From French School Riots To British War Memorials: The Revolutionary Left's Growing Reach On Saturday, protesters climbed the Battle of Britain memorial on Victoria Embankment and banged on its stone and bronze for half an hour. At its foot lay poppy wreaths laid by the Battle of Britain Fighter Association. They were kicked apart. Some of the climbers held signs reading "For Palestine to live, imperialism must die". Many of the protesters carried Revolutionary Communist Party flags. The Met arrested 20 people, six on suspicion of criminal damage. Trouble began when officers tried to arrest masked marchers. Asked why he had been arrested, one man said he had punched a policeman. Others shouted "tout le monde déteste la police", the anti-police slogan heard during France's school riots. Nobody on the Embankment was protesting about French classrooms. The grievance was different, but the revolutionary politics and contempt for the police were strikingly familiar. The Battle of Britain memorial was not the first national monument to become a political stage. Just before 4am on February 27, Olax Outis, also known as Caspar San Giorgio, climbed Churchill's statue in Parliament Square wearing a red boiler suit declaring "I support Palestine Action". He sprayed "Zionist war criminal" and other slogans across it. Prosecutors valued the damage at more than £7,000. A jury acquitted him last month. Outis told jurors that a conviction concerned him little and said he wanted Sir Keir Starmer tried in The Hague. He had used a national monument to advertise his political cause. Look again at what was targeted. Churchill, who led Britain against Hitler. The memorial to Fighter Command. The poppies. The police. None has any connection to Gaza. They represent Britain's history, sacrifice and public order. A demand for imperialism to die, proclaimed from a war memorial, tells us something about the political ambitions of those making it. Look inside Britain's universities. The Marxist Student Federation operates through societies across the country, promoting revolutionary Marxism and supporting the Revolutionary Communist Party. At LSE, affiliated activists advertise links with students at King's, UCL, SOAS, City and Imperial to attend protests and picket lines. Oxford's Marxist society speaks openly of building "revolutionary consciousness". These organisations recruit, educate and mobilise young activists under the recognition of student unions. Their ambitions are advertised openly. There is no evidence that their members climbed the memorial. But universities entrusted with developing independent thought are also providing an institutional foothold for movements committed to overthrowing the existing political and economic order. France demonstrates how such movements exploit an opportunity. Pupils at Lycée Saint-Exupéry demanded a headteacher and repairs to a leaking roof. Soon, politicians from Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Unbowed appeared at school gates. Mélenchon urged supporters to "intervene against police savagery". LFI councillor Céline Verzeletti predicted a new Yellow Vest movement. One student told the Telegraph that the far Left had helped the protests gain visibility. A genuine grievance had become the vehicle for a wider political campaign. The connection with Britain lies in the methods, slogans and political ambitions. A school protest in France and a Gaza march in London can attract activists pursuing causes far removed from the original grievance. Their revolutionary politics deserve scrutiny, particularly when demonstrations become attacks on police or national memorials. The freedoms these protesters enjoy were secured by the airmen whose sacrifice they mocked. They fought for a Britain where people could speak and protest freely. The government and universities must confront the revolutionary ideology now entrenched on our campuses and the threat it poses to our institutions, freedoms and democracy itself.