Activists claim responsibility for spray-painting "he was a racist" on Churchill statue

The police are investigating the graffiti incident on the plinth of the World War II–era British prime minister’s statue at náměstí Winstona Churchilla in Prague’s Žižkov neighborhood. Two inscriptions in red letters, “Byl rasista” (He was a racist) and “Black Lives Matter” were removed by the Prague 3 district within hours of their appearance on June 11.

The graffiti was condemned by Czech politicians. Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) said he supported human rights for everyone, but not the destruction of property. Civic Democrats (ODS) chairman Petr Fiala and TOP 09’s Jiří Pospíšil, now a member of European Parliament, both used social media to praise Churchill for his efforts in defeating German dictator Adolf Hitler in World War II.

The people who claim they sprayed the graffiti on the statue say there is more to Churchill than his role in World War II.

“We spray-painted the statue of Winston Churchill in Žižkov. … The uncritical worship of a high British statesman has been in our stomachs for a long time. In the Czech environment, it is customary to pretend that foreign events do not concern us, but in a globalized world there is no room to feel like a deserted island. Racism in all its various forms is a fundamental problem of society. It is not a shame to admit that we have a problem and to try to solve it; it is a shame to close your eyes to it and try to keep your comfort zone at all costs,” the group said.

They added that racism is not only a distant problem, but a local one as well. “The Czech approach to Roma or refugees is living proof of this. Racism is, above all, a way of thinking that is deeply rooted in us. It is reproduced within institutions, education, culture and also through the way history is told. We don’t want to rewrite history, we want to finally read it, including passages that are annoying,” they added.

As for Churchill, they claim that the complete history of his life is not taught in school. “Awareness of Winston Churchill’s actions is focused on his achievements, the importance of which, of course, we do not diminish, but we want to look at them in a broader picture. Stacks of books have been written about Churchill’s life, but most of them lack mention of the crimes in which he participated,” they said.

The group recounted his alleged roles in the 1943 famine in Bengal, the suppression of 1921 demonstrations in Iraq and a 1910 miners’ strike in Wales, and detention camps in Kenya. They also added that he had made numerous anti-Semitic and racist statements.

The group also criticized the local news coverage of the graffiti, which focused on the cost of cleaning the statue rather than the validity of the statement that Churchill was racist. They want to put the presence of the Churchill statue in Prague in the broader contest of the debate about monuments such as statues of Belgium’s King Leopold II and slave traders such as Robert Milligan and Edward Colston, the latter of which was torn down by a British crowd and thrown into Bristol Harbour.

“We are tired and frustrated from living in a world ruled by unjust order, even though we were lucky to be born in a relatively privileged position. We no longer want to pretend to live in the best of all possible worlds. Society needs to change, and change is already happening, even though we are still trying to cling anxiously to the old and familiar orders. … We firmly hope that we have at least contributed to the opening of the debate, although unfortunately we cannot take part in it or we will get [in trouble] — despite the fact that the inscription has already been washed away,” they concluded.

Unlike many statutes now called into question, the one of Churchill is a recent addition. It was erected in 1999, but is a copy of the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square in London. The square in Žižkov has been called náměstí Winstona Churchilla since 1990. From 1955 to ’77 it was named after Gustav Klement and from 1977 to ’90 for Antonín Zápotocký, both communist politicians.