CAIRO: Some 11 universities and other political groups are promoting calls for civil disobedience starting Feb. 11 until the military rulers step down and hand power over to an elected civilian authority. "We called for a gradual strike and if the demands aren't met we will escalate to civil disobedience as we had depleted all other peaceful means of protesting," Mahmoud Afify, spokesman of the April 6 Youth Movement, said. A variety of sectors, mainly students and labor unions, welcomed the idea. A number of student unions of Egypt's public and private universities and schools, including the American University in Cairo (AUC), the German University in Cairo (GUC), Cairo University, Ain Shams University, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AAST), Ahram Canadian University (ACU), the High Institute for Cinema, the College de la Sainte Famille, the De la Salle schools and Egypt's Schools for Change Movement issued statements on Facebook that condemn the Port Said football massacre, that left 74 dead and 256 injured, holding SCAF responsible. The AUC and GUC had each lost a student, while the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University lost three. "We hold SCAF fully responsible for the grave events that Egypt has experienced since society was polarized by the constitutional referendum, until the Port Said massacre that was committed in cold blood," a statement by the instructors and teaching assistants at the engineering faculty, said. The statement was issued by a number of teaching assistants but was retracted until it is put to a vote. Revolutionary political powers blamed SCAF for what they describe as deteriorating political conditions. The demands are centered around a quick handover of power and retribution for the martyrs. Sally Toma, representative of the Revolution Youth Coalition, said that the coalition cannot announce its call for civil disobedience until it has surveyed all sectors of the community. "However, we are starting a gradual general strike on Feb. 11 that will begin by boycotting SCAF products, and we will try to convince people and workers to join the civil disobedience if SCAF doesn't meet our demands," she added. Other political powers were not as welcoming of the idea and some are yet to decide their final stance regarding participation. "We all agree on the main demands of the revolution and the transitional period, but every power has to take its stance in the way that suits it," Tarek Al-Malt, spokesman of Al-Wasat Party, said. Youth and students can choose to protest or strike to press for their demands and political parties should use their presence in parliament and the advisory council to push their demands forward, he said. Although Al-Wasat believes that civil disobedience is a legitimate peaceful means of protesting, Al-Malt said that the party has not yet decided if it will take part in it. Spokesman of the leftist Al-Tagammu, Nabil Zaki, told Daily News Egypt that a big part of Egyptian society had lost confidence in SCAF's decisions and policies. "We will participate in any peaceful protest that will seek to end SCAF rule. It has tremendously failed in managing the transitional period," he said, pointing out that Al-Tagammu is not leading the people but the people and the revolutionaries are leading the political parties. “Our [role] is to advise them when needed and to support them when pressing military rulers for legitimate demands,” he said. Abdel Ghaffar Shokr, leading member of the Popular Coalition Socialist Party, said that their participation in the civil disobedience depends on SCAF's response to the demands. "If they agree before Feb. 11 to hold presidential elections earlier than scheduled, which I believe will be the case considering the current political scene, there will be no need for a strike," Shokr said. On Monday evening, SCAF announced that candidacy for presidential elections will be open for nominations on March 10 instead of mid-April as previously announced. It wasn't clear how the announcement would influence the call for strike. Unlike Afify and Zaki, Shokr believes that calling for civil disobedience is a premature adventure because people are not fully aware of its ramifications. "It means that the society turns into a corpse and it is the finest means of protesting. But, those who call for it should guarantee societal positive response," he said. The Salafi Al-Nour and Al-Karama Parties have not decided yet whether to participate, as is the case with professional syndicates. "Right now we have not convened as a board to discuss this issue. As soon the board convenes and we start receiving written requests from the general assembly, the matter will be discussed. However, journalists are free to join the strike, but as individuals not on behalf of the syndicate," Abeer Saady, board member of the Journalists' Syndicate, told DNE. On behalf of the Lawyers' Syndicate, Khaled Abou Kriesha, board member, said that he personally agrees with the calls but that the issue has not yet been presented in the board meetings. "But there's an assembly on Thursday and I will present it on the roll call," he said. "My expectation is that the majority will not really heed the call because they're mostly Muslim Brotherhood (MB). But Brotherhood members have proven to generally be flexible. If the call gains popular acceptance, I think they might adopt it and even be among the first calling for a general strike. But under the current circumstances and their performance until today, I don't think so," he explained. The MB's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) had refused to participate in the civil disobedience according to Al-Shorouk newspaper. Representatives of the party could not be reached by press time. On the other hand, Maged Kholosi, head of the Engineers' Syndicate, called upon engineers not to participate. "Why should everything be blamed on SCAF?” he told Al-Dostor newspaper. According to the newspaper, he stressed that the military junta did not incite “the deviant group” to attack the masses in Port Said. "I call upon the People's Assembly to ban protesting until a president is elected," he told Al-Dostor, adding that he also calls on all engineers to work an extra hour on Feb.11. The number of participating movements has reached 53, according to one of the Facebook promoting the strike. –Additional reporting by Amir Makar.
