VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

On Thursday 9th December 2010 I took part in the London protest in Parliament Square against the raising of tuition fees from around £3000 to around £9000. It was the craziest event I have ever been to and I want to document it as accurately as possible while it is still fresh in my mind as it will probably go down in history as the start of a new revolution.
The day started off incredibly innocently - I remember making a sign the night before out of cardboard and orange gaffa tape that said “DOWN WITH THIS SORTA T’ING!” on one side and “RABBLE! RABBLE! RABBLE!” on the other side - admittedly joke signs requested by friends, but still related to the cause. Me and a couple of people met with our university rally on Keyworth Street at around 11.30 and there was already a hyped-up atmosphere. There were plenty of people with banners and signs, flyers and papers and a boom box bicycle. We were chanting and cheering and blowing whistles as we started to march at around 12pm. We were escorted by the police as we took over the road marching up Blackfriars Road, across The Cut to round up recruits from Southwark College, up Waterloo Road past King’s College, over Waterloo Bridge and left towards Trafalgar Square. There were several hundred of us, if not close to a thousand, and we were singing and shouting as our numbers grew and we neared our destination.
Once we reached Trafalgar Square, after a minor detour, we joined a group of thousands more students and I remember this as being the calmest part of the day, although all of it was pretty hectic in hindsight. We all stood around for a bit, unsure of what to do or where to go next. The police were pretty much surrounding us but it was obvious we were eager to make progress and move on. The way I remember it happening is suddenly some policeman brought one protesting demonstrator through the crowds, literally kicking and screaming, and then everyone started running up the road through...

VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

On Thursday 9th December 2010 I took part in the London protest in Parliament Square against the raising of tuition fees from around £3000 to around £9000. It was the craziest event I have ever been to and I want to document it as accurately as possible while it is still fresh in my mind as it will probably go down in history as the start of a new revolution.
The day started off incredibly innocently - I remember making a sign the night before out of cardboard and orange gaffa tape that said “DOWN WITH THIS SORTA T’ING!” on one side and “RABBLE! RABBLE! RABBLE!” on the other side - admittedly joke signs requested by friends, but still related to the cause. Me and a couple of people met with our university rally on Keyworth Street at around 11.30 and there was already a hyped-up atmosphere. There were plenty of people with banners and signs, flyers and papers and a boom box bicycle. We were chanting and cheering and blowing whistles as we started to march at around 12pm. We were escorted by the police as we took over the road marching up Blackfriars Road, across The Cut to round up recruits from Southwark College, up Waterloo Road past King’s College, over Waterloo Bridge and left towards Trafalgar Square. There were several hundred of us, if not close to a thousand, and we were singing and shouting as our numbers grew and we neared our destination.
Once we reached Trafalgar Square, after a minor detour, we joined a group of thousands more students and I remember this as being the calmest part of the day, although all of it was pretty hectic in hindsight. We all stood around for a bit, unsure of what to do or where to go next. The police were pretty much surrounding us but it was obvious we were eager to make progress and move on. The way I remember it happening is suddenly some policeman brought one protesting demonstrator through the crowds, literally kicking and screaming, and then everyone started running up the road through these gates through a parked area and presumably closer to Parliament. It was quite frightening running in a massive crowd like that as it felt like we were being chased but we all slowed down once Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament were in view.
Then we stood around in the road for what felt like ages but was probably only about half an hour. There were people balancing precariously at the top of traffic lights, people leaning out of high storey windows to take pictures of us and two or three choppers watching us at all times. The singing and chanting continued and we cracked out the marmite sandwiches and orange juice. I could smell a spliff several times but never located the source and had to be content with smoking roll ups. Then there was a great cheer as the metal barriers were brought down and we made our way into Parliament Square. It felt a bit risky at first, voluntarily walking into a space where the police could kettle us easier, but it also seemed like the only next move we could have made at the time.
Once in the Square at around 2pm everyone started getting rowdy. People were pushing at the police barriers in front of Parliament trying to break through but we only got pushed back in our place. Some people were throwing paint bombs at the police and letting off flares while other people were vandalising statues and starting small fires. We were all rammed up at the Whitehall side of the Square when suddenly the numbers dropped back and it felt like everyone had left. There were people dotted about here and there but most of the group had decided to try and break through on the opposite side of the Square.
The rest of the afternoon was just a waiting game really. We knew the MPs were going to vote at around 5.30pm so were just passing the time until then. The police had us surrounded on all sides and nobody could go in or out of the area. I spent most of the spare time walking around watching other people, comparing signs and having a few laughs. There were no toilets and nowhere to buy tea but we shared some jokes with some of the police at the front of the barriers. I managed to get some smiles from a few of them, mostly by pulling a serious face then breaking out into laughter repeatedly while staring at them. It was all quite light-hearted at first - I knew some people had been injured by the police but all the officers I encountered personally were really sound to me and my friends.
It started to get dark between 4 and 5 and that’s when the shit started to kick off. I was on the Parliament side of the Square pretty much all day, mostly trying to chat up the policemen, and there had been people playing The Beatles and Bob Dylan while people on the other side got charged by police horses, but in the final hour every one joined back up on the Parliament side. There were drums and tambourines playing and a little bit of cowbell. People were clapping and cheering, chanting in time to the drumbeat, and I even saw a policeman do a little dance. Spirits seemed high, despite the cold weather and the fact we’d been detained for several hours without refreshments or toilet facilities. I didn’t personally pick up on any anxiety or apprehension in the crowd, although we must have all secretly know we weren’t going to change the government’s mind and the tension had been rising all day.
Then the vote came in, just after half past five, in favour of raising the fees and I think our hearts collectively broke. We started booing and chanting again, outraged at the decision to essentially try to privatise education. Then shit really kicked off. A huge space appeared in the crowd and I got dragged to the side by my friend. I could hear people saying “move aside, clear a space” and I saw people with a shopping trolley getting ready to charge at the police barriers. There were two girls standing in the middle of the clearing trying to stop them and I went over and stood next to them, dragging one of my friends with me. People started yelling at us and trying to get us to move but we linked arms and wouldn’t let them continue. Eventually the crowd dispersed, but there were a few intense minutes were I thought we were going to get beat on by thousands of students. Everyone seemed so angry, initially at the vote but then it seemed they were turning on us for stopping them lashing out at the police. We were accused of taking sides, but we argued in our defence (and I still stand by this) that the police were not to blame. They were not the enemy, they were just caught up in the middle that day. They had to be there, it was their job, but there were more of them on our side than people were giving them credit for. It was obvious that people wanted to express their anger, hurt and humiliation at their government’s choice to ignore their voices, but trying to attack the police that had been guarding us all day was not the right thing to do. It would have started a riot and more people would have been hurt than necessary - some people’s argument was that the police had hit them or a friend, had charged at them on horses earlier and it was time for pay back. One guy claimed he only wanted to life the barrier and walk towards Parliament but he would never have been allowed even if we’d let him try.
Basically, although we were all there for the same reasons, to stand in solidarity and support each other to face the student fees and education cuts crisis together, there were people that had ulterior motives and just wanted to smash stuff. It made me sad that out of around 30,000 students there that day, less than ten of us stood up for what we really believed in and did the right thing in the heat of the moment.
I guess we didn’t make too much difference any way because people just went to the other side of the Square to smash concrete blocks, break windows and set more fires. Despite this, though, we know the police were grateful for what we did. We couldn’t find a way out of the Square and so we carried on talking to them and all the ones we spoke to said they thought we were brave to stand up in front of an angry mob like that to do the right thing. Apparently their Superintendent wanted to thanks us personally but I guess he was busy sorting out the actual riot as that never happened. However, we were snuck out secretly and escorted past Parliament to Lambeth Bridge for our troubles. Never in my life have I seen so many riot vans parked in one place - there must have been more than fifty of them, and my clever maths worked out that meant there must have been multiple hundreds of police officers on duty. It was all quite surreal, following the police part of the way home and knowing we were leaving behind a mass scale riot. I maintain that I did the right thing though, and if I could go back the only thing I would change about the whole day is I would have taken a couple of spliffs for the slow hours.
All in all, baring in mind it was the first protest I have ever been to, I think it was a pretty eventful day, to say the least. I know I pissed some people off but I just wanted them to realise that meaningless violence is not the answer, no matter what the cause may be. I just think it’s a shame that the media hypes up all the bad stuff the students do - they exaggerate the police injuries and the criminal damage caused by what are essentially idiots in it for the ride, but they ignore the fact that a very small handful of students kept the peace between their peers and the police. It just goes to show how misunderstood the whole situation is I guess, but it also shows how much we care about what is happening to us and to this country in these crazy times. I don’t really have much else to say about the whole thing except I’m pretty convinced it’s far from over - this is just the beginning of the revolution and I’m glad to be involved in the heart of it.