Robin Hood under attack

[Charlotte Kates <ckates@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

**Robin Hood under attack**

(Reprinted from the May 11, 1996 issue of the People's
Weekly World. May be reprinted or reposted with PWW credit.
For subscription information see below)

By William Pomeroy

LONDON -- A move to consign one of the most durable of
legendary folk heroes to the historical dustbin has given a
modern twist to an age-old British tale of class struggle. A
consortium of businessmen in the city of Nottingham,
England, has called for the banning of Robin Hood as a
symbol for the locality, which includes the outlaw's
hideout, Sherwood Forest.

Terming itself Nottingham First, the committee of bankers,
businessmen and corporate lawyers contends that Robin Hood
as a symbol "gives the wrong impression to potential
investors." With his record of robbing from the rich to give
to the poor he represents a form of redistribution of wealth
that is not to the liking of those engaged in present-day
profit making.

Says Nottingham city council's director of corporate
affairs: "When we're trying to sell the city, say to a major
electrical company from Germany, if they think of Robin Hood
when they think of Nottingham, they may not be willing to
come."

Actually, around 1.5 million tourists come to Nottingham and
its district every year, to gaze fondly at the images of
Robin Hood to be found everywhere in the city. The city has
a Robin Hood Society, the secretary of which, Mary
Chamberlain, is affronted by the businessmen's attitude.
"They have gone crazy. Robin Hood is Nottingham. He is one
of the best known figures in world history."

Over the centuries Britain's rulers have sought to blur the
class struggle image of Robin Hood. In the late 12th or
early 13th century when he was said to have lived, he began
as a workman miller's son who poached the deer of wealthy
land owners, who ordered him to be hunted down by the
Sheriff. From that challenge of authority the step was made
to robbing the rich for the benefit of the poor. In the
Victorian age this image was gilded by making Robin a
supposed nobleman (the Earl of Huntingdon) to suppress the
class-conscious image that might give ideas to working
people of that time.

The attempt by the Nottingham bankers and businessmen to get
rid of the Robin Hood legend is wholly in keeping with the
spirit of Tory-run Britain. This has been one of a glaring
process of robbing the poor to give more to the rich.
Between 1979 (when Thatcher came to power) and 1995 the
richest 20 percent in Britain had their share of the
country's disposable income boosted from 26 percent to 43
percent, while the poorest 20 percent had their share cut
>from 10 percent to 6 percent.

Privatization has resulted in grotesque examples of private
owner enrichment while the ordinary citizen for whom the
public sector had been managed is being literally robbed by
vastly higher charges for electricity, gas, water and
transport.

It is the preservation of this kind of wealth-getting and
gross inequality of income that is in the minds of the
Nottingham businessmen in desiring the burial of the Robin
Hood legend.

A deplorable aspect of this is the fact that Nottingham city
council at present is in the control of the Labor Party. The
Sheriff of Nottingham is a Labor councilor who wears as a
symbol of his office a gold-braided replica of the 12th
century garb, with bejewelled sword, worn by the Sheriff
with whom Robin Hood reputedly dueled.
##30##
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_____________________________________________________________________________
    Charlotte L. Kates     ckates@xxxxxxxxxxxx        Collingswood, NJ

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