The first meeting was called by SSP members, and was fairly widely publicised, and included lots of leftists from many different organisations. The position of the group was decided at the very first meeting and was not discussed for very long, because it was uncontroversial: everyone present wanted to confront the SDL. The name Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance was chosen for continuity. And it was decided to do everything we could to prevent the UAF from splitting our demonstration, as occurred in Glasgow.

After the first meeting, press releases went out, getting some good media coverage when the group warned pubs that the SDL would meet there. We organised a publicity mobilisation that equalled that of the Unite Against Fascism, flyering of football games, busy parts of town, and the central mosque. We approached left wing groups, and used the internet extensively to promote our demonstration.

Learning from the problems that the Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance had we made sure we were  well organised. We had a team of stewards, and megaphones and banners to ensure that we could be as effective as possible in keeping the our demonstration as united in finding and confronting the SDL as we could.

On the day, 200 people gathered at the rally point at Princes Mall, on Princes Street. After forty minutes or so we marched to the mound, where the UAF and student demonstrations were rallying, before the Scotland United demo was to assemble. We had scouts all over town looking for the SDL, and an infiltrator who was receiving information from the SDL on the day. Once we found out where their main meet point was, we announced to the gathered crowd that we knew where the SDL were, and started marching there. The UAF were on the back foot, and most of their members and the student mobilisation came with us at this point, increasing our numbers to around 300.

The UAF/Scotland United tried to split us on two occasions, with one of the SU organisers telling  lies like "150 SDL are about to attack the SU demo - you need to get there now!", and "they are not SDL in that pub but Hibs casuals". The confusion of running through streets, the attempted splits, and the police lines had reduced our numbers. However, luck and good stewarding ensured that a large number of anti-fascists continued to the pub where the majority of the SDL were meeting.

As we arrived at the pub the police quickly surrounded it, and made sure we couldn't get within 25 metres of the pub.  However, despite this we had a good presence of more than a hundred, which ensured that fifty SDL were kept in the pub, their demonstration unable to go ahead, and after a few hours they were bused out of town by the police.

All in all, a successful demonstration, and a day to be proud of. The SDL have been defeated twice in Scotland by a militant anti-fascist presence on the streets, and are demoralised. It is unlikely that that they will manage to organise a significant demonstration after these defeats.