If the police had wanted to avoid violence at the Carnival of Full Enjoyment on Monday of this week they could easily have done so.
It's business as usual for the G8, who despite the rhetoric will at the end of this week produce a document that will do nothing effective to alleviate poverty or halt climate change.
On Sunday night around 2,000 people marched through the centre of Edinburgh to take part in the Stop the War Coalition’s demonstration against the occupation of Iraq.
Last week the US House of Representatives voted through another $45 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That brings the figure spent on US military operations to over $300 billion, a huge sum of money even for the world’s largest military and economic power.
This is the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq. It is of particular significance that it is being held here in Turkey, where the US used Turkish air bases to launch numerous bombing missions to degrade Iraq’s defences before the March 2003 invasion and has sought and continues to seek political support from the Turkish government, which it regards as an ally.
As the G8 summit draws nearer, dramatic and distressing images of Africa are appearing everywhere. These show emaciated and drooping bodies of women and children, dilapidated villages and shanty towns, and barefooted jalabiya-wearing nomads roaming forlornly across the dusty fields of Africa.
There were so many demonstrators that some never even set off. Around 300,000 marched and others were still left in The Meadows when everything had finished.
By train, plane, bus and car protesters came to Edinburgh. Nadia Fisher travelled by coach from Southampton — a journey of ten hours.
Many protesters made a clear connection between global poverty and the war in Iraq — despite the frantic efforts of MPH’s leadership to separate the two issues.
Many African activists were on the Edinburgh protest. Ken is a student at Imperial College in London, but he grew up in Nigeria where he was involved in struggles against the military dictatorship.
The Make Poverty History campaign has struck a chord with young people, who turned out in large numbers for Saturday’s demonstration in Edinburgh.
Craigmillar is the fourth poorest estate in Britain. The council decided to put the G8 campsite there, which provides camping for 15,000 people.
