Back in June, a group of Black Lives Matter protesters toppled the statue of Edward Colston from its plinth in Bristol and threw it off a quayside where the slave trader’s ships used to dock.
More than six months on, the mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, describes it as an “iconic moment”. But not a simple one. “I think we need to be careful with it,” said Rees. “The danger is that iconic moments of great symbolic value occupy the space that should be filled by substantial action.
“Symbols are important but I didn’t get a memo on my desk the next day or the next week telling me racial equalities around mental health, school exclusions, criminal justice systems and educational outcomes had changed. It’s very important we make sure all symbolic acts are firmly attached to real change, real policy change,” he said.
Rees mentions the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965, a key event in the US civil rights movement. “They didn’t just throw the die and see what came out of it. They wanted the Voting Rights Act to come out of it.”
Rees argues that “policy outcomes” need to flow from moments such as the fall of the Colston statue. “Otherwise we just create disturbance without having a strategy and we lose control. That’s a challenge.”
Rees, who was elected as mayor in 2016, argued that before the BLM protest, his administration had been working hard to make Bristol fairer for people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, ranging from setting up a commission on race equality to recruiting more magistrates from BAME communities.
But Rees says the toppling of the statue brought more people into the discussion. “What has changed is the appetite for public conversations about race. That has become more urgent and more visible. People are being much more proactive asking people like myself and Asher Craig [a deputy mayor] what they can do.”
Rees has also set up a history commission to study all the local memorials and places linked to the slave trade to inform a city-wide conversation on their future. It is a sensitive process.
“There are many people who feel they are losing control of their city, their world. We have to have that conversation in a way that repairs relationships. That doesn’t mean moving at the pace of the slowest but it means taking people with you.
“The commission is there to help us understand Bristol’s history in all its fullness … How we became the city we’ve become – who are the heroes, be they women, union organisers, abolitionists, black people, Asian people, gay people.
“With that further understanding we’ll be in a better position to make decisions about who and what we want to celebrate. At the moment what’s clear is that we don’t have a shared understanding of Bristol’s story and the meaning of individuals within Bristol’s story.”
In the days after the Colston statue fell, the headstone of an African man who was enslaved in the 18th century was vandalised. “It’s heartbreaking that a piece of Bristol’s history was smashed like that,” said Rees.
Another tense moment came when hundreds of people gathered around the cenotaph in the city centre in an “All Lives Matter” demonstration.
Rees sought out some of those who were at the cenotaph and discussed their fears. “One of the organisers said they felt like they were losing their city. I said they are, but they’re losing it to house prices and gentrification, not to migration. Houses used to be affordable, now they’re not. We have the worst affordability ratio among core cities. That’s what’s undermining people’s purchase in Bristol.”
Rees says that “fragilities” within society were exposed at the time of the BLM protests. “We get on with life and every now and then something comes along that tests our relationships and they find us strong or wanting – and often somewhere in between. What we’ve had through Covid and Back Lives Matter are some real tests.”
On balance, Rees believes the challenges the city faced have made it stronger, manifested in the number of people who have stepped forward to support the most needy. “I am hopeful. There’s an ancient truth – you get strong through challenge. The challenge is never fun at the time but that’s how you find your strength.”
Rees argues the recovery after Covid will provide both opportunity and risk. “It’s very important we put the sustainable development goals at the heart of our plans for economic recovery.
“One of my biggest fears is that in the midst of an economic depression [central] government will be so desperate they will have a values-free pursuit of economic growth. They will say, OK, environmentalism is great but we’ve got to get the numbers moving. And then they will try to retro-fit sustainability, ecology, inclusion on to the back of the economic machine. I think that would be a huge mistake.
“Now is the time to rethink what the economy is so that by its very nature the way our economy works takes carbon out of the economy, drives inclusion, promotes life.”
Cities and mayors can lead a new way of thinking, Rees believes. “We need to have cities shaping national and international policy. I think the voices of UK cities have to be equal partners at those top tables.”
The Covid crisis has turned mayors such as Andy Burnham (Greater Manchester) and Andy Street (West Midlands) into national figures.
Rees appears regularly on the same platforms as Burnham and also with the mayors of Los Angeles, Freetown and Montreal. “We are seeing more city networks and we’re seeing organisations like the UN starting to say that if we really want change we need to work through cities.”
Rees says a string of US mayors have been praised for their work in the environment and immigration, despite having to work during Donald Trump’s presidency. “Their attitude is, it doesn’t matter what the president says, we’re still going to go along with the Paris agreement [on climate change]. It doesn’t matter what the president says, we are going to take care of our migrant populations.”
Rees identifies as black and of mixed heritage, having been born in Bristol to a Jamaican father and white mother. As a boy growing up in a working class area of the city in the 70s and 80s, racism was common.
He worked in the media and health sectors before entering politics through Operation Black Vote. “I grew up in challenging circumstances but there’s no point sitting in the corner lamenting how bad it is. You’ve got to get on with it.”
The days and weeks after the statue toppled were busy for Rees as the world’s media asked him to explain the extraordinary moment. His term as mayor ends in 2021 and he plans to stand again.
He accepts there is still much to do. “We’ve got to get affordable houses built in Bristol, get food out to people, tackle period poverty and school exclusions, decarbonise the economy.”
The mayor ends with a scrap of philosophy from an unlikely source – the mixed martial fighter and boxer Conor McGregor: “‘I win or learn.” Rees says: “Even at times of trials we don’t want, we’re learning.”
