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Cairo: Apparently unfazed by the detention of some bloggers last month, Egyptian youth are spearheading a campaign for a general strike on May 4, President Hosni Mubarak’s 80th birthday, on the social networking website Facebook.
The strike, the second in less than a month, calls for the hanging of black banners from balconies and wearing black badges to support demands for increased wages, controlling price hikes and fighting corruption.
Though a similar call last month failed to generate much response in most parts of Egypt, the Nile Delta city of Al Mahla Al Kubra was shaken by rioting on April 6 and 7.
Three people were killed and more than 100 others injured in clashes with police. Al Mahla is Egypt’s hub for the textile industry. In the aftermath, police detained scores of bloggers and political activists on charges of masterminding the April 6 strike.
Campaigners for the May 4 strike say their call has drawn support from more than 70,000 members of Facebook. Facebook in Egypt is different from the rest of the world. In Egypt, Facebook also includes blogging and has become a means of expressing views on political, social and economical issues.
“Facebook has given rise to a massive protest movement, consisting of young people disillusioned with the political and economical situation in Egypt,” Dia’a Rashwan, an analyst at the state run Al Ahram Centre for Political Studies, told Gulf News.
“This networking group will complement, but not replace the protest groups out on the street,” he added.
The growing influence of the Facebook community has drawn indifference as well as suspicion from the traditional opposition in this country of 76 million.
“We cannot blindly follow in the footsteps of a group of youngsters who have no clear identity or experience,” Hussain Abdul Razeq, secretary-general of the leftist Tagammu Party, told this newspaper.
Tagammu, one of Egypt’s oldest opposition parties, boycotted the April 6 strike and maintains the same position on the upcoming protest. The bulk of Egypt’s 23 