25 November 2010 — New Left Project

Police provocation and media management

I was emailed this letter earlier today. It has been submitted to The Guardian’s Letters page. It concisely summarises the case against the police’s conduct in central London yesterday:

‘The policing of the student demonstration in London yesterday (24.11.10) was nothing short of corrupt. The police play the ‘innocent’ game frequently, but in this case it is totally blatant as anybody with an authentically independent mind saw.

‘The placing of an empty police minibus (in Whitehall) in the path of a known militant march of student demonstrators is a ‘red rag to a bull’. It is nothing short of entrapment and because of the huge policing resources and plans the police made to kettle demonstrators, is part of a deliberate ‘newsmaking’ for the right wing dominated media.

‘It is also intimidating for protestors to be pushed around and contained, and as such is an attack on the right to demonstrate. If there are any police still interested in real policing, I hope they will disassociate themselves from the operational plans and decision making of the Metropolitan police for that protest march.

Yours

Dr Trevor Bark, Co Durham’

Also see the video of the student activists’ press conference concerning yesterday’s ‘kettling’ of protestors.

25 November, 2010 — Morning Star

by Lizzie Cocker, Education Reporter

Police tactics used against student protesters on Wednesday were condemned as ‘outrageous and unacceptable yesterday by anti-cuts groups the Coalition of Resistance and National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC).

An estimated 130,000 school, college and university students across Britain participated in the day of action, which saw protesters in London -some as young as 13 – pressed into an area at Whitehall for almost nine hours without access to food, water or toilet facilities.

During a press conference which attracted national and international press, University of London Union president Clare Solomon said that it was ‘unbelievable that the police do not know the law themselves. Collective punishment was outlawed at the Nuremberg tribunal.’

A number of protesters were also badly injured after police beat them with batons and one was reportedly trampled by police on horseback who unexpectedly charged at a crowd of about 1,000 protesters.

Joanna Pinto of the NCAFC described how a friend was badly beaten by police after trying to alert them to potential danger. And Ms Solomon revealed that footage of one young boy being so brutally attacked by one officer that his colleagues had to drag him away is expected to be sent to the media.

Simon Hardy of NCAFC urged the Metropolitan police to ‘change their tactics for further demonstrations.’

With 16 universities still occupied today, representatives of both organisations insisted that direct action and demonstrations would ‘escalate,’ beginning with a third wave of nationwide protests next Tuesday which would gain the support of many of Wednesday’s protesters.

Further mass mobilisations are highly likely on the day that tuition fees are voted on in Parliament, which is likely to be within weeks.

Speaking about of the Coalition of Resistance founding conference on Saturday, Feyzi Ismail, a student who is involved in the latest SOAS university occupation, said: ‘If you are going to spend £20 billion on the war, if you are going to spend £75 billion on Trident, you are lowering corporation tax and not collecting tax from the rich – we are asking: Where are your priorities?

‘This is about what we value in society. You are cutting education, but this is a right not a privilege. We are shifting the debate and more people are on our side against the cuts.’

Continuing the pressure on the Lib Dems, around 45 LSE and LSB university students were blockading the offices of party deputy leader Simon Hughes today as the Star went to press.

lizziecocker@peoples-press.com