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By train, plane, bus and car protesters came to Edinburgh. Nadia Fisher travelled by coach from Southampton — a journey of ten hours.

"We are not here to beg or plead or persuade but to show you, the small rich minority, that you do not represent the people of this planet. If you think you can save your reputations or your careers on the back of Make Poverty History then you are wrong. We are here to lay siege to you in Gleneagles."John Rees

The Make Poverty History protest in Edinburgh on Saturday was the biggest demonstration in Scottish history — by a long way.

A huge white human chain snaked through the streets of Edinburgh for Saturday’s demonstration.

One of the most significant factors in the march was its internationalism. African Drop the Debt campaigners protested alongside British Asians from Islamic Relief.

Running into Leeds train station at 6.30am it became clear that this was going to be big. Reams of white cotton and a few hundred faces I didn’t recognise told me that.

Craigmillar is the fourth poorest estate in Britain. The council decided to put the G8 campsite there, which provides camping for 15,000 people.

The Make Poverty History campaign has struck a chord with young people, who turned out in large numbers for Saturday’s demonstration in Edinburgh.

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.

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.

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.

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.