London Student Protest
Nov. 13th, 2010 03:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skull_bearerI know it's been all over the news, and in fact I was there at the time. I managed to grap a day off volunteering at the museum (they had too many people anyway) and went over to see what was going on. By the time I got there, Parliament square was packed even though the march must have been going on for a good four hours already. It was pretty cool, we hung around, chatted, I met a few people from Dr Steel's Army of Toy Soldiers (who seem to be crashing everything now, they even had a stall at Expo this Hallowene) and they were pretty neat, there was a drum band playing and we broke into the park proper (they'd fenced it off after the hippies got in last year) as it was common ground, no one did anything.
And yeah, there were a few rumours about people smashing up Conservative HQ, but I passed it off as just a rumour. The police were being tottally cool, not interfereing even when our sit-down put back the time they could clear the streets by at least two hours (our sit down consisted of about twenty people sitting down and studying. Had they attempted to move us I would have started loudly reading out from 'The Destruction of the European Jews' at them, it would have done nothing, but I was a bit disappointed at not having a chance to try it out). I had been to the G20 riot, and seen how the police behaved there, and that had been just a few smashed windows at Bank of Scotland! If the Conservative headquarters had been smashed up and occupied, I was sure they'd have hammered everyone the way they did the Green Camp on the G20, which had been miles away and completely unconnected with the riots, or at least broken up the march and moved us on.
Instead they were calm, quiet, and mostly involved with keeping foot passage clear for pedestrians who didn't want to be mobbed by what turned out to be around 50,000 students. It was one of the most mellow protests I've been to since Chanology broke up, and I went home feeling pretty cool. I didn't think we'd done much, but I'd just had a call from my dad telling me I would soon have a little brother, so I couldn't be too upset.
So you can imagine my reaction when peered through a window with a bunch of other protesters ont he way back, and saw that everything we'd been hearing about was true. Our lot had broken in, and had set fire to placards and had occupied the roof and smashed up the Cuntservative HQ. I thought it was awesome. Actually, I thought it was exactly the right amount of violence. Enough to get people's attention. Enough that they might think twice about these bloody fees which if they go through might result in me having to skip the country in 2-3 years (If I get into Royal Holloway this year I won't be paying full fees, but if I don't.... fuck. And even if I do I am planning to do a PHD, and that will probably cost the Earth. The three places that do good Holocaust programs are a) America: which has even worse fees, b)Israel: which I don't want to go near with a ten foot pole on the off-chance there even is an Israel in 2-3 years, and Germany: I like Germany. Germany is cool. I don't know how much it would cost to study there, but it's worth looking into).
Anyway, the thing that shocked me the most was the police. I mean, don't get me wrong, contrary to everyone else I think the police were grerat, they didn't provoke (and believe me people were looking for a fight), they didn't cracked down on innocent protesters, they let people come and let people leave, and the protests dissolved naturally about three-four hours after it had been meant to end without too much fuss. It does make me wonder if they police might not have been a little on our side, or at least, none too happy with the government, after all, they're facing cuts too. "Oh dear, it looks like we don't have enough police to control a protest! How many cuts to the police force were you proposing? Dear dear, I hope you get used to replacing windows..."
Lol.
And yeah, there were a few rumours about people smashing up Conservative HQ, but I passed it off as just a rumour. The police were being tottally cool, not interfereing even when our sit-down put back the time they could clear the streets by at least two hours (our sit down consisted of about twenty people sitting down and studying. Had they attempted to move us I would have started loudly reading out from 'The Destruction of the European Jews' at them, it would have done nothing, but I was a bit disappointed at not having a chance to try it out). I had been to the G20 riot, and seen how the police behaved there, and that had been just a few smashed windows at Bank of Scotland! If the Conservative headquarters had been smashed up and occupied, I was sure they'd have hammered everyone the way they did the Green Camp on the G20, which had been miles away and completely unconnected with the riots, or at least broken up the march and moved us on.
Instead they were calm, quiet, and mostly involved with keeping foot passage clear for pedestrians who didn't want to be mobbed by what turned out to be around 50,000 students. It was one of the most mellow protests I've been to since Chanology broke up, and I went home feeling pretty cool. I didn't think we'd done much, but I'd just had a call from my dad telling me I would soon have a little brother, so I couldn't be too upset.
So you can imagine my reaction when peered through a window with a bunch of other protesters ont he way back, and saw that everything we'd been hearing about was true. Our lot had broken in, and had set fire to placards and had occupied the roof and smashed up the Cuntservative HQ. I thought it was awesome. Actually, I thought it was exactly the right amount of violence. Enough to get people's attention. Enough that they might think twice about these bloody fees which if they go through might result in me having to skip the country in 2-3 years (If I get into Royal Holloway this year I won't be paying full fees, but if I don't.... fuck. And even if I do I am planning to do a PHD, and that will probably cost the Earth. The three places that do good Holocaust programs are a) America: which has even worse fees, b)Israel: which I don't want to go near with a ten foot pole on the off-chance there even is an Israel in 2-3 years, and Germany: I like Germany. Germany is cool. I don't know how much it would cost to study there, but it's worth looking into).
Anyway, the thing that shocked me the most was the police. I mean, don't get me wrong, contrary to everyone else I think the police were grerat, they didn't provoke (and believe me people were looking for a fight), they didn't cracked down on innocent protesters, they let people come and let people leave, and the protests dissolved naturally about three-four hours after it had been meant to end without too much fuss. It does make me wonder if they police might not have been a little on our side, or at least, none too happy with the government, after all, they're facing cuts too. "Oh dear, it looks like we don't have enough police to control a protest! How many cuts to the police force were you proposing? Dear dear, I hope you get used to replacing windows..."
Lol.