Due to the inflation and soaring cost of living in recent months, there is general discontent in Egypt by the majority of people there.
Although this is nothing unusual in itself, given the stagnant economy for close to three decades, it seems that it has reached a point where most people have had enough and want to send a message to the government.
So, a general strike was called for by various opposition and grassroots groups. This included Facebook groups, SMS messages on mobile phones, email and other means.
The government responded by crackdowns on opposition, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood in the past week.
Despite that, the Brotherhood distanced itself from participating in the strike. Not sure if this is a political move, or a true statement.
Today, the government has railed against strike,and warned anyone striking or protesting of "firm action".
Comments
Khalid
News coverage and eyewitness accounts
Sun, 2008/04/06 - 18:51Some news coverage and eyewitness accounts of what happened on the day of the planned strike.
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Khalid Baheyeldin
Anonymous (not verified)
strike
Wed, 2008/04/09 - 19:09Generally a good performance by the public , and a traditional performance by the goverment , claiming obscure forces,thiefs,youngsters,and conspiracies are behind the scenes of this strike .
Would this have a snowball effect down the road remains to be seen .
What pleased me personally is that 2 members of the forgotten "El-ghad" were behind all this . The Liberals though underdog to the goverment and the moslem brothers managed to have a say in egyptian politics , by local standards what happened amounts to a miracle.
Khalid
More coverage and photos
Mon, 2008/04/07 - 10:15Coverage and photos here:
Meanwhile, Al Ahram, the government's mouthpiece claims that people rejected the strike, and work was normal everywhere.
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Khalid Baheyeldin