Brent Residents & former Pupils of WGHS committed to the removal of Gladstone’s name from the Park in our Borough still bearing his name.

Ethical Name Change Open Letter
Please consider signing and sharing this Open Letter for “No Gladstone in the Park”
WIlliam Gladstone’s maiden speech to Parliament was in defence of Slavery. He believed enslaved workers should undergo some form of “civilisation” process before emancipation and when abolition was finally agreed, he negotiated the equivalent of £14m “compensation” for his father. 124 years after his death his name needs to be removed.

We, the undersigned Concerned Citizens and Community Activists demand an unreserved apology from Councillor Milli Patel, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources & Reform at Brent Council.
On 31$’ January 2023, at a meeting of the Steering Group for Brent’s Community Action Plan (BCAP), CIIr Patel dismissed the No Gladstone in the Park campaign calling for the removal of iconography celebrating African Enslavement using the description “Contested History”. It is a response that at best, highlights a need for Cultural Sensitivity Training and at worst, can be seen as an attempt to further institutionalise Afriphobia. Following that meeting, it has come to our attention that Community Activists from No Gladstone in the Park have been unilaterally removed from the mailing list thereby excluding them from meetings.
It is extremely disappointing that Brent Council has opted to reject the No Gladstone in Park call for Reparative Justice when institutions like the Royal Family, the Church of England and the Guardian Newspaper have stepped up to address the issue. It is also patently undemocratic to exclude Community Voices, especially those of African Heritage from the Brent Community Action Plan Steering Group. We strongly suggest that the decision to exclude Ethical Name Change and the 2 Brent based campaigns No Gladstone in the Park and Leopold Must Go is reconsidered as a matter of urgency.
The Gladstone Family was one of the largest enslavers with plantations in Jamaica and Demerara (now modem day Guyana). In 1823, when the greatest rebellion of enslaved People in Demerara’s history took place on a Gladstone plantation, the insurrection was put down with great brutality: many Africans were mutilated and others executed for having the temerity to rebel against their enslavement. The Gladstone Family received the largest compensation payment from the British government, over £100,000 for the more than 2,000 enslaved people they had to free when enslavement was finally abolished. This was £14 million in today’s money. The historical records show that Gladstone was involved in calculating the compensation to be paid to his father. It is also a matter of historical record that the £20 million pounds paid to the Enslavers in 1833 was so large that the Government had to take a loan which it only finished paying in 2015. It is a matter of historical record that the victims of this heinous Crime against Humanity received nothing. The “Contested History” narrative does not bear scrutiny:

• Is it contested history that Africans were shipped from the African Continent to the so-called New World during the Transatlantic Trafficking of Africans and that it was a heinous practice masquerading as trade?
• Is it contested history that the Trafficking was brutal and the “Middle Passage” resulted in loss of life and psychological trauma for the survivors?
• Is it contested history that Africans were sometimes thrown overboard so the Traffickers could attempt to claim compensation from insurance as happened in the case of the Zong which ended up in the UK Courts?
• Is it contested history that the Enslavement that followed the Trafficking
  involved brutal treatment including rape?
• • Is it contested history that Article one, section two of the Constitution of the United States declared that any person who was not free would be counted as three-fifths of a free individual for the purposes of determining congressional representation?
• Is it contested history that Africans were stripped of their identity, language culture and families?
• Is it contested history that King Leopold of Belgium treated the Congo as his personal property and brutalised the people, chopping off hands of young children if production quotas were not met and, in many cases, forcing the father of the child or children to pose holding their children’s hands whilst the mutilated children stood next to them, thus demonstrating the powerlessness of their parents to protect them?
• Is it contested history that in 1908, Belgium Parliament took control of the Congo when International Outrage at the atrocities reached a zenith?
• Is it contested history that King Leopold is in the top 10 of mass murderers because 10 – 15 million Congolese died as a result of his brutality?
• Is it contested history that Africa is still reeling from the Colonial Adventure which extracted wealth from the Continent and many of the fine buildings in the cities of Europe were financed through the trafficking of Africans?

Ethical Name Change is resolute about delivering antiracist change in spite of the hostile political climate where some seek political capital from demonising vulnerable migrants and trivialising racist paraphernalia such as gollywogs or Afriphobic names.
We look forward to hearing from you soon about the steps Brent Council will take to correct a grievous wrong.

Sign the Open Letter here…

Pamphlet “The Gladstone Family and the Business of Slavery” can be downloaded from here…