Oppressed. Appalled. Repressed. Struggling.
These are some of the feelings among students and other demonstrators marching today in Manchester against the clampdown on peaceful protests by police, as MM found out while speaking to those involved.
Buses slowed down to a crawl on Oxford Road as Manchester University students – regrettably for some not joined by lecturers – voiced their opinions.
The #CopsOffCampus protest – organised via Facebook – was in reaction to how police handled earlier demonstrations, with students being beaten and kettled during a wave of protests around the country over the past week.
“I’m utterly appalled by the clampdown on student protests,” Steve Wallis, 47, an activist who helped develop an artificial intelligence simulation language at Manchester Metropolitan University, told MM.
“I’ve been in many protests myself over the years and this is a show of solidarity, bringing left-wing groups together in support of the students.
“It’s defiance really, (with a view to) holding a national demonstration, probably in London.”
The next march is due to take place in February, with the exact date yet to be confirmed.
Mr Wallis, who used to be part of the Union for Lecturers and Teachers and is now with activist group Left Unity, questioned the amount of support that academics were giving to their students.
“Why aren’t the lecturers supporting the students? The students are supporting the lecturers.”
A helping hand came in the way of non-student groups and left-wing activists including Young Greens (an off-shoot of the Green Party), Socialist Students, Left Unity and Say No to Fracking on Barton Moss.
Kyle, 23, a children’s theatre facilitator and anti-fracking activist, said the reaction to police brutality was entirely normal.
“What we are seeing across the board is a clampdown in policing and an attempt to remove our right to protest,” he said.
“When police repress our human right to peacefully protest we have to resist it.
“This is a great opportunity to offer them (the students) solidarity and get to know the students who are struggling up this side of the country.”
Beginning at 2 p.m. in University Place, the protestors did a circuit of the university campus before heading towards the city centre, walking down the middle of Oxford Road and causing long traffic jams.
Motorists and pedestrians alike showed their support as chants of ‘A-C-A-B, police off universities’ and ‘no justice, no peace, f*** the police’ rang out, before the 100-strong march turned into All Saints Park so speakers could address the crowd.
Manchester was not alone in its disapproval of police tactics on the ‘national day of action’ and movements in Leeds, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester and Preston had all stated their intent to make some noise.
If the strong views held by Manchester students is anything to go by, the campaign could achieve its goal of getting heard.
“Students around the country have been protesting and going into occupation, and then being attacked by the police in an incredibly brutal way,” said Claire, a 26-year-old anthropology student.
“A man on crutches in London was beaten. (We are here to protect) the ability to engage in contentious politics and hold demonstrations. All of these techniques of trying to have an effect on things are being criminalised.”
Mac, 19, studying philosophy, knows people who were involved in the sit-in at the University of Sussex which led to five students being handed academic suspensions, which have since been rescinded.
“We’re just getting them [the police] off campus,” he said. “They’re not supposed to be on campus stopping students from having the right to protest so we’re trying to get them off.”
Politics student Casper, 20, accused the universities of crushing anything that they perceived to be ‘radical’.
“As students we want to be able to speak our minds and go outside the norm if we want to,” he said.
“If we have dissident or what some might say are radical views, that shouldn’t be oppressed by universities employing police to come here and basically tell us that we can’t have those views.”
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