Matthew Wright and Ferdia Carr join what could be the start of a new student movement.
Around 10,000 students took to the streets of London on November 19th to demand universal and free education in a march organised by the National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts (NCAFC). Organisers claimed it was the largest student protest since 2010 when as many as 52,000 people took part. But while that march was backed by the National Union of Students (NUS) this one was not, and although NUS President Toni Pierce has said that the reasons were to do with safety, the NCAFC has accused the union of siding with the establishment over tuition fees.
The NCAFC Free Education march began in Malet Street by Birkbeck College at noon. To the pounding beat of drums and symbols, a procession of students chanting: “What do we want? Free education!” moved peacefully towards Westminster to listen to speakers in front of the statue of Richard the Lionheart.
But more militant slogans such as “No justice, no peace, fuck the police!” could also be heard, and as the march approached the Houses of Parliament a large group of protestors, many of them in masks, broke off and clashed with police in Parliament Square, also attacking a nearby Starbucks. “What’s this got to do with me?’ pleaded one irate van driver, as a protestor blocking a line of traffic sat in front of a cab belting away at his guitar. A young woman nearby shouted out: “What we are doing here today is more important than his work day.”
As the demonstration thinned, the last of the speakers urged the students to take the fight back to their cities and campuses, so that the cuts could be stopped, and the tuition fees scrapped. The next march, they claimed, would be even bigger than this one. But the question remains: will the NUS be representing the student movement at that march, or did November 19th see the birth of a new student movement?
Elsewhere the Department of Innovation Business and Skills was daubed with paint; an attempt was made to storm the Conservative Party Campaign Headquarters; and the word “Scabs” was painted on The NUS head office in Gray’s Inn Road. Eleven arrests were made in in all.