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Big Noise Demo at UEA against top up fees for higher education

Produced byTSW, but submitted by a student | 27.11.2002 19:13

At 1pm today, there was a "big noise demo" at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, against the government's proposals to introduce top-up fees for higher education.

The Big Noise event in the Square was a huge success with several hundreds of students turning out. The lively demonstration was held so students could noisily express their protest against 'Top up Fees'.

It was a very civilised protest with a number of speeches being made and a half-minute's silence for those students who already could not afford to come to study at university.

There was banging on pots and pans and metal bins, horns, sirens, bagpipes, a brass band, and a talented team of DJs from Mexico City all contributing to the noise.

Lively protests, such as the one today, are very much part of UEA's student history. To my knowledge, at the time of writing this report, the Registry was not occupied. During earlier protests, the Registry has at times been taken-over by students.

Other media organisations, such as Anglia TV, were there to cover the event in the University which is part of the Education Secretary Charles Clarke's constituency.

Go to

http://www.tsw.org.uk/engine/story.scm/100588 to see the full report, together with photos of the event.

Produced byTSW, but submitted by a student
Homepage: http://www.tsw.org.uk/engine/story.scm/100588

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

That will really bring the system down!

27.11.2002 21:07

What a pathetic bunch of fools, as if fighting student top up fees will do any good let alone bring down the system! I suppose all the toytown revolutionaries like the SWP though were delighted with the action.

Harlequin

Some people are never satisfied

28.11.2002 00:59

So Harlequin, would you rather there was not a protest of any form? As a student myself, I get very pissed off when people like you consider the issue of top up fees irrelevent, as it is of major concern to me, and it is a by product of this capitialist system, and if will lead to the division between rich and poor widening even further, so the fight against top up fees and tution fees are a major battleground in the fight against this system, but you wouldn't know, as you are too ignorant and closed minded to understand the stuggle.

To all at UEA, nice one, we at Keele University are planning our own protest very soon, and on behalf of Keele I wish you the best of luck on the national demo on the 4th.

Peace/solidarity, TJA

Thomas J

Paris May 1968 showed how to protest.

28.11.2002 09:15

The students of Paris May 1968 showed the way to protest. They occuppied thier univerity and threw the doors of it open to everyone. Their university the Sorbone then became a base for political activists and a centre for producing propaganda and political banners. The students there also organised mass demonstrations on the streets of Paris of up to 25,000 and went on to occupy the whole of the Latin Quater of Paris putting up barricades to keep the authorities out. The students of Britain today are totally ineffective with their protests.

Harlequin

just let him rant

29.11.2002 11:05

Thomas, mate, don't get too stressed about Harlequin. He posts a comment on every report of every action, saying how small, badly-organised and fundamentally misguided it was. That's when he isn't having a pop at the firefighters, bigging up the Countryside Alliance, or telling us all how crap we are. None of which seems to even make him happy, poor soul!

kurious oranj

UK Indymedia