No Pasaran

In lieu of actually writing on last Saturday's march - which I've been thinking about obsessively since, & will probably write something about soon, if I can make the time - some links.

This account by a UK Uncut activist of her arrest & maltreatment gives hints of the return of political policing as the ruling class realises the disruption the anti-cuts movement is causing to its reality-picture. The Guardian's interview with two black bloc-ers, this open letter from Solidarity Federation to UK Uncut and the response from Brighton Uncut, show the extent to which the direct-actionists refuse the 'good protester/bad protester' line currently being pursued by the right-wing & wet-liberal press (& even the BBC), & the extent to which the trade unionists & marchers should equally refuse the government tactic of divide-and-rule. The solidarity that some voices on the left were calling for after the passing of the tuition-fees Bill - most notably, Alex Callinicos - seems to be emerging almost in spite of the divide over tactics. (The fact that the property damaged on Sunday was very much not that of the protesters' class does not seem to have escaped them.) Mark Serwotka, speaking at Hyde Park on Saturday, said that the unions would support the student movement & those engaged in direct action; let us hope they keep their word, & refuse to scapegoat those who, above all, are in the same struggle. On which note, & more eloquent than me, Lenin's Tomb on the march.