The People's Strike
Response to the Rising Cost of Living
The People's Strike
The People's Strike
Publisher: Islam Online - Sun. Apr. 13, 2008 - please click here to read and listen to the complete interviews
The strike of April 6, 2008 still echoes deeply inside Egyptian society. In spite of the differing opinions of the point of the strike, there is a general consensus that there is real justification for such a call which highlights the public rage that has resulted from high prices, low wages and pervasive corruption as described by supporters and opposition alike.
Not the protests of the west, as that was forbidden, it was a day full of silence and anticipation, which ended with a call for a new general strike for the 4th of May - to repeat an experience that Egypt has not experienced for decades.
In spite of arresting the founder of the electronic group on Facebook, Israa' Abd Al Fattah Ahmad, from whom the first calls of the strike began, the number of members of that group keep on increasing by thousands with 68,000 active members currently. Those active members opened more than 2000 topics for open discussion and contributed more than 68,000 comments to Face Book in just a few days.
With reason for despair, the group members were not despaired and declared that "the strike had not failed" as was claimed by several official newspapers on the following day of the strike. Members of the e-group replaced their profile pictures on their Facebook accounts with the posters of the next strike.
Besides the call for a new strike, and the call for continued pressure on the system to provide the "loaf of bread" and the minimal life requirements for all citizens, there is a hot debate among different circles about the extent to which the strike was successful and the size of citizen participation.
Many of those who adopted the opinion that the strike was a failure, in fact are confusing the strike with the demonstrations that took place later on that day. They evaluate the success of the strike according to the number of people who went out and protested, and not according to the number of people who abstained from going out to work, from purchasing goods and attending schools, which was the call by the founder. According to some press reports on the morning of the day of the strike, the number of those who went to work and schools went down to 50%, but there are those of the opinion that it was out of fear of injury from protests.
Not the protests of the west, as that was forbidden, it was a day full of silence and anticipation, which ended with a call for a new general strike for the 4th of May - to repeat an experience that Egypt has not experienced for decades.
In spite of arresting the founder of the electronic group on Facebook, Israa' Abd Al Fattah Ahmad, from whom the first calls of the strike began, the number of members of that group keep on increasing by thousands with 68,000 active members currently. Those active members opened more than 2000 topics for open discussion and contributed more than 68,000 comments to Face Book in just a few days.
With reason for despair, the group members were not despaired and declared that "the strike had not failed" as was claimed by several official newspapers on the following day of the strike. Members of the e-group replaced their profile pictures on their Facebook accounts with the posters of the next strike.
Besides the call for a new strike, and the call for continued pressure on the system to provide the "loaf of bread" and the minimal life requirements for all citizens, there is a hot debate among different circles about the extent to which the strike was successful and the size of citizen participation.
Many of those who adopted the opinion that the strike was a failure, in fact are confusing the strike with the demonstrations that took place later on that day. They evaluate the success of the strike according to the number of people who went out and protested, and not according to the number of people who abstained from going out to work, from purchasing goods and attending schools, which was the call by the founder. According to some press reports on the morning of the day of the strike, the number of those who went to work and schools went down to 50%, but there are those of the opinion that it was out of fear of injury from protests.
IslamOnline met a number of citizens to obtain their views on the strike, its worth, and its effect on Egyptian daily life.
