Petition launched demanding removal of Winston Churchill mural in Croydon

As the Culture War erupts across the UK a petition has been set up calling for the mural of Winston Churchill, on the corner of Park Street, to be removed or replaced.

Joe O’Brien, who set up the petition said:

“Croydon is a rich, multicultural community, so why do we have an old, racist, bigoted, white man looking down on us?

Whatever your opinions on him being a ‘war hero’, he led atrocities in Ireland, Kenya and India which still have lasting repercussions today. He is a controversial figure who was openly bigoted and racist.”

The mural was created in August 2016 by Brooklyn-based artist David Hollier and is made up of extracts from Churchill’s personal journal.

The petition for the mural to be removed currently has over 800 signatures and one of the first to sign was Croydon Labour councillor Chris Clark who has been promoting the petition on his social media channels.

Councillor Clark said:

“I knew not everyone would agree with the sentiment behind the petition, but I think it raises an important point about the way history is understood in this country, and I think sharing it was absolutely the right thing to do.

Everybody knows about Churchill’s support for rearmament, his opposition to appeasement and his inspirational wartime speeches.

But how many know that he sent troops in against striking workers in the Welsh town of Tonypandy? How many know about his role in the famine in Bengal? And how many know that he said ‘I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes’?

This comes as the Churchill statue in Parliament Square has been vandalised on numerous occasions and is on the take down list of campaigners as well as hundreds more statues across the UK.

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