12th November 2010 9:00
By Harriet Boulding
On Wednesday this week over 50,000 students and lecturers attended a student led demonstration outside Whitehall the like of which has not been seen since the 1980s. The demonstration was planned and organised by the National Union of Students alongside the Universities and Colleges Union, and was intended to voice public concern over the devastating cuts to higher education funding proposed by the coalition government, and the hike in fees.
The NUS reported that about 20,000 people were expected to attend, and the demonstration was expected to be entirely peaceful. The reality was that, whilst the majority of protesters were peaceful, the demo was considerably larger and more heated than anyone predicted. The numbers reported on the day were an estimated attendance of more than 52,000, and violence that broke out around the Conservative Party headquarters at Millbank has dominated the headlines.
This has sparked a furious debate amongst students and activists about what a demonstration should entail, and how best to achieve their aims. The president of the NUS, Aaron Porter, condemned the violence, but many students feel that direct action is the only way that they will be noticed. After all, this is the generation which grew up to see the biggest demonstration in British History (over a million people came out to peacefully protest the invasion of Iraq) fall on the deaf ears of the government.
The situation as it stands for students is extremely grave. A’ level students face debt of up to £50,000 if they want a university education, and postgraduates in arts, humanities and social sciences cannot expect any funding for research at all. Many universities face full department closures. Whilst I do not condone violence, these events do beg the question: What does it take to be noticed?