On 13 May 2020 our Lanarkshire Branch Secretary Josh Morris talked to East Kilbride News about graffiti that had appeared in the local area.

Communist slogans daubed across East Kilbride “display anger” towards UK Government’s handling of pandemic, by Fraser N Wilson

The secretary of an emerging political group has moved to distance his party from a series of propaganda tags graffitied across East Kilbride.

But he says the offences contain a clear message and “display of anger” towards the UK government.

Josh Morris told the East Kilbride News that Young Communist League members had nothing to do with a series of messages taking a pop at Boris Johnson’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One shocking tag showcased on the group’s Facebook page reads “Hang Boris,” with the communist hammer and sickle next to it.

Others shown on the group’s social media read “Tories lie, workers die,” “make the rich pay for COVID-19,” and “31k+ never again” – that in reference to the number of people confirmed to have died from the coronavirus outbreak so far.

Having suffered a “big slump” in membership numbers between the late 1990s and end of 2010s, Josh says the group are seeing a rise in the number of activists.

He told us: “I’ve been a member for about 18 months now and we are very much in the process of growing.

“We are not taking responsibility for the graffiti, but whoever has been doing it has been using that as a way of showing the wider community that there are people out there who have their back.

“People who want to support the NHS, support frontline workers, provide the right PPE, and support those that have too long been overlooked.”

The News first became aware of communist graffiti in the Greenhills area last month on the water tower and across from the Melbourne shops in Westwood.

Since then, more tags have appeared in The Murray, East Mains and Westwood, with around a dozen so far spotted in the town.

Commenting on the “Hang Boris” tag, 20-year-old Josh said it showed “people are angry about this”.

Josh, from the Sandford area, said the Prime Minister’s policies had “led to the death of over 31,000 people,” adding that Tory austerity over the last 10 years had led to ‘much more’.

He added: “Before this crisis, the NHS was on the path to back door privatisation at the hand of the Tories and the Labour government before them.

“Both were compliant in its demise – posts like this are just a display of anger.”

Read the full article here:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/communist-slogans-daubed-across-east-22014464?