Students march for an alternative

Students from the University of Warwick took to the streets of London on March 26 along with lecturers, members of the National Union of Students, workers, teachers, and people from all walks of life for the Trades Union Congress ‘March for the Alternative’ to protest against severe Government cuts and demand an alternative.

The demonstration on Saturday aimed to assert the widespread opposition to education and public service cuts, especially to higher education and services such as Education Maintenance Allowance and Aimhigher, and show support to increase the confidence of lecturers, students, workers, the University and College Union and teachers.

Figures have cited that between 250,000 to 550,000 people attended the march and it has been labelled the biggest Union-organised protest in a generation. Students’ Union Sabbatical Officers and students of universities such as Leeds and York attended, with some London Universities organising their own marches. Members of the NUS marched with a banner entitled ‘Unity is Strength’ and repeated chants such as “Education is a right, not a privilege,” “Save, save EMA,” “No ifs, no buts, no education cuts” and “They say cut back, we say fight back”.

Despite the general carnival feel of the march- drummers, bagpipes, balloons and bands were prominent features within the crowd- a small group broke away from the main protest to vandalise stores such as Starbucks, Santander, De Beers and The Ritz, some known for tax avoidance schemes, by throwing paint and smashing windows. Fortnum and Mason was occupied, whilst a placard demanding ‘General strike now!’ was placed in the arms of the Charles I statue in Trafalgar Square. At the time of writing, news headlines had reported just over 200 protesters to be in custody, 84 people to have been injured, 31 of which were police officers and 12 officers were hospitalised for minor injuries. However, the vast majority of protesters continued peacefully and unharmed to the rally in Hyde Park.

Student opinion about the march was mixed. First-year Sociology student Kate Arnold said: “The march was great; really diverse and solid.” However, she also commented on the violent acts committed that day: “It’s no good breaking windows if people don’t understand why they ought to be broken… the ‘carnival atmosphere’ was fun, but… it didn’t send any real political message”.

Students’ Union Education Officer Sean Ruston told the Boar: “I think it was relevant to students – the most controversial government cuts have affected students… the government seems to be disproportionately attacking students [and Universities] by cutting EMA, University funding and cuts to further and higher education.”

SU Welfare Officer and President-Elect Leo Bøe agreed: “It [the march] focused on cuts that include universities and the education sector as a whole. There were a lot of students there, notably standing up for future generations [of students].

“It’s disgraceful that the media have reported it in such a way,” he continued. “Estimates have said that there were approximately 250-550,000 people there and only 300 causing problems for the local authorities, and yet it made over 90 percent of the media coverage. It overshadowed [the point of the march]… [However] it was very empowering and reassuring to see the number of people there and should resound across the country.”