Students lead fees march on Parliament - Trade Unionists join activists opposed to EMA scrapping

Published: 03 February 2011
by DAN CARRIER

A MARCH from Bloomsbury to the Houses of Parliament saw trade unionists join thousands of students in protest at government plans to raise university fees, writes Dan Carrier.

The demonstration on Saturday continued to the Tory party headquarters at Millbank and then the Egyptian embassy to express solidarity with the campaign to oust President Mubarak. It ended with groups staging peaceful sit-ins at chain stores in Oxford Street. 

Tory cuts adviser Sir Philip Green, who has been accused of using loopholes to lower his Top Shop company’s tax bill, had his flagship Oxford Street store targeted. 

Mobile phone shop Vodafone was also surrounded by chanting protesters.

The marchers, estimated by police at around 10,000, included students from University College London’s Camden campuses and from Camden schools. They protested at plans to scrap the educational maintenance allowance, paid to the poorest teenagers to help them with the cost of studying.