Protesters liberate broken Tory HQ and take to the roof as anti-cuts resisters resist shock therapy

[Magda Hassan]

Myths of the Siege of Millbank

By rainylain

On November 10th 2010, students from across the United Kingdom flocked to London to participate in a demonstration against the rise of tuition fees to potentially £9000. Somewhere in the region of 50,000 crowded into the City of Westminster to make their voices heard in what was one of the largest protests seen in the UK for decades. And yet the media have focused on what happened slightly further upriver at 30 Millbank, the building containing the head offices of the Conservative Party.
Quite what happened there varies between media report, but the general impression is that of a riot, small but violent.
I was there. I had earlier marched down Whitehall and Horseguard’s with a variety of groups from a variety of universities, and after meeting up with a friend, moved along to 30 Millbank which lay just beyond the end of the protest route. I saw the bonfires lit in the courtyard, and saw the cracks in the panel windows of the foyer eventually lead to them crashing down. I heard the shouts of the crowd, and I saw people on the roof flying a red flag. I was there.
My friend and I left around 5pm to get coffee, and it was only then we became fully aware of what the media were saying about the events at 30 Millbank, though we’d known the media eye was on us from the moment I looked through the window of Millbank Tower and saw BBC News 24 showing live footage of the 30 Millbank courtyard, including a little me watching myself on television. Plenty of texts from concerned friends came through, telling me I was danger, that this was the G20 protests all over again. Indeed, as we were making our way towards the London Eye, we heard reports that the people still at 30 Millbank were being ‘kettled’ in by police and that mounted police had been sent in. But for the vast majority of the afternoon, the so-called ‘Siege of Millbank’ was no riot, no battleground, not in the same sense as the riots in the outer suburbs of Paris a few years ago where anything and everything was trashed in a general chaos fueled by an angry, and previously ignored, populace. Smashed windows, graffiti, bonfires in the courtyard, yes, but this alongside a crowd who were angry but peaceful, smiling but determined, with only a few choosing to infiltrate the building, a few choosing to express their anger in such a way.
Now, of course, it’s the main story. How sad that in some ways, it had to happen to be such a story. The London Evening Standard‘s earlier editions had the tuition fee demo on the front page, but in a box with a picture saying ‘turn to page 13′. The later editions had ‘STUDENT SIEGE’ being screamed out as the headline with a large photo of one of the bandanna-clad young men who were the doing some of the more aggressive smashing of windows and daubing of graffiti. Nevertheless, as Green blogger The Daily (Maybe) exclaims “It seems that the story is now going to be students smash some glass rather than government smash education”. The protesters are reduced to violent thugs in the pages of the press, leading some to tut over their cereal about how these people clearly don’t deserve an education anyway. Even the NUS have distanced themselves from everything happening at Millbank, writing everyone there off as part of the problem, rather than just the few who caused the property damage. I don’t personally approve of anywhere being smashed up, but it is typical of today’s instant media to focus on the actions and not the causes, and I can understand why people would want to take out their frustartion on the plush sofas and marble walls of Tory Headquarters. The 50,000-strong demo was all about the causes, and the frustration fuelling those in Parliament Square was not of a different ilk to that leading a few to smash Tory windows (just merely more tempered), but only the apparent violence matters. It’s understandable why so many on the demo are so frustrated by those who caused the trouble at Millbank for undermining their efforts, but in all this blaming and sensationalism, a number of myths have formed about what exactly happened down at 30 Millbank.
I was there, and I will now do my best to address them:
MYTH: The ones at 30 Millbank specifically decided to attack Tory HQ, and diverted far from the main demo.
The NUS, in distancing themselves from what happened at 30 Millbank, as well as the media, have liked to make clear that those present at 30 Millbank diverted from the demo and were specifically targeting Tory HQ. The truth isn’t so hard to find, especially given the many signs announcing road closures for a demo from ‘Whitehall to Millbank’. That’s right, the demo route officially ended at Millbank, literally just around the corner from the very visible Millbank Tower. A number of the protesters who marched along Whitehall and Horseguard’s did not stop at Parliament Square, which while I was there had sit-ins taking place, and kept along the route of the demo, which stopped so close to Conservative HQ, that the fact people then went over there should not come as a surprise. A friend and I only headed over there because one of our friends had reached the end of the parade route, and decided to protest in front of Conservative HQ. And why not, anyhow, given that the Tories are the ones leading the tuition fee increases which the whole protest was about anyway!
MYTH: The crowd were waving many placards that had nothing to do with ‘education cuts’, which has been said to show how unfocused the ‘Left’ are.
One placard that right-wing types are mentioning a lot was about cutting Trident, and this they use as evidence that the demonstration was ‘typically for the Left’ unfocused and vague. Umm, no. Leaving Millbank aside for a moment, the tens of thousands in Parliament Square, Horseguard’s Parade, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, the Strand and the Embankment were very united. Posters, banners and placards focused on different aspects of the tuition fee rises, but nevertheless, they were focused on this one specific area, albeit sometimes using it to highlight the anger with the general cuts as a whole. Most placards were NUS-designed, but the individual ones talked about Nick Clegg being a traitor (due to his now-infamous moment of promising that he wouldn’t rise tuition fees), David Cameron being able to easily afford his own education whilst the protester in question couldn’t, and so forth. Chants included ‘Education is a right, not a privilege’ and ‘You say cut back, we say fight back!’. Ideas of this being wishy-washy are a total fabrication, and perhaps wishful thinking on the part of those who would dismiss the 50,000 strong demonstration as left-wing students having a nice day out. This video demonstrated the atmosphere nicely. To bring this back to Millbank a little, I will mention that the crowd gathered outside 30 Millbank were waving these same placards, with the same focus, and even the graffiti sprayed onto the pillars and walls by the few causing property damage were about fees, and Tory betrayal of the poor and young.

