We attended the EMA protest in London last Wednesday, and the change in atmosphere was striking. The crowd were similar to previous demos- schoolkids, young students, jumping on the bus straight from school to attend, with their homemade banners, enthusiasm and thirst for a party. But the attitude of the "organised left" was somewhat different. Gone was the wide-eyed wonder from late last year, wh…

At today's Save EMA demonstration in central London, the police have been handing out leaflets which tell protesters what they can and can't do, or rather what they should and should not do!!

For the first time they are specifying the route of the march as agreed to by the organisers, and caution that "Attempts by demonstrators to deviate from the agreed route may result in officers stopping or s…

Reel News Issue 26 Out Now

Taster vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vWtGoKXCUY

Full issue includes:

• TORY SCUM HERE WE COME! Students lead the resistance
• 1) Tory Scum Here We Come! - Short Version (Reel News) 13:36 The rise of the incredible student movement, in a short version for trade union and other meetings.
• 2) Tory Scum Here We Come! - Full Version (Reel News) 66:03
• Part 1: Day X1 …

Held: Saturday 8th January, TUC Congress House, London. Around 550 attending.



"The idea behind the original Netroots Nation, and behind Netroots UK is to leverage social media and other tools for political action" - NetrootsUK website

For a large number of people at the event this obviously meant to leverage social media to put the Labour Party back in power. First we fight the cuts, then we br…

We must join students in a broad strike movement to combat attempts to strangle the welfare state

Britain's students have certainly put the trade union movement on the spot. Their mass protests against the tuition fees increase have refreshed the political parts a hundred debates, conferences and resolutions could not reach.

We know the vast rise in tuition fees is only the down payment on the…

Crush of student protesters on Westminster Bridge compared to 1980s stadium disaster

A senior doctor has warned that police risk repeating a Hillsborough-type tragedy if they continue with tactics deployed during the recent tuition fee protests.

The anaesthetist from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, who gave medical assistance to the protesters, said that officers forced demonstrators into such a…

Friends have started to say something they have never said before: I'm too frightened to protest

Friday, 17 December 2010

So now we know. When our politicians complained over the past few decades, in a low, sad tone, that our young people were “too apathetic” and “disengaged”, it was a lie. A great flaring re-engagement of the young has take place this year. With overwhelmingly peaceful t…

16 Dec 2010

Journalist Shiv Malik was injured by a police baton strike during last week's student protests. He asks who should be blamed for the violence: protesters, police officers or politicians?

It wasn't true. At 15:30pm, two hours after it began, the front of Thursday's anti-fees march had not been kettled. It was hemmed in on four sides of the square, but a main exit was still open - up W…

For a month, we seem to have been cast in a tide of student protest - but not one of the big marches since the invasion of Millbank on November 10 has been organised by the NUS. Into the fray have come a slew of homemade placards and new organisations including the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts (NCFC), the Free Education Campaign, Schools and FE Students against the Cuts, and local equiv…

When the cops were revelling in their unleashed brutality on DayX3, they also hit a 20 year old student on the head. At a press press conference on Saturday (video 1 | 2 | 3), it was explained how police neither let people accompagnie him, nor rendered assistance themselves. His mother has also explained how police were trying to stop him being admitted to hospital. After following a vigil last Fr…

A London College Student Writes for the void:

Having successfully escaped my college before they attempted to imprison us again, following the events of the 24th, when our tyrant deputy head locked the gates, resulting in many of us just climbing over them anyway, I began my journey to Malet Street.

I got on a bus and sat there for about an hour or two. Drove past Russell Square and saw the …

** TRIGGER WARNING: POLICE BRUTALITY **

(UPDATED TUMBLR NOTE: I’m sorry for posting this again. News outlets contacted have refused to publish any part of this report and are continuing to ignore first-hand accounts, occasionally posting bullshit quotes from politicians, union hacks and police chiefs about how great the police were on the day. I want this reblogged and spread to anyone and e…

My name is Rosie Bergonzi I am an A level student from Brighton. I attended to protest on Thursday the 9th of December and was kettled onto the bridge despite being an innocent protester. The mass media coverage of this event has, so far, been incredibly biased. Here is my account.

