My Blog

By Courtney C. Radsch
2 April
Cairo, Egypt -- Using FaceBook, blogs, SMS, independent media and good old fashion word-of-mouth, activists and workers in Egypt are preparing to stage a countrywide general strike on April 6. Calling it the "Egyptian Intifida" supporters are calling for civil disobedience, asking everyone to stay home from work and not buy anything; demonstrations of solidarity planned for embassies around the world. The strike is aimed primarily at protesting the rising cost of bread and other basic necessities and to demand increased wages. Networks and event invitation have appeared on FaceBook. The "General Strike in Egypt" FaceBook group has more than 54,000 members, an event another 2000 confirmed). The cyberspace activism coupled with on-the-ground grassroots organizing promises to test the political efficacy and continued relevance of the Egyptian activists blogosphere and cyber-activists following a government crackdown on Kifaya and Muslim Brotherhood over the past year that seemed to take some of the wind out of the sails of cyber-activism.

The text of the document from when all this activity apparently springs is as follows:

“All national forces in Egypt have agreed upon the 6th of April to be a public strike.
On the 6th of April, stay home, do not go out; Don’t go to work, don’t go to the university, don’t go to school, don’t open your shop, don’t open your pharmacy, don’t go to the police station, don’t go to the camp; We need salaries allowing us to live, we need to work, we want our children to get education, we need human transportation means, we want hospitals to get treatment, we want medicines for our children, we need just judiciary, we want security, we want freedom and dignity, we want apartments for youth; We don’t want prices increase, we don’t want favoritism, we don’t want police in plain clothes, we don’t want torture in police stations, we don’t want corruption, we don’t want bribes, we don’t want detentions. Tell your friends not to go to work and ask them to join the strike.”

It was signed by and supported by the Al-Karama Party, the Al-Wasat Party, the Labor Party, Kifaya, the Bar Association, Educational Workers Movement, University Professors, Grain Mill Workers and of course the Ghazl Al-Mahala workers. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo, however, does NOT support it and has threatened to fire anyone who misses work on Sunday.

The primary event is the workers strike in Ghazl el-Mahalla, with several strikes planned in solidarity with the workers and organized through the blogosphere. Hossam's 3arabawy is, as usual, a central information node about the strike, as is Manalaa's Bit Bucket. (There may or may not be a demonstration in Tahrir). The national press, however, has been silent, while the independent and English language press seems to portray it primarily as another worker's strike rather than as something larger (though it was interesting to see the Daily News Egypt quote a blog on the front page - clearly showing that they have become legitimate information sources here as they have in the U.S.) Kifaya is on board with the strike - though the movement has been pronounced dead by many it seems to be struggling to resurrect itself - as is, of course, the leftist/socialist bloggers, although their activities have been focused on giving workers logistical and media relations support rather than leading demonstrations or strikes. This is a tactical move designed to protect the workers and their indigenous efforts from accusations by the government that they are being co-opted by the blogger activists and thus tainted by association. It seems that rather the cyber-activists have found renewed inspiration in the activism of workers and sympathetic university students to reenergize and unify their political activism. One group that is conspicuously absent from the milieu, however, is the Muslim Brotherhood.

The MB has not come out as an organization in support of the general strike. AbdelRahman Ayyash, a young MB blogger, wonders why the Muslim Brotherhood is not actively supporting the strike. Other young Muslim Brotherhood members I've talked to, most of whom arebloggers, also support the strike and acknowledge that they don't understand why per se the leadership has not taken an active position to support the strike. A rather scathing critique can be found here. Of course one reason for the absence of official endorsement could be the fact that they have faced a sever crackdown on their leadership, with several leaders, especially those involved in pres and media, arrested not to mention the general harassment individual members face.

In fact, I was with four of my MB blogger friends, all girls the other night, just an hour before they were arrested in the subway. We had been at the Cairo Conference earlier and Arwa had inadvertently left a Muslim Botherhood sticker on her folder that apparently was visible to the security officers in the subway, who arrested her and the others for about 2 hours. Thankfully they were not beaten or hurt since the police appeared to get scared once they started calling their support network and their lawyers showed up. Yet for the 16, 17, 18 and 22 year olds this must have been a frightening experience. Yet one of them told me that in fact she had always wondered what it would be like to be arrested and thought she would be scared. But she wasn't, and vows that she "will never be scared again."

The reality of action on April 6 remains to be seen, whether all this cyber-blustering will translate into political activism... or not. Sandmonkey, for one, has a scathing critique of the very premise, and given his influence over the English-speaking embassy crowd, Western journalists and Egypt-watchers, he may have helped deflate some of the enthusiasm that a national day of solidarity and protest could have generated abroad. We'll see.