BAE on campus.

I protested against BAE on campus, before hand the student paper asked me some questions.  Here is what I wrote.

You have launched a vocal campaign against the BAE recruitment at university grad fairs - how popular has student unrest against the grad recruitment been on campus?

I only recently learned that the Engineers were to be forced to attend a talk by BAE systems, as a result I have not had chance to network with the student activist groups.  I am sure I am not the only UCL student concerned that the arms industry are allowed to take up lecture time in order to try and attract undergraduates.  I must stress that unlike most graduate fairs, attendance for second year Engineering Students is mandatory which I see a gross misuse of power bordering on coercive persuasion.  My emails to the lecturers involved were ignored.

University of London students have been relatively quiet in their anti BAE protests compared to elsewhere in the UK - why do you think this might be?

I don't think this is necessarily true.  The get BAE off campus campaign launched by Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) was only launched very recently, two weeks after the launch students kicked off the campaign at the Guardians London Graduate Fair staging a 'Die-in' at the front of the BAE stall and handing out leaflets, waving banners and otherwise generally disrupting the stall.  It was a commendable and hugely successful action which greatly raised awareness of the campaign and the surrounding issues whilst simultaneously hindering BAE's efforts to attract graduates.  

How would you respond to critics of the protests who have deemed them 'counter-productive and misguided'?

Institutional analysis is discouraged by those who's needs the institution serves.  Throughout history voices of dissent are marginalised; the challenging of favoured truths does not get much of a hearing in Mass Media which makes actions such as the one at the Guardian London Graduate fair vital in propelling human civilisation forward.  BAE sell arms indiscriminately around the world.  It has military customers in over 100 countries. Its profits are made by sales to oppressive regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, by poverty that is fuelled when countries such as Pakistan and India waste money on arms, by civilian deaths in West Papua, as Indonesia bombs them with weapons made in the west. The campaign against the arms trade recruiting on campus is an eminently crucial one with tangible and attainable objectives.  The fact that in 2008 E.ON pulled out of their tour of universities demonstrates how powerful student protests can be.  Add this to the fact that BAE are struggling to employ recent graduates and you have a weakness in the system presenting an opportunity to increase the pressure for ending the arms trade.  

Do you feel that by welcoming BAE to talk at UCL we have take a step back from the anti-arms trade stance of the student body during the disarmUCL campaign?

The fact that students are forced to attend is not a 'step back', it is an obscenity, a disgusting use of an Educational Institution for an immoral industries profit.  The disarmUCL campaign although a great victory, only scratched the surface of UCL's involvement with the arms trade.  It should be noted that the UCL SECReT international centre for PhD training in security and crime science claims to have a "shared vision" with investing companies such as BAE Systems, Thales and Lockheed Martin.  According to BAE CEO Mike Turner that is to, “achieve sustainable and profitable growth well into the future”.  This shared vision of an expansion in arms dealing relies on an expansion of war, a greater number of dead and more schools, homes and communities wiped out, severely undermining human rights, security and economic development at global, regional, national and local levels.  It is not only individuals, but organisations who have responsibility to make ethical choices.  Giving space to arms dealers be it through forcing students to attend forums such as this or through back doors such as SECReT is the moral equivalent of allowing drug dealers or sex traffickers to go about their business on campus with the university abetting; providing a room full of impressionable students for them to indoctrinate.  It is inexcusable that society funds the skills and technology and provides the platforms required by arms dealers, rather than those urgently required to tackle climate change.

Lies!

The MET commissioner during a press release claimed there was “no record” of the cavalry charge on protestors.  A clever twist of words, the cavalry charge in question was on the parents, friends and family who had come to find out why there was a kettling of young children and not on the initial protest.  I wonder if there is any record of primary aged children and pensioners chanting “Shame on you” at the mounted officers.  Two people were trampled during this unprovoked attack.

