Youth protest in London

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Wednesday, 09 November 2011

Written by Steve Jones

On the first anniversary of the great student protest of November last year, several thousand students and trade unionists marched through the City of London accompanied by several thousand police, clearly under pressure to stop a repeat of what happened last time with the Tory HQ.

The route of the march was heavilly cordoned off with all side roads packed with police. The City itself became a ghost town with stray people trying to find a way out that was not blocked off. The threat of plastic bullets being ready for use raised tensions no end as was the usual prospect of "kettling." At the end of the march kettling was applied for no reason just to wind people up in the hope of making a few arrests and showing their bosses at Westminster that they were being "tough on protesters." In fact the march was largely trouble-free dispite the provocations. The mood was also more political than last year with more of the marchers seeing the real role of capitalism in the recent attacks. As things get worse this mood will deepen amongst all sections of the class.

Here are some pictures from the day:

The City cleared out beforehand

Kettle anyone?