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Hundreds of students chase Aaron Porter through Manchester

National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts | 29.01.2011 16:42 | Education | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles

National Union of Students President Aaron Porter was unable to speak at the rally of today’s NUS/UCU demonstration in Manchester, after hundreds of angry students chased him off the streets.

As protesters gathered at the starting point on Oxford Road, about thirty activists from Hull Students Against Fees and Cuts and Leeds University Against Cuts accosted Porter and demanded that he justify his record. Instead of engaging with us, Porter turned and hurried off – only to find himself followed by growing numbers of demonstrators from across the North. Within a couple of minutes he was literally being chased through the streets of Manchester by about half those who had gathered at that point – certainly more than five hundred people – with chants including “Students, workers, hear us shout, Aaron Porter sold us out” and “Porter – out”. Eventually he took refuge in Manchester Metropolitan Students’ Union, protected by a heavy cordon of riot police.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Porter did not turn up to speak at closing rally. Instead, NUS was represented by his deputy, Vice-President Further Education Shane Chowan – who was unable to finish his speech after he was drowned out by hostile chanting and pelted with eggs.

The rally was deathly dull, with trade union bureaucrat after trade union bureaucrat telling us what we already knew (with the partial exception of Matt Wrack from the FBU, who gave a fairly militant performance). The atmosphere among the protesters – overwhelmingly students – was very different. Most of the speakers were heckled repeatedly, and chants about student-worker unity, the need for strike action and the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt were very popular. After the end of the rally, about a thousand students marched independently into town, led by the student left (NCAFC, SWP, Workers’ Liberty, Revolution, anarchists). We were met by a huge and violent police presence, and at the time of writing many of us are still kettled on Deansgate in central Manchester – though having comrades sing the Internationale with us from across the road helped keep up our spirits.

After the chasing off of Aaron Porter, one other bit of good news. Pat Murphy, a comrade who sits on the National Union of Teachers executive, told us today that the committee had, on his initiative, voted to delete a proposal to invite Porter to speak at NUT conference in April. Hated and hunted by his own members, Porter is starting to be shunned by many trade unionists too.

National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts
- e-mail: againstfeesandcuts@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.anticuts.com

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

great news!

29.01.2011 17:50

Great news, thats something i am really glad to hear!

anarchist


porter

29.01.2011 18:18

went on the demo today, and yes, the rally was a Labour Party appologist platform, where no one mentioned the cuts and attacks under 13 years of a Labour Government. The speakers were generally unimpressive and this article was actually the first thing ive read on today's event, that made me realise i should have been chasing Porter with the rest and im not a student!

thanks


A hull student.

29.01.2011 21:58

Was very happy to see the number of people chasing Porter and who also came away from the rally and marched again. As said, the rally was a total waste of time, with vague calls for action from the stage being met with 'then why are we in a field' as well as many choruses of 'we know'.

Tom. M.