Quail
18th November 2010, 15:33
The Liberal Democrats' headquarters will be targeted with the same "legitimate force" seen at the riot at Millbank, student activists said today.
The Education Activist Network (EAN), one of the radical student groups involved in last Wednesday's protests, accused the Liberal Democrats of "betrayal" over university fees and refused to rule out violence when it attempts to occupy the party's headquarters on November 24.
A spokesman said student groups would try to take over the party's offices in Cowley Street, central London, as part of a "Day X" of widespread action against the Coalition government.
At a meeting tomorrow at the University of Sheffield, EAN activists will debate attempting occupations of Nick Clegg's home and constituency office.
Mark Bergfeld, a member of the NUS national executive committee, said: "The Liberal Democrats stood on a platform of free education and millions of students voted for them. They now feel totally betrayed.
"I think that a party that tells outright lies to students and to workers is a legitimate target for direct action.
"People argue that you can change democracy at the ballot box. We're going to show that we change democracy through direct action."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/students-to-target-liberal-democrat-hq-2134672.html
I just thought I would post this article. On the 24th there is a national day of action, as I'm sure most of you already know, so there will probably be a lot of demonstrations, occupations, etc. I wanted to draw your attention to this part of the article though:
At a meeting tomorrow at the University of Sheffield, EAN activists will debate attempting occupations of Nick Clegg's home and constituency office.
Someone from the EAN decided it was a good idea to contact the press about our meeting. I'm not sure why they thought it was a good idea, becaue when I turned up to the meeting there were a load of university security outside and a couple of coppers, because the university had obviously heard that there was a meeting discussing occupation and decided to watch their backs (probably with the occupation in solidarity with the people of Palestine still fresh in their minds). I've now heard that Nick Clegg's usual surgery won't be happening on Friday due to threat of occupation (although unfortunately I can't find a source).
This thread isn't intended to be a sectarian moan about EAN, but they seem to already be trying to do any actions under their banner, in the exact way that they want things to happen. It was suggested that we should elect a planning committee to plan our actions, instead of leaving the planning group open for anyone to join and put in their thoughts and ideas, but thankfully that idea was rejected. Possible demands we could make were not properly discussed, and when we were debating proposals, people were not always allowed to speak. The decision-making was a simple majority vote, failing to take into account anyone who disagreed, where I think that consensus decision making would have been more appropriate. I also noticed that there were some SWP members at the meeting who are not students, and who seemed to just be there to sell papers and promote the SWP, and the meeting was heavily steered by SWP members. It seems that the anti-cuts movement in Sheffield is being taken over by the SWP in a particularly inept fashion.
What we need is effective organisation from below to carry out direct action, not a shitload of press attention before we've even done anything and being told how we should organise by SWP party hacks.
The Education Activist Network (EAN), one of the radical student groups involved in last Wednesday's protests, accused the Liberal Democrats of "betrayal" over university fees and refused to rule out violence when it attempts to occupy the party's headquarters on November 24.
A spokesman said student groups would try to take over the party's offices in Cowley Street, central London, as part of a "Day X" of widespread action against the Coalition government.
At a meeting tomorrow at the University of Sheffield, EAN activists will debate attempting occupations of Nick Clegg's home and constituency office.
Mark Bergfeld, a member of the NUS national executive committee, said: "The Liberal Democrats stood on a platform of free education and millions of students voted for them. They now feel totally betrayed.
"I think that a party that tells outright lies to students and to workers is a legitimate target for direct action.
"People argue that you can change democracy at the ballot box. We're going to show that we change democracy through direct action."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/students-to-target-liberal-democrat-hq-2134672.html
I just thought I would post this article. On the 24th there is a national day of action, as I'm sure most of you already know, so there will probably be a lot of demonstrations, occupations, etc. I wanted to draw your attention to this part of the article though:
At a meeting tomorrow at the University of Sheffield, EAN activists will debate attempting occupations of Nick Clegg's home and constituency office.
Someone from the EAN decided it was a good idea to contact the press about our meeting. I'm not sure why they thought it was a good idea, becaue when I turned up to the meeting there were a load of university security outside and a couple of coppers, because the university had obviously heard that there was a meeting discussing occupation and decided to watch their backs (probably with the occupation in solidarity with the people of Palestine still fresh in their minds). I've now heard that Nick Clegg's usual surgery won't be happening on Friday due to threat of occupation (although unfortunately I can't find a source).
This thread isn't intended to be a sectarian moan about EAN, but they seem to already be trying to do any actions under their banner, in the exact way that they want things to happen. It was suggested that we should elect a planning committee to plan our actions, instead of leaving the planning group open for anyone to join and put in their thoughts and ideas, but thankfully that idea was rejected. Possible demands we could make were not properly discussed, and when we were debating proposals, people were not always allowed to speak. The decision-making was a simple majority vote, failing to take into account anyone who disagreed, where I think that consensus decision making would have been more appropriate. I also noticed that there were some SWP members at the meeting who are not students, and who seemed to just be there to sell papers and promote the SWP, and the meeting was heavily steered by SWP members. It seems that the anti-cuts movement in Sheffield is being taken over by the SWP in a particularly inept fashion.
What we need is effective organisation from below to carry out direct action, not a shitload of press attention before we've even done anything and being told how we should organise by SWP party hacks.