You're Going To Get Your Fees Smashed In. posted by Richard Seymour

There was a slightly larger than expected turnout at today's NUS-backed demonstration against tuition fees. I say "larger than expected", but I have no idea what turnout the organisers had in mind: says here they expected 15,000, but given that a large number of NUS branches didn't bother to organise for it, arrange transport, or even inform students, that more than beat my expectations. The demo was absurdly over-policed with coppers clogging up the pavements in order to keep protesters off them, and stewards being preposterously over-solicitous - one of them approached me and instructed me to dismount from my improvised pedestal where I was taking photographs (okay, it was the railings beside a pedestrian crossing), muttering something about the police and Health & Safety. The police also, for some reason, issued a warning to someone for having a placard bearing the legend 'F**k Fees' outside a tube station. Not 'Fuck Fees' but 'F**k Fees'. It was one of the more popular placards on the demo, but apparently it was too controversial for some London Underground manager. Still, the demo was lively enough, as you will see from the footage and pics. For some reason, students had decided to be creative with the costumes and what have you, so there were Halloween themes as well as superhero ones (one group in Batman and Spiderman outfits blatantly taking the piss out of Fathers 4 Justice). Anyway, here's some pics:

The demo took a curiously circuitous route through Bloomsbury, then Holborn, then the Aldwych and down to the Victoria Embankment. I couldn't be bothered with all that, and simply decided to walk on the other side of street - much faster. Here are some views from Hungerford Bridge:

You can watch video files of the demo at my Youtube account. More are being added as you read. As a part-time student myself, I have a direct interest in such matters. Sure, I already have to pay fees up-front, but the introduction of top-up fees into the higher education system has actually increased the amount that institutions like Birkbeck have to charge if they are to compete effectively, and the government's allowances for poorer students only covers a part of that gap. The problem is with the marketisation of education in itself. Capitalist competition is irrational enough, but competition among educational institutions is insanity. It forces a duplication of resources and costs, places too much emphasis on good advertising, drains resources from less popular and advantageously placed institutions, and when fees are involved it raises the cost for students. The Labourite leadership have, of course, done as little to resist this trend as possible. The NUS leadership has long been a training ground for future Labour MPs, and the union is in its way perhaps the least democratic and accountable of all the unions in this country.

Update: Morbo has gorged the demo in his mighty alien mandibles.