Students occupy Tory HQ against university fees
Cambridge Defend Education | 10.11.2010 18:37 | Education | Cambridge
There is an ongoing occupation and protest at the Tory Party HQ in Millbank in protest of the proposed plans to increase fees and slash government funding of higher education. The occupation, although not organised by the NUS, comes on the heels of the National Union of Students and University & College Union Funding Our Future march, which brought together tens of thousands university staff and students, 6th form students, and families. During the Funding Our Future rally, groups of students began to move away from the rally and streamed into 30 Millbank, Tory HQ, where they entered the lobby and began a sit-down protest. Upon arriving outside the Tory HQ, the protesters burned effigies of Cameron, Clegg and flags. A large crowd of several hundred students rallied outside the HQ in support of the occupiers. Earlier in the day, the march saw several spontaneous sit-down protests in front of Parliament and along the route of the demo. As of 2pm, a group of students staging a sit down protest in front of Parliament have been "kettled" (contained) by the police. Another group of students attempted to occupy the Department of Business Innovation and Skills.
Emily Whitby, from Manchester University, said “education is a social good that we should be investing in- we need free education for a better society. The government‘s plans to astronomically hike up tuition fees is a dangerous attack on social mobility and public services- this isn‘t a time for polite lobbying, this is a time for action.”
Ryan Williams, a student at Cambridge University, said “the public sector and future generations are being forced to pay for the crisis caused by the banks and corporations- we didn’t cause the crisis, and we shouldn’t have to pay for it. These cuts are ideological and brutal- we must act now to stop the government from destroying our society and our education system.”
Notes to the editors
The government’s current proposal for university fees is to lift the cap up to £9,000 per year, which represents a tripling of current fees (
http://www.nus.org.uk/en/News/News/NUS-responds-to-Willetts-statement-on-tuition-fees/)The
University and College Union has said that the £2.9 bn cuts to universities will lead to colleges and universities closing ( http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5071&from=1676&start=11) and heads of top universities have said that they may have to consider privatisation to cope with the funding cuts ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7750423/Top-universities-warn-of-bleak-future.html)
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Emily Whitby, from Manchester University, said “education is a social good that we should be investing in- we need free education for a better society. The government‘s plans to astronomically hike up tuition fees is a dangerous attack on social mobility and public services- this isn‘t a time for polite lobbying, this is a time for action.”
Ryan Williams, a student at Cambridge University, said “the public sector and future generations are being forced to pay for the crisis caused by the banks and corporations- we didn’t cause the crisis, and we shouldn’t have to pay for it. These cuts are ideological and brutal- we must act now to stop the government from destroying our society and our education system.”
Notes to the editors
The government’s current proposal for university fees is to lift the cap up to £9,000 per year, which represents a tripling of current fees (
http://www.nus.org.uk/en/News/News/NUS-responds-to-Willetts-statement-on-tuition-fees/)The University and College Union has said that the £2.9 bn cuts to universities will lead to colleges and universities closing (
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5071&from=1676&start=11) and heads of top universities have said that they may have to consider privatisation to cope with the funding cuts ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7750423/Top-universities-warn-of-bleak-future.html) .
Cambridge Defend Education
Comments
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The boys in Blue need bigger sticks
10.11.2010 18:45
and no i'm fucking tory after being an ex Miner but at least there one good thing about it' the ones who did get in wont be going to uni after there court date lol.
Barnsley-Bill
Why is indymedia supporting upper class students?
10.11.2010 18:57
Class warrior
Barnsley-Bill
10.11.2010 19:02
Solidarity with the students, by bashing up Tory HQ the kids are merely expressing who the rest of the country is feeling. Shame they could get the Lib Dem HQ as well.
Scab Hunter
Beyond a joke
10.11.2010 19:09
Who needs solidarity when you've got total ideological purity like "Class Warrior" (police).
Sim1
About time
10.11.2010 19:14
The Police are class traitors who should stand aside instead of defending the elite and the wealthy. It's about time people stopped being walked all over by their Government and reminded them who they are meant to be representing and who they should really be looking out for. Instead of watching as they sit in the pockets of big business and the wealth divide continues to grow, just as it did under Labour, just as it would under the Lib Dems. Unless people start taking the power back the poor will stay poor in order for the rich and powerful to stay at the top.
Grow some balls and man up people or stay bent over the barrel.
ME
Class Warrior you boring tit
10.11.2010 19:25
not a student
Working class student
10.11.2010 19:35
Working class student
Political violence and Labour.
10.11.2010 20:00
He is in fact a member of the Socialist Party and he is deliberately posting offensive remarks in order to make you angry.
He does this because he is working for the human rights abusing Labour Party, who see their oppressive 'big government' being replaced by the 'big society'.
It is all part of fighting to destabilise the coalition in favour of a return to Labour, and a defence and continuation of the war they started.
IM is not about advertising government, it is about autonomy.
What we have seen today, and what we will be seeing over the coming months, is Labour showing their true colours, a proclivity to political violence as a means to power.
Labour is fundamentally illegitimate.
Longbow
Brilliant!
10.11.2010 20:29
Students middle class? Not all, and lets face it those that are wealthy are not likely to be on the demo are they, as it won't matter to them.
Lets hope this spreads!
