No NUS and Police Liaison Officers. Is This the New Student Demonstration?

Thousands of students and activists once again made their way to Parliament Square yesterday to show their continued anger at the cost of Higher Education tuition in England and Wales.

This action was seen by the organisers, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), as the largest showing on the capital's streets since 2010's initial marches against the hiking of fees to £9,000. However, the marchers were split by many forces, including the lure of those who broke down fences intended to keep protesters off the grass, and staged a fairly unorganised occupation. By the time 3pm came, and the speeches were in full swing, only two or three thousand of the estimated ten who began at UCLU remained.

The question of numbers and the ease at which different groups broke off was prevalent throughout the day. One possible reason for both of these was the decision by the National Union of Students (NUS) to pull their support for the protest due to what they called an "unacceptable level of risk".

The NUS will surely point to the arrests (for far, four have been reported) and damage made to property by small groups of protesters. However, these incidents were not part of the organised protest, two of the main incidents, at the Department of Business and Innovation and outside New Scotland Yard, happened whilst the main rally was being addressed by the likes of Aaron Kiely (who unsuccessfully ran for NUS Presidency last year) and Caroline Lucas MP, of the Green Party.

Not only were these arrests in smaller numbers than in previous years, then, but they were surely not the responsibility of the organising bodies, namely the NCAFC. In fact, the NUS argument of an unsafe protest hits more hurdles. One of these, and a significant one, is the Police action on the day. 

Yes, students have a reason to take proactive measures such as handing out solicitors details, in the wake of previously harsh action. You'll all remember the disturbing scenes of 'kettleing', I'm sure. However, in this instance, the Met were not only peaceful, but their tactic of deploying specialist Liaison officers worked very well.

One of these, Constable Tim Morris, was more than happy to talk to me, and even be quoted. This will surely strike a chord with anyone who's tried to talk to Police on a demonstration before. It's not usually this easy at all. Morris said that the friendly, liaising approach was the "new Policing. Where we don't care if they're on the grass, because that's not really that important in the grand scheme of things. We'd much rather chat and be open, than be chasing and arresting people".

In previous years, if a group had broken down barricades and broken the contract that organisers had with the Police, the Met may have reacted badly, and we may have seen a larger, more violent incident. However, because the protesters were simply left to their own devices, the anger seemed to dissipate, and no one was hurt in Parliament Square.

Later on in the evening, this was not the case, as I have already mentioned. But whatever one's own political stance, it can surely be understood that once people are damaging property (in the case of the Department of Business and Innovation, not even property connected to the reason for protest) the Police cannot stand by and watch. Interestingly, even after 4pm (When the protest officially ended), the Police were noticeably calmer than in previous years, and when the groups made their way back to Parliament from New Scotland Yard, the Met again let them onto the green, and did not follow or attempt to make arrests.  

It seems then, that the NUS's claims of an unsafe demonstration were unfounded.

When I spoke to Conor McGurran, Campaigns Officer at Manchester University Students' Union, he remarked that this was "Perhaps the safest protest I have been on. But without the NUS it is certainly smaller than it could have been, and with their involvement it could have been even safer. I feel that they've run away a little bit, and left it to others when they really should be involved".

A similar view was given by Alex Clifford, a Graduate of Keele University, who served as a Student Union officer in 2012/13 and is now Communications Coordinator at the University of Greenwich SU.  The NUS have a "quite comprehensive staff network who could have helped out weeks/months ago in organising this demo and ensuring risk was minimized". He added that the NUS were "actually mandated to participate in" this demonstration, again adding to the general feeling that the student population was let down by the body that are supposed to stand up for them.

Without the NUS, then, a vacuum was left to be filled. And at 3pm, Aaron Kiely stood up, and announced that someone had come out from the Palace of Westminster to talk to the protesters. This person was Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion. As has become common in anti-austerity rally's in London, Lucas reiterated her Party's stance on getting rid of Trident, and using that money to fund Higher Education. This was of course, hugely popular with the crowd.

 I spoke to Lucas after her speech, and brought up the issue of the NUS not attending or backing the day's activities. Her response was quite remarkable. She did not know that the NUS had pulled out. In fact, when I told her such, both her and her secretary looked extremely shocked. That's right; the Green Party MP, who has been such a public figure in her support for the student movement, and the anti-Austerity movement more widely, did not research the organisers of a demonstration before she took her place on the podium and allowed herself to be intimately connected with the movement.

In doing so, Lucas was also happy to accept the applause from a crowd that will have taken great pride and confidence in the idea that they have a high profile supporter in the House of Commons. All of which is surely worth much less, if anything at all, seeing as it is apparent that Lucas did not actually know who she was supporting.

The lack of NUS involvement in Wednesday's action may seem like small detail, and in some ways, seeing that many thousands of students from all over the UK arrived to march on Westminster, it was. But that's truly only half of the story. The NUS may not be to the taste of all students, but it is still the only national body that is run and mandated by students, for students. It has an incredibly powerful potential. It's presence in UK politics is perhaps one reason that Lucas simply assumed that they would be present.

But they were not. They backed out, for what turned out to be no reason at all. And their constituents let their feelings be known, as the word "scab" was scrawled across their Central London HQ. This would have been a much bigger, and arguably more successful National Demonstration with the NUS involved. We can only hope that they will make an appearance next time the call is made.