN5
Worth noting that we have only just finished paying off the debt we incurred to compensate the slave-owners. Not the slaves, obviously, but their abusers.https://t.co/6cePKAuAi9
Public feeling against racism boiled over during a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration prompted by the death of George Floyd in the United States, and after years of campaigning to get rid of the Grade II listed (why was it Grade II listed?) statue, people decided to tear it down themselves and throw it into the River Avon – in a manner reminiscent of the way Colston himself would throw unruly slaves – weighed down with chains – into the sea during slaving voyages.
Colston was a slaver. He put down slave revolts by throwing rebels overboard with their arms & feet shackled. So Bristolians took his statue to Pero’s bridge (named after Pero Jones, one of those enslaved) threw him in the water & watched him sink. Poetry.pic.twitter.com/1wIC3AXV3s
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) June 7, 2020
This just made me cry proper tears of relief and joy and validation.
That fucking statue. Every time we asked for it to go, the white supremacists for their way. And now, taken matters into our own hands.
The tearing down of the Colston statue – a Bristol slave trader – during the #BLM protests today raises many questions. Like, did you see the bit where they threw it in the river? pic.twitter.com/Pksepo1K1Z
Police have said they are treating the incident as an act of criminal damage, which they are investigating. This has given some people another opportunity for satire:
BREAKING: Police release footage of a man they want to speak to in relation to a criminal damage offence in Bristol.
He is considered extremely dangerous and members of the public are warned not to approach him. pic.twitter.com/sDVqXEApLL
How will the people of Bristol replace the statue? It seems some have ideas already:
The first British organisation to call for immediate emancipation of all slaves was an all female group from Sheffield: Sheffield Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Would quite like to see a statue to them
Perhaps most revealing has been the reaction of different public figures to what is a clear act of vandalism, even if the reasoning behind it is supportable.
This senior police officer in Bristol (rightly) concluded it was wiser to let a statue fall, which nobody actually wanted, to a public order situation with hundreds of arrests.
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) June 7, 2020
Seriously, the Home Secretary Priti Patel has shown more upset and outrage of the toppling of a statue than she has for the tens of thousands that are dead because of her government’s pathetic and ineffective response to the coronavirus crisis.
The transatlantic slave trade resulted in the deaths of approximately 1.2–2.4 million Africans during their transport to the New World. Perhaps Priti Patel should direct her anger towards having a statue of the man who was largely responsible for this in the first place.
Hence Priti Patel's panic, she and the government have exactly the same thoughts. This could be the beginning of the end my friend. https://t.co/swG0LEecqk
— neil flek waugh .#Palestine is a state. BDS (@sammythedog1989) June 7, 2020
As should Sajid Javid’s:
You know full well we’ve tried to have that statue removed peacefully, and been blocked, for FORTY YEARS.
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) June 7, 2020
Some people on here seem more enraged that a slave-trader’s statue was pulled down (why was it still up?) than they were by George Floyd being slowly murdered on camera by a racist cop. This strikes me as a ‘problematic’ mindset…
And, indeed, some members of the Labour Party have questions to answer:
Some centrist Labour MPs have offered more support to a statue of slave trader Edward Colston than they ever have to Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler and other black Labour MPs. Just saying.
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush (@WarmongerHodges) June 7, 2020
Those who pulled down the slaver’s statue today helped draw attention to the seldom spoken truth that the establishment built British capitalism on a bedrock of slavery.
If we don't acknowledge that past, we're not going to be able to tackle ongoing racism in the British state.
Good. If statues of confederates who fought a war for slavery & white supremacy shld come down then why not this one? Someone responsible for immeasurable blood & suffering. We’ll never solve structural racism till we get to grips with our history in all its complexity. #BLMpic.twitter.com/Bk8cYHk0rM
You know what’s just as satisfying as Edward Colston being tossed into the harbour? The million racist tears about “erasing *our* history” from people who couldn’t tell you his first name or the basic details of his life before today.
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) June 7, 2020
If you're saying the statues should remain in place to help educate, at school I managed to learn long division without there being a fucking statue of it in the middle of a city
Let’s be honest, one viral video showing a statue of a slave trader being torn down has done more to educate people about Britain’s past atrocities than the statue did in the 125 years previous.
It was erected, in 1895, at a time when the Empire was wobbling and many attempts were made to “re-inject” a spirit of imperial patriotism. Uncomfortable truths about slavery did not play a part in that; instead, Colston and others were meant to represent a benign imperialism.
— Prof Tanja Bueltmann (@cliodiaspora) June 7, 2020
So while we might debate the toppling of a statue by protestors, don’t let anyone tell you that it equals erasing history. In this case, if anything, the statue is better viewed as ahistorical than anything remotely representing actual history.
— Prof Tanja Bueltmann (@cliodiaspora) June 7, 2020
Chucking that statue in the harbour has educated more Brits on the history of the slave trade in this country than leaving it up for 150 odd years did. Can’t argue with the end of season stats bro.
And in Russia and Iraq, statues of Communist leaders and Saddam Hussein (respectively) were torn down after those regimes were toppled.
Even yesterday, the toppling-in-effigy of Colston wasn’t unique:
A crowd has climbed onto the statue of colonial King Léopold II in #Brussels chanting “murderer” and waving the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo where his atrocities took place. #DRC 🇨🇩 #BlackLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/DIH9MGu39M
We are left with the overwhelming impression that the removal of the Colston statue was right, no matter how it was achieved.
