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Black Lives Matter demos and protests UK, 2020-2021

There's a twitter thread of ‘good statues’, and so far Frank Sidebotham, Desperate Dan and Oor Wullie have by general consensus been offered a pass.

Desperate Dan is quite problematic. Emblematic of expansion out West, the theft of native american lands and ultimately the genocide. Its also very hard to disentangle the cultivated image of the 'wild west' from the destructive 'lost cause' myth and the damage that has had on American history from the Civil War, through Jim Crow and where we have arrived at today.

Whilst Desperate Dan may have reinvented himself in later years as some sort of Robin Hood figure I don't think we should forget where he came from and how drenched (metaphorically) he is in the blood of the indigenous population.

I say that statue comes down with the rest of them. Dundee is a long way for me to drive from London to help with the toppling, though that being said my eyes have been playing up recently...
 
I hope no one gets hurt here.
This isn’t made of tin.
And the biggie Victoria - that's going to leave a lot of plinths to be filled. Maybe time to fire up the Fourth Plinth project again - this time on a massive scale.

"Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land

Though prison camp and a neck shot if your view is wrong.
 
Desperate Dan is quite problematic. Emblematic of expansion out West, the theft of native american lands and ultimately the genocide. Its also very hard to disentangle the cultivated image of the 'wild west' from the destructive 'lost cause' myth and the damage that has had on American history from the Civil War, through Jim Crow and where we have arrived at today.

Whilst Desperate Dan may have reinvented himself in later years as some sort of Robin Hood figure I don't think we should forget where he came from and how drenched (metaphorically) he is in the blood of the indigenous population.

I say that statue comes down with the rest of them. Dundee is a long way for me to drive from London to help with the toppling, though that being said my eyes have been playing up recently...
Besides which they are in DC.Thompson universe founded by a nasty piece of work.

 
Desperate Dan is quite problematic. Emblematic of expansion out West, the theft of native american lands and ultimately the genocide. Its also very hard to disentangle the cultivated image of the 'wild west' from the destructive 'lost cause' myth and the damage that has had on American history from the Civil War, through Jim Crow and where we have arrived at today.

Whilst Desperate Dan may have reinvented himself in later years as some sort of Robin Hood figure I don't think we should forget where he came from and how drenched (metaphorically) he is in the blood of the indigenous population.

I say that statue comes down with the rest of them. Dundee is a long way for me to drive from London to help with the toppling, though that being said my eyes have been playing up recently...

Can we keep beryl the peril and the penguins along the road?
 
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This is in today's evening post - supposed to be from some of the people who were according to their account protecting the cenotaph and were called far-right by that gammony copper who got all the praise and whose account they call nonsense. But that can't be right because we all know bristol coppers are all lovely progressive hippie types.

“There were around a dozen of us who were there from 1pm, long before the people on the Black Lives Matter march reached the Cenotaph, and a few others including me got there about 2pm,” he said.

“So we weren’t there because of what happened with the statue of Colston. We were there before that, and solely to stop anyone doing anything to the Cenotaph.

“Personally, I support what the Black Lives Matter campaigners are saying. I do not have a problem with that. But we’ve seen in other places, that when there is a big crowd like that, you get a few people who see the opportunity for a bit of vandalism and attack other things like the Cenotaph.

“That Cenotaph was erected there to honour the people of Bristol who died in two world wars, and it should not be a target,” he added.

...

"To be absolutely honest with you, I didn’t even know what statue it was they were pulling down.

“When I found out, I thought that yes it shouldn’t be there, and should have come down, although doing it like that wasn’t the way to do it, but I can understand completely why people were against that statue being there, and didn’t want it.

...

“We were accused of being Nazis and racists, just because we were protecting the Cenotaph.

“One of us is mixed race, and went so far as taking his shirt off to show them that he has a tattoo on his back which is the England flag and the Jamaican flag linked together,” he said.
 
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First they came for the statues, and we did not speak out... Now they're removing such massive film family favourites (and 100% historically accurate of course) as Gone with the Wind. Where will it all end???!!! :mad:

Gone with the Wind removed from HBO Max

Can't fucking wait for the fash's reaction on Twatter.... :D
 
This is in today's evening post - supposed to be from some of the people who were according to their account protecting the cenotaph and were called far-right by that gammony copper who got all the praise and whose account they call nonsense. But that can't be right because we all know bristol coppers are all lovely progressive hippie types.

“There were around a dozen of us who were there from 1pm, long before the people on the Black Lives Matter march reached the Cenotaph, and a few others including me got there about 2pm,” he said.

“So we weren’t there because of what happened with the statue of Colston. We were there before that, and solely to stop anyone doing anything to the Cenotaph.

“Personally, I support what the Black Lives Matter campaigners are saying. I do not have a problem with that. But we’ve seen in other places, that when there is a big crowd like that, you get a few people who see the opportunity for a bit of vandalism and attack other things like the Cenotaph.

“That Cenotaph was erected there to honour the people of Bristol who died in two world wars, and it should not be a target,” he added.

...

"To be absolutely honest with you, I didn’t even know what statue it was they were pulling down.

“When I found out, I thought that yes it shouldn’t be there, and should have come down, although doing it like that wasn’t the way to do it, but I can understand completely why people were against that statue being there, and didn’t want it.

...

“We were accused of being Nazis and racists, just because we were protecting the Cenotaph.

“One of us is mixed race, and went so far as taking his shirt off to show them that he has a tattoo on his back which is the England flag and the Jamaican flag linked together,” he said.

I noticed they were City, would it have been different if it was the other lot? I definitely remember GHS running around with the EDL back a few years. I'm well out of everything for years so have no idea what they're like these days. cheers
 
has anyone ever suggested bringing down memorials to those slaughtered in the wars? madness
No-one has - but there's clearly a perception from some that war memorials are in danger of being damaged or vandalised by people involved in the protests, as that guys says. I don't think they are much - the only thing close I can think of is that lad swinging off a flag on the cenotaph about a decade ago
 
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