Make Poverty History

The first big event of my second year as NUS Scotland President began with the massive Make Poverty History demonstration in Edinburgh on Saturday 2 July.

NUS is part of the Make Poverty History coalition, and NUS Scotland attends Scottish MPH coalition meetings. We have worked closely with organisations like Oxfam and Jubilee Scotland in the last year, to run workshops on MPH at our events, and to provide posters, leaflets and campaign packs to students’ associations to encourage them and students to get involved with the campaign.

For the demo, we took our NUS Scotland banner and made some Make Poverty History banners in a Blue Peter-style to take along as well. Amazingly for Edinburgh, Saturday was really sunny and even warm, meaning that there was no excuse for anyone to stay at home. The atmosphere in the Meadows, where the march began, was fantastic, and there were thousands of people there. I bumped into lots of NUS Officers and students, and we were able to meet up with a number of students from all over the country, so we had a decent grouping in the march. Birmingham Uni students, in particular, sang and chanted their way around the march, reinventing anti-fees chants to “What do we want? Fair Trade! etc”, and “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Poverty has got to go!”

The best thing about the demo was that there were people from all walks of life and all over the world there, from wee babies in pushchairs to students to older people, from campaigning organisations, political and religious groups, trade unions and to people who had never been on a demo before but really wanted to be part of this one, like some of my friends. It was also almost totally peaceful, which was a relief compared to some of the mayhem caused by anarchist groups in Edinburgh later in the week. There were so many people there, that everyone had to queue for at least an hour before we could march off, and for over 6 hours there was continuous marching around the route.

The demo also received decent press coverage, despite the fact that Live8 was on the same day, and hopefully it will have made a real impact on the G8 leaders. There were around 250,000 people there, which is the biggest political demonstration in Scottish history. I am really proud that I, and NUS, were a part of it – it was also a really positive way to start the new year. Most of all, the history of the student movement shows us that it is our duty to take action on matters outside the ‘student bubble’, and that we can make a real difference when we do. It is up to the G8 leaders now, whether or not they choose to tackle debt, aid and trade in ways that really make poverty history – and if they don’t, then the campaign must go on.

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