Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford (RMFO) posted a message of support from linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky Monday morning.
Chomsky rose to public prominence through displays of public activism, has previously expressed critiques of imperialism.
His statement concerning RMFO said, “In his history of the early stages of Britain’s empire, Richard Gott writes that some day ‘the rulers of the British Empire will … be perceived to rank with the dictators of the twentieth century as the authors of crimes against humanity on an infamous scale.’ Reviewing his work, historian of Empire Bernard Porter concludes that ‘With the evidence piled up like this – and Gott stops in 1858, so missing the chance of much more – it looks almost plausible.’
“And there is much more, including the hideous Victorian famines in India and the shocking World War II famine, the atrocities in Kenya in the 1950s, and much more. The beneficiaries and admirers of empire were hardly unaware of the facts. Winston Churchill, for example, instructed his cabinet colleagues that ‘We are not a young people with an innocent record and a scanty inheritance. We have engrossed to ourselves…an altogether disproportionate share of the wealth and traffic of the world. We have got all we want in territory, and our claim to be left in the unmolested enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, mainly acquired by violence, largely maintained by force, often seems less reasonable to others than to us’ – the italicized phrases expunged when he allowed the passage to reach print.
“It is long past time for the actual record to be unearthed and faced honestly, not overlooking the consequences to the present day.”
RMFO told Cherwell, “We think Prof. Chomsky’s support is testament to the importance of the conversation we have started at Oxford. It is sad that Prof. Chomsky has spoken up before many Oxford academics. Our work has only just begun, and we won’t rest until Rhodes, in all his manifestations, falls.”