Fuck the Tories, Fuck the cuts!
IHTF
SCAB MY ARSE
10.11.2010 22:22
what would you wankers be saying if the cops went at them like they did with us at Orgreave eh' The only reason they didnt is every fucker has a video camera in front of there pulled up face scarf.
and as for class war dont make me fucking laugh' get real and get off your arse and get a job 'thats if you can'
and no fucker has ever called me a scab to my face but then again i guess its easy for a school kid to say what he wants on here.
Barnsley-Bill
have it
10.11.2010 22:38
Axe
No one
10.11.2010 22:49
Go back to your bridge troll. You have no power here. Cunt.
ME
Fucking Brilliant.... This is just the Beginning
11.11.2010 00:43
Whatever people think of the pros and cons of peaceful vs militant protest, Tony Blair lied about WMDs to justify going into a war that killed half a million Iraqi civilians, half a million Brits marched against the war and (quite rightly) maintained the moral high-ground by keeping it peaceful and they were totally ignored by a homicidal establishment. It's fucking great to see young people have not been reduced to the kind of apathetic, conformist drones the State always dreamed they'd make them. We don't need a culture of deference and if this is anything to go by the future's looking grand
FIGHT BACK
V for Victory
half a million Iraqi civilians
11.11.2010 02:12
what a convenient / round figure to quote as a fact. Sounds like it is almost made up. (eg. how many times did you eat potatos last year? exactly 50. Why not 48, or 43, or even 56?)
Everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten what a bad man saddam was, and of our need to secure oil supplys without a megalomania holding all the cards.
At the end of the day, we've got the best guns and firepower, so whats the point of having it if we can't use it?
opayr
Political violence of the Labour party.
11.11.2010 05:32
Grand for the human rights abusing Labour Party and their socialist proles. They are the only ones who are benefiting from this. In fact they are the ones who organised the students and gave the green light for the violence to go ahead. They made no effort to encourage the same violence during the protests against the Iraq war because that would have embarrassed Blair and undermined Labour.
I think its great that you are standing in defence of your rights. I think it truly despicable that you are allowing the war crimes committing Labour party to seize your energy so it can use it to once again 'elect itself'.
How else do you think that Labour MP's and their cabal are going to be able to get their hands in the public money pot to pay their restaurant bills and mortgages and champagne lifestyles. Do you think they won't make the same cuts if they seize power? They have already said they will!
The students have been hijacked by violent Socialists, and it is these violent Socialists who will seize ALL the benefits at the end. The students will be left dry and abandoned.
There is a massive anti-war protest on November 20th. There is no chance at all it will be violent because its Labour's war! Not so much as one single window will be smashed...because its Labour's war! No sit-ins, no disobedience, no confrontations...because its Labour's war.
Socialist's are extremely violent people. They are even willing to commit major and serious war crimes to justify their natural, but never acknowledged, racism.
Support the students by all means, but understand its a red hand around their necks.
Longbow.
Labour party gave go-ahead to violence??
11.11.2010 11:51
“[The Labour party] are the only ones who are benefiting from this. In fact they are the ones who organised the students and gave the green light for the violence to go ahead.”
Really? It paints a lovely image of Harriet Harman sitting in a high-backed chair in the House of Commons and turning round to face a cabal of SWP-ers. “This time use any means necessary… you can turn violent if you want to…” The group of students and SWP-ers bow “Yesss, master.” That’s what happened in Longbow’s head.
The idea that no violence occurred on protest marches during the Labour era is palpable bollocks. And there was an anti-war element to many of them, including the one in the City (where, of course, it was the police who were most violent of all, as an innocent passerby, Ian Tomlinson discovered).
Unlike Longbow I don’t see how Labour can make any real capital out of the Con-Dem plans to raise tuition fees - and if they attempt it they should be shouted down. Labour’s plans meant exactly the same thing would have ended up happening, and they were the ones who introduced tuition fees in the first place.
Conversely, it’s a bit pointless going on about how Iraq and Afghanistan were “Labour’s wars” when they had total backing from the Conservatives who would have done exactly the same. (The only party that wouldn’t was the Lib Dems, but noone trusts them now).
Norvello
Political Violence & Labour
11.11.2010 19:01
That's not a picture I recognise but I'm sure it makes sense to those who watch too much TV!
"The idea that no violence occurred on protest marches during the Labour era is palpable bollocks."
That no violence occurred on the large anti-war demo's over the Iraq war is something that frankly, is far more interesting..
"Unlike Longbow I don’t see how Labour can make any real capital out of the Con-Dem plans to raise tuition fees"
Really, perhaps you should try your hand at the bigger picture instead of endlessly trying to piece together bits that are, by design, never going to fit together!
"Conversely, it’s a bit pointless going on about how Iraq and Afghanistan were “Labour’s wars” when they had total backing from the Conservatives who would have done exactly the same."
One of the great fallacy's of our time. Iraq and Afghanistan are very definitely 'Labour's wars' and the human rights abuses are, and will always be, Labour's to explain.
The Labour street gang "The Socialist Worker" have already announced their plan to bring the coalition government to its knees. To bring about the coalition's very own Poll Tax.
What do you suppose will replace it?
Ill give you a clue...its Labour!
Longbow
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