When I got on the train up to London with a small group of my friends we were in good spirits, making placards…

A participant in the 9 December demonstrations against education cuts and fees in Parliament Square writes on the use of political violence, and condemnation of it in the media.

The condemnations are as predictable as they are boring. The public-school educated Sun hacks, who write like some coked up parodies of proletarian semi-literacy, refer to “louts” and “hooligans”. The Daily Mail co…

Once again the Met have released a set of images of people they want in connection with the student protests last Thursday.

If you or one of your mates is one of them, you’ll be worried and unsure about what to do. Before you do anything, read this first.

The dilemma is this - if you hand yourself in, you are DEFINITELY throwing away your chance of walking away from all this. If you don’t …

The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on ‘a violent faction’, after the m…

Tuesday 14th December

1pm. New Scotland yard,  8-10 Broadway,

London SW1H 0BG

London Demonstration: 4pm at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 1 Victoria St, London

Last Thursday we saw another round of breach the human rights with open air detainment, crushing of protesters, furious baton charges and last but not least horse charges into tightly packed crowds. Sound familiar? Remember the G20 last year? While Cameron is announcing to bring down "the full force of the law" on protesters in this so called democracy, and there is public debate whether water can…

all over

Oxford Street: topshop 1.04pm / vodafone 1.04pm

See below for others, Brixton, Hackney, Hemel Hempstead, Walthamstow and Islington - different times.

A vigil was held outside Charing Cross Hospital this afternoon after student Alfie Meadows underwent a three hour operation to relieve pressure and bleeding on his brain after being hit by police at the demonstration in parliament square.

The Middlesex University student fell unconscious on the way to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where he underwent a three-hour operation to save his life.

M…

DayX3 ShutDownLondon: On the day that Parliament voted (narrowly) in favour of raising tuition fees, tens of thousands took to the streets in a display of anger. After gathering at 12 noon outside ULU in Malet Street [Video]. After a loud and powerful march police tried to stop the demo at Parliment Square, but protestors managed to break the police lines and occupied the square [Video] tearing do…

9th Dec: On the day Parliament will vote on Tuition Fees tens of thousands of students, higher education staff and supporters are due to demonstrate in London and Edinburgh in the latest of a month long series of protests [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] actions and over 30 occupations [1,2,3] including schools in london. With the student protests coinciding with the growth  of a wider anti-austerity cuts moveme…

Yesterday after 11 days in occupation the students decided to have a bit of fun at the expense of the ConDem coalition social media mouthpieces.

Co-ordinated posts with profile pic letters made a nice banner down the pages :)

This is the result.

Posted by Laurie Penny - 01 December 2010 17:44

In Trafalgar Square, the worst November snowstorms in decades are pummelling thousands of teenage protesters more effectively than any police kettle. The cops are there anyway, of course, clotting every exit from the square like rotten yellow scabs, sealing off the social dissidence from the more compliant tissue of the body politic. Right now Her M…

ULU, Malet street (Russell Square Tube)London, United Kingdom

The parliament vote on tuition fees has been confirmed as being Thursday 9th December.

Commentators are saying that by quickly scheduling it for Thursday evening MPs from Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland will miss the vote.

Student protests against the fees were already being planned but will have to be accelerated. NUS president has responded saying NUS will organise national day of action …

Thousands of students and austerity cuts protestors took to the streets of London on DayX2 in another national day of action [uk reports]. Refusing to be stopped by hundreds of police officers [1,2] they took their protest mobile, marching miles across the capital city chanting slogans, chased by a police force playing catch up [report + pics]. Later having returned to Trafalgar Square clashes saw…

After some awesome time all over central london, with protesters refusing to be told where to protest and successfully avoiding the health and safety risk posed by police to get hypothermia and dehydration, everyone assembles back at trafalgar square. Lots of people voluntarily walk into the kettle, but even though police is now stopping the protest from actually beig and effective protest, that i…

Some pics of the day, and general impressions and musings.

Check out the reports on the occupation of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and why this happened. 

Get to trafalgar square at about 1pm, and everyone's gone already. Luckily Imc timeline knows where people took off to. But once you lost the protest, there's no way of catching up. For the largest part people are just m…