Despite the Egyptian government’s violent reaction last year, a group of young activists has renewed its call for a national strike next month to protest inflation,  corruption and political repression.

The opposition group calling itself the April 6 Youth Movement has called for a strike on April 6, the same day a similar call was made last year that culminated in a riot in a Delta province in which one person was killed and about 100 wounded.

The strike call was reportedly endorsed by a number of opposition parties, including the well-known Kefaya group.

Although the group’s call was not heeded by significant number of Egyptians last year, it sent shock waves across the country and damaged the reputation of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Online technology played a significant role in spreading the word; the message was propagated through  Facebook and scores of blogs. This time, opposition groups have relied on the same tools.

The statement circulated online read:

“Egypt witnesses a state of public outrage in light of the terrible economic conditions that the lay citizen faces. … The main problem that hinders the progress of this country and the achievement of a reasonably decent life for the people is corruption and despotism that were spread by the incumbent regime. [The regime] sucks the resources of this country, drains productive assets, exercises political oppression and systematically rigs elections. … This is why we are calling on the Egyptian people … to hold a national strike on April 6 as a step on the way towards peaceful civil disobedience, which we believe is the only way amenable to change and salvation.”

Last year, the government responded brutally to the call by clashing with protesters in the city of Mahalla and rounding up dozens of activists and bloggers.

In recent years, Egypt has experienced several strikes and protests organized by workers, doctors, teachers, universities professors and pharmacists to protest skyrocketing inflation and low wages. Last month, the inflation rate was a reported 14%, which may place more Egyptians below the poverty line.

The statement listed a number of demands, including: salary adjustment, constitutional reforms to put a curb on the number of terms that a president can serve and the halt of exportation of natural gas to Israel. (From Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2009)

Egypt: Waves of Workers’ Strikes

by Eman AbdElRahman

Like 2008, this year is witnessing waves of strikes and demonstrations by Egyptian workers in various sectors and organizations.  Students, pharmacists, lawyers, railway drivers, media people, and even microbus drivers and street cleaners are all demanding more just rights, protesting against their decreasing incentives or trying to rebel against their poor economic status.

And as usual, Egyptian bloggers are working around the clock to cover almost all demonstrations taking place, through their blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr accounts, giving those workers a voice.

Going through the post titles in just two Egyptian blogs specialized in covering strikes happening in Egypt — Egyptian Workers by Kareem El Behery and Tadamon Masr (or Egyptian Solidarity) — we can outline a chronology of the strikes.

In January:

• 900 workers on strike at the Nile cotton company in El Mehalla
• 500 workers on strike, protesting against reducing their incentives
• For the first time, railway workers on strike
• Failure of Telemasr workers’ negotiations with management, and the owner threats to stop the payment of their wages
• A sit-in of cleaning agency workers, protesting the non-payment of holiday bonuses

In February:

• Abu Radi workshop workers in a sit-in
• Suez Canal workers appeal to officials
• Abu El Eneen Ceramic factory workers in a sit-in
• 50 workers on strike in Shebeen El Kom
• Education administrators on strike in El Mehalla
• “Masr Pharmacy” workers on strike today and on a hunger strike next week
• Pictures of Tora cement workers’ sit-in
• Pharmacists’ strike and the syndicate decisions

In March:

• Asek company workers on strike calling for increasing their annual allowances
• Cotton Ginning workers in El Menya on strike protesting non-payment of their salaries
• Hebei Pharm workers on strike
• 3,000 Daitex workers on strike in Alexandria, protesting the non-payment of their incentives and labor day grants
• A sit-in of 240 workers in Betroid protesting the company’s demand that they sign an agreement on mass resignations
• 400 Spinning Equipment workers on strike on Monday protesting against the cessation of promotions and reduction of incentives
• Ghazl Shebeen El Kom workers’ strike and sit-in

And that’s not everything.  You can also check El Mahalla, Egyptian Mill Workers, Arabawy, and other blogs covering more strikes.

Some strikes were aborted, but others ended in victory like the recent one in Shebeen El Kom, which initially started in February with 50 workers protesting the non-payment of their incentives.  The action snowballed, and on March 16, 4,200 workers decided to end the strike because the owning company agreed to their demands.

Shebeen El Kom Victory

Sara Carr, who was the first to announce the news on Jaiku, visited the scene with Per Bjorklund and they both wrote detailed analyses and reports: Sara Carr, “Indo Drama”; Per Bjorklund, “Shebeen el-Kom Strikers Denounce Privatization”; and Per Bjorklund, “The Blame Game: Class Struggle in Shebeen el-Kom.”

(Photos of the Shebeen El Kom strike can be found in the Flickr sets by Per Bjorklund and Sara Carr.  Also videos can be found on Arabawy’s blog.)

On a different note, Per Bjorklund took the Shebeen El Kom strike as an example of how to tackle a new dimension in the conflict, reflecting on the connection of the ongoing strikes to the international economic crisis.  He asked: what if the owning company, Indorama, is cutting wages on propose?  What if it’s a play to push people for early retirement and hire fresh employees with lower wages instead?

Zeinobia also highlighted another important point.  She mentioned that the culture of strikes has been absent for some time in Egypt, but it is coming back and strongly spreading not only among educated workers, but also among different lower classes in the Egyptian society.

Strikes happen all over the world even in the most capitalistic countries, it is a right as long as you do not give your employee his basic right […]  The big surprise to me was the strike of the Microbuses drivers in Giza in the last 2 days.  About 300 microbuses drivers were on strike objecting the treatment of Police!!  Again it is a surprise because usually the microbuses drivers are from a segment that does not understand this strike culture.

One excerpt from a statistics report by El Badeel daily newspaper (translated by Per Bjorklund) says:

El-Badeel today published some statistics from the Land Center from Human Rights: During 2008 a total of 609 industrial actions occurred in Egypt, including 122 strikes.  This is slightly less than 2007 but still far more than previous years.  The true number of protests might be higher, since these numbers are based mainly on protests actually reported by media.

Everybody believes that something is going on.  It has become the norm to hear news of a new strike or sit-in here or there on a daily basis.  Add to the above, the new calls for a second general strike, like last year’s April 6th strike.  So how far will the story go?  We will not need to wait too long for the answer.

(For continuous updates, you can follow Egyptian workers’ diigo group, created by Hossam El Hamalawy, along with his post asking his comrades to collect all photos taken by Egyptian activists for workers.)

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