Of Horse And Men

I was again on another march on the 29th of January against the cuts in Manchester. Now the feeling overall was one of anger but peaceful, the majority wanted a peaceful march but the minority spoilt that, the minority in florescent jackets.

The day began with people gathering outside of the Manchester museum. The atmosphere was good, people from all around the north had gathered to show their anger at the governments plans. This was more than a march against the rise in fees, more even then a march against the cuts to higher education, this was a march against a government which many feel will send us backwards and damage us for generations to come. Of course the main message was against the cuts in higher education but amongst that were cries against NHS cuts, against library closures and tax avoiders. Along side that, unsettlingly, were messages against police brutality, something which is steadily growing as people begin to grow sick of the heavy handed tactics and over excited officers ever present at these protests, more on this later.

As the march began all was peaceful, messages of solidarity with Egypt and Tunisia, with Greece and protesters all over the world. There were chants and songs with music coming out of speakers on trolleys. All in all it was nice and peaceful as we marched down through Rusholme to the rally in Platts Fields. As we entered Platts Fields the discontent was obvious as people felt as though the NUS had purposefully lead us out of the way, away from anywhere of significance, out of the public's eye. However Arron Porter, president of the NUS, was promised at the rally and so we waited.

There were many speakers, most of which gave empty statements about solidarity and that they needed to take action but no real substance. When there was a moment of silence the cries rose up for Aaron Porter to show his face. Unlike the lies printed in the Daily Mail there were no anti-semetic chats at the rally [link], "Aaron Porter your a f****** Tory too" just happens to sound like "Aarron Porter your a f****** Tory Jew", easily mistakable but with the level of anti-racist protesters present it is undoubtable that any reports of racist chants are false aimed to direct anger at the protesters and detract from the message. There are some reports of anti-semetic chats but what was not reported were the large number of people chanting back at them saying things such as "No, Racists, No!", unreported to alienate the students from the rest of society. Many feel that Aaron Porter has deserted the students he is meant to represent with condemnations of many protests and talk of defeat from the get go.

As it turned out Aaron Porter did not turn up to the rally. Anger amongst students at Porter and some felt they needed to make their point heard. It turns out that earlier in the day he had been confronted by angry students and some eggs had been thrown at him [link]. When a leader sells out their movement and then attacks its members then they should expect anger. Aaron Porter was not hurt in this confrontation, more humiliated and scared. He locked himself into Manchester Metropolitan University Students Union and did not leave to go to the rally, for fear of more abuse. Let there be no illusion had he turned up there would have been more eggs and chants but alas he did not arrive. This angered many who wanted to show their anger and felt like Porter had been spineless in not turning up.

This is where the protest changed. Once word had got out that Porter was not turning up the populous, not just 150 as reported in the news [link] left the park and marched back towards where they thought Porter would be. There wasn't any violence just hundreds walking peacefully back into the city where our voices could be heard. As we marched people sounded their horns in support and generally the public seemed supportive. However as we reached the end of the curry mile the problems started.

At the end of the curry mile we could see a line of blue lights and after the events of the 9th of December we were wary. I and some friends saw the front of the protesters being brought to a stop and we made the decision then to avoid this, to avoid being kettled. Nothing is more angering and demoralising then being caught in a tiny area for hours on end and that is what we believed was going to happen so in that moment we descided to go around. Not to cause trouble but to get where we wanted to be without being aggrivated and pushed around by police for hours.

So after this we found ourselves running around back streets trying to avoid police confrontations and to get back towards the main protest. After about half an hour and after dumping our placards in a bin, after all we arn't going to litter, we found a large group of protesters. As it turns out they had managed to break through the police line at the end of the curry mile and continue on down. By this point people had been hurded down to one side of the street and there was a tense feeling in the air. No-one quite knew where we were going and the police seemed on edge, which later on would come to the surface. We decided a good place to aim for would be town hall as we felt that this would be a likely place to meet more people. As we arrived there were a few more protesters and one talking to the police stating that we know they are just human and are just doing their job but pleaded for the rest of the day to remain peacful, if only it could have.

We stayed at town hall for a few minutes until we saw a large group of people, they had been into town to protest against tax avoiders like Vodafone. As we joined them it was obvious that something had changed, the atmosphere had turned sour and the police had became jumpy with people being thrown against walls and shouted at before being released. By this point the numbers had dwindled and we had been split up. This is when the protest truly turned ugly.

As we marched down the road suddenly the line stopped and I and some friends hung back to see what was happening and then the inevitable happened. A line of police wrapped around the small group of protesters and closed in, there was at least a 3 deep line of police around what could have bearley been 100 people. By now the florescent gloved fists were flying and the horses were being used to walk onto the path endangering both the health of the protesters but also of the civilians around.

As time progressed they force the protesters into a smaller and smaller area angering those inside and out. The police then drove us down the side of the road towards the Hilton. One man was chased around by two police on horseback for taking a picture, the horses seemed unsteady and panicked by the darting movement they were forced to make. This was not in some secluded area either, these horses where darting around in the middle of the road with many people around, it is amazing no-one got hurt.

It is inevitable though, when horses are used so recklessly that someone was going to get hurt. As we were being moved towards the Hilton hotel, just as the police decided to move in and step between us and the Hilton, a policeman on horseback walked directly into the back of a person facing the other way. The man fell to the floor and as he turned to his front and shouted out asking what the policeman was doing, at this point 3 police jumped on him and arrested him. This man was not even facing the horse when it walked into him and he was arrested for it, it is sick to think that people can be arrested for being assaulted.

Events like this are rarely reported or even twisted to show the protester in the wrong. This again just goes to show that any news report should be taken with a grain of salt. Make no illusion to the fact that the news is often not as un-bias as it should be, a lot of the time the news is often skewed by the personal views of the editor of the paper or CEO of the news outlet. I'm not saying you shouldn't believe anything said by any certain news outlet but it is important to try and read a range of sources before making up your mind. Without, or even with, first hand witnessing it is very hard to get a full idea of events and in the major media it is very very very rare to see any criticism of police tactics. It is only a matter of time before another person is killed, it has been just over a year since Ian Tomlinson was killed at the G20 protests and many people will have forgotten about it. We cannot allow the police to continue using tactics that are dangerous and we cannot allow more people to be killed. We must report and talk about any brutality and I will make an effort to continue doing so.

However I will not finish this blog on the subject of police brutality. No, this should be about the success of the protest. Thousands of people took to the street. People of all ages came together to mouth their angers and until the end, when the police got a bit excitable, it was peaceful. We showed our anger at the betrayal by Aaron Porter and we got the public talking. As we marched people we passed would start conversations about the issues, not complain about us but to discuss the issues. To get people thinking is always a good result and lets hope at least a few people continue to think about it.

The movement is growing and the issues at hand are increasing in number. The trade unions are mobilising, the next major march is on the 26th of March [link]. When the government discusses privatising the forests of this country [link] it is obvious that they are not looking out to save the economy but to benefit the rich. We cannot sit back and allow them to dismantle our great country so I hope to see you on the 26th and I hope you keep fighting because we can and we will win.

Stay alert, Stay free.