What seems to have happened is that the actual NUS-organised protest was peaceful, if vehement, but that a small group broke away from the main demonstration and adopted a more violent approach.
I'm not entirely sure what the NUS organisers could have been expected to do. Marshalling 50,000 people is a nontrivial exercise, and if a small number of troublemakers are intent on doing bad things, then there's a limit to what the organisers can reasonably do. At what point do you, as a marshal, forcibly restrain someone who seems to be getting out of hand? What if there's only one of you within range of five such protesters?
The alternative is to say "OK, we're not going to organise an official protest", at which point you're not really representing the interests of your members any more. Or you can say "we're not organising an official protest, but if people wanted to pop down to London on, say, 10 November, then that's up to them" which would be even less responsible.
It's all very well laying the responsibility at the feet of the NUS, and I'm certainly not saying that there weren't failings in the way they handled things (because there clearly were), but it's not clear to me what they could reasonably have done to prevent a small group of determined militants going crazy.
no subject
I'm not entirely sure what the NUS organisers could have been expected to do. Marshalling 50,000 people is a nontrivial exercise, and if a small number of troublemakers are intent on doing bad things, then there's a limit to what the organisers can reasonably do. At what point do you, as a marshal, forcibly restrain someone who seems to be getting out of hand? What if there's only one of you within range of five such protesters?
The alternative is to say "OK, we're not going to organise an official protest", at which point you're not really representing the interests of your members any more. Or you can say "we're not organising an official protest, but if people wanted to pop down to London on, say, 10 November, then that's up to them" which would be even less responsible.
It's all very well laying the responsibility at the feet of the NUS, and I'm certainly not saying that there weren't failings in the way they handled things (because there clearly were), but it's not clear to me what they could reasonably have done to prevent a small group of determined militants going crazy.