The paltry excuses used for the kettle seem to warp the space-time continuum.  The police had lined up ready to kettle the students including mounted officers and vans placed across the road.  They had no intention of allowing the protestors to go past parliament.  The abandoned van was claimed to have been following the protestors, yet magically appeared unmanned at the front.  Knowing Bob Broadhurst was in charge, the seasoned activists saw this coming and left the march as soon as we saw the police mobilising, stopping for coffee.  This allowed us to watch from the outside as the frustration turned to a little bit of teenage rebel behaviour.  The fires were not lit while people were marching; they were lit when they had been falsely imprisoned wearing nothing but a school uniform in the freezing cold. The people trapped in the kettle included students, tourists and builders working on the road. Police baton charged the kettle indiscriminately on several occasions; the twitter reports from inside the kettle show just how many people were injured.  Outside the kettle, section 60 was abused, laws broken regularly through intimidation.  I myself needed to be quite forward with the fact I knew my rights when I was threatened with arrest for refusing to give my name on Horseguards Avenue, a blatant attempt at intimidation others less aware of the law would easily fall for.  Basically police oppression was rife as per usual.  Only two reported police injuries (which may or may not be a direct result of a protestors action) compared to the hundreds of protestors injured shows the direction of the violence.  Cameron should look closer to home when he claims, “People obviously have the right to peaceful demonstration but there is no place for violence and intimidation”.

Clegg continues with his lies, using the tired argument of an extremist hijack, outside agitators.  This was comical when Porter first used it.  The latest riot porn is of a teenage boy still in school uniform kicking an abandoned police van.  Far from hardcore violent extremists it is pretty standard teenage behaviour where I come from.  I would venture that given that situation in other parts of Britain, that van would have been alight in minutes.

Patrick Kielty summed it up in his twitter note to protestors a while ago; “No petrol bombs. No balaclavas. No plastic bullets. In Belfast that's a Rave not a Riot. See me after”

My favourite quote came from an officer explaining that the kettle was needed in order to arrest “the leaders of the anarchists”.   Despite the oxymoron here, the thinking is that as the students seem to be ignoring the socialists that so often try to hijack popular protest to inflate their paltry numbers, the students must be organised by anarchists.  The truth of the matter is that this is a grass roots movement with people making their own decisions.  Autonomy rules.  Centralised power is not a requirement.  A great example of this was that the police did not stop the van from being set alight, a group of young girls dressed in school uniform surrounded it and suddenly the consensus was that it was a bad idea. People did finally find a use for all the socialist paper boys, they were mugged for bonfire material.

In other news, I am at the UCL occupation and all is well.  Check the blog.

https://ucloccupation.wordpress.com/

SOAS Occupation - The Demands and Requests

The following demands and requests were released in a statement from the occupiers.  Show your solidarity!


Email: soasoccupation2010@gmail.com
Website: http://soasoccupation2010.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @soasoccupation2010 and the hashtag is #soasoccupation
Press: Ellie Badcock (07581418837) and Bernard Goyder (07551319742) available for interview 24hrs

At a huge Emergency General Meeting (EGM) last week, SOAS students voted in favour of occupation as part of our fight against Coalition government plans to cut higher education funding and raise tuition fees. Today, over sixty students have occupied the Brunei Suite at SOAS. This number is growing.

We stand in solidarity with other University occupations across the country and all those resisting the government’s draconian and unnecessary cuts. We encourage all students to participate in the National Day of Action against fees and cuts on 24th November. We call on the University administration to join us in our fight to defend education. In particular, we demand:

1. No victimisation of participants in this occupation and in previous and future student actions against fees and cuts.
2. That students who participate in the walk-out organised on the 24^th of November are not marked as absent from lectures or tutorials on that day.
3. Greater transparency in the School's budget and in the School's financial decisions.
4. That Paul Webley, SOAS Director, releases a statement openly condemning all cuts to higher education and any rise in tuition fees, and writes to the Government in the form of an open letter asking Vice-Chancellors across the country to unite against all threats to Higher Education.
5. That Paul Webley and SOAS management refuse to budget for the cuts and commit not to raise tuition fees.

We request

1. That all lecturers devote 15 minutes of lecture time to discuss the impact of the cuts in their classes throughout this week.

SOAS Occupied!

A few minutes ago, about 30 students from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) have occupied the Brunei Gallery situated in the heart of London and are currently drawing up a list of demands.

This is not the first time this year SOAS students have occupied university property, it is no surprise that they have taken the initiative to start occupations in London to protest the cuts both in education and in wider society.

Before condemning the students as middle class and selfish, learn a little about the context of their protest.  They will not be directly affected by the rise in tuition fees, the younger generation will.  We shouldn't think of this of a single issue affecting a certain group of people.  The marketisation of our education system affects society as a whole.

