Sit ins, walk outs and shouting about fees and cuts

If you kept up with the news today, you will have noticed a large number of demonstrations across the country. This follows the demo/march organised by the NUS, which took place two weeks ago. Once again, they centre around the proposed changes to education funding (particularly in the HE sector) and fees. The NUS didn’t organise any of today’s events, but they do support them (well, the non-violent variety).

Does the student movement jump to protests too early? Are they effective? These and other questions will be discussed in this blog entry.

Photo taken by Matt Baldry (Flickr)

Pros

One thing is certain – the grievances that (at least) some of the student population have were noticed because of the action. There has been news coverage (both local and national), as well as numerous entries in various blogs. Twitter was exceptionally busy today too (just search for the hashtag #demo2010, which has remained highly active after the NUS event).

Modern-day students have been described as apathetic. Whether you agree with their methods or not, you have to admit that it’s good that they’re making their voices heard. It’s an important life skill at least.

Cons

Today has seen a number of different things – sit-ins, walk-outs and protest marches. These methods could be considered old fashioned and haven’t been seen in any great amounts since the 1970s (examples of those can be found here).

Also, doing too many forms of protest too frequently may reduce the effectiveness of the argument. The general public would hear less intellectual content and grow weary of the constant disruption. If students don’t have the support of the rest of the population, the government is less likely to do anything.

Thugs and disorder

Unfortunately, modern-day student protests also seem to include a degree of violence or some form of unwanted behaviour. For example, the recent NUS protest in London saw windows smashed and objects thrown from the roof of the Conservative Party HQ. This dominated the news and offended many members of the public. It highlighted a lack of proper planning and organisation by the NUS. They should have realised that this was likely and arranged countermeasures. Admittedly, the Metropolitan Police should have been better prepared too.

It seemed the same happened today in some of the non-NUS events too. The following picture is taken from  this entry on Guido Fawkes’s blog:

Photo from 'Here We Go Again', an entry on Guido Fawkes's blog.

To it’s credit, the NUS realises the effects of the violence. The following quote is from a statement issued by Aaron Porter (NUS President) on their website:

“I am very aware of the overwhelming annger and strength of opposition from students and their families to the Government’s miserable vision for the future of our education – but I am also aware that we need to win over hearts and minds to our cause and violence will not help us to do that.”

Last resort

I believe that protests (of any form) should be a last resort. Intellectual debate and discussion amongst relevant parties should always take place first. For example, is the ‘storming’ of a Vice-Chancellor’s office going to make him suddenly change his entire opinion on fees (this was a proposed idea from students at one HE institution that I saw on Twitter. In the end, the office wasn’t ‘stormed’)? No. That VC will respond in a more constructive way if there is calm and measured debate that contains sensible points and facts.

Summary & Conclusion

It’s good that some students have an opinion, but the constant jumping to the protest stage is foolhardy and unnecessary. Protests can show a strong feeling, but their are other things that can be done that don’t necessarily lead to extreme behaviour. There is still room to have intellectual debate with relevant parties.

So, what do you think?