MYTH: The ones at 30 Millbank were not students.
This is something that many of the students on the demo will themselves say. As someone at 30 Millbank, I can tell you that this wasn’t the case. Undoubtedly, there were fringe elements infiltrating the crowd, including a few types who seemed like they liked causing trouble as a living, but this was the minority of the minority. The ones who broke the windows and invaded the rooftop were, on the whole, students, albeit very angry ones, mixed in with a few who were hidden behind bandanas and hoods and whose identity was thus harder to discern. I know a student who was on the roof, and another, Olivia Wedderburn, has spoken to The Guardian about why she was up there. Students come in many different forms, they adhere to stereotypes even less than most professions, especially in a culture where it is now a general expectation, and thus a truth, that one must have a degree to succeed. The thing is, why should it matter if it was just students? Postgraduate students and those towards the end of their degrees won’t even be affected by the tuition fee increases, but they are seeing the channels through which they are gaining the education destroyed. Older people, unemployed graduates like myself, who have our own grievances in addition to this, had much the same strength of feeling, whilst many sixth formers and teenagers were in protest about their own future soon be so out of reach.
MYTH: The ‘Siege of Millbank’ was a riot, with a ‘baying mob’. It was not a protest at all.
I can’t especially blame the vast majority of the United Kingdom for thinking this, even amongst those who perhaps had a moment of glee at seeing the front of Conservative Party HQ shattered. The photos from the protest definitely give the impression of a riot, with flares, people crashing against police riot shields, and smashed up furniture in the lobby. The photos from BBC News online are typical. I’m not saying these photos lie. These things happened. I saw the windows get smashed, I heard the shouting, I smelt the smoke from the bonfires, and I was actually underneath a security camera when someone smashed it, which was frightening, and an action which I have no support for. But that’s the thing. In a lot of the photos, you’ll see the crowd stretching back from those up against the police barricade, and the assumption is that the ones at the front were the thin edge of a violent wedge. Untrue. The vast majority of the hundreds upon hundreds in the courtyard of 30 Millbank were not attacking anything. We were protesters, not rioters, and this video from The Telegraph, otherwise full of the close-ups of those at the front, does briefly show the main crowd at 1:12 in. The crowd were on the whole smiling, and perhaps surprisingly for many, the general atmosphere was not dissimilar to what I had earlier experienced amongst the main demo on Whitehall and in Parliament Square, albeit with an element of shock at what was going on at the front (and on the roof). One student who stood next to New Statesman blogger Laurie Penny told her “this is scary, but not as scary as what’s happening to our future”. Whilst we nearly all peaceful, we were also angry, and 30 Millbank provided a focus for this in terms of our attention, just as there was a wave of boos as the earlier march passed Downing Street. This was a protest, whilst the ones at the front caused something more like a riot. But then again it wasn’t…
MYTH: Even though not everyone at 30 Millbank was violent, they supported the violence.
Firstly, I need to point out that the word ‘violence’ is being misused. There was some violence – both some of the protesters and some of the police got bloody faces, as a number of press reports show – but the vast amount of the actions which are being roundly condemned were not violence, but ‘property damage’. Windows were smashed in, not generally faces. Even in the footage, the ones who entered 30 Millbank mostly did not fight the police – there was resistance, but not, on the whole, aggression. Secondly, I need to point out that we were not a violent crowd, and that we actually condemned any violence or threats of violence that happened. When someone smashed the security camera above my head, most people backed away from the young man with the large stick. Yet one incident truly shows the nature of the crowd, and unsurprisingly, you won’t find it in most media reports (because it conflicts with the impression of the ‘Siege’ being a riot). Some of the people on the roof starting looting things from inside 30 Millbank and throwing them down onto the police line below. There was some mild amusement at a toilet roll floating down, though generally it seemed a little pointless and silly to the ones around me in the crowd. Then someone threw a fire extinguisher off the roof at the police below. Some of the people in the crowd screamed, and very soon the chant started up “Stop throwing shit”. The ones on the roof soon got the message. Here’s video evidence. Now, does this really tally with the general impression the country has of a riot? I won’t dent that there was support though. We were angry, and this was a chance to show that, to shout back to the smug politicians in their ivory, no, glass, tower.
MYTH: The protests got the wrong building!
I’ve noticed a few Telegraph and Daily Mail types scoffing about this, amused at how the students clearly need more geography lessons. Aside from the fact little of the subject of geography deals with locating places on a map, they are also wrong in assuming we got the wrong place. 30 Millbank is widely known as Conservative HQ – they even say as much at the bottom of the home page of their website, and even the somewhat misleading footage of the ‘Siege of Millbank’ shows quite clearly the curved glass building with ’30 MILLBANK’ outside in big white letters. The conflicting stories that Baroness Warsi, chairperson of the Conservative Party, both was evacuated and in fact remained in the building, both further prove that the protesters were in the right place. In terms of collateral damage, the neigbouring Millbank Tower, which houses UN offices amongst other concerns, was largely left alone, and a Pizza Express in the immediate vicinity of 30 Millbank was left undamaged, further proving that this was no riot.
MYTH: This was pro-Labour
The only party I saw support for was the SWP, and not in large numbers. There were a few with Anarchist and Communist flags too, but the majority of people there were not supporting any political party, feeling let down by them all – the fact Labour introduced tuition fees and raised them to £3000 after promising not to go above £1000 is something many have not forgotten.
MYTH: Smashing a few windows writes off an entire group as criminals, whilst making cuts and fee increases that will directly target the poorest people, that will make a degree more of a symbol of wealth than knowledge, that will deny a full education to tens of thousands of intelligent young people, that will work in tandem with the slashing of the public sector to ensure unemployment rates skyrocket whilst welfare rates plummet…means you’re doing the right thing
I seriously hope I don’t need to explain this one. Unless you actually support the specific programme of government cuts, in which case, you’ve probably written off everyone at the protests anyway.
I don’t support the property damage to 30 Millbank, but I support the reasons behind it. I am against the spin the mainstream media have put on it, and against the way the actions have been written off without any sympathy for their cause – the way that even 50,000 students were very much focused on as students has led to dismissive treatment anyway, and there is a simple lack of recognition at how frustrated and angry many have become. 30 Millbank was a sign of this, and should not be written off.

Photos by Charlie Owen, used with her permission
http://rainylain.wordpress.com/