The cuts to our public services are not required because the country is on the verge of economic collapse, the cuts are required by a government ideologically opposed to public services and the welfare state, and committed to handing over more of our public assets to big business.

It should be noted that from 1918 to 1961 the UK national debt was over 100% of GDP. During that period the government introduced the welfare state, the NHS, state pensions, comprehensive education, built millions of council houses, and nationalised a range of industries. The public sector grew and there was economic growth.

For the sixth largest economy in the world, the government can easily afford to invest in education.  The government currently spends just 0.7% of GDP on higher education, which is less than even the United States. The economic crisis is being used to rush through economic policies that otherwise the public would not stand for.  The UK’s very own shock doctrine.

The coalition's decision to triple tuition fees was a political choice, not an economic necessity. Nick Clegg said “At the time I really thought we could do it. I just didn't know, of course, before we came into government, quite what the state of the finances were [sic].”  The facts tell a different story.  In the period between the election and the coalition taking power, the state of the public purse improved. Only ten days after Clegg became the conservative bitch, the deficit revised downwards from £163.4bn to £156bn, having previously stood at £178bn.

The students who were inspired by the X-Factor election have quickly learned that politicians lie compulsively making the limited access to politics afforded by the status quo, such as voting and petitioning, amount to nothing more than reaffirmations of our consent to be ruled, to have our political power handled by elites. As Eric Cantona recently said, protesters who take to the streets with placards and banners are passé.  We must actively resist.

Everyone has the legal right to organize and participate in peaceful protest in Britain - the Human Rights Act (1998) gives the right to freedom of assembly and association and the right to freedom of expression.

Ill leave you with a communication Leeds UCU had with Noam Chomsky with regards to Education cuts.

“I had a startling experience a few weeks ago.  I travelled to Mexico City for talks at the National University, an enormous and very impressive institution with high standards of achievement and scholarship.  Entrance is selective, but the university is virtually free.  I then visited an even more remarkable institution, the college in Mexico City established by former mayor Lopez Obrador.  Again, the facilities and standards are quite impressive.  It is not only free, but has open admissions, though sometimes that requires some delay and sometimes assistance for students lacking adequate preparation. Shortly after I went to San Francisco for talks, and learned more about the California institutions of higher education.  They have been at the very peak of the international higher education system.  By now tuitions are quite high, even for in-state students, and cutbacks are affecting teaching, research, and staff.  It would be no great surprise if the two major state universities, UC Berkeley and UC Los Angeles, will soon be privatized while the remainder of the state system is reduced considerably in scale and level. Needless to say, Mexico is a poor country with a struggling economy, and California should be one of the richest places in the world, with incomparable advantages. I mention these recent experiences only to emphasize that the recent cut-backs in higher education seen in much of the world cannot simply be traced to economic problems.  Rather, they reflect fundamental choices about the nature of the society in which we will live.  If it is to be designed for the wealthy and privileged, mostly engaged in management and finance while production is transferred abroad and most of the population is left to fend somehow for themselves at the fringes of decent and creative life, then these are good choices.  If we have different aspirations for the world of our children and grandchildren, the choices are shameful and ruinous.

Noam Chomsky”

Please send your messages of solidarity and direct any enquiries to.

Email: soasoccupation2010@gmail.com
Website: http://soasoccupation2010.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @soasoccupation2010 and the hashtag is #soasoccupation
Press: Ellie Badcock (07581418837) and Bernard Goyder (07551319742) available for interview 24hrs

Anarchism getting a positive press?

The 'Comment is Free' section of the Guardian is running an article on Anarchism that is well worth a read.  After the constant media onslaught be it through the right wing media down right lies or lefty Laurie Penny patronisation its good to see a reasoned article as the number one 'don't miss' on CiF.

Unsurprisingly though it was written by anarchists, to be precise, the 'Anarchist Studies Network'.  I first saw the article on Direct Action Station.  Oh well, its a good start.

What Anarchism Really Means(ish) on Comment is Free

Police act in Solidarity with Workers

Unable to strike since 1919, the Police appear to be using unthinkable acts of stupidity with regards to their handling of the student ‘riot’ fiasco as a covert form of industrial action.

