A report back from a student workshop co-ordinated by North London Solidarity Federation, held on 25/01/11 at Queen Mary University in Tower Hamlets.
NLSF co-ordinated a highly practical workshop for students (and anybody else) going on the many demonstrations against the rise in tuition fees and cuts in education spending. First up were the Legal Defence Monitoring Group who laid out the basics of the law that is used against protesters on demonstrations and how to get around it. This was followed up by Fitwatch, the activist group dedicated to combating the oppressive surviellance of the Forward Intelligence Teams that plague demonstrations. The main tips here were to mask up, wear plain clothing, and, when in sizeable groups, prevent the FIT cameras from filming you by blocking their line of sight with placards and banners.
Although not as well attended by students as we had been led to believe it would, it was still a very useful event for those that did attend, and we thank LDMG and Fitwatch for sharing their time and knowledge, and the Queen Mary anti-cuts students for booking the room at their university.
If this event sounds like it would have been of interest to you, maybe contact Fitwatch & LDMG and see if they would be willing to give similar talks in your area!
http://www.ldmg.org.uk/
http://www.fitwatch.org.uk/
QMUL Stop the Cuts: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=352321253977