Keep Calm and Abolish the Monarchy
Can Jubilee This Shit?
What happened
This June and throughout the rest of the summer, Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 70 years on the throne as the Queen of England. This would be really impressive if it weren't blatantly obvious how incredibly problematic the institution of the British monarchy is. The exact price tag of the week of jubilance is heavily guarded—much like the crown jewels stolen from countries they colonized—the UK government set aside a whopping £28 million (that's 44.3 million CAD) for celebratory events —and that's just the federally reserved funding for the celebration.
While monarchists love to blame the British government or emphasize the royal family's limited power— remember that acts of colonial violence were enacted in the Queen's name and she benefits from it. So we have to stop viewing the monarchy and the government as two distinctly separate entities (like they want us to) and start thinking of the royal family as the Dr. Jekeyll to the UK government's Mr. Hyde.
Photo by Mark de Jong on Unsplash
Why it matters
At the most absolutely basic level, it's crazy to be celebrating a milestone that also happens to mark another decade of colonial oppression by the British monarchy. Just this year, multiple Caribbean nations in the commonwealth have made efforts to sever their ties from the British monarchy completely and refuse to celebrate the Jubilee.
The duration of the Queen's reign has been stained with oppression and violence against citizens of commonwealth countries. Let's not forget that it was on a trip to Kenya amid the Mau Mau uprising when Elizabeth became the Queen of England back in 1952. While Lizzy was climbing up a tree a princess and coming down a queen, Kenyans were being tortured, killed, and thrown into concentration camps for rebelling against the colonial rule of the British monarchy.
Not a great foot to get off on.
“We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind”
The British are the the big bad that won.
Why it matters
The British Monarchy is a classic case of history written by the victor. Colonialism has a legacy of environmental degradation, the spread of disease, economic instability, ethnic rivalries, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the genocide of indigenous peoples on turtle island, the systemic destruction of indigenous culture, language and ways of life, and human rights violations, one that most BIPOC folk, aka the global majority, still carry to this day.
When we talk about great evils in history, such as the Nazis and the Confederacy, we talk about how horrific their crimes against humanity were. We rightfully call it what it is, and condemn it.
So what exactly is the difference between what the Monarchy did, and continues to perpetuate, vs. what the Confederacy and the Nazis did? Because tbh, it kind of feels like there are a lot of similarities with the exception being, the Monarchy wasn't defeated and has a really great PR team.
Sorry to Reign on Your Parade Lizzy
This year's Jubilee has been met with significant (rightful) resistance from people both within and outside of Great Britain. Calls to abolish the monarchy altogether and make Queen Elizabeth's 70th year on the throne the last one (for her or anyone else) have been echoed by British nationals and commonwealth civilians alike. And, hell, this is one Platinum Jubilee parade we're happy to join;
Why the fuck would we celebrate the continued reign of a family and institution who have been responsible for the systemic oppression of the majority of their so-called constituents?
On a broader scale, the expectation to celebrate oppressors is ludicrous and insulting. It's like being asked to thank your bully after they beat you up and steal your lunch money.
We're over it, Lizzy, and we'd like our money back.
Now what?
We don't need a Jubilee, what we need is reparations. And before we hear the age-old excuse of "where are they supposed to get the money for reparations?" we'd kindly like to divert your attention to the £15 million (over $23 million Canadian) spent on the Jubilee Parade alone.
Not to mention that Canada pays $58 Million a year to the monarchy — including footing the bill for Royal visits. That's taxpayer money that the Canadian Government could be using to... we don't know, pay reparations of their own? Build more subsidize housing amid the highest cost of living in history? Get clean drinking water to Indigenous communities who had access to clean drinking water before the British invaded?
We're just spitballing, but it's pretty clear to us there are better ways to spend that money than a fucking parade that is designed to promote British patriotism (read: push British propaganda).
“What is becoming clear [...] is the global public’s role. To understand how and why Britain shaped the modern world, it must not turn away from the complicated relationship between monarchy, nation and empire, and the untold sufferings it wrought on colonized populations across the globe. Rather it must untangle and understand this complicated web of power and its tentacular legacies in spite, or because, of its reverence for Queen Elizabeth II.”
God Save the People
A severance of our ties to the monarchy is well overdue. We owe it to the Indigenous peoples of the land we now call Canada, as well as anyone who has currently or ancestrally been royally fucked by these complete arseholes.
And yes, the monarchy is deeply embedded into our country - it won’t be easy to kick them out - but their well-oiled PR machine, in addition to our leaders, will have to respond to consistent public outrage.
For those so quick to say it isn’t possible - we know it will be difficult but these systems we detest aren’t ruled by laws of physics. Our lack of imagination around what a better more holistic system would look like is one of the biggest barriers we face. These systems and structures were made by people, so people can dismantle them.
Until then, Alexa play God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols.
Sources: Fortune, Al Jazeera, The Star, Global News, Jamaica Information Service, Reuters, NY Times, Monarchist League of Canada
