Student Riots in December

In December, many of you will recall, there were student riots in London protesting the raise of university fees throughout the country. As the BBC and other international news agencies covered the events in Parliament square, and throughout London, several friends and family members contacted me and asked if we were alright.

Yes, we were fine, I said; but what I didn’t say was that I had almost been in the middle of it.

You know, just for kicks.

The LSE is right along a major street in London called Kingsway which connects the massive University of London, the Queen Mary School of Law, and the London School of the Arts to the Strand via the semi-circle road of Aldwych. Go a few minutes down the Strand, and you pass through the broad open Trafalgar Square where Nelson’s Column and the National Gallery compete for the most attention with St. Martin’s in the Fields. Take the second left from the Strand and you are led down through Whitehall, which, if it didn’t turn in time, would run straight into Big Ben. The Strand to Whitehall is one of the main arteries of the city s it curves along the north bank of the Thames, and that is why thousands of students took the route as they marched towards Parliament. Their goal was to influence the MP’s as they voted on the measure that night, but sadly what resulted was much different.

Earlier in the day Police had lined Kingsway with their neon-green vests, and dark blue hard hats as hundreds of UCL students, and students from other universities walked towards Parliament with banners, signs, drums, and interestingly enough, their backpacks (if I am going to riot for hours, I’d be sure to take my backpack as well). At the LSE, it was pretty quiet except for the hugely underpublicized sit-in, and a few muted student walk outs. The student newspaper shouted with angry bold titles against the education cuts, and signs throughout campus blistered the school director with obscenities; but aside from the handful of students who read the signs, the message fell to a largely non-existent audience, let alone one who cared.

The thing is, most of the LSE is comprised of international students, and since already pay nearly double what the average UK student is, we were unsympathetically indifferent. If they chose to walk out of class, (which no one in my program did) then we would stay there and continue to learn, and outperform them. If they took over a classroom, then we would tell them they were idiots, and make them go elsewhere. In all honesty, the most disruption that occurred in my classes was from the drums, and cheers of the UCL students passing by on Kingsway. It wasn’t that big of a deal from where we were.

By lunch time, the LSE student protesters had gathered in the central area on campus, and were lining up with speaker phones, banners, signs, and upturned buckets. I stood eating my lunch and watched them march off onto Aldwych to join with the rest of the students. I thought it would be fun to go long with them: I didn’t have any classes later on, it was early in the day, and what the heck- how many REAL student demonstrations do we actually get to participate in?

“I’d rather get homework done,” I thought, and walked back to study.

Well, the rest is history. Later that evening, the peaceful protests turned violent. Even bordering on anarchy. Barricades in Parliament Square were ripped apart, and used as battering rams against the great doors of the Dept of Justice. A fire was started in Parliament Square and the massive Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square was nearly set ablaze. Students staged a sit in inside the National Gallery. Windows, and phone booths were smashed, and the statue of Winston Churchill was graffiti-id. Stores on the upscale Oxford Street (miles away) were vandalized, and Prince Charles was mobbed by students as his car drove through central London. Students even climbed the great Cenotaph- the memorial for WWI- and swung on the draped flags.

The police (mounted police, and riot squads as well) contained the riots, and eventually dispersed them late in the night, but the damage was done. Thousands of pounds of damages to the city’s cultural center and government buildings, and even more revenue lost by tourism based companies. With these costly results it was too my complete surprise that one of Mikaela’s friends told me she thought the police were too tough on the protesters.

To sum up, one of my LSE English friends posted this the night of the riots in her Facebook:

“Great job you idiots. Make us all look bad as you terrorize London. I’m sure lots of people will want to listen to what you have to say now that you’ve cost us even more money. Quit complaining and get some jobs.”