Mass student protest is returning to London this week for
the first time since a succession of occasionally chaotic marches two years
ago, with organisers saying they hope to send MPs of all parties a message
about the need to act – not just on education funding, but on rampant
unemployment among the young.
Organisers expect at least 10,000 demonstrators to mass near
the Embankment, on the north side of the Thames on Wednesday morning, before a
march past Parliament Square towards Kennington Park, just south of the river,
for a rally.
The four successive marches during November and December
2010, which saw sporadic disorder met by vigorous police tactics including the
"kettling" of crowds for hours in freezing conditions, were geared
heavily around the enactment of the law greatly increasing tuition fees. This
week's event has a broader focus.
Titled Demo 2012 – also the designated Twitter hashtag – the
march, organised by the National Union of Students, has the official slogan
Educate, Employ, Empower. It is intended to highlight not just tuition fees and
the loss of the educational maintenance allowance (EMA), but the dire
employment prospects faced by many young people once they leave education, said
Liam Burns, the NUS president.
"We usually have protests that are about stopping a
particular act of parliament," he said. "This is about setting the
agenda for politicians. I don't think anyone would disagree that we're bearing
the brunt of all sorts of attacks that we certainly didn't create. This is a
different type of protest. It's about sending a clear message to politicians
that it simply isn't good enough. The demonstration is like a starter gun to
the general election, so parliament knows it has to do something to make things
different for our generation. But it's also to say that we've not forgotten how
they betrayed us in the last general election."
MPs should note that many of those marching past the Commons
were from "a generation who have had so many opportunities taken away from
them" and would vote for the first time in the next election, Burns said.
"It's so frustrating when we see so many other countries investing in
education, yet ours insists on this narrative that we must just cut further and
further. This protest is a place marker: this has to stop and we need a
fundamentally different direction for the next general election."
The 2010 protests saw a handful of incidents of disorder
that generated considerable publicity, despite the relatively tiny proportion
of marchers involved. On 10 November that year, a small group stormed the
office tower on Millbank, which houses the Conservative party headquarters,
throwing objects including a fire extinguisher from the roof. The last march
saw a car carrying Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall jostled and
struck by missiles as it travelled through the West End.
In response to the events of 10 November, police adopted
uncompromising tactics on future marches, including the seemingly routine
blockading of protesters in small "kettled" areas, in some cases for
many hours. The NUS has advised marchers on Wednesday to come well supplied
with warm clothes, food, water and medication, in case they "end up
staying later than planned".
Burns said the NUS had gone through months of talks with
police to avoid trouble on either side. He said: "My very clear ask is
that the police act to enable our democratic right to protest, and that we will
be very wary of disproportionate police tactics. Equally, our members are clear
that we're in London for a peaceful yet effective protest."
Conrad Landin, a second-year English student at Cambridge
University, said he planned to attend despite being kettled in Whitehall during
one of the 2010 protests, when he was a sixth-former. He said: "It was one
of the scariest experiences of my life, it felt like being in prison – it was
so unjustified because there had been very little disorder before that point.
"It was only after people were imprisoned in a very
small place that people started clashing with the police. People started fires
to keep warm at zero temperatures. There was no food, water or toilets. It
wasn't just students there – there were elderly people, disabled people, young
children who weren't being allowed out. It seemed very immoral, inhumane
treatment."
Landin said he was principally protesting against tuition
fees and for the return of the EMA, adding that marchers were not all backing
the NUS's official line. He said: "Motivating people to come out is
difficult because of the resistance we're still seeing from the NUS. They've
got this slogan, Educate, Employ, Empower, which is the most vacuous thing I've
ever heard. We're not going to make a case for the value of education and
supporting vulnerable young people unless we have some clear demands."
Source: 18 November 2012, The Guardian by Peter Walker and
Rebecca Ratcliffe
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