The National Union of Students (NUS) has announced the date for its national demonstration against education cuts, tuition fee rises and student debt - 21st Nov 2012. EVERYONE has been and is being robbed by bank-bailouts, by austerity and privatisation, so EVERYONE should join this action. The NUS demo comes only four weeks after the massive 20 Oct TUC demonstration. We need to make sure the TUC demo is a launch pad for further action in the run-up to Nov 21. We need to learn from the protest movements in Quebec and Chile. We need to think positive, plan for the long-haul, and keep up the pressure for as long as it takes for the tax-criminals who planned austerity to starting losing their bottle.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiwm8jxckQ

Student bloc at #oct20 -  http://www.facebook.com/events/386522028066490/

#Demo2012 National -  http://www.facebook.com/events/259158454193672/
#Demo2012 Bradford -  http://www.facebook.com/events/240514556067543/
#Demo2012 Sheffield -  http://www.facebook.com/events/257880867650831/
#Demo2012 March on Parliament -  http://www.facebook.com/events/391729244200710/

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SUGGESTIONS FOR NOV 21 - Have fun, but don't get kettled! Keep moving, stay alert, keep turning round, keep looking over your shoulders and over people's heads to see what the cops are up to nearby, in the distance and especially behind you. If you see the cops forming a line near or behind you move quickly to avoid being kettled, and don't be shy - shout LOUDLY to get people moving if you see a police line forming. Be constantly aware that some cops are very savvy and will sneak-up when crowds are distracted, so keep looking over your shoulders, especially when you see or hear something exciting that attracts your attention (on 24 Nov 2010 hundreds of kettled demonstrators missed an escape through street maintenance works, because they were distracted by the activity and noise around the police bait van and weren't searching-out weaknesses in police lines). If the cops try to usher you into a gap in their lines, it might be a kettle - don't go through unless you can definitely see a clear exit on the other side.

Take cameras and film the cops to discourage police violence and to record evidence of arrests and assaults. Point cameras at cops faces at every available opportunity (even when you're not actually filming). If you see someone arrested, constantly film the cops shoulder ID numbers and faces, shout out their ID numbers and don't stop hassling them - it doesn't always work but on many occasions this has led to protestors being released in-situ. If you post images or videos of arrests or of active disruption on-line, blur or edit-out any images or audio that could be used to identify and victimise protestors from their faces or voices. Brightly coloured home-made banners draw the attention of press photographers and TV, but what the media really love are images of violence, so beware of trolls and agent-provocateurs, online and on the streets. The State has been using agent-provocateurs to justify repression since Home Office plant George Edwards set-up the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820, and they're definitely still doing it -

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Street_Conspiracy

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 http://educationactivistnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/essex-students-union-press-release.pdf

For an Autumn of Resistance

The National Union of Students (NUS) has announced the date for its national demonstration against education cuts, tuition fee rises and student debt as November, 21st 2012. The demonstration was called on the back of a substantial vote at April national conference that fed off the mood, both in the room and within the movement: students want to take on the government over its Further and Higher education policy and over austerity.

A lot has changed since the last national demonstration organised by the NUS back in November 2010. That ‘hot autumn’ gave the trade union movement the confidence to march half a million strong in March that subsequent year, and strike over 2 million strong in November of the same year. The reciprocal relationship that students and the trade unions have must be the thread that runs through our preparations for the upcoming term.

To merely approach this November as a ‘re-run’ would be a cruel parody of the rage and anger that was shown on that demonstration back in November 2010. The vital experiences of both Chile and Quebec have shown how far students can go. In Quebec, a proposed raise to tuition fees has led to an explosion of student militancy which has seen over 100 days of education strikes and campus shutdowns. For our student movement, the bar has been raised.

In 2010, the students alone brought the Government to within twenty-one votes of defeat and showed that only a few months into their term, there was a visible and angry section of the British youth that were totally opposed to the Coalition. But since 2010, the trade union movement has stepped onto the streets and onto picket lines to show that same opposition to the Coalition government. That is why students’ unions and the NUS should be a part of the TUC October 20th protest, ‘For a Future that Works’.

We cannot wait for the new term to begin before unions start the preparations for this autumn. The work must start now to book coaches and form organising committees for the autumn demonstrations on our on our campuses. Our Unions need to be central to cultivating a culture of resistance on our campuses.

We know that a one off protest will not be enough to win – to do that, we need to fuse our movement to the trade unions, building ever stronger links, as students did when they joined picket lines and rallies on November 30th, 2011. We will need to work with unofficial grassroots organisations to organise and reach those who traditionally are left behind by NUS. We will need days of action, in the lead up to November 21st, to cultivate that resistance and set in motion the process that can make sure that Education is not the defining debate in the 2015 election, but the defining grievance that leads to our movement bringing down the Government.

Quoted from Nathan Bolton (University of Essex Students Union)