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Another student Day of Action has been called for Thursday 9 December, the day that MPs vote on changes to higher education including an increase in tuition fees to up to £9,000 a year. Actions are expected around Parliament, at schools, colleges and universities, including the many currently under occupation, and in town and city centres across the country.
On the newswire: London Book Bloc | Bristol student hospitalised |
Previous features on recent student actions and occupations: UK features 1 | 2 | Sheffield 1 | 2 | 3 | Oxford | Birmingham | Nottingham 1 | 2 | 3 | Northern | Scotland 1 | 2 | Bristol 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | London 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Timelines: Last hours twitter | Day X3 twitter | london indymedia timeline | tumblewire
'book bloc' in london on 9 december
Day X3 March on Parliament: summary from the timelines
At about 12.30pm, students from the University of East London and school pupils demonstrated outside the Bank of England.
An estimated 10-15,000 strong crowd set off from Malet Street soon after midday, only for the front end to be stopped by the cops after a short way for unclear reasons and also by would-be organisers at the back anxious to deliver speeches ad nauseam to a captive audience. Eventually, after calls for the speakers to shut up, people got moving in what has been described as a 'moving kettle', but with some taking a jog through Covent Garden en route. The marchers eventually joined several thousands more in Trafalgar Square by about 1pm. Later estimates of numbers suggest that as many as 30,000 protesters may have been on the London demo today.
The march was joined by the Book Bloc carrying a mobile library of large print volumes 'to affirm and defend what is under attack: Our universities and public libraries, literacy, thought, culture and jobs. In the past few weeks our attempts to do so peacefully have been met by police with batons, riot shields and horses. These are not isolated incidents of brutality but part of a system of institutional violence. By bringing books into the streets we are drawing attention to the violence at the heart of the neo-liberal ideology of the Con-Dem government.'
At Parliament Square, riot cops two deep had effectively kettled the Houses of Parliament and had also blocked off the Victoria Street exit from the Square. Eggs and paint bombs were thrown at cops and vans. The fences around Parliament Square were dismantled and the space reclaimed. Mounted cops charged the crowd, apparently forcing some protesters to climb barriers to avoid being crushed and leading to casualties on both sides. One mounted cop was thrown by his horse in Victoria Street. A disabled protesters was dragged from his wheelchair by the cops. The crowd used Harris fencing to keep the mounted police at bay. Fires were lit to keep people warm including one huge one in Parliament Square, possibly a large wooden rubbish bin. Back in Whitehall, lines of cops for some reason decided to try to stop two groups of students from meeting up, effectively making themselves sandwich filling and resulting in gleeful chants of 'Who's kettled now?' from the students.
Bristol student, Paddy Besiris, elected rep. at the University of the West of England, was hospitalised after sustaining a head injury at the hands of the Met. during the London protest.
Soon after 5.30pm, the results of the parliamentary votes were announced. On the vote to raise fees to up to £9,000, the Con-Dem government won the vote by a narrow 323 votes to 302 against. Two Lib-Dem parliamentary aides resigned their posts today, along with one Tory.
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