‘The Society of Merchant Venturers need to get out of our democracy’

Unelected members of the Society of Merchant Venturers sit on the committee that looks after the Downs, one of Bristol’s largest open spaces.

They support a number of schools across Bristol, taking an active role in their governance; as well as supporting a number of charitable causes.

And until only half a dozen years ago, the Society of Merchant Venturers kept Edward Colston’s fingernails and hair on display at their headquarters in Clifton.

Green Party councillor for Southville, Christine Townsend, was one of the founding members of Countering Colston.

Speaking at a press conference after the Colston 4 were found not guilty, she said: “We never went after the statue because we would have been considered to have just been crazy having the idea of taking that statue down back in 2014.

“So that is why we went for current, religious and educational practises, and how the Society of Merchant Venturers and Bristol Cathedral were basically telling untruths to children during their rituals in that cathedral.

“As a teacher, that was where I came in. I could not sit back and allow the bishop of Bristol to tell hundreds of schoolchildren in my city that it was ‘speculation’ about how Edward Colston made their money.

“And I couldn’t believe that they had ceremonies where they celebrated this man…

“For me, because they (the Society of Merchant Venturers) have been so involved in running private schools and we know where those that are educated at private schools end up in terms of at the top of the pyramid of power.

“And it is those myths and the procreation of that cult that has meant there has been such resistance in Bristol, and why ordinary Bristolians just could not understand why we were so upset with Colston, and there was such denial of this fact for year after year after year.”

A demonstration took place outside Merchants Hall ahead of the Colston 4 trial – photo: Rob Browne

Townsend added: “The dial has moved. There is no going back. What we see is the Merchant Venturers trying to create another narrative. Even now they are trying to create another narrative.

“They are trying to distance themselves and minimise the involvement of their historic figures in the transatlantic slave trade.

“That is what they will continue to do but we will continue to push against it.

“The Society of Merchant Venturers need to get out of our democracy.

“It came out in court – there was clear evidence – that individuals in the organisation tried to interfere with the democratic processes.

“And as an elected member of the council, that is something that I will be taking up and we will be pushing for as myself as an individual and the Green Party.”

Townsend said that “there are unelected members of this organisation (the Merchant Venturers) that somehow have political power”.

“It’s an opaque organisation. Liverpool had these organisations and they got rid of them in the 1960s and 70s.

“This is their reckoning. I’m going to be calling out Marvin Rees and I’m going to be calling out other elected members who bowed down to these people.

“It is not for them to be involved in our democratic process.”

Writing on her blog, former Bristol lord mayor, and former Green Party police & crime commissioner candidate, Cleo Lake, who was also part of Countering Colston, said: “This struggle for Afrikans and their descendants to be heard on the matter and the quest for justice has been a long one that is ongoing.

“Starting on the coasts of Afrika where enslavement was resisted from the outset, to the Haitian revolution and all attempts since to enable a more accurate portrayal of history and find some redress and justice.

“People here too have always spoken out, long-standing campaigner Kofi Mawuli Klu often refers to Ann Yearsley and the Bristol & Clifton Ladies’ Anti-slavery Society.

“Mention should also be made of Countering Colston and Bristol Radical History Group in their tenacity and commitment in more recent years to both dismantle the celebration of Colston in the city and expose Colston’s true and full history.”

Main photo: Merchant Venturers

Read more: Colston 4 barrister: ‘The trial was not in the public interest in any shape or form’

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