In January 2010, Cameron said: "We've looked at educational maintenance allowances [EMA] and we haven't announced any plan to get rid of them.. . . it's one of those things the Labour Party keep putting out that we are but we're not." In October, the Coalition announced they would scrap EMA in England. Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had opposed the Labour policy, which gave young people from low-income households some financial support to attend further education.
M.I.A. references EMA on her 2007 song ‘Hussel’. The track is about M.I.A. ducking and weaving in the industry, making money and surviving in a global marketplace. Guest artist Afrikan Boy tells of life at the street-level, where he wants to work in a corner shop, avoid being deported and claim EMA. Ten years later, Dave’s song ‘My 19th Birthday’ has the artist express his frustrations and dangers. Dave feels rudderless trying to earn and provide in adulthood: “I need this money like its EMA”. In a neoliberal world churning with competition; money, education and status are all linked. Cutting this financial support to attend college was an attack on working class young people in this mediated marketplace.
In an unintentionally prophetic naming, the National Union of Students (NUS) organised a protest called ‘Demolition Day’ on 10/10/10. We all know how it ended, the front face of Millbank Tower (Tory Party HQ) being smashed and Police looking baffled. Grace Petrie’s ‘Tonne of Bricks’ documents the moment Edward Woollard threw a fire extinguisher off the roof. Wollard was instantly and entirely repentant for his action. Grace sings about a system designed to demonise protestors. There’s a secret language of a “nod, a wink, a discreet look and a shake of hands” and the press having a field day in order to make an example of protestors and “show these kids they just can’t fuck with politics.”
Dan Bull was far less sympathetic. The day after the protest, he posted a YouTube rap called ‘Millbank Wankers’ where he berates the activists as “children” and “fucking wannabe anarchists.” Dan sees the protests not as the true working class, but assesses them as people who pay £40 for a Che Guevara t-shirt from Gap. A YouGov poll found 52% of the public opposed the government’s plans, but 69% felt the actions at Millbank damaged the student cause. Some Liberal Democrats said they would have voted against the uncapping of fees, like Dan’s song calling the cause “worthy”. But the Libs Dems planned to abandon their pledge months before, and used the violence as an excuse to harm a generation ‘Millbank Tower Blues’ by The Homesick Hustlers (released 8 days after the event) identifies with the protestors “shouting from the roof” with a sharp, electric blues edge under the lyrics. In the song, a police officer says “you’ll thank me when you’re free” before spraying a protestor in the face with mace.
In 1877, anarchist Paul Brousse coined the term ‘Propaganda of the Deed’, arguing the spark for working class revolution was not relying on books which would only be read by “a handful of literati”, but to teach the peasants and workers “socialism by means of actions and making them see, feel. Touch.” The Millbank images of bonfires and broken glass flew across the country, and subsequent London protests organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) were swelled by school and college students from across the capital’s boroughs. Soundsystems rumbled alongside protestors, transported on the back of bikes or in shopping trollies and trailers. The older middle class university students played dubstep, the genre having gained popular appeal between 2008-2010 on campuses and at student nights. Younger working class London youth preferred grime, and Blackberrys and iPods allowed teenagers to share playlists. Lethal Bizzle’s ‘Pow! (Forward)’ and ‘Next Hype’ by Tempa T featured heavily.
The day of the vote in Parliament, known as E-Day, a dance-off exploded outside the Treasury on top of a bus stop. In the December cold, in the shadow of Big Ben, teenagers raved to dancehall, American R & B, hip-hop, UK funky, dubstep and grime. But it was Lethal Bizzle’s ‘Pow! (Forward)’ that stood out. Originally released in 2004, the grime track is loaded with bravado and threats. Speaking to Dan Hancox in the Guardian about the riotous use of his music at a demo, Bizzle said: “It just shows the power. Who's really got the power? You've got thousands of people running around, destroying London – and [David Cameron is] meant to be the prime minister." Cameron had previously dismissed grime music, claiming it encouraged crime and violence, and that challenging this music was about: "the courage to speak up when you see something that is wrong." Lethal Bizzle said to Hancox: “We don't even realise how powerful we are."
In the aftermath of the vote and protest, Grace Petrie released her album Tell Me A Story on December 10th and Captain SKA released ‘Liar Liar’ on the 11th, with proceeds going towards homeless charity Crisis. An upbeat ska song harking back to the socially conscious two-tone movement of the late 1970s and 1980s, it’s infectious pop chorus attacks the fresh deputy prime minister. The gentle opening organ foregrounds a clip from Clegg talking about his children, before the singer’s soulful melody and catchy chorus of “He’s a liar liar” kicks in. The song then samples Cameron and Thatcher, tying Clegg to the Tories as all one voice on the same team. ‘Crisis’ by Spanner released the next year sampled Cameron’s finger-wagging response to the “tiny minority” who caused violence on the 10th November. ‘Can’t Take Our Freedom’ by Kayem ties the activism to the global struggle: “From Millbank Tower to Tahrir Square.”
Richie Blitz documents the police brutality against protestors on E-Day in his song ‘Parliament Square’. The song paints the protest like a legendary medieval battle, where “on that winter’s day the people came out to protest / thousands were all sharing the same feeling of unrest / they were young and they were old / they were brash and they were bold / lecturers and students all out marching in the cold.” The song talks about the media reporting a riot, but Richie Blitz, as a troubadour story-teller, can only see the unnecessary force of police brutality. The song polarises the Tories and Cameron as “working to protect the elite” with the backing of Nick Clegg. It’s a highly effective and emotive tale which paints the battlelines being drawn both ideologically and literally as “the people wouldn’t take it so they took to the streets.”
Education for the masses / not just for the ruling classes
In the long term, on paper, the increase in fees did not hugely affect the rise in University attendance. The percentage of students studying full-time for a first degree in England who went to a state school has also risen every year since 2010, as has the percentage of children who accessed free school meals. However the number of children who access free school meals who have left education at the age of 18 without the basic benchmark qualifications has risen from 28% to 37% since 2015. The hardest hit by education cuts under austerity were 16 to 19 year-olds who saw real terms cuts of 7% between 2014-2019. In 2020, the National Audit Office claimed that the Department for Education had spent more than £700 million in emergency funding to support individual colleges suffering from financial difficulties.
What this tells me is that there is a narrow path to success in the job market, and the Conservatives have only made this path harder for those trying to tread it. The student protests were a spectrum of voices with various aims, but at it’s centre was the core truth that under austerity, it’s always the poorest who bear the brunt. And now, in 2020, MPs like Ben Bradley say more needs to be done to support working class people in education. A report by the Children Commissioner found the attainment gap between disadvantaged children is widening, and all this is part of a dismissing of young people’s agency and needs. As CAS spits on 2013’s You Might Be Scared: “Tripled uni fees, stopped EMA like it was cool / All that says to me is you don't want poor kids to go to school.”
Ten years later, students are still being sold-out. After a decade of Michael Gove-inspired education restructures and the 2020 classist algorithm, young people are once again suffering from Conservative policy. Students are being treated poorly by certain universities who encouraged them to study in person, only to move teaching online and quarantine whole residences when inevitably Coronavirus made face-to-face learning dangerously unsafe.
Whilst organising and activism is difficult in a pandemic, I hope students look to the winter of 2010 for inspiration. And we who slogged in the freezing cold offer all our solidarity to the students of 2020 and beyond.
