Details for one of Britain’s biggest rallies against poverty were released on Tuesday, as organisers stressed that the event involving up to 200 000 demonstrators before the G8 summit in Edinburgh would not be hijacked by radical anti-capitalists.
Organisers of the Make Poverty History day on July 2 have asked marchers to wear white T-shirts to form a giant white band around the centre of the Scottish capital.
Officials have dismissed rumours that the peaceful protest just days before the G8 leaders arrive at Glen-agles in Perthshire for this year’s summit could turn into violent disorder, as has happened at other recent summits in Evian, Geneva and Genoa.
Organisers say the march will be a fun day out with a very serious message. ”All this stuff about anarchists is just overblown speculation,” said Richard Saville Smith of Save the Children. ”It is just not going to happen. Nobody has got anything against our event.”
After speeches by a number of international figures, yet to be named, marchers will start snaking through the centre of the town at noon.
The route bypasses the Scottish Parliament at the bottom of the Royal Mile and the adjacent Palace of Holyroodhouse, which are expected to be cordoned off by a steel fence.
More than 400 organisations have joined the coalition, including the Girl Guides, the Boys’ Brigade, the Mothers’ Union and Islamic Relief. Officials say they are hoping that about 100 000 people will join the march, although police have estimated that as many as 200 000 may turn up.
Saville Smith said it was an unrivalled opportunity to lobby the world’s leading industrialised nations for fairer trading, improved aid, and debt cancellation for poorer countries. When the G8 was last held in Britain, he said, 70 000 marchers converged on Birmingham and put debt issues on the political agenda. — Â