After last weeks demonstration against tuition fees and education cuts, where 4000 students were disgustingly prevented from marching into the city centre by police, over 2000 Marched this Tuesday (30th November).
Frankie Langland, Bristol Socialist Party
This time the demonstration was dominated by school students, sixth formers and students from local FE colleges, marching in defence of EMA and fighting for an education that they will never be able to afford if the ConDem coalition hikes up fees.
This time students were able to march into the city centre – twice! – with chants of ‘our streets’ to the police’s attempts to block our way.
Students were able to march though Cabot Circus (a major shopping centre) three times!
Honks of cars and shouts of good luck from shoppers confirmed the support of workers in Bristol. All of us are under attack by the ConDem government. This was also reflected in the fact that the demo almost doubled in size, with around a 1000 of us starting the demo and 2000 leaving the city centre and marching up to the financial offices of the university of Bristol.
The demo went on for hours and covered a large area of Bristol. As someone who has been used to marching on trade union demonstrations for the past few years I have to admit I was pretty worn out by the end of it! But it makes me so much more confident that this energy and dedication is the leading force in the fight back against the Tories.
Around 400 students were kettled near Bristol University, held for over two hours, and were eventually were all photographed as they were let out one by one.
But the students of Bristol are not going to stop fighting until we have won our right to free education.
Now the workers of Bristol must join with us and fight against the coalition government who is trying to take our future away from us.
