{"id":345972,"date":"2018-01-30T04:28:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T03:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/activists-storm-racist-winston-churchill-themed-cafe-rt-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2018-01-30T04:28:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T03:28:38","slug":"activists-storm-racist-winston-churchill-themed-cafe-rt-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/activists-storm-racist-winston-churchill-themed-cafe-rt-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists storm \u2018racist\u2019 Winston Churchill-themed cafe \u2014 RT UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        Protesters who stormed a Winston Churchill-themed cafe to chant the wartime leader was a \u201cracist\u201d and demand the eatery apologize to the community have been slammed online as \u201cpathetic\u201d and \u201csnowflakes.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Police were called when nine protesters stormed the Blighty UK cafe in Finsbury Park in London, where customers can drink out of Churchill-adorned mugs and pose beside a replica of the leader. They yelled<em> \u201cChurchill was a racist\u201d<\/em> in front of dozens of diners.<\/p>\n<p>Armed with scripts and loud voices, one protester can be seen on video declaring:<em> \u201cWe cannot accept the unashamed colonial and gentrifying presence of this cafe,\u201d<\/em> before the group chanted:<em> \u201cYou will never make colonialism palatable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E9tn1NWwiA0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Next to pipe up was Halimo Hussein, co-president of Equality and Liberation at SOAS, University of London students\u2019 union and a staunch Labour and Jeremy Corbyn supporter.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cTo the owner of the cafe, apologize to the local community for their poorly thought and insensitive branding and promptly change it from the menu to the aesthetics and d\u00e9cor of the cafe,\u201d<\/em> she demanded.<\/p>\n<p>Another protester then chimed in: <em>\u201cTo the customer, we ask you that you boycott this cafe until they take the concerns of the community seriously.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/416773-winston-churchill-imperialism-cafe\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.01\/thumbnail\/5a675d10fc7e9305378b4567.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 imago stock&amp;people \/ Global Look Press\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>As a group they chanted<em> \u201cit is our duty to win\u201d<\/em> and<em> \u201cwe must love and support each other.\u201d<\/em> As they filed out, a frustrated customer hit back at the activists, calling after them that: <em>\u201cChurchill fought for our freedom.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The cafe has previously been targeted by vandals, with owner Chris Evans forced to remove a mural of Churchill after it was defaced with graffiti, labelling the World War II leader \u00a0<em>\u201cscum\u201d<\/em> and an<em> \u201cimperialist.\u201d<\/em> Angry left-wingers have also been leaving negative reviews for the cafe to put off customers.<\/p>\n<p>Evans, 47, said his staff were shaken up by the demonstration. <em>\u201cI have already invited these people in for coffee to discuss their concerns,\u201d<\/em> he told the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cInstead, they have come in and shouted at my customers. My staff have been left frightened and so I am reporting the incident to the police today.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI would much rather they came to debate in a civilized manner what it means to be British in modern Britain. As far as I am concerned, if you cannot celebrate Britain and great Britons you are just erasing history.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAnd if you cannot celebrate Churchill, you cannot celebrate anyone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The cafe in north London claims it is merely trying to celebrate a<em> \u201ctrue British hero.\u201d <\/em>Blighty UK is the founding cafe of the Blighty Commonwealth of Cafes. It boasts on its website of sourcing its coffee beans from Commonwealth countries Rwanda, Kenya, India, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea and Malawi, as well as other ingredients \u201cwherever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just been a reluctant part of some form of anti-Churhill protest at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlightyUKCafe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BlightyUKCafe<\/a>. They had a script and everything. Could have at least bought a coffee.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alexander Hamilton (@ADHamilton91) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ADHamilton91\/status\/957223012465565697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 27, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>The activists have been slammed online, with Twitter users calling them<em> \u201cidiotic\u201d<\/em> and <em>\u201closers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlightyUKCafe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BlightyUKCafe<\/a> just read about the idiotic leftists in your premises.<br \/>Don&#8217;t let the bell whiffs get you down.<br \/>They&#8217;ve probably gone back to their shared accommodation, eating pot noodles and listening to crap ambient acid jazz type music whilst smoking something illegal.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Citizen Kris (@Churchy74Kj) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Churchy74Kj\/status\/957869155331592194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlightyUKCafe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BlightyUKCafe<\/a> sorry to hear that you are being targeted by a bunch of losers from the hard left. I look forward to visiting you and having coffee and cake. In the words of Churchill \u201cnever give in\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 AlexMcCagie (@BlackCaninePal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlackCaninePal\/status\/957885775206584320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>While Churchill has passed into history as a fearless prime minister who vehemently opposed Nazi Germany, he is also blamed for a litany of imperialist policies that led to the deaths of millions and the continued colonial repression of millions more.<\/p>\n<p>Most notably, Churchill is accused of allowing up to 4 million Indians to starve in Bengal when they were struck by famine in 1943. According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, among others, the famine was triggered by Churchill\u2019s decision to transport Bengal-produced grain to British soldiers fighting in Greece, rather to feed the local population.<\/p>\n<p>Churchill rejected calls to supply the starving people, who lived under British rule, saying the population bred \u201clike rabbits\u201d anyway. Churchill also refused any offer of aid to the beleaguered Indians from the US and Canada, leading the then British secretary of state in India to compare him to Hitler.<\/p>\n<p>When Churchill was colonial secretary in the 1920s, he responded to an Iraqi Kurdish rebellion against British rule by saying: <em>&#8220;I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes&#8230; [It] would spread a lively terror.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Historians are divided over whether or not gas was actually used to put down the rebellion.<\/p>\n<p>During World War II, Churchill ordered the repression of Greek anti-fascist partisans who had helped kick out Nazi forces. In 1944 British troops massacred some 28 people after turning their guns on those protesting against their occupation.<\/p>\n<p>Later Churchill would say <em>\u201cthe [Nazi] collaborators in Greece in many cases did the best they could to shelter the Greek population from German oppression.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/417262-churchill-cafe-racist-protest\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Protesters who stormed a Winston Churchill-themed cafe to chant the wartime leader was a \u201cracist\u201d and demand the eatery apologize to the community have been slammed online as \u201cpathetic\u201d and \u201csnowflakes.\u201d Police were called when nine protesters stormed the Blighty UK cafe in Finsbury Park in London, where customers can drink out of Churchill-adorned mugs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-345972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}