Goldsmiths College's University and College Union congratulated staff and students who took part and said 'real violence' was the destructive impact of the government's cuts
Downing Street has criticised lecturers who praised student protesters for occupying the Conservative party's headquarters during the tuition fees demonstration on Wednesday.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Paul Stephenson, has ordered a fast-track inquiry into the scenes at 30 Millbank in central London that saw police officers overrun by protesters, a number of whom smashed property and hurled missiles at officers.
While the National Union of Students (NUS), which organised the demonstration, condemned the fringe group, Goldsmiths College's University and College Union expressed its support for those who occupied the building.
"We the undersigned wish to congratulate staff and students on the magnificent anti-cuts demonstration this afternoon," the lecturers said. "We wish to condemn and distance ourselves from the divisive and, in our view, counterproductive statements issued by NUS and [national] UCU concerning the occupation of the Conservative party HQ. The real violence in this situation relates not to a smashed window but to the destructive impact of the cuts."
The statement provoked a strong response from Downing Street, which said: "Praising violence over peaceful protest is frankly irresponsible." Goldsmiths College, part of the University of London, distanced itself from the views of its lecturers, saying it was "deeply saddening to see a peaceful protest tarnished by utterly unacceptable behaviour".
More than 40 officers were injured and 50 people arrested during the clashes at Tory HQ. Those arrested were released from central London's Charing Cross police station on bail in the early hours of yesterday morning. A further 250 individuals were searched and photographed at Millbank and released pending inquiries. A hard core of protesters smashed windows, lit fires and threw missiles. Police are trying to track down others who rampaged, including a man who threw a fire extinguisher from the roof of the building, narrowly missing officers. David Cameron has called for "the full force of the law" to be used against those responsible.
Stephenson has appointed Commander Simon Pountain to oversee a "very quick internal review", which may be finalised today. The Met commissioner described the violence as an "embarrassment to London and to us" and, in an internal memo yesterday, he admitted the force needed to "look again" at how it responds to large-scale protests.
Nick Herbert, the policing minister, said yesterday the police response "clearly did not go to plan", but said the blame for the "appalling scenes" lay "squarely and solely" with those who carried out the violence.
He also urged MPs to await the outcome of the review "rather than speculate on the intelligence failure", saying the inquiry would include "an examination of why numbers and violence on this scale were not anticipated".
Police had anticipated 15,000 protesters, and said 25,000 turned up. Organisers put the figure at 50,000.
The force planned to deploy just 225 officers to the protests but had to double the numbers as the situation developed.
Hundreds of people in the crowd were aware the Millbank building would be a "target" of direct action, and many had been using social media to prepare for a large-scale demonstration. But police seemingly had no knowledge.