"Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy ..."

[marmar]

Students, one dressed as Edward Scissorhands, demonstate against higher tuition fees and cuts in university funding in Westminster on Wednesday. Photograph: Tony Kyriacou / Rex Features


Student protests planned on a national scale on 24 November
Wednesday's demonstrations against tuition fees have prompted plans for a national day of direct action

Jeevan Vasagar, education editor, and Matthew Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 November 2010


Emboldened by the numbers who took to the streets of London to campaign against plans to charge university students in England up to £9,000 a year in fees, students are planning a wave of direct-action protests across the country.

Protesters occupied a building at the University of Manchester today, demanding access to accounts to see how government spending cuts might affect students and staff.

Grassroots student groups said today that they were drawing up plans for a national day of action in two weeks' time. Michael Chessum, co-founder of the National Campaign Against the Cuts, predicted widespread disruption as students staged sit-ins, occupations or walkouts at universities and further education colleges on 24 November.

"We went off script, the script that said a few thousand people would turn up, complain a bit and go home and the cuts would go through pretty much as planned," said Chessum, 21, a sabbatical officer at University College London. "That has changed. Now students really feel they can stop this."

A statement published by student leaders praised the storming of the building housing Conservative party headquarters by a fringe group of protesters on Wednesday. "We reject any attempt to characterise the Millbank protest as small, 'extremist' or unrepresentative of our movement. We celebrate the fact that thousands of students were willing to send a message to the Tories that we will fight to win. Occupations are a long established tradition in the student movement that should be defended." .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/11/students-protests-national-24-november

[dchill]

1. Tell me,

what can a poor boy do?