But we live in a country where somebody may go to prison for making it happen. If you don’t think that’s right, you need to be thinking about what you are going to do about it.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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The Metropolitan Police has joined the government in losing public confidence after reacting with violence during a peaceful anti-racism protest:
Solidarity with the people protesting outside Parliament today. The death of George Floyd in the United States was an atrocity. But police brutality is real here in the UK. Stay safe #blacklivesmatter#LDNBLMpic.twitter.com/RfEd79Yxn9
Sky News is reporting that protestors knocked a police officer off his horse. THIS IS A LIE. While charging into protestors, he slammed into a traffic light and fell off. They’re trying to paint BLM protestors as violent.
I’m sorry for making insensitive jokes about the police officer who was hurt. I still think it’s wrong to deploy horses at protests which escalate tension and cause panic. It doesn’t help anyone.
Then don’t put horses in situations they may find terrifying and in which they have the capacity to seriously injure and kill human beings. FFS. https://t.co/eyrZrYZebt
Maybe it’s my age but seeing rows of mounted officers just reminds me of the miners strike. Instant hostility. I know I’m losing followers because of my views . I don’t fucking care.
The same out of control police horse whose rider went into a lamp post also collided with a pedestrian. @metpoliceuk need to be asked about the wisdom of deploying horses in crowded, wet streets. Shouldnt be allowed to happen again pic.twitter.com/td9rDpRoJK
Would that be Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick?
She was the Gold Commander when that Brazilian man was shot on the tube in full gaze of the public – 7 Bullets fired. What did Cressie do – offer his family £3,250.00 compensation for his life. Exonerated her responsibility & then becomes Met in Chief & given a Damehood !!!!!! https://t.co/zYxABuRlY4
These R rate uplifts cannot be attributed to the recent #BlackLivesMatter protests – no matter how hard some people will try to say they are. Surely this is due to May bank holidays, trips to beaches, people returning to work by public transport, etc. https://t.co/Kg0i2RUPQ9
— Corfu Literary Festival (@CorfuArts) June 6, 2020
And the (official) death toll has passed 40,000:
If the Government had acted quicker, deaths would have been 30,000 less than we have seen.
Just think about that.
Death by CV is agonising. 30,000 needless, agonising deaths.
Fairly obvious that the Black Lives Matter protest will get the blame in the event of a second spike.
Not Cummings, or sending the schools back, or weak messaging, sending people back to unsafe work environments, relaxing measures too soon, being late on face masks…
Labour has no moral high ground on the race issue:
I’m afraid the Labour leadership sect are in no position to talk about #BlackLivesMatter until they suspend the people who took great pleasure in racially abusing Diane Abbott.
The Labour leaks only revealed a tiny glimpse of reality, believe me on that.
Labour is a cesspit if one of the party’s MPs can be shamed into deleting a link to a perfectly reasonable article:
I think this is seriously problematic. The piece Ms Greenwood has been told is 'offensive' is a measured and serious examination of how Corbyn has been treated by media, by @OborneTweets. That Ms Greenwood should feel pressured into *apologising* for it is frankly scandalous. https://t.co/VitpQ8LKOv
And the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary has responded to his detractors:
This is the message your DWP shad sec is also sending to society's most vulnerable, with his 'deserving poor' spiel. Fix this @Keir_Starmer, this isn't behaviour or policy I can support. https://t.co/FnnLyMeram
STAY WOKE: I understand that people want to get back to normal. But normal is toxic for us. Keep your knee on these politians and keep them working in our collective interest. Continue to post, inform and complain. They’re hoping you go back to posting bullshit that don’t matter.
💥 John Bercow rips into Trump 💥 – "Donald Trump is the most rancid, racist & repellent occupant of the White House in my lifetime… & the government needs to call Trump out… " 👏#bbcaqpic.twitter.com/bk99MsEy9p
— Alain Catzeflis #findthingsout (@alain_catzeflis) June 6, 2020
Downing Street has been accused of reopening the door to imports of chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef, after a leaked memo instructed ministers to have “no specific policy” on animal welfare in US trade talks https://t.co/tl7YX7SDDs
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) June 6, 2020
More claims about the government:
Not content with making up coronavirus policy on the hoof, @10DowningStreet has taken to treating the NHS with complete contempt – telling the media of radical changes without even informing NHS leaders in advance. Stuff science, stuff the NHS, it seems. https://t.co/xEUJSTol5d
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has begged people to refrain from participating in demonstrations supporting the “Black Lives Matter” movement protesting the death of George Floyd.
Coronavirus: Matt Hancock urges Britons not to attend George Floyd protests over COVID-19 fears https://t.co/LOhd5OZ9Ry
But many thousands of people have ignored the advice.
Hancock had put them in a tricky dilemma. On one hand, taking part in the demonstrations put them in close contact with thousands of other people, meaning they were likely to meet at least one – probably many – transmitter of Covid-19. On the other, staying away would indicate tacit support for violent anti-black and minority ethnic racism.
The UK’s Tory government has indicated that it supports the violent anti-black and minority ethnic racism that we have seen displayed by the US police – albeit in its deeds rather than words; consider the omission of recommendations to reduce deaths of black people due to Covid-19 in the Tory government report on the subject, and Boris Johnson’s reluctance to halt the export of arms and riot equipment used to beat innocent people, and now peaceful demonstrators.
So there is a strong moral argument for standing up against the Tory government’s behaviour, as well as that of the US police.
But, while we have been told it will be compulsory to wear face masks soon, we don’t have to do it yet. And many people don’t even have one.
Who is more likely to go on a demonstration of this kind? I would suggest it would attract people who don’t vote Conservative.
So it seems the Tories have found a great way to get their political opponents to infect themselves with Covid-19 and possibly even eliminate themselves from the electorate (fatalities in the UK running so high).
And even if you don’t buy that particular theory, it still suggests that Johnson has found a way to inflict his “herd immunity” lunacy on the population – and by their own free will.
It’s despicably manipulative. But is it also too intelligent from bumbling Boris and his guru Demonic?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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