CAIRO: Some 26 Egyptian political groups and parties announced their participation in the upcoming “Friday of Unity” in Cairo's Tahrir Square. The groups said they wanted to show a unified front for the country. The participants come from both liberal and Islamic movements. The groups issued a statement that inked their agreement on the main principals for the country, revolving around social justice and martyrs' families delayed rights. They assured in the statement that Friday aims to “amend any political or ideological divisions between the participating parties and the continuation of national unity and rejection of personalized demands.” The list of participants includes names from the far right and the far left. The Revolution Youth Committee, the Salafist Gama'a Islamiya, The Free Islamic Coalition, The Revolutionary Communists, Awareness Group and many more are some of those pledging to unify under one peaceful entity. The statement named their demands, including the “urgent removal” of police officers accused of shooting protesters from their positions to “allow a just investigation” and to stop intimidating families of martyrs to drop their cases against them. They also called for the halting of all military trials for civilians, after numerous bloggers and activists have been imprisoned following quick and nearly secretive military trials, some with the absence of their lawyers. Other demands included imposing a minimum wage (proposed for 1200 Egyptian pounds) and a maximum wage that does not exceed 15 times the minimum wage. Ousted President Hosni Mubarak's regime left almost 40 percent of Egyptians living under the poverty line, earning less than $2 a day. Security for Tahrir Square was discussed at the press conference and the groups announced that securing the square was going to be a “shared responsibility from different groups.” The committee to protect the square will meet ahead of Friday's protests to organize shifts of volunteers as those “unified groups” would be protecting the ins and outs of the square. There still remain some worries that the massive demonstrations could pit liberals and Islamic groups against one another, after a number of conservative leaders have called the protesters currently in Tahrir “traitors” and “prostitutes.” BM