The wildcat actions started off impressively; despite knowing for weeks that thousands of protesters were due to march past the Tory HQ, near the houses of parliament, only 225 officers were posted along the route.  The TSG finished donut break before mobilising and even then took just long enough warming up around the improvised placard bonfires for most of the protesters fearful of arrest to have taken some photos for Facebook, reenacted their favourite scene from tales from the crypt II in the lobby and skipped merrily away to freedom.  An epic fuck up; “embarrassing” Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, forcing a public enquiry and a hefty refurbishment bill for the non-domiciled Reuben brothers.  A poorly executed police response, yet a magnificently executed Keynesian job creation and wealth redistribution program.  As laissez-faire economics destroy the working class, working class heroes from London to Nottingham have, in true capitalist fashion, managed to make a few quick bucks out of the destruction of the Conservative Party properties; oh what sweet irony.  See picture below from the Tory party Nottingham office that seems to have suffered a freak storm last night.

It is notable however that the 20 odd police left defending the offices of International Electromatics from the thousands of thuggish protestors fought like Spartans and commanded a comparable victory, with at least twice as many protestors being hospitalised as officers.  I am sure any figures are nonsense and a future freedom of information request will show in true Kingsnorth fashion that protesters injured only a few officers. Police records showing that the medical unit had dealt mostly with toothache, diarrhoea, cut fingers and “possible bee stings”, whereas many protestors were injured as the direct result of police batons and a swift right hook (see older post).  I imagine these 20 odd officers are the forces equivalent of Jedi, and are probably the officers in charge of the current training the Junior Knights at RAF/USAF Fairford in how to deal with a full-scale violent protest.

Talking of Spartans, the UK had their very own #IAmSpartacus moment when in another incredulous act of ‘policing’, acting Detective Inspector Will Hodgeson gave authorisation to close the FITWATCH site on the basis it was being used for “criminal activity” or for those who speak Newspeak, “crimethink”.  The FITWATCH website has been a camera in the backside of the Thinkpol and Ministry of Love for a few years now, “resisting and monitoring forward intelligence teams with tactics ranging from blocking cameras to printing numbers, names and photographs of known police officers on [the] blog, and offering advice to demonstrators about staying safe in protest situations”. When advice was posted for the students worried they were facing arrest following the Torygraphs vigilante Tory HQ occupation shop-a-student campaign, the Police Central e-crime Unit, in true Orwellian fashion, shut it down.  Within hours the mainly innocuous and common sense post had been spread all over the Internet, the site was re-hosted and the massive amount of publicity rocketed FITWATCH from a site little known outside of activist circles to a national treasure.  Schoolboy Hodgeson who, incidentally, used threats to bypass the legal process and freedom of expression protections is not new to the FITWATCH case and can not seriously have believed his actions would have caused any other response?  Especially in light of the recent twitter joke trial.  I am no expert in legalities but the people at article19 are, and they are not mincing their words.  The force of social media is strong padawan.

Charlie Chaplain’s infiltration of the police force didn’t stop there; the police quickly launched ‘Operation Malone’ to track down the wanted students. In response Ian Bone quickly launched ‘Operation Fuck Up Operation Malone’ calling on people to fill up mailboxes with false names for the photos.  In yet another wildcat action it appears the officers originally working for Operation Malone switched sides as so far, with all the CCTV footage and a myriad of other media they have managed to arrest the wrong kid for throwing the fire extinguisher (seems like someone forgot to check that the fire extinguisher the kid was holding in the photo was the same type that hit the ground) and release photos of the most wanted, two of whom turned out to be working at the building and had nothing to do with the rioters. 

One joke that has hit my mailbox a few times now is that the fire extinguisher kid was actually an agent provocateur/Tory Student Soc President aiming at Ian Bone. In all seriousness though, I do not believe the police ‘underestimated’ the action and do not discount the possibilities of agent provocateurs at the protest.  I noticed one lone gentleman who appeared to be milling around near others including myself on several occasions, in several places, listening to what was being said.  His odd behaviour struck a chord inside me and his face was imprinted in my memory as I made eye contact on several occasions, he was there till the bitter end, approximately 20 left in the kettle and when everyone was facing the direction of the kettle exit, eagerly anticipating pissing in the bushes upon release, he slipped quietly through police lines at the rear after speaking to one of the officers.  Being wary of others will not stop this kind of infiltration as has been proved in the case of Mark Stone/Kennedy, but be wary of your own actions and think a little about your future before throwing a fire extinguisher off a roof.  Assess individually what action needs to be made in order to make your point, avoid pack mentality and keep fighting!

