Students around the UK protest as anger grows over education cuts

Students have once again clashed with police during protests over proposed changes to higher education. The protest, the second this month, planned to target the Liberal Democrat headquarters in central London.

Thousands of students and school pupils gathered around Whitehall and Trafalgar Square to fight against government plans to raise tuition fees and cuts to university teaching grants and the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) Violence escalated quickly as one police officer had his arm broken and with was dragged from the crowd unconscious with leg injuries. The police deployed the controversial ‘kettling’ technique used at the G20 protests. Bottles and placards were thrown at police and fires were started as darkness fell.

Vandals damaged and graffitied a police van stranded in the protest. School children who disagreed with the violence, however, formed a protective shield around the van to prevent further damage. Later protesters broke into a van, smashing the windows, stealing police uniforms and using the van as a dance platform.

The demonstration, organised by several groups, began peacefully with a “Carnival of Resistance” at 11am, starting at Malet Street and progressing to Trafalgar Square, where students from across the nation assembled prior to the planned protest outside of the Liberal Democrat’s headquarters in Central London and later in Downing Street.

However, in light of the Millbank Riots two weeks ago, police detained protesters in the Whitehall area before they reached Parliament Square. Attempts to break through the police cordon were unsuccessful, a stark contrast to the attack on Conservatives’ headquarters a fortnight ago.

Organisers, who have dubbed the mass demonstration “Day X”, are calling students to protest against the Liberal Democrat party leaders, accusing them of breaking their promised pledge of voting against a hike in tuition fees.

Tuition fees are set to soar to £9000 per year by September 2012, with plans to withdraw public funding for arts-based university subjects and removing the EMA which is paid to students who would otherwise not be able to remain in education past the age of 16.

Protests, walk-outs and marches took place across the country. The largest were in Manchester (3000), Bristol (2000), Sheffield (2000) and Brighton where 3000 students marched. There were also demonstrations in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool, Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge, Bournemouth and Cardiff. Occupations were also staged in colleges and universities including SOAS, London South Bank, Royal Holloway, UCL, Essex and UWE Bristol.

Nick Clegg, in a speech made on Tuesday night, pleaded with students to “Listen and look before you march and shout. Our plans will mean that many of the lowest income graduates will repay less than they do under the current system.” The Deputy Prime Minister, who has been warned against cycling to work amidst fears he could be attacked, was further targeted by angry protesters who hung an effigy outside a building where he was due to give a speech on Tuesday.

Many school children attended the protests on Wednesday. Milly, aged 14, from a north London school, said she had attended the protests as they were relevant to her and that she would be “one of the people affected by the changes”. Her friend Harry, also 14, said that they agreed with the protests, but disagreed with the violence, saying “it won’t achieve anything”.

Another protester, a current student at UCL, said, “Violence gets our point across, they can see how strongly we feel and it will make them change what they have said”. Most people that we spoke to believed that the violence was sending the wrong message across about students and that those who were being violent were out looking for trouble, rather than protesting for the cause.

Sixty arrests have been made so far following the occupation of Millbank two weeks ago. Student Edward Woollard, 18, from Southampton, is facing jail after admitting throwing a fire extinguisher from a rooftop during the violent riot. Woollard has been charged with violent disorder, an offence that carries a maximum of five years in prison.