The strike campaign has been building via the Internet. Organizers have
used Facebook to contact supporters and relay demands for salary increases,
a minimum wage and price controls. So far, the pro-strike Facebook network
contains about 75,000 members.
The unrest has been greatest in Mahalla, whose textile plant has been
plagued by wildcat strikes. During riots in which two people were killed and
more than 150 were injured in April, laborers tore down posters of Mubarak
and attacked police.
The government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has sought to dissuade the
opposition campaign. Nazif has promised raises for those in Mahalla as well
as a 20 percent salary increase for all civil servants in July 2008.
"We know Mahalla is suffering and you have passed through many crises,"
Nazif said.
The general strike has also been supported by the liberal opposition
group Kefaya. Keyafa was established in 2004 to prevent Mubarak from
relaying the presidency to his son, Gamal. Mubarak's current term expires in
2011.
"We want peaceful civil disobedience," Egyptian opposition
parliamentarian Hamdin Sabahi said. "This is our only way to express our
anger before it explodes."