Organise, Resist, Strike, Occupy.

Why Kings College was not occupied yesterday and why the Liberal Democrats HQ will not be occupied on the 24th November.

“Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice… Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality” - Michael Bakunin.

One of the big themes of last night’s nonsense was that the royal ‘we’ will occupy the Liberal Democrat HQ on the 24^th November.  I must have missed the memo, and so it seems, did everyone else.  This rhetoric amounts to nothing more than a complete abdication of social responsibility by the politically immature.

The accepted truth amongst activists working on a consensus basis is that it is generally a bad idea to announce publically, in advance, what illegal activities everyone will be doing and when and where they will be doing it without first agreeing the action with the group concerned.  But then, who are we to comment.

What is patently obvious is that democratic socialists are trying to hijack and control the student movement, using the students anger for their own political gains.  What is not mentioned at the meetings is what they intend to do when the proles take arms.  These people envisage themselves as a new elite of bureaucrats, administering in their own interests rather than in the interest of those they are supposed to serve.  They encourage dependency and conformity by threatening to withdraw their aid and by rewarding those they favour.

For those who couldn’t see the nepotism in the choice of speakers by the chair, the hierarchical form of socialism reared its ugly head with the notion of the relative importance of signatories.  The people chairing the meeting deemed that they had some ‘important’ signatures and mentioned the names of a few fellow paper sellers and then said they had some ‘even more important’ than that.  These people believe implicitly in their own importance, which is rated, I am sure, on the length of their paper-selling career.  Your signature is just as important as anybody else’s, so too is your voice.  Don’t let them tell you anything different.

I am still unsure as to whom the occupying royal ‘we’ refers to exactly.  I’ll say one thing; the LDHQ is the last place I intend on occupying on the 24^th and I am damn well sure those who were saying ‘we’ yesterday will also be absent. Any qualms the force had about surrounding it with a small army will certainly have disappeared after the diatribe yesterday.  Any attempt of occupation will be smashed quicker than you can scream cavalry charge.

The social democrats, with their irresponsible speeches born out of a naïve belief in a call to arms against the state will be singlehandedly responsible for the death in the sudden upsurge in the student movement. The rhetoric used of poll tax riots etc is misleading.  The riots did not stop the poll tax, civil disobedience did (nobody paid it).  Lets not forget that after the poll tax riots, much of the left came out denouncing the riots and blamed the riots on the anarchists.

In contradiction to what was said at the time by the London police, the government, the Labour Party and the labour movement and most of the Marxist and Trotskyist left, the 1991 police report concluded there was "no evidence that the trouble was orchestrated by left-wing anarchist groups".  Does anybody get a sense of Déjà vu?

Why didn’t we occupy the theatre yesterday?  Because it was full of the elite, they want the students to do the dirty work whilst they are at arms length, ready to condemn or condone dependent on whether or not it suits their career fantasies. Any talk of action at the meeting was either ignored or shouted down, revolutionaries worried about room scheduling.  They do not stand in solidarity with the students; they stand as uncommitted Generals addressing their army. 

As for solidarity, only if the social democrats adopt a libertarian and decentralized form of socialism can anarchists join them in their endeavours.  We will continue to encourage the principles of voluntary federation and association and will not stand by and watch you brainwash a new generation.  The disgustingness of what happened yesterday I cannot, and will not be any part of.  I do not stand in solidarity with you.  Lets get one thing straight, 50,000 unarmed students are not your personal red army to take on the state.  I pray the coming destruction of a student march doesn’t have any lasting casualties other than that of your nasty form of politics.

Please people, don’t let the benevolent face of the Education Activist Network fool you.  There is much that can be gained from individuals within the group (read Clare Solomon for one) but do not forget that they have their own agendas.  You do not need the network to organise your own actions and you certainly don’t need to jump when they say.

The easily led will all be back to marching from A to B soon rest assured.  The resistance movement will return to the small but steadily growing anarchist and libertarian socialist movement it was before.

