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ULU London - TV coverage takes #copsoffcampus message to hundreds of millions

Paul Mason | 11.12.2013 19:39 | Education | Public sector cuts | Repression | London

TV coverage takes #copsoffcampus / ULU London protest message to hundreds of millions of people -

BBC text news is claiming "over 1,000" people attended the demo, which is Newspeak for about 2,500. The Channel 4 website is (less disingenuously) reporting "an estimated 2,000 to 3,000", while Russia Today broadcasts are reporting "thousands". After setting off from outside the University of London Union building (aka ULU) on London's Malet St, protestors broke chains locking the gates and briefly occupied the compound outside the University's Senate House building, then, having made that point, headed-off through Holborn to the Law Courts, down the Strand to Charing X, down Whitehall to Parliament, up Victoria St and back round past Buckingham Palace, past the Ritz up Shaftesbury Avenue before finishing back at ULU.

BBC text news said the protest has "seen a police van attacked", failing to mention the demo was in protest against police violence and politically-motivated arrests of student activists, not to mention recent police murders, and said "officers have monitored the group but not moved in" - which is one way of saying that the few plod deployed on the ground knew they'd be routed if they'd tried anything, and that the march moved so quickly police reinforcements were stuck in traffic for virtually the entire proceedings (which meant zero arrests, to the best of my knowledge).

Although to be fair there may be other BBC reports I'm not aware of, unlike the BBC text news, C4 and Russia Today are honestly reporting the demo's political agenda - opposing police violence, university fees and creeping privatisation, and supporting the grievances of University employees and agency workers.

Great atmosphere, great people, points well made - especially the point that when cops brutalise student protestors, students aren't intimidated, and the police create a reaction they can't control. RT reporting in particular makes #copsoffcampus into a mainstream international news event, taking its message to a word-wide audience of hundreds of millions of people...

 https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT (TV network)

Paul Mason

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  1. According to — Keep it up people.