On November 10, tens of thousands of students marched through London against education cuts and fee hikes. This was an indication of the revival of a militant student movement in Britain.
Clare Solomon, president of the University of London Union, told 麻豆传媒 Weekly: 鈥淭hat demonstration was absolutely electric, especially when we occupied the Millbank Tory party headquarters.
鈥淭here were thousands and thousands of 14, 15 and 16-year-old students, dancing, singing, hugging. It really was like a carnival of the oppressed.鈥
Britain
When the British Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced it would raise the maximum yearly tuition fee universities could charge students to 拢9000, thousands of students took to the streets of London in a series of protests.
Highlights included occupying the Conservative Party headquarters in London and frightening Prince Charles.
The tuition rise came after the release on October 12 of the Browne Review, a report into education funding chaired by former BP chief executive John Browne.
The report recommended abolishing the cap on tuition fees.
US investigators have admitted their efforts to find grounds on which to prosecute WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange over the whistleblowing website鈥檚 release of hundreds of thousands of classified US documents were in trouble.
The deepest cuts to Britain鈥檚 public spending since World War II were announced in October. At the same time, it was revealed that some of the nation鈥檚 biggest corporations and richest people were using legal loopholes to avoid paying tax.
The treasurer in the Conservative Party-Liberal Democrat coalition government, Conservative MP George Osborne, announced that 拢81 billion would be slashed from public spending including 拢7 billion in welfare cuts.
In 2009, more than a 100 activists were arrested in a swoop on a community centre in Nottingham in an operation involving hundreds of police.
They were alleged to be planning to close down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. It was revealed that one of the organisers of the alleged protest, Mark Stone, was an undercover cop who had tipped off the police.
Stone was unveiled after his partner found a passport in his real name of Mark Kennedy. He was confronted by Camp for Climate Action activists and confessed all.
Renowned investigative journalist and film maker John Pilger interviewed Wikileaks' editor-in-chief about the 鈥渨ar on WikiLeaks鈥 in response to the website 鈥渟peaking truth to power鈥.
At last someone has dared to defend the oppressed people of the British banking community. Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays bank, who himself has to suffer the trauma of an 拢8 million bonus, said yesterday that the bankers鈥 鈥減eriod of remorse and apology should be over鈥.
And you feel his pain, because the first words to cross your mind when you see a banker are 鈥渞emorseful and apologetic鈥.
At first glance, you might have mistaken London鈥檚 packed streets on November 10 for a Mardi Gras carnival. There young faces and large grins, combined with incessant whistle-blowing, trumpet-blasting and drum-beating. All mixed together to form the din of student protest.
The noise took shape and all of a sudden burst from the centre of the crowd, picked up by everyone else: 鈥淣o ifs, no buts, no education cuts鈥 鈥 the main chants of the 50,000 students marching forward from Westminster to the destination of the Milbank headquarters of the Conservative Party.
鈥淩ise like lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number!/Shake your chains to earth, like dew/Which in sleep had fall鈥檔 on you/Ye are many 鈥攖hey are few.鈥
These days, the stirring lines of Percy Shelley鈥檚 鈥淢ask of Anarchy鈥 from 1819 may seem unattainable. I don鈥檛 think so.
Shelley was both a Romantic and political truth-teller. His words resonate now because only one political course is left to those who are disenfranchised and whose ruin is announced on a British government spreadsheet.
In what Sky News described as one of the largest demonstrations to hit London streets in decades, tens of thousands of students, teachers, staff members and their supporters rallied on November 10 in opposition to the new Conservative-led government鈥檚 plan for tuition increases and cutbacks at Britain鈥檚 colleges.
Organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU), the demonstration drew students from across the country for a march through central London, during which students occupied the Conservative Party headquarters.
The Conservative Party, or Tories, has never really forgiven the British working class for demanding and winning the creation of the 鈥渨elfare state鈥. Gains won included such things as free health care, council homes at affordable rents, and care for the elderly and vulnerable.
From the Tories鈥 point of view, these are all things individuals should sort out for themselves. The modern state should provide the same level of social protection as was available to Queen Victoria鈥檚 subjects in the 19th century.
At least five Vodafone stores were closed in central London on October 30 by protests, TheGabber.org said that day. The protests were against the British government鈥檚 alleged decision to give companies, such as Vodafone, huge tax breaks of about 拢6 billion at a time when ordinary people are having their benefits cut or taken away.
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