STUDENT PROTEST ENDS IN A SIT IN

national | miscellaneous | news report

Wednesday December 04, 2002 19:58

by John - UCD

A Student protest that started today ended in a sit in in the Department of Transport

Over 1,000 students took part in a demonstration against fees outside government buildings today.

While the turnout was good, the protest lacked any control from the students themselves. The USI leadership had arranged for the protest to take place inside a pen with the gardaí standing on the outside.

Students who wanted to make a protest against savage cutbacks in education had to endure endless speeches from the student union bureaucrats. Speech after speech was full of rhetoric but there was no direct action been organised by our so called student "leaders".

Anyway things began to pick up as we marched around to the Dáil. The CFE contingent led the way and marched us straight into Kildare Street, defying the instructions of the cops, who wanted to lead us into another pen in Molesworth street.

Eventually as we brought traffic to a standstill outside the Dáil we were finally herded behind barricades into Molesworth Street.

Nothing was happening, the USI officers were showing no leadership and students began to leave. It was clear that the student union officers were content to let the protest fizzle out without any direct action.

So CFE (Campaign for Free Education) again took the lead and led the protest by means of a few sidestreets back into Kildare Street.

Here the Gardaí again had to block us off with barricades. Again we marched back into Molesworth street. Student Union officers including USI had all gone home at this stage. There was a definite mood amongst students to do something more than just a token protest, so at this stage CFE members marched down to the Department of Transport and occupied the lobby.

The Gardaí were unable to move the 50 odd students taking part in the sit in. TV3 news as well as a number of photographers arrived.

Finally, on our own accord, we took a group decision to leave. At last a student demo ended in actually carrying out some direct action, rather than just making up the numbers to listen to boring speeches from SU hacks.

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STUDENT PROTEST ENDS IN A SIT IN