Some thoughts on student protests

I’ve been listening with interest this week to lots of people commenting about the student protests. Several people have been comparing them to protests in ‘their day’. Most people seem pleased that there is increased student activism, and have a sense that, in general, students are less politically engaged than they used to be.

People have been discussing previous student sit-ins, protests, occupying buildings and so on. I understand that in Hull University a common tactic was to occupy the boiler house so that the university had to close down. Some people are really positive about these tactics, others were more annoyed that other people’s actions meant that their education was disrupted.

I welcome student activism, and think that comments that students are less political now are probably over-exaggerated. Students and the campaign against higher fees need to think carefully about what they are doing and what their strategy is. There are rumours of plans for direct action. This may work well for the campaign, but it needs to be carefully thought through.

Consideration needs to be given to tactics. A campaign needs to leave room for the other side to change its position and actually do what the campaigners want. Some forms of protest can be so confrontational that they do not leave room for change and only solidify existing positions.

Violence is also a key factor of course. One of the problems with any protest is that it will attract violence by some. Keeping your own campaigners completely non-violent needs incredible discipline, and keeping others out who want to use violence is likely to be impossible. The challenge for any campaign is to keep violence to a minimum, and then have a strategy to allow the message to come through despite the inevitable media attention on the violence at the edges. Ultimately, the protestors need people watching to blame the other side for the problems being highlighted, not to blame the protestors for the trouble being caused. This is not an easy balance to achieve, and needs a well thought-out strategy.