Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile Version | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Day X3 - MPs vote, students revolt

imc-uk | 09.12.2010 09:46 | Education | Policing | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles

Article last updated on 15 December.

Another student Day of Action was called for Thursday 9 December, the day that MPs voted on changes to higher education including an increase in tuition fees to up to £9,000 a year. Actions took place around Parliament, at schools, colleges and universities, including the many currently under occupation, and in town and city centres across the country. The protests in London were marred by police violence and featured an appearance by Charles and Camilla, who popped by on their way to the Royal Variety Show.

Read on...

photo by rikki
photo by rikki


On the newswires:

London: Feature | Book Bloc 1 | Book Bloc 2 | Photos from start of march | Demo leaves Malet St | Photos of march | Photos of protest | Bristol student hospitalised | Vigil for hospitalised student with life threatening injuries | Police pull a disabled protester from his wheelchair | wheelchair sans protester | Seriously dehydrated we need water in this kettle | Parliament square 1 | Parliament square 2 | Video | Paintbombs | Report and photos by rikki | More reports and photos 1 | 2 | 3 | Student suffers brain injury | A-level student's account of being kettled | London student's account | Bristolians in London | The fight for Parliament | Christmas tree on fire | Westminster Bridge | Cops try to commandeer hospital | Alfie Meadows and how to complain to the hospital | Press conference for Alfie Meadows 1 | 2 | 3 | Analysis | Accounts from inside the kettles | Fitwatch advice for those identified by the Met | Green and Black Cross legal appeal | David Cameron speaks out on police violence

Elsewhere: Birmingham: Guerilla Orchestra | Newcastle: A week of actions | Bradford: A week of actions | Glasgow: Report from Glasgow protest | Witney, Oxfordshire: Protest in David Cameron's constituency | Belfast: March and demo | Derry: Rally and planned walkout

International: Quebec: Solidarity demo | Puerto Rico: More student strikes | Ireland: Students walk out in Castlebar | Iran: Solidarity from Iranian students

Previous features on recent student actions and occupations: UK features 1 | 2 | Sheffield 1 | 2 | 3 | Oxford | Birmingham | Nottingham 1 | 2 | 3 | Northern | Scotland 1 | 2 | Bristol 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | London 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Timelines: Last hours twitter | Day X3 twitter | london indymedia timeline | tumblewire | indy.im #shutdownlondon

Day X3 March on Parliament: summary from the timelines

At about 12.30pm, students from the University of East London and school pupils demonstrated outside the Bank of England.

An estimated 10-15,000 strong crowd set off from Malet Street soon after midday, only for the front end to be stopped by the cops after a short way for unclear reasons and also by would-be organisers at the back anxious to deliver speeches ad nauseam to a captive audience. Eventually, after calls for the speakers to shut up, people got moving in what has been described as a 'moving kettle', but with some taking a jog through Covent Garden en route. The marchers eventually joined several thousands more in Trafalgar Square by about 1pm. Later estimates of numbers suggest that as many as 30,000 protesters may have been on the London demo today.

The march was joined by the Book Bloc carrying a mobile library of large print volumes 'to affirm and defend what is under attack: Our universities and public libraries, literacy, thought, culture and jobs. In the past few weeks our attempts to do so peacefully have been met by police with batons, riot shields and horses. These are not isolated incidents of brutality but part of a system of institutional violence. By bringing books into the streets we are drawing attention to the violence at the heart of the neo-liberal ideology of the Con-Dem government.'

At Parliament Square, riot cops two deep had effectively kettled the Houses of Parliament and had also blocked off the Victoria Street exit from the Square. Eggs and paint bombs were thrown at cops and vans. The fences around Parliament Square were dismantled and the space reclaimed. Mounted cops charged the crowd, apparently forcing some protesters to climb barriers to avoid being crushed and leading to casualties on both sides. One mounted cop was thrown by his horse in Victoria Street. A disabled protester was dragged from his wheelchair by the cops. The crowd used Harris fencing to keep the mounted police at bay. Fires were lit to keep people warm including one huge one in Parliament Square after a security cabin was set alight. Back in Whitehall, lines of cops for some reason decided to try to stop two groups of students from meeting up, effectively making themselves sandwich filling and resulting in gleeful chants of 'Who's kettled now?' from the students. In a surreal moment, Charles and Camilla passed through the protest on their way to the Royal Variety Show, acquiring a new paintjob for the royal car en route. The Treasury building was beseiged amid chants of 'We want our money back', windows smashed at the Supreme Court and at Oxford Street Topshop

.

At around 8.30pm, the police started to move the Parliament Square kettle onto Westminster Bridge, where people were kettled for several more hours.

