There was no room for celebration on Saturday, the fifth anniversary of founding the 6 April Movement. Dubbed the Saturday of Anger, the day was marked by rallies against the regime of President Mohamed Morsi. The 6 April Movement, which backed Morsi during his second round presidential run-off against Mubarak-era presidential rival Ahmed Shafik, now stands firmly within the opposition camp. Headed by the 6 April Movement, opposition groups organised several marches in Cairo on Saturday. They set out from Mohandessin's Mustafa Mahmoud Square, Dawaran Shubra Square, Sayeda Zeinab Mosque and the working class district of Imbaba. They raised chants against President Morsi for repeatedly breaking his promises and election vows and for presiding over continued corruption and an increase in chaos and poverty. On its Facebook page the movement posted a simple message: “It's time to tell Morsi enough is enough.” Rallies against Islamist rule also took place in Alexandria, Port Said, Minya, Fayoum and Gharbiya. Although the 6 April Movement had stressed that all protests should be peaceful by afternoon, both in the capital and elsewhere, demonstrations were hit by violence leaving at least 44 injured, according to figures released by the Ministry of Health announced on Sunday. In Cairo violence erupted in front of the High Court as police fired bird shot and tear gas to disperse protesters who had gathered in front of the building. Demonstrators later blocked Ramses Street. In a Facebook post on Sunday the prosecutor-general's office said the previous day's protests “were not peaceful but crimes that should be penalised by law”. In Mahalla angry protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at a police station. The prosecution praised the security apparatus for securing state institutions and called on “media channels not to [confuse] those who damage property, block roads or intimidate citizens with revolutionaries or peaceful protesters. “They are outlaws who should be arrested and interrogated.” Ahmed Maher, general coordinator and one of the founding members of the 6 April Movement, accused Morsi and his “failing administration” of presiding over a “fragmenting state” and of responsibility for “a string of disasters”. The 6 April Movement played a prominent role in the January 2011 Revolution against president Hosni Mubarak. The group first emerged in 2008, calling for a general strike on 6 April of that year in support of workers in Mahalla Al-Kobra, Egypt's largest industrial city whose inhabitants had long been in the vanguard of the battle for workers' rights. “We supported President Morsi against Shafik in the presidential elections only for him to issue his constitutional declaration power-grab and then ram through a new constitution the aim of which is to subvert revolutionary goals,” says Maher. It has become clear, he adds, that the regime did not fall on 25 January 2011: instead the apparatus of repression was co-opted by the Muslim Brotherhood. Three members of 6 April remain in custody following a protest in front of the Nasr City home of the interior minister two weeks ago. The protesters had waved women's underwear as they chanted that the Interior Ministry was acting as a prostitute. “Morsi has failed to achieve any of the revolution's goals. He is not interested in improving living conditions or employment prospects, in tackling the fuel crisis or deteriorating security situation,” noted the group's Facebook page. “These are problems to which he pays no attention. Rather, he devotes himself to keeping his illegally appointed prosecutor-general in office. Morsi and his regime must be ousted.” Last week the 6 April Movement held a press conference at the group's headquarters in Giza along with representatives from the Constitution Party, the Alliance of Revolutionary Forces and the Free Egyptians Party. “In the face of the ongoing political, economic and social turmoil we want Saturday's anniversary to be an outcry against the failure of the regime to manage the country or meet the goals of the revolution,” Khaled Al-Masri, 6 April media spokesman, said during the conference. Since emerging at the forefront of the protests that led to Mubarak's overthrow the 6 April Movement has had its own ups and downs. In 2011 members of the then ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) launched a smear campaign against the group, accusing it of taking foreign funds in return for fomenting strife between the army and the people. SCAF also accused the group of being behind many violent clashes. Despite being endlessly repeated by the generals, no evidence was produced by the generals to support their allegations. The 6 April Movement more than once invited the prosecutor-general to investigate its activities and sources of funding, to no avail. In the face of the smear campaign against it 28 political groups and parties released a statement accusing the authorities of making baseless allegations in an attempt to sow discord among opposition forces. The youth movement has also faced internal problems. In April 2011 a statement was posted on Facebook signed by the Militant Branch of the 6 April Youth Movement (the Democratic Front), signalling the appearance of a splinter group within the organisation. Though Maher's supporters claim to represent the mainstream of the movement founded in 2008 the Democratic Front, headed by Tarek Al-Kholi, has become increasingly vocal in its claims to represent the original aims of the group. The rifts provoked by the two-year old conflict are growing wider, and divisions appeared to be further compounded when Mahmoud Afifi, the official spokesman for the Maher faction, split from the movement, citing Maher's methods of exercising control as his reason. “The movement has many administrative and organisational problems, and suffers from a transparency and credibility deficit. In some ways it is becoming more bureaucratic than the state,” Afifi told Al-Watan daily. “Maher is ignoring calls for elections within the movement and confusion in decision-making is growing, as is the tendency to act in isolation, without coordinating with other political forces.”
