We began walking over a deserted Westminster bridge, the rain pouring down hard on us. In front of us, thousands of students were making their way through the streets of Lambeth, a borough with high levels of impoverishment, to demand “Educate, Employ, Empower” to I'm not quite sure who. In many ways, this moment really did feel like the end of the student movement. Those in power sat smugly and safely behind the police fortress that had been set up along Whitehall and Parliament Square. The NUS could lie to anyone still listening that it had represented its members as well as bolstering their own chances for power in the Labour party. The majority of people seemed to have no problem with parading straight past Parliament and onwards to Kennington Park, seduced perhaps by that promise of employment. Damp and despairing it felt as though this had been some sort of last chance and we'd lost it – nothing had happened (although we can take some comfort from the egging of Liam Burns and chants of 'NUS shame on you, where the fuck have you brought us to'). 2 years before marching from A to B was simply not an option. Instead we targeted those who wanted to see us denied free education (both free as in no price and where learning is free from the dictates of the state and the market) and indebted for the rest of our lives. Students stormed and smashed the Tory HQ creating a spectacle that inspired and galvanised students here and in Quebec. With the NUS condemning our actions, we went on to show how much more effective we are outside these sorts of organisations. Another demonstration saw the windows of other government buildings smashed in and protestors get close to breaking through police lines around parliament. These experiences, these acts of fuck you and the destruction of power, were a kind of empowerment beyond the NUS' wildest dreams. The NUS' march was purposely designed to kill off the lessons and experiences that we had gathered from these times – to kill off the student movement – as we creeped around backstreets and into a south London park encircled by railings in the 1800s to prevent unrest. But whilst the slogan and route were organised around demobilisation they provoked an angry response that asserted our need for action, autonomy, and anger. The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts counter march saw over 1,000 students (whilst the official march managed only a couple of thousand more) gather at UCL with substantive demands and propositions illustrated by banners proclaiming 'Smash the NUS', 'The Dead Bury the Dead – Never Work' and '#Wrong to Work' and insurrectionary literature from the Imaginary Party declaring 'Educate, Disempower, Destroy'. The march was for 'free education' and for the freeing of society but also for the destruction of the NUS which is a barrier to our practices and aims. Plans for direct action were stopped by heavy policing (surely they don't have the funds to keep this up?), with the NUS stewards relishing their new found 'authority', and perhaps a lack of communication between ourselves. Whilst energy had been high at the start, the longer we were funnelled down the streets by the police, the wearier we grew. Our attempts to make a break down the Strand rather than join the NUS march at Embankment were met with lines of police and reinforcements arriving behind them. Our numbers were simply not enough to overcome this total policing. And so we arrived on the corner of Westminster bridge, Parliament square on our right blocked by 2 barriers with lines of police and riot vans. We half-heartedly discussed possible plans knowing they would come to nothing. But there is still rage. Even though it did not manifest itself in particularly obvious and compelling forms that day. We got to know each others faces, or eyes, for those wearing masks. And that is the start of something. And perhaps we were looking in the wrong place for that rage at this moment. Maybe the streets, blocked and lined with riot police, are not the place to meet right now – although, of course, this is where the beauty is. The other day I spoke with three women in the computer room of our Further Education college about the introduction of fees for their courses that will come in next year. This is where the rage is. They described their anger at the government 'robbing' from them. They explained how they were studying so that they could get a job to be an example to their children. They were surviving on £30 a week. *'I think education should be free – it shouldn't be like that [ever increasing fees]'* *'We don't know where we're going to stand with fees coming in, we've got our kids to look after as well,'* *'Don't try and rob from me to make yourself pppffff'* *'It's ridiculous where money is – they let the rich off and f the poor,'* *'they waste money on stupid sculptures, that new building, that point thing, the Shard shit'* *'You can't even have little treats, it is £30 a week on food. We can't go out, we don't have a social life'.* *'We're just surviving, just getting by, without this education now, where am I going to be?'* *'We're trying to help ourselves but we're just in debt.'* *'I was watching This Morning and they were saying that if you live on less than £400 a week you live below the poverty line. I'm poor but you're not helping me,'* *'They really categorised us now – we're poor. Categorise us, put us into a little...'* Listening to them, I did not even bother to mention the student demo. It felt as if I would be somehow selling them out suggesting they come along to something I had little hope in to start with. They were busy enough looking after their children, studying, and surviving. Clearly, then, this is not the end – there is a belief in free education and the anger with which to obtain this and much more. NCAFC has called for a National Day of Action on December 5th in all places of education. Drawing as well from the Imaginary Party's literature, it is clear that the struggle, having learnt from Quebec, should return to these places, where we can listen to and organise with each other. Whilst never forgetting Milbank. N.B. As we publish this post we are hearing news that UCL has staged a sit in (with the possibility of it turning into an occupation) over UCL management's involvement in the social cleansing of Carpenters Estate. Elsewhere across London university campuses this evening, there is a protest of cleaners and student supporters outside University of London's Senate House for sick pay, holidays, and pensions. Earlier on in the day, UCL academics lobbied the 'UCL council' against reforms to Statue 18 which would give management powers to *fire at will*. Now those words uttered as we crossed the bridge seem so laughable. 'Anonymous'- Radical writers collective
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Hey, liked the article and would be interested in publishing it in ‘Cracks in the Pavement’ – a yearly radical journal. Get in touch at ‘articlesubmissions@riseup.net’ if you’d be up for letting us put it in.
Cheers.
CitP
yeah for sure, we’ll email it over