Taking down a statue of Engels in Manchester won’t help Ukraine repulse Putin
Manchester has a statue of Engels which is not particularly remarkable as he lived and worked in the City for many years.
It has become controversial for some because the statue was originally in Ukraine. It was brought to Manchester by the artist Phil Collins legally in 2017. In the Guardian article below he explained at the time that from 2015 such statues were illegal in Ukraine. The Engels statue had been removed and dumped but there was no official process to actually get rid of it.
Demands now to take it down or move it are performative, meaning they are gestures which help the Ukrainian fight against Putin not at all in a practical way. Some might argue that it amounts to Russophobia, which has the effect of linking everything to do with Russia, past and present, with the Putin regime and saying its bad. Engels however died well before the Russian Revolution, and when alive was a critic of Russian imperial ambitions. Putin himself is virulently anti-Communist
Jesus, it’s hard to know where to start. The monumental ignorance and stupidity!