Thursday
24Apr2008
I do NOT endorse the May 4th General Strike Call
Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 4:13AM
I'm preparing a longer posting on the Mahalla Uprising and the aftermath.. It's taking sometime... but till I'm done, I just want to state on the record from now that I DO NOT endorse the call for a general strike on May 4th. I repeat I do NOT endorse the call for a general strike on the dictator's 80th birthday (fuckin hell.. the dude is turning 80.. can you believe this shit?!). This is a call that is coming from the cyberspace by bloggers, "Facebook activists" and the Islamist-leaning Labor Party whose leaders have declared themselves more or less as some "provisional govt" in cyber-exile... We, the Egyptian bloggers, have always prided ourselves on the fact that we have one foot on the ground and the other in the cyberspace... But this time, it seems some have thrown both their feet as well as brains in the cyberspace and are living some virtual reality, mistakenly believing (helped by the media sensationalist coverage of the "facebook activism") that they are the ones behind the events in Mahalla...
More later... But I wanted to make my position from early on clear coz I keep getting queries from fellow activists about my stand towards this and why haven't I publicized for the strike...
More later... But I wanted to make my position from early on clear coz I keep getting queries from fellow activists about my stand towards this and why haven't I publicized for the strike...
Reader Comments (7)
عاوزين بوست عن حزب العمل عمل ربنا
وحركة 6 أبريل
Looking forward to the post ya hossam!
and just to say that i don't understand why the strike would be on Mubarak's birthday aslan..
let's not 'nekhlet el 2omur' - if the strikes are about exherting economic pressure, or pressure by civil society to call for their rights and entitlements, then let's keep it always at that..
3id el 3ummal for example would be a relevant day or any other day that can be related to the cause, bas let's not cheapen the cause kaman by linking it to such an irrelevant ot the idea and the strife.
Couldn't agree more Hossam. That they're even calling it a "general strike" is an insult and it is cheapening. General strike are done by communities and/or workers that are organized at the point of production. A general strike is something that is called by a strong movement, not when struggles are still disparate and in its infancy. Jumping the gun like this might abort what's been growing the last few years.
I'm really looking forward to your post on Mahalla. It is my opinion that the Mahalla strike was basically hijacked by a few opportunists through posturing. Bandwagoned by Kifaye and the digitally connected few.
[...] I still haven’t finished the promised posting about Mahalla and the aftermath up till now… time constraints… I’ve just made a new round of calls to Socialist [...]
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اقترح لنا اقتراح حل كالعادة يا حسام بدل ما تبوظ خالص
انا عارفة انه ح يسقط
اقترحلنا حاجة والنبي تخلي اليوم يعدي عدل يا حسام
[...] and they think now they were the ones who are wielding the keys for street dissent. and are now calling for another “general strike” on May 4th to coincide with the dictator’s bir..... [...]
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[...] blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy, an outspoken Egyptian blogger, wrote, in a blog post titled “I do NOT endorse the May 4th General Strike Call” criticizing what he described as a call “coming from the cyberspace by bloggers, [...]