Students have every right to violence
I wonder if David Cameron has picked up some handy tips in China on how to handle student protests. Much too much has been said about the “violent minority” and “inadequate policing”.
By Leah Borromeo on Thursday, November 11th, 2010 - 292 words.
I wonder if David Cameron has picked up some handy tips in China on how to handle student protests. Much too much has been said about the “violent minority” and “inadequate policing”.
We’re not looking at a “violent minority” or a “hijacking”. The people on the roof and the people smashing windows are the same people who feel their actions were the best way to be heard. If yesterday didn’t go a bit “Lord of the Flies”, we wouldn’t be lavishing all these column inches and all this airtime on it. The issues would instead get a polite mention topped and tailed with a yawn-inducing commentator.
The only inadequate policing I witnessed was that of the TSG in full riot gear charging batons-high at placard-carrying, vuvuzela-tooting students. Including one in a wheelchair. You can’t balance the violence of the oppressor with the violence of the oppressed. One leads to the other, and violence isn’t always just a punch in the face.
Any calls for a reasoned argument are bunk. Cuts to education, welfare and public services are not reasoned. They scar our society deeper than anything we can hope to embed in George Osborne’s skull.
I chanted “you say cut back, we say fight back” thirteen years ago – before Labour introduced University fees. I have friends who marched in 1989 when the Tories froze grants and introduced loans. 1989. The students who marched yesterday were screwed before they were born. No wonder they’re angry. No wonder they’re afraid.
Anger and fear is what galvanised people to march yesterday. Anger and fear is what drove some to criminal damage and is what will drive others to take more drastic measures in future. And why not? If this government takes everything from us, we have nothing to lose.
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11 Comments
Hello this is gretatennyson really like violent minority all students and teachers .
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Really?
Really? Attempted murder is cool is it? Just because a bunch of layabouts want a free ride?
Please – the country didn't have any sympathy for them before and they sure as hell don't now.
Great Post! I am so sick of hearing commentator's whine about the violence. The Tories and the Republicans have a lot more coming to them, and soon. This isn't ajoke people; this is our future. If we don't band together it's gonna be our jobs and our houses and our livelihoods that go next. There is a common enemy: it's called corporate capitalism and it hass to be stopped at all costs.
Most social struggles that change things involve confrontation. Without the demo at Millbank, the reality is that yesterdays protest would have got little attention. Students felt their actions were justified by the anger amongst the 50,000 people fighting against the astronomical cuts to HE funding and outrageous rise in fees. The march had a great atmosphere, energy and spirit. The direct action of smashing a few windows cant be compared to the impact that the cuts will have. Far more than some glass is at stake. Its about time this country stood up for what is right, what the government is imposing is wrong on so many levels.. The demo signified a important moment in history, politics and education and it was uplifting to find so many like minded people protesting who really passionately care and are prepared to fight for what they believe in…and its about time too!
great article in the guardian for anyone who has not seen it http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/…
Ah, peaceful protest vs violence. You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. I've been on 3 peaceful protests in the past 2 years, none of which achieved anywhere near the level of press interest that yesterdays events in Westminster managed, and none of which received anywhere near the level of condemnation from various quarters.
I wonder if the mere breaking/entering, occupation, destruction of property and scattered public bonfires would have been enough to raise the media profile of the demonstration without the camera-friendly rumble and resulting big sticks having to be deployed by the old bill. I also wonder whether or not some attempt could have been made by the protestors to police their own to some extent – dropping the fire extinguisher off the roof was just not cool, however you look at it.
Can demonstrations and direct action of this nature be organised with the violence aimed purely at property rather than policemen? And would such action attain the same profile? I hope we can find out before it rains office chairs or coffee machines next time.
It was Blair's New Labour government that brought in student loans.
I think you'll find that you're wrong. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnew…
Which part of the UK are you seeking to offend most? Those trying to attain higher education or those who already have higher education [there's quite a few million of us]? Or are you going to play Mr Grumpychops and sit on your rock muttering "get a job, cut your hair, don't know the value of a decent day's work"?
Ooops I meant fees….New Labour brought in tuition fees which were the real evil that started the massive debts that students now have.
Once we remember that New Labour brought in tuition fees and and that the Lib-Dems have betrayed the students and all their voters whilst in government with the Tories we can understand the anger that many students feel. I marched against New Labour's tuition fees before they were introduced. Some of the chants were the same as the recent demo. It didn't do much good.
Blair not only brought in fees but also top-up fees.
I think, in this case, we have to clarify what we mean by "peace" and "violence".
Peace doesn't exist. It's an ideal. An ideal – when mixed with the energy of anger – drives people to activism.
Violence is being enacted on people around the world all the time – you don't have to be hit or smash a window. Violence is a damage. By announcing cross-sector cuts, the coalition government is committing the grossest act of violence because of the damage it has on our fabric.
So the kid who dropped the fire extinguisher off the roof was a dipshit. You get them everywhere. [I know who he is: