cuts - preliminary skirmishes

T

Transpontine

history is made at night
Went down to the London anti-cuts demo in Whitehall tonight.

Got to whitehall before the student demo arrived, probably around 500 people there. The organisers announced that the police had agreed to close Whitehall from 6 pm so people should go into the road - some of us did but the first car came along and everyone got out the way! Eventually after some minor pushing and shoving one side of the road was closed. When the main student demo turned up - bringing numbers up to around 3000 - some people also blocked the other side of the road, but were eventually pushed back. The organisation wasn't great - 10 good stewards could have closed the road in no time.

Felt kind of unreal - police blocking people crossing over towards Downing Street, but anybody could walk round them and make their own way there. France it wasn't, but maaybe the long haul to building an effective movement has started.

Jesse Jackson spoke, his left liberal keynesianism is not my thing, but he can work a crowd! Also must admit to feeling a little bit moved by the geographical/historical continuity he represents. After all he was on the balcony when Martin Luther King was shot. How many people from that time are still out there on demos?

Neil
 
T

Tyro

The Kandy Tangerine Man
Mad Pride, Anti-Cuts Demo - London Oct 26th 2010 - 1pm

Mad Pride is supporting a demonstration by survivors of the mental health system are doing on the 26th October against the cuts to benefits and services. It will be at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, London, UK. This will be in the wake of the Governments Spending Review. We are calling for a 24 hour medication strike on that day. Politicians will be executed at the traditional site of Tyburn.


http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/10/466349.html
 
Dr Awesome

Dr Awesome

Techsteppin'
Yeah, what's up with that? Looked like something you'd see in some third world shit hole, or, dare I say it, France.
Reports said that University fees were planned on being raised up to 3 times their current amount.
Are fees currently so heavily subsidised that students only pay about 1/3rd of the actual costs as it stands?
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
"Nick Clegg regrets signing anti-tuition fees pledge":

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11732787

Oh fuck off. Can't believe I wasted my vote on this total shower.

'But he added the planned changes were better than the existing fees regime and would help generations of "poor bright kids" to go to university.'

Too bad for all the would-be students whose parents' combined income is over the lavish £25,000 (!) cut-off but is still nowhere near large enough to afford 9k a year up front or countenance racking up a debt of 27k over three years on fees alone. And parents with more than one kid who wants to study might as well forget it.

Edit: and just for added cuntishness value, there was talk of the Student Loans Company imposing penalties on its clients for repaying debts too soon, like some credit cards and banks do, although I believe that's since been thrown out.
 
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Sectionfive

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
Poor aul Nick didn't think he was gonna get in did he..

Same story. Doubling it in Decembers budget. Fee's by any other name etc.
The great myth that we're all spoilt middleclass wingers getting peddled heavily.
So the police are still happy enough to set the dogs on the nations children.

Have to say say your lot put us to shame though.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Anyone else a little disbelieving by the press coverage of yesterday's events at Millbank? The idea that there would even have been that much press coverage of the march without the violence seems very naive.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
i found this comment on the guardian website.

Shermanator

18 November 2010 2:45PM

Give me a break.

Stop trying to intellectualize and justify your nonsense.

Learn a skill, clean yourself get off the bottle and get a job. I assure you your life will improve and you will no longer see the need for these ridiculous protests.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
luka said:
why disbelief? its hardly out of character?
Click to expand...

You're right, but I'd forgotten how utterly anti-any kind of political action/standing up for your rights Britain is. It's perceived as a joke in too many quarters, as in the comment you've pulled out (which I think is a fairly widespread opinion).
 
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Sectionfive

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
baboon2004 said:
You're right, but I'd forgotten how utterly anti-any kind of political action/standing up for your rights Britain is. It's perceived as a joke in too many quarters, as in the comment you've pulled out (which I think is a fairly widespread opinion).
Click to expand...


I think its the same every where there are people reliant on the status quo.
If unfairness/corruption or whatever suits you and your job, your alot less likely to stand up and very quick to put down those that do.
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
luka said:
i found this comment on the guardian website.

Shermanator

18 November 2010 2:45PM

Give me a break.

Stop trying to intellectualize and justify your nonsense.

Learn a skill, clean yourself get off the bottle and get a job. I assure you your life will improve and you will no longer see the need for these ridiculous protests.
Click to expand...

And pay £9k a year for the skills needed to get most decent jobs.
 
T

Tyro

The Kandy Tangerine Man
Something that the media haven't really focused on is the removal of The Education Maintenance Allowence:



From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs
For the first time I can recall, schoolchildren have taken to the streets, many concerned over the removal of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), that allows sixth formers from low income households up to £30 a week if they remain in school.


From: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/14To19/MoneyToLearn/EMA/index.htm
EMA to close to new applicants
EMA will close to new applicants in England from January 2011. Learner support funds will be available through schools, colleges and training providers to help students who most need it to continue in learning. If you currently get EMA you will continue to receive it for the rest of this academic year, but you will not receive it next academic year



Yesterday a lot of the protesters in London were there in response to this issue.When I arrived in Whitehall at about 5PM another group had formed and were facing off the police to the north of the 'kettled' demonstrators.A fair number of them were disenfranchised working class youth and the confrontation which ensued {and spilled out into Trafalgar Square and The Strand} had the feel of the skirmishes that you see at carnival.I think we are about see major unrest on the scale of Brixton and Toxteth in the 80's.The inner cities are a tinderbox which will inevitably flare up once the cuts start to bite.

>>PEOPLE GETTING ANGRY>>
 
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Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Occupation still in force at my old college...same it was when I took part 11 years ago. :D
 
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