The twenty-fourth of November was one of the few days in recent British history when the voices of dissent roared loud by Downing street - and elsewhere in the Isles. A monumental 130,000-strong resistance was organised by students nationwide, with London being the highlight with over 30,000 student protesters taking to the streets. The proposed education cuts would render higher education almost inaccessible to poorer students, and would greatly undermine the socialist welfare policies that have been the hallmark of most European democracies.
The voices of protest were diverse, from "Jesus is going to come back soon", "Cameron is a twat" to "Revolution, now". The police kettled crowds, only to find another crowd gathering outside the kettled area. Many dissenters hope to continue the movements so as not to limit the scope of protest to the particular issue of budget cuts, but to critique more widely the recent tendencies in British politics which seem alarmingly reminiscent of American neoliberalism and which expose the academy and other welfare systems to the forces of the market - a marked push to the right end of politics. Ironically, it was the Labour party that first introduced fees for higher education and now stands in opposition to the Conservative-LibDem coalition.
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