Unlike their protest-happy French neighbours, historically the Brits have been pretty slack when it comes to setting things on fire and throwing paving stones at the police. Even last year, when the Tories returned to power, in coalition with their Liberal Democrat chums, apathy reigned; people were all too happy to sit at home moaning about everything, but no one was pissed off enough to take action. Then, on the 10th of November, 2010, everything changed.
The government, facing a massive deficit, decided to raise annual university tuition from approximately $4,700 to a whopping $14,000. Thousands of students stormed Tory headquarters, embarrassing the Metropolitan Police by forcing their way into the building unopposed and causing more than $3 million in damages.
A month later, London was still under siege by protesters. This devolved into sporadic violence, and the government proved staggeringly inept at containing the protests, which soon spread to universities across the nation. Despite increased public pressure, the protests failed to change the government’s mind about the tuition hike, and in the minds of the student dissidents the new Tories of David Cameron became as bad as the Thatcher-era ones. The protest also helped to create a newly radicalised section of the British public willing to oppose the tuition hike by any means necessary.
Caught flat-footed by the student uprising, the unions desperately tried to jump on the bandwagon by calling for a strike and organising a 500,000-strong protest in March against austerity measures and pension freezes. This was a peaceful affair until the anarchist “Black Bloc” turned up. Using the large crowd to divert police attention, the anarchists struck, attacking bank and fast-food chains, and even throwing balloons filled with paint at the Ritz hotel. London was left with a cleanup bill of about $1.5 million, and the government realised that their police officers were dorks (literally, whale penises).
In the months following the violence, the government forced through more austerity cuts, which included a threat to lay off massive numbers of cops.
Most would agree that it was a good idea that officials didn’t follow through with the latter, because on the 4th of August police fatally shot a young black man in the Tottenham area of London, and many in the community gathered in a protest that soon boiled over into nondenominational chaos. While police struggled to find out what was going on, looting and arson brought London to its knees, with Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and even places with names like Banbury following suit.
Kids had come down with Looting Fever, gangs were running wild and the cops in London were stretched so thin that they had to call in assistance from 16 other police forces, deploying 16,000 officers onto the streets.
Besides breaking a bunch of windows, the August riots raised questions about issues the government had previously ignored: gangs, inner-city poverty and a lack of working-class opportunity. Many feel that the crimes of the thousands of unemployed young people currently facing prison sentences for stealing sneakers were far less serious than those of bankers in fancy suits robbing billions from taxpayers. These people have carried the department-store-burning torch by joining the global Occupy movement.
On the 15th of October, the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest set up camp outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the latest and least violent protest in this long line of disturbances. They plan to continue manifesting their malcontent until the entire financial system realises what an asshole it is. They’re going to need all the luck they can get.
