Skip to content or view screen version

Protest against education cuts takes over Oxford high street

Jumbo | 28.10.2010 16:13 | Public sector cuts | Oxford

After Vince Cable pulled out of talking in Oxford after hearing of a student demo against him today, the demo has gone ahead - and it's huge! I've just heard reports that there are 'over a thousand' people protesting, and that protestors have broken through police lines, and out on to Oxford high street.

That's all I've heard but I hope people who were actually there can update us with more detail and pictures very soon.

Jumbo

Additions

full reports

29.10.2010 00:28

Some first-hand reports are emerging already:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/2010/10/466984.html
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/2010/10/466975.html

It's also in the mainstream media, I've heard.

linker


Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

We don't need no education

28.10.2010 17:35

State education is government indoctrination.
People only go to uni to get "graduate status" and a "good job" and hopefully pay lots of tax to their government.

anarchist


@anarchist

28.10.2010 18:34

I have a certain sympathy with your view, but I don't think the anarchist society will come around by just switching money from state education (and the universities have the less state control that education at younger levels) to bailing out rich bankers and asking students to pay more for their education.

Another anarchist


@another anarchist

28.10.2010 19:12

I don't believe that there will ever be an anarchist "society" because to me, the word "society" means "social hierarchy". While ever people look for solutions from above (god or government or whatever), a "social hierarchy" will spontaneously form.

The solutions we seek are within ourselves.
The anarchy that we seek is within ourselves.
Lets bring it out.
Lets share it.
Only then can we break free from those who seek to control us.
And only then can we stop trying to control others.

The government isn't something we need to fight, like an angry child screaming "I hate you mumy".
It's something we need to learn to live without.
We need to ignore it.
Then it will attack us, and those who support it will attack us, because that would be a real threat to it social hierarchy.
Then we need to defend ourselves and our comrades.

anarchist


@anachist

28.10.2010 20:35

I do not have the same view as you in that I do not think that 'society' = 'social hierarchy', but I think this may be a difference in language, not ideas? By using the term I wanted to highlight that we live within social structures - we are individuals, but we are not only individuals - we also exist, thrive, and are made stronger, within the relationships we have with each other. Call this society, communities, collectives, or whatever. But it is not just about I or you, it is about we.

The post (above) that said:
The solutions we seek are within ourselves.
...
And only then can we stop trying to control others.

Is absolutely spot on - I wish I'd written that!


However, the post that said:

The government isn't something we need to fight ...
... Then it will attack us
... Then we need to defend ourselves and our comrades.

Feels a bit weak to me. We will not attack them, but we will will be defensive? This feels to me like 'they' will make the argument, and we will respond. And an argument that puts us anarchists in a position of responding to arguments made by others, rather than putting our own arguments forward.

Another anarchist


we are the capital assets of our government

29.10.2010 11:15

The whole of global society truly functions a one single top down hierarchy, ultimately controlled by a global capital elite. But the building blocks of that pyramid are also pyramids. Every aspect of society is controlled and manipulated by those immediately above. There are many control hierarchies at many levels, but one is the "tax and spend" mechanism.

Being subjects of the state, we are the capital assets of our government. The government is able to tax us, and we accept that because we see it as a "necessary evil". I personally don't believe that any evil is necessary. But while ever people believe that state welfare (aka caring services industry) is necessary the pyramid will be supported.

What is happening right here on Indymedia is part of the control mechanism in operation. The ordinary people are acting to protect the "tax and spend" mechanism, and hence one of the building blocks of global capitalism.

If families and communities started to realize that they do not need to support or even interact with statism at any level and don't need many of the things they have become accustomed to, we stop paying tax, the state loses its capital, they can no longer trade us on the global capital market and we gain our true freedom.

But I'm sure socialists won't accept that because they are so obsesses with the day to day working of the welfare system, that they can't see the forrest for the trees.

anarchist