A veteran of demonstrations from Genoa to Cairo, there was one thing on her mind as she boarded the 10.26 G8 Express to Edinburgh yesterday. “I’m very disappointed to see Bob Geldof smiling in a picture with Tony Blair. Look at that,” she said, producing a newspaper and tapping the front page. “It’s appalling. What’s Bob Geldof doing with a man who’s responsible for so many of the world’s problems?”

Chanie was among around 500 passengers on the train, which had been chartered by Globalise Resistance, an anti-capitalist organisation. In many respects it was just like any other long-distance train journey. A couple snuggled up to each other and shared a packet of biscuits. Young men drank cans of lager. Millie Fry, 16, from Camden, London, leant across to her friend and asked : “Do you mind if I listen to your Dirty Dancing CD?”

But in the corridors there was the whiff of marijuana. Propped up in a corner was a pile of bright red placards emblazoned with the message: “George W. Bush, Terrorist”. A woman sat at a table selling copies of a book entitled, A Rebel’s Guide to Lenin, and on a lavatory door was a poster for a Marxism 2005 conference. A youth wearing a bandana moved from carriage to carriage selling the Socialist Worker newspaper for 80p per copy — or a “solidarity price” of £1. An American from Seattle read aloud a poem about the Palestine-Israel conflict. There was a suspiciously large number of people reading The Guardian in the first-class compartment.

But perhaps the greatest difference was in the conversation. “My son used to be a right yuppie,” said one middle-aged woman wearing a floral dress and reading a book by George Galloway. “He used to say he was embarrassed when he walked down the street with me. I was embarrassed by him.”

Andrew Burgin, 50, a second-hand book salesman from Holloway, London, said: “You know you have fantasies when you’re younger about how you might storm the barricades or make some theoretical contribution to Marxism? This is it.”

Virginia Rodino, 29, a teacher from Washington DC, said that she had travelled from the US for the opportunity to protest. “My demand is for the G8 leaders to leave Scotland,” she said. “These are secret meetings, they are not even formalised, and there is no public participation. They should allow the people to make the decisions that are affecting their lives.”

Asked about the significance of her T-shirt, which bore the message “Insurgent”, she said: “It means I’m in solidarity with the courageous Iraqi resistance.” Rafael Sicilia, 18, a student in Granada, Spain, said: “I think that the only way the world can change is by protesting against poverty and the capitalist system.”

Laurie Mackenzie, 17, a pupil of Alexander Park School, Haringay, London, said that he hoped the protests next week would not be overshadowed by violence. “There’s a possibility of trouble,” he said. “Tempers could flare up. It would be awful if that happens. It would put a downer on the whole week.”

Mr Mackenzie, who is applying to Oxford to read politics and history, said that he had not yet told his teachers that he would be absent from school next week. “I’ll have to let them know. My mum works at the school, so she’ll tell them,” he said.

As the train neared Edinburgh, protesters chanted, “Anti, Anti Capitalista,” and “We all live in a terrorist machine”. Taking a break from pushing his refreshments trolley through the carriages, a train steward smiled and whispered: “They’re OK, this lot. At least they’re not that Countryside Alliance bunch.”

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