On Friday 5th February, Nottingham Stop the War Coalition organised an "emergency protest" in support of anti-Mubarak demonstrators in Egypt in front of the Council House.

The protest was announced as beginning at 5pm. When I turned up in the Market Square just before then there was nobody there and I briefly assumed that I'd got the time wrong. Fortunately I was wrong and an initially small group formed and began to grow.

When people began organising themselves into something resembling a protest, rather than just a bunch of people standing around, there were perhaps 40-50 people. Apparently the protest had been announced at some mosques and the number continued to swell, reaching towards 100.

Protesters were short on placards, although somebody did turn up with a large and unfortunately mis-spelt sign calling for "Victory for the Egytian Revolution." Once people got going there was vocal chanting, including, "Hey ho, Mubarak has to go!" Protesters also chanted, "From the Nile to the sea, Egypt soon will be free," a variation of the well-known, if controversial, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." (It would be churlish to point out that, unlike the Jordan River which marks the boundary of historical Palestine, the Nile actually flows through Egypt.)

The protest included a broad range of people, including lefties, punks, students, women in headscarves and others. It was overwhelmingly made up of relatively young people. (Presumably a sizable proportion of the Eqgyptians in Nottingham are here as students.) If the corporate media coverage can be believed, this would seem to reflect the demographic of the pro-democracy in movement in Egypt itself.

After some standing around chanting, protesters went for a brief march around the square, before returning to the front of the Council House. It can sometimes be difficult to work out what people are chanting, even if you know what the issue of concern is and at least some passersby seemed confused by what was going on. (This can't have been helped by the limited number of placards and the absence of leaflets explaining why people were there, both usually available in vast numbers at such events.) I overheard one person asking their friend, "Are they from Egypt?" There were also a small number of hecklers, although they were typically unimaginative, with one person offering the astonishingly insightful comment, "You're in England!"

According to the Post, there had already been a silent protest at the University of Nottingham on Tuesday, attended by around 200 people who had relatives in Egypt. A further protest has been announced on Sunday 6th February outside Vodafone on Clumber Street, in support of a call by Egyptian trade unionsl for international solidarity. Protesters claim Vodafone "collaborated with Mubarak" in his attempts to defeat the revolution. Another demonstratio will be held in Market Square in the event that the army or police move against the demonstrators, with a celebration in the same place "when" Mubarak goes.

Nobody should have any illusions about the direct political impact of such protests. It is difficult to imagine Mubarak remaining stalwart in the face of protests by millions of Egyptians only to crumble when he discovers that there are 100 people in Nottingham's Market Square. Targetting Vodafone does put a local face on a distant issue, but it is not obvious what we are demanding from Vodafone. Withdraw from Egypt? Restore service for normal Egyptians in the face of demands from the government?

What is important, however, is the impact of a wave of international solidarity on protesters in Egypt. It is to be hoped that messages of solidarity from across the world will lift the spirits of demonstrators who have been on the streets for days and been the victim of horrific state-sanctioned violence. Solidarity protests also give a voice to Egyptians outside the country, who may be concerned about friends, relatives and loved ones.