Thousands demonstrate outside the University of Oxford's Oriel College,demanding the removal of statue of Cecil Rhodes.Credit:Getty
Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott - a Rhodes scholar - has previously said Oxford should be "clear-eyed about Rhodes' faults and failings" but warned removing the statue would reflect poorly on the famous university.
Other critics of the anti-statue campaign argue the movement represents an airbrushing of history and is a distraction fromBritain's deadly coronavirus emergency.
Police are on alert ahead of major demonstrations planned for this weekend. The statue of Colston - a 17th-century slave trader whose philanthropic activity has been commemorated on buildings and streets throughout Bristol - was torn off its plinth,dragged through the street and thrown into the harbour following years of debate over its future. A statue of former prime minister Winston Churchill in central London was also vandalised on the same day,drawing heated condemnation on th other side of the world from Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
The Black Lives Matter movement has reignited the state debate around the world. In the US,Virginia governor Ralph Northam vowed to fight a judge's injunction blocking plans to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from Richmond's town square.
The statue of Sir Thomas Guy outside Guy's Hospital in central London.Credit:Getty
"This is a statue that is divisive,"Northam said."It needs to come down and we are on very legal solid grounds to have it taken down.”
A 150-year-old statue of King Leopold II of Belgium,whose forces seized Congo in the late 19th century,was removed from a public square in Antwerp on Wednesday.
Protesters rallying across Australia on the weekend also called for the removal of statues offensive to Indigenous Australians,such as the Lachlan Macquarie and Captain Cook statues in Sydney and Melbourne,which have been vandalised previously.
A group of activists involved in the UK's Stop Trump Coalition have now set up a website where 60 targets are identified on an interactive map.
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The website,titled'Topple The Racists',does not directly encourage the toppling of statues but suggested it was"up to local communities to decide what statues they want in their local areas".
There is particular pressure to remove a prominent statue of Sir Thomas Guy,a businessman who made his fortune selling slaves to the Spanish colonies. Guy funded the creation of the London Bridge hospital,which still bears his name.
The London mayor conceded his review into the city's statues,monuments and street names could be hampered because many are under private ownership but insisted it would create momentum for change.
'When you look at the public realm - street names,street squares,murals - not only are there some of slavers that I think should be taken down,and the commission will advise us on that,but actually we don't have enough representation of people of colour,black people,women,those from the LGBTIQ community,"he said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer have condemned the destruction of statues.
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