Either that or this thing will explode, and then who knows.

Organise with consensus, resist, strike and occupy.

Love In at the Lecture Theatre

7pm Kings College London, a lecture theatre full of students, seasoned activists, paper sellers and 'gap yahs in Tanzani-ah' folk, all the ingredients for a good old traditional occupation.  The problem was, as the meeting progressed, one by one the seasoned activists left the room.  Ever the optimist I stuck it out, until the temperature of the room became nearly as stifling as the third rate oratory.

Rewinding for some context.  This lecture* was called by the Education Activist Network (EAN), which apparently ‘coordinates resistance to the cuts in higher, further and adult education. It provides a forum for staff and students to facilitate and empower joint action.’  What’s that I smell?

The whole debacle began on a high note; Indymedia was reporting the Sussex occupation and I quickly started to weigh up if I was wearing enough layers for a night in a lecture theatre.  I needn’t of worried.  Two hours of repetitive self-congratulatory verbal diarrhoea from the paper selling proletariat assaulted every one of my senses until I came over in a rash.   I think I am allergic to socialists.  I usually pack anti-histamine before this kind of event, but all this talk of solidarity and my guard was dropped.  I should have seen it coming; it’s that time of year.  This is just a front for the NUS delegates who still have wet dreams about leading the next SDS, without the participatory politics bit of course.  The will to power is strong comrades.

Respite was served by few; a young idealistic lad who was less than impressed with a female police casualty was unfortunately dogged by the ‘people’, you paper sellers really know how to make friends.  Well done.  Have a cookie.

Clare Solomon who cut the bullshit and announced a workshop entitled ‘Occupations, direct action, logistics and legalities.’ Provided a whirlwind of fresh air.  See the link to facebook event at the end of this post.

A comical moment came when a lad, who was initially refused to speak due to not being on the chairs face book friend list managed to speak after someone shouted ‘he’s French’.  We all no how awe struck the commies get when they meet someone who is actually active.

Unfortunately, every other speaker started with ‘I am such and such and I am this and I am …’ followed by the usual uninspiring, useless, self congratulating monologue expected from the gravy train union leaders, revelling in the applause handed to them by the crowd.  The order in which people spoke dictated by the length of their revolutionary paper-selling career.  People clapped over people talking, a few turned it into a game, seeing how much of someone’s rhetoric they could clap over.  The droll continued, whipping up a state of almost jingoism in some yet anger in others.  One seasoned activist decided the nepotism and bullshit had gone to far and defying the chair, stood up offering practical advice on organising occupations and direct action.  Something the students are in dire need of.   Fitwatch was taken off line as he spoke.  Alas, he was immediately shouted down in a gross display of pack behaviour incited by the chair.  The irony being, the person trying to talk is more ‘revolutionary’ than the room put together.  If the chair knew who he was there would have been a shameless display of public masturbation akin to a Japanese porn shoot and I assure you that a little self-flagellation would have taken place in certain corners of the room.

A poorly facilitated, logistically useless meeting.  Easily forgivable behaviour.  It’s a long time since anyone has listened to these people, and they do tend to get carried away around wintertime.  Do not forget, these people did not take the Tory HQ, they did not organise the students, and we do not need to do what they say.

Organise, resist, occupy.

Occupations, direct-actions, logistics and legalities link

Video of Police Violence at the Millbank Occupation on the Torygraph

The Torygraph, a paper that has published photos of the 'violent trouble makers' throwing a few chairs around in a bid to help arrest the protesters has unwittingly posted an act of actual physical violence on its site, perpetrated by an officer.  In the video, a student quite visibly trying to get away from the front line after a sudden surge from the back is thrown around by an officer then lined up and punched straight in the side of his face sending him crashing to the floor. 


This was not the action of your average officer; this guy threw a trained punch. I did incidentally hear an officer holding the kettle talking of his amateur fighting exploits.  If this punch was from a trained fighter, he should be charged with attempted murder.  He turned the student to his side, lined him up for the shot then bam.  It's disgusting.

After approximately 50 seconds, it is the furthest officer on the right.  Photographers surround him; someone must have a photo of him.  The space in front of him in this screen shot is blurry as the lad hits the ground at speed.

Police officer punches unwitting protester in the face. Video on the Torygraph.

