Student Protests, 1989 Style

Images from the 1989 Student Loans protests, which I covered as a student journalist.

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth

November 1989. I was not long turned 18, in my first year at Imperial College, and working on Felix, the student newspaper. Oh, and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government was proposing to replace student grants with student loans. Cue a wave of protests and demos…

The first of those was on November 22nd, meeting at 1pm on Malet Street, London. I was there – but not as a protestor. I had my notebook, I had my camera. I was reporting.

Over two decades later, I was watching this year’s demos begin, and discussing it with others on Twitter. I couldn’t resist digging out my old negatives, scanning them and sharing them, as a point of comparison with last week:

Things have, I think, changed…

Anti-Student Loans Demo, November 1989
felixImperial Collegejournalistphotosprotestsstudent ragsstudents

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Adam is a lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, and a journalist for more than 30. He lectures on audience strategy and engagement at City, University of London.

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