In Praise of Students and the Suffragettes

                                          In praise of Students

The engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton may have taken the spotlight of the demonstration of students in London but I think the issue of how to fund undergraduate education has not gone away.  There is considerable anxiety around how the students of the future will be able to afford their Higher Education and no doubt many will be put off going University.  Those that do will face the burden of starting their working life with a financial millstone round their neck and of course as they get older will also add that other significant millstone of life in as they acquire mortgages.  

It is not therefore a surprise that we have seen the first of the demonstrations against these proposals and I am sure more protest will follow across the Country.  The news that Cleggy and co were planning a U turn on their position even as they were signing all those pledges has added to the anger.  During the course of this week the media focus on the demonstration has focussed on the violence that erupted and the graphic demolition job on the windows in Conservative Party HQ was beamed into every sitting room.  I am sure that most readers will like me have deplored the violence and the damage to property and I hope that organisers of future demonstrations will take steps to ensure their participants understand the need to peaceful protest.

Having said that I have heard many people talk about how they are so far the only citizens who have seriously taken to the streets to protest at the savage cutbacks that are descending on us.  Some of my acquaintances have said that the wish the British were more like the French or even the Greeks.  What does it take to fire up enough passion to truly get us all going?  I can still remember with clarity the demonstrations against the Vietnam War.  I can recall the Poll Tax demonstrations and in recent years the thousands who turned out to protest when the Labour Government introduced the Hunting Act (Ban).  So far however the response to the financial tsunami which will decimate our public services and put at least a million people on the dole has met with a rather muted response from swathes of the British public.  Even the TUC is holding back its day of action until March.

A friend of mine has reminded me of a couple of things Emmeline Pankhurst had to say about protest over a hundred years ago.  Had she been around today she may well have helped smash those windows.  After all she did say, “The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics. There is something that Governments care for far more than human life, and that is the security of property, and so it is through property that we shall strike the enemy. Be militant each in your own way. I incite this meeting to rebellion.”

 Of course history teaches us that the militants within the Suffrage movement did not win the vote for women although it certainly helped in raising the temperature and uniting working class women behind the cause.  So to our students I say thank you for reminding us that sometimes we have to get out of our armchairs and let our government know how we feel about what they are intending to do to us in our name.  The next time you demonstrate make it peaceful and hopefully others will join you in your legitimate right to protest.

I have penned this blog to coincide with the 100th anniversary of an event known as Black Friday when the Suffragettes demonstrating against Parliament were subjected to six hours of police brutality and which led to the Suffragettes becoming militant.

I attach a link describing Black Friday.  http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/features/75-our-history/7697-the-suffragettes-black-friday-and-the-two-types-of-window-smashing

In Praise of Students published in The Times and Star under the banner of The Thin Red Line  18/11/10