thousands of students march in london, attemp to occupy trafalgarsquare

[Sasha]

Watching sky news (horrible partisan reporting again), thousands on the march, several arrests after attempted to occupy traffalger square, some small clashes along the route with batons used and bottles and placards thrown in retaliation.

"its not kettling, its containment"

[Sasha]

The demonstration is supposed to end soon, cops plan to dispers the crowd around 5, if it kicks of it will be then, 4000 cops deployed, threats of baton rounds to be deployed.

[00000000000]

Doubt it will kick off as much as last year, the cops are too well prepared this time.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Nov 30th will probably tell us more about where the movement is at.

Did the cabbies and electricians join up with the workers today?

The problem with students is that they (we) are only capable of one day protests on the streets. Obviously we can utilise sit-ins, occupations etc., but we can't really call a general strike of the student body really...

[Cencus]

Haven't seen a demo as heavily policed since the days after the poll tax riot. 3 lines of cops(1 in high vis 2 in riot gear) plus a line of mounted cops in front of the march controlling the speed and not allowing anyone to move ahead of the main body. Every side street had a solid line of filth. In the days leading up to this march police had been ramping up the fear, letting it be known via the press they'd use plastic bullets, sending letters to anyone arrested in previous demos warning of the consequences of any disorder, on the day handing out flyers warning of what could get you nicked etc.

Total police intimidation.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Indeed, the right to effectively (that is the key word, really!) protest has been neutered...for the time being.

To be fair, this wasn't a mass protest. I mean, it was big, from what I saw, but it'll be a different kettle (excuse the pun!) of fish when we get tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands on the streets again. No amount of bastards will be able to control that.

[The Jay]

If anything the protest will become smaller and more radical with that level of intimidation. I think that all the press that the riots got last year may have shifted public opinion. Here's to hoping though; cheers!

[Cencus]

The unrest over the last year has badly scared them. There were 4500 police on duty for a march of about 10000- that is as many as were on duty for the first two days of the riots this summer. Expect every demo where there is even the slightest hint of there being trouble to be strangled in this way.

[Manic Impressive]

Undercover Pig Snatch Squad
V_kCB54oi04

[Sasha]

^ are snatch squads like those something rare/new in england? because they have been a standard in the netherlands for decades...
seems that UK police have been on some training trips to the netherlands and germany the last few months

[brigadista]

not sure but weren't they were used during the 80s miners strike? the guardian had another youtube vid of them yeterday

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Terrible demo. This is what happens when we organize a route with the police: we walk into a mobile kettle. Fucking embarrassment, they were all over us.

I remember debating with a swap at my uni about police negotiation, me and my comrade made the point that this was a bad idea and would lead to us being fundamentally controlled by the pigs, and we were right.

Yet another A to B march in which nothing was achieved, it was left at the end with a few youngsters dancing to the sound system and eventually complying politely when the pigs asked them to leave. pfft.

The sparkies seemed to be a bit more confrontational but even they couldn't escape the kettle.

[ColonelCossack]

I was at that! It definitely felt like we were being led into a kettle, like cattle being led to an abattoir, though... not a nice feeling at all... and everyone seemed really solemn for some reason.

However, I did see what appeared to be an indian man singing and beatboxing when we got near to Trafalgar square (he was part of the demo), and i saw a short man in irish dress doing Irish dancing with a star of david attached to him, who I also remember from outside st. paul's when I was there a few weeks ago. :confused:

[ColonelCossack]

eventually complying politely when the pigs asked them to leave. pfft.


I'm ashamed that that sounds like me... But i am only 15 and i did have a history exam to do, and the girl I was with asked if we could leave because she started crying. i suppose some people don't have the stomach... :p