Thousands marching into downtown Cairo from outlying districts continued their calls to topple the regime.
As thousands of protesters walked through Dokki earlier today, they called for people on the street to join them, chanting “Descend to the streets!” Slogans included some commonly heard in the demonstrations, such as “the Egyptian people want the regime to fall,” and “God is great."
Some protesters tried to control the flow of the crowd to avoid blocking traffic, locking arms together to keep one lane free for people. In single file, cars slowly filed past.
Some protesters discouraged foreigners in the crowd from taking pictures. One woman said this was to protect foreigners, as security forces were reported to have arrested or beaten foreign journalists.
“We don’t need the USA,” another protester called out. “This is our uprising. The West can’t be trusted; they’ll try to portray us as looters and rioters.” Immediately a fight broke out between him and some others when they heard him, while another protester, Ridaa, 24 and unemployed, reassured that taking pictures was fine, “as long as the photos are used properly.”
Ridaa said he had worked at the state-run Al-Gomhorriya newspaper for six months before leaving the organisation. “I had no future there when I saw that hiring and promotions were made on the basis of who was the child of whom,” he said. He said he saw children of former highly-ranked employees being promoted as the expense of those with talent but no connections.
Nour, 35, a merchant ship operator, defended photo-taking by foreigners. “This is the way for us to get our message out to the world,” he said.
“Pressure on Mubarak’s regime is important,” another protester called out. “Without the world monitoring the situation they would be shooting us with live bullets right now,” he said.
Some protesters voiced disagreement.
“I don’t agree,” Nour said. “Everybody has family in the army. They are our children and our brothers and our cousins. They wouldn’t shoot their own family.”
Haghy, 35, unemployed since 1996, expressed optimism about the prospect of the demonstrations effecting real change. Mubarak hopes to quell the people’s protests by promising reform and firing the government, but “this is just an attempt to quiet the people,” he said. If the people refuse to be quiet, the regime will fall, he added. “That is why it is so important for us to come out into the streets at this crucial stage,” he said.
“See him, he’s my son,” he added, pointing to an eight-year-old in front of him. “He dragged me out here today. He said everyone was in the street, so I had to come.”
