Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

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

London March Against Education Cuts

Peter Marshall | 22.03.2010 11:54

A couple of thousand teachers and students marched through London on Saturday 20/03/2010 calling for a reversal of planned education cuts which abandon a generation of students and will damage economic recovery. The march ended with a rally opposite Downing Street where a letter from the UCU (University and College Union) was delivered to the Prime Minister. Photos Copyright (C) 2010, Peter Marshall, all rights reserved.

Start of the march at King's College
Start of the march at King's College

On the march
On the march

National Campaign against Fees and Cuts
National Campaign against Fees and Cuts

Communist Party of Greece (KKE) banner
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) banner

Downing St - and a copy of the UCU letter
Downing St - and a copy of the UCU letter

Brief sit-down in Whitehall at Downing St
Brief sit-down in Whitehall at Downing St

Part of the crowd at the rally
Part of the crowd at the rally

Defend Jobs, Defend Education, No Cuts!
Defend Jobs, Defend Education, No Cuts!


The march formed up on the pavement outside Kings College in the Strand, and it soon became clear it was going to be rather larger than the organisers expected, with the crowd spilling over into the very busy street. As well as the UCU, there were many banners and placards from the NUT (National Union of Teachers) as well as colleges in the Further Education, Higher Education and Adult Education sectors. There were some short addresses to the crowd there before the march set off, although many were too far away to hear the megaphone.

Within a hundred yards it became clear that the police order that the march should keep to the pavement was totally impossible, and the marchers moved onto the street, march moved across the junction into the Strand, one large van made a fairly determined although no police were on hand to control traffic. As the effort to mow its way through the march but was eventually stopped by marchers.

At Downing Street the marchers filled Whitehall for several minutes and there was a very short token sit-down before police and stewards persuaded everyone to move to one side of the road, but the crowd was still a little large for the space available and there seemed to be a few dangerous incidents - including a rather uncontrolled police horse - but fortunately no injuries as police appeared keen to get a lane of traffic moving past without due regard for public safety.

Speakers condemned the government - which one reminded us came into power on the mantra 'Education, Education, Education' for now some 12 years later proposing the largest cuts in education funding for a generation or more, which are estimated to lead to the loss of more than 20,000 jobs in Further Education, Higher Education and Adult Education.

These cuts will disproportionately affect the poorer and more disadvantaged in our society, in particular immigrants and young people who are unemployed or lacking in qualifications.

One of those leading the march was Jenny Sutton, branch secretary of the UCU at the College of North East London. A Tottenham resident for 21 years, she is standing for the seat in the 2010 General Election against education minister David Lammy on a platform against cuts in the public sector including education.

She contrasts the cuts of £1.1 billion on education and local hospital cuts in North London of £560 million with the £21 billion that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have so far cost us, as well as the £500 billion given to the banks, one of which, the 84% publicly owned RBS is now paying out £1.3 billion in bonuses. As she says "The money is there for decent education, health and housing for everybody - where it is spent is a political choice."

There is a different set of pictures on Demotix:
 http://www.demotix.com/news/282333/london-march-against-education-cuts
and I will post a larger selection shortly on My London Diary
 http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2010/03/mar.htm#cuts

Peter Marshall
- e-mail: petermarshall@cix.co.uk
- Homepage: http://mylondondiary.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following comment

Thanks, and..

22.03.2010 14:39

Thanks for the article.
I'll just add that quite a few people from Anarchist Federation and Solidarity Federation were there, and many copies of AFed's Resistance were handed out. There was even a black and red flag!

(A)


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
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
Fracking
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
NATO 2014
G8 2013
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
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

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

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

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