Abstract
The ‘student revolt’ that shook Britain during the winter of 2010 was the first substantial nation-wide act of resistance faced by the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government that had been formed in May of that year. Driven forward by a generation that had been written off as apathetic by many commentators, the revolt opened with a spectacular occupation of the governing party’s headquarters (Millbank), and quickly escalated, bringing forth several militant demonstrations that were violently repressed by the police and sparking university occupations up and down the country. Despite the intensity of these mobilisations, any expectations that the revolt could achieve its immediate goals or catalyse a broader movement of resistance were swiftly quashed. The government not only imposed a tripling of university tuition fees and slashed the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), but proceeded to carry out a severe and wide-reaching austerity programme that has remained in place to this day.
While the revolt filled many column inches at the time, very few books have presented an analysis based on the findings of a serious research project. Student Revolt does a commendable job of filling this void. This highly readable work of oral history examines the revolt through the eyes of those who shaped it, allowing their voices to be heard while simultaneously weaving a narrative of the author’s own. Although Myers is quite damning in his critique of the failure of the movement to achieve its immediate goals (in comparison to say, the student movement of Quebec), he nevertheless contends that experiences of the revolt have been critical in spurring the formation of a cadre of new activists that are serving Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, and which have taken up roles within trade unions, social movements and other sectors of civil society (pp. 8, 172). In this sense, the changes that the revolt provoked in its protagonists, what Michael A Lebowitz (2017) refers to as ‘a second product – the human product’ (p. 48), can be regarded as one of the main positive outcomes for the Left.
Student Revolt is split into six chapters bookended by an introduction (penned by Paul Mason) and a conclusion. Myers begins by summarising the theoretical framework through which the unfolding events will be interpreted, explaining the appropriateness of his methodology (oral history), defining the key concepts that he will employ (marketisation, moral economy, generation) and providing some context to the 2010 revolt by reflecting on student politics of the 20th century (pp. 10–29). The subsequent chapters deal directly with the events of the revolt, describing the key actors involved, the tactics that were employed (demonstrations and occupations on one hand; lobbying and formal political processes on the other) and the responses of the state, all leading towards an explicit consideration in chapter six of ‘why did the students lose?’.
Student Revolt does an excellent job of conveying the sheer sense of anger which characterised the revolt – thanks in large part to Myers’ interviews with dozens of rank and file participants whose perspectives would otherwise have been lost over time, easily forgotten or overshadowed by those who hold more privileged positions. This anger was not only directed against the Liberal Democrats, who had betrayed their promise to vote against tuition fee increases, or the state, whose police force utilised violent methods on a scale not seen in England since the poll tax riots of 1990, but also the official National Union of Students (NUS), whose leaders failed to properly represent the prevailing feeling of the movement, leading to the fleeting predominance of alternative organisations such as the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) and the Education Activist Network (EAN). Myers, a participant in the revolt himself, clearly sympathises with these expressions of anger against the NUS. Despite this, he does also give space to voices which believe that more needed to be done to engage with formal politics and undertake less confrontational campaigning work rather than street mobilisations (most notably, former NUS President Aaron Porter). Ultimately, this fissure between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ factions is identified by Myers as a weakness that contributed to the failure of the revolt (p. 142).
The book should also be commended for highlighting the important role-played by inner-city youths during the revolt, going against lazily formulated perceptions that it was simply an affair involving middle-class higher education students. Indeed, the involvement of such youths, many of whom were already familiar with coercive policing and badly affected by economic recession and government austerity, can be seen as a key factor in pushing the movement towards a vibrant militancy that contrasted sharply with the staid formal approaches of the preceding decade (pp. 93–94).
The only minor criticism that might be levelled against Student Revolt is that it could have afforded some space to a response from members of ‘traditional far-left’ groups, whose organisations are occasionally painted in a negative light by Myers and his interviewees, whether this be because of their divisive tendencies, ideological dogmatism or disconnection from younger generations (pp. 92, 112–114, 120–122). While British far-left groups may have only been minor players in the revolt, most gave it their unconditional backing (at least nominally) at a time when mainstream political parties and media outlets were extremely hostile. Of course, given the need to place limits on the scope of the oral history project which Student Revolt is based on, and the ability of such far-left organisations to project their positions via their own publications, this is only a minor quibble.
On the whole, Myers’ book is an incredibly valuable work which reflects on the experiences of a wide range of the revolt’s participants in order to analyse it in a theoretically informed way. The flame of the student revolt may have been temporarily extinguished with the rapid dwindling of the movement in the spring of 2011, but it has clearly not died: the autumn of 2018 saw the longest strike in the history of UK higher education – a strike which was supported by students who occupied their university buildings across dozens of campuses. For those who wish to contribute to the future success of such actions, Student Revolt is an absolute must-read.