Did you see this incident?  Did anyone take the scums details?  Are there any more videos of police violence out there?

Email studentriots@telegraph.co.uk with your concerns.  Lets start a man hunt of our own.

I denounce you, Aaron Porter.

It has been said “The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics.”  How apt that Victoria Towers gardens, and its statue of Emmeline Pankhurst is but a placards throw from the Tory HQ occupied by the disaffected student population yesterday.

Revolt was hardly surprising, the unions always try to empower people just enough to make them feel like they are ‘fighting’ whilst simultaneously reducing them to marching like good boys and gals from a to b, doing nothing more than covertly pacifying the masses and providing public speaking work experience for the careerist leaders as they try to climb their slimy way on to the labour gravy train.  People soon tire of ineffective action, and such an unnecessary all encompassing ideological attack of the working classes will raise more than a few placards and chants.

Did you hear about the ‘Education Camp’ occupation of the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills?  Thought not.  It was a peaceful occupation dismissed with little coverage incorrectly as a break in.

Smashing windows during an occupation or protest is not mindless violence; it is a symbolic act of destruction, the manifestation of a palpable anger felt not only by a tear away group of two hundred, but by the thousands of people both outside cheering on the occupiers and of those sitting at home watching the events unfold on news channels across the world.  Your eagerness to abandon and denounce your members and the occupation on the BBC only days after you told students at the People and Planet conference that you would support direct action stinks of the same deviousness of Cleggs betrayal.  I bet you rubbed your hands with glee at the opportunity of getting your face out there, a shame you didn’t use it to support the students instead of Browne nosing.

Your outside agitator argument is a tired and failed one.  A union is not simply its representatives, it is its members, and despite the stewards best attempts to quell the action, the NUS were outside that building cheering the students at the front on, burning the meaningless pathetic placating placards.  A testament to the ineffectiveness and almost novelty value of a peaceful march being the humorous nonsensical or generic placards now favoured at student rallies decorated with slogans like ‘ANGRY SIGN’.

It was an engineering student, from one of the world’s elitist universities who opened the door to the stairwell allowing the second group of students up to the roof.  When the door was opened to the stairs, the students stopped and held back the crowd of hundreds to enable the St Johns Ambulance found behind the door to exit the building along with the protesters and officers that were being treated before heading straight for the roof.  One determined lad walked the umpteen flights of stairs supported by a group of friends, one of whom was carrying the wheelchair.  This hardly sits with the media version of the ‘old school anarchist hijack’. One attempt at looting by a young student was quickly stopped by a few words of reason by the more mature.  Yes a few people were idiots, and did idiotic things, but this is neither implicitly the action of anarchists nor any other social activist; the individual acts of violence were more an expression of the sudden, rushing emancipation than the theory.  The marginalised voice of youth had suddenly found that people were listening to them for the first time and due to their piss poor union, had not a clue what to do in an occupation.  With no creative direction, what else was there to do?

The various forms of nihilistic behaviour seen are easily explained in terms of the students prior frustrations, it is the failure of the unions that these frustrations turned to destructive and not creative channels.  It was an amazing opportunity to send a clear, unified message of resistance and solidarity.  If only students had been prepared and supported for peaceful occupation and resistance.   Yet more political casualty of ineffective unions.

The mass media coverage of this, including the coverage from the so-called liberal media is nothing short of marginalisation of the voices of protest. The real cancer of the left is the abandonment of the movement by many of its figureheads, both the political and commentariat, every time organic development flowers.  An elite fearful of any movement they cannot control; la trahison des clercs.  How can you preach solidarity yet practice abandonment?  The many times repeated ‘they weren’t students’, however untrue this statement is, reeks of division in what is supposed to be a time of solidarity.  The students protesting are not the ones affected by the proposed reform, they

“… oppose all cuts and we stand in solidarity with public sector workers, and all poor, disabled, elderly and working people. We are occupying the roof in opposition to the marketisation of education pushed through by the coalition government, and the system they are pushing through of helping the rich and attacking the poor. We call for direct action to oppose these cuts. This is only the beginning of the resistance to the destruction of our education system and public services."

Perhaps it’s about time someone other than the confused, brave abandoned students did the same.

Sign the unity statement.

teneleventen.wordpress