Cops attempted to secure Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their own use and to deny immediate, lifesaving treatment to student Alfie Meadows, injured by a police baton and needing emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. Fortunately, the ambulance crew were having none of it and insisted on him being admitted. This report includes details of how to complain to the hospital. A demonstration for Alfie Meadows has been called for Tuesday 14 December.

Bristol student, Paddy Besiris, elected rep. at the University of the West of England, was also hospitalised after sustaining a head injury.

Soon after 5.30pm, the results of the parliamentary votes were announced. On the vote to raise fees to up to £9,000, the Con-Dem government won the vote by a narrow 323 votes to 302 against. Two Lib-Dem parliamentary aides resigned their posts today, along with one Tory.

Later actions and more

Although only about 100 students turned up to protest at the Department for Business, Innovations and Skills about the withdrawal of EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) on the evening of Monday 13 December, the cops, including the TSG, were out in force.

Students began an occupation at Hull University on 13 December, taking over the upper floor of the Staff House building. Occupation blog here.

The occupation at Goldsmiths University Library has succeeded in reopening all facilities over the weekend while the students are still occupying the space. The occupiers reported on Saturday 11 December that 'After negotiations today, Goldsmiths’ Senior Management Team agreed to our demand that the library be opened to students as of 9am Sunday. The building shall remain open until midnight. No library staff will be working, but the whole building will be available to students for study purposes. IT services and electronic issuing and returns will also be available.'

Analysis and advice

Analysis and advice for those taking part in protests from Past-tense.

Fitwatch have issued advice for anyone who features in the Met's 'wanted' photos. See also information about blocs at protests, thoughts on violence against the police and how to repel horses.

imc-uk

Additions

Cavalry

09.12.2010 18:25

At 3.30 - 3.45 police horses repeatedly charged into crowd of about 700 students between Whitehall and Middlesex Guild Hall. 2 medical evacuations at this time. (Boo!)

5pm: Kettle at Parliament Square broken and protesters escape up Whitehall. (Yay)

El


Correction to 'Addition'

11.12.2010 19:24

This was taken down slightly wrong over the phone.

Delete:

"between Whitehall and Middlesex Guild Hall."

and insert:

"between Westminster Abbey and Middlesex Guild Hall (AKA the Supreme Court Building)"

El


Comments

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
May 17th, 9.30am, Shrewsbury: Solidarity with Census refuser Judith Sambrook at court
May 1st to July 31st, Brighton: Smash EDO: Summer of Resistance
May 17th-20th, Brighton: Squatters Convergence
27th May, Rothamsted, Harpenden, Herts: Take the Flour Back! Mass action against GM wheat
June 4th, Brighton: Stop the Arms trade, Don't attack Iran
9th June for 30 days, Faslane: 30 Days of Action at Faslane Naval Base
17th-24th June, Stockholm, Sweden: No Borders Camp, Sweden
12th-18th July, Douglas Valley, Scotland: Take Back the Land!
14th July, Bristol: Oppose the EDL
15th July, Brighton: Gathering to Plan Resistance to the G8
16th-30th July, various: Making Nonviolent Revolution Speaking tour with George Lakey.
26th-30th July, Shropshire: Peace News Summer Camp 2012
1st-6th August, Shropshire: Earth First Summer Gathering 2012

Ongoing UK
Every Wednesday, Brighton: noise demos at EDO MBM
Ongoing, Lincs: RAF Waddington Peace Camp. Protesting against Drone Warfare. More info.
Ongoing, London: Occupy London Stock Exchange
Ongoing, London Occupy Finsbury Square
Ongoing, Sheffield Occupy Sheffield
Ongoing, Cardiff Occupy Cardiff
Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Climate Change: Climate Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern England
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Unencrypted Page
We suggest you use an encrypted connection for browsing this site.
Please install the CAcert root certificate to verify the authenticity of the site, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv

Africa
ambazonia
canarias
estrecho / madiaq
kenya

Canada
london, ontario
ottawa
quebec
victoria

East Asia
japan
manila
saint-petersburg

Europe
abruzzo
antwerpen
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
bristol
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
euskal herria
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
lille
linksunten
lombardia
london
madrid
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
nice
northern england
norway
oost-vlaanderen
paris/île-de-france
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
ukraine
united kingdom

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
ecuador
mexico
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
manila
melbourne
sydney

South Asia
india

United States
arkansas
atlanta
austin
baltimore
big muddy
binghamton
boston
buffalo
charlottesville
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hudson mohawk
la
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new mexico
new orleans
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
seattle
united states
urbana-champaign
western mass

West Asia
beirut
israel
palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech