This post originally appeared on VICE UK
This afternoon, thousands of protesters marched and the headquarters of the NUS were damaged as university students kicked off what they have promised will be an "autumn of rebellion." And in fairness to them, so far, things have been pretty rebellious—a large flare-wielding black bloc at its head, the disgruntled mass broke into a fenced off Parliament Square, where they tussled with cops. Right now there are still thousands of students running around central London, playing cat and mouse with the cops.London right now — Ben Jackson (@bjacksonuk)November 19, 2014
The National Union of Students HQ was damaged earlier in the day—kind of like four years ago, when students ransacked the Conservative HQ, but not quite as rioty. Students have turned on their own elected representatives after the NUS backed out of supporting the march, citing "an unacceptable level of risk." Thousands of students went ahead with it anyway, in the belief that the greater risk lay in not fighting for free education.A press release issued ahead of the protest stated that the students "will march on parliament under the banner of 'FREE EDUCATION: no fees, no cuts, no debt.'"The march is continuing right now, with reports coming through on social media that arrests have been made. Check VICE tomorrow for a full report on the demo.Look at what I bumped into — mayhem (@MayhemH)November 19, 2014