NUS March 2000 - London.

The march starts headed by a colourful and musical segment.

The Samba band makes the march far more interesting. The NUS has not surprisingly tried to keep the route as non-controversial as possible. Remember, these 'politicians' have careers to consider! Later on in the NUS conference (April 2000) it became apparent just how little the NUS executive wanted to push for militant action. Mind you, they do have a point when they state that most students 'don't care'. Perhaps the fact that the NUS is hardly a campaigning force at all - more a marketting tool and business deal tool for the multinationals (read: Bacardi, student accomodation companies etc) - is why students lack direction in forcing a better deal for themselves. All the real campaigning takes place outside the NUS.

This isn't just a picture of a concerned NUS steward : it is an indictment of the NUS. The NUS stewards were constantly trying to stop more militant sections of the march from breaking away. Various groups and individuals had it in mind to get to Parliament square and basically be a disruptive as possible. Stewards were the first line of defense against militancy. The NUS should be pushing for a better deal and supporting students. Supporting the police is hardly a way to gain the approval of students.

After ignoring annoying student police, the actual police were there to stop students breaking away. They were actually rather well behaved, which is a credit to them. They didn't seem to keen on us getting anywhere apart from the park the NUS had planned for us though.

Finally we broke away and travelled down a whole bunch of side streets. Passer bys, pedestrians and others showed their support and looked as surprised as the police who didn't have a clue what was going on. In fact, we had to ask directions to Parliament Square because we got lost somewhere along the way!

Finally we got in sight of Parliament square. The police quickly formed several lines which students pushed through. Now comes the cospiracy theory bit.

It seemed strange that the police let us through on Whitehall and past Downing Street. The group had perhaps gone from being 1000 or so strong to maybe 150 people strong. The Samba band and others couldn't keep up with the running (which was actually rather unecessary most of the time). So we pushed rather easily through police lines. Seemed a bit strange. We then sat down in Parliament square, blocking the traffic. About 10 police vans turned up - traffic throughout London was fucked up. As soon as we sat down, someone from the SWP got on the loudspeaker, and told us : "We've won the battle; lets go on an join the rest of the march". This was said about 5 minutes after we turned up - people like sheep simply followed this idea and left. It seemed to me that the SWP had negotiated with the police and agreed to make the incursion short. After all, the SWP believe themselves to be the vanguard of the oppressed - they are the leaders!

Next time you go on a student march that breaks away, make sure that you know who's in control of the loudspeaker, and demand to have a say. Even better, act autonomously and organise alternative student marches without stewards, without the permission of the state, without 'leaders'. If there is a loudspeaker then get hold of it if need be.