1. A huge thank you to everyone who showed up and got others to do so. The national demo was a success. We are in the process of proving that students are a serious movement of resistance, capable not only of marching at a specific parliamentary vote but but coming back in a sustainable way. Moreover, the demo has put resistance to the government’s HE white paper firmly on the political and media agendas. We have also ramped up the political atmosphere ahead of strikes and days of action later in November.
The numbers on the march were unpredictable. Given that we filled the street area that we did at the starting point, we estimate that there were just under 10,000 gathered there. Given that we were later joined by various different London groups, striking workers and LSX occupiers, we think that at its height there may have been a turnout of 15,000. The police simultaneously put the numbers at 17,000 (for internal purposes) and 2,000 (for the purposes of trying to make us look stupid in the media). Neither police figure probably represents the truth of the picture.
For an NCAFC report of the demo, visit: http ://anticuts . com/2011/11/09/1 0000-demonstrators-kick-start-st udent-fightback/
2. Media, pictures and videos:
Our media presence throughout the past few days has been extremely successful. Basically every major newspaper – tabloid and broadsheet – has acknowledged our existence, with some making a political feature of it. Click here for the google news search: http ://tinyurl . com/nov9media
Good videos and pictures are at:
– http ://www . time . com/time/photoga llery/0,29307,2099040_2321752,00 . html
– and there are loads more out there
3. A word on the policing. Nov 9 saw one of the biggest police presences that we’ve yet seen, along with the threat of potentially lethal baton rounds (never before used on the British mainland) ahead of the demo.
The threat of using rubber bullets ahead of the demonstration was a cynical attempt to deter protesters from attending – for fear that they might have been shot at or hurt. That’s not good for democracy – and, although turnout was relatively high, there is reason to believe that it may have worked to some extent. These threats were also irresponsible and counterproductive: the last thing you should do if you want a peaceful demo is to ramp up violent threats beforehand.
For what it’s worth, the “total policing” approach taken by the police was far from non-violent or ideal: dogs and horses were both deployed on the day, and police also used snatch squads of undercover officers who violently arrested protesters, sometimes for no apparent reason. This video has been passed around the internet quite a bit:
http ://www . youtube . com/watch?v=V _kCB54oi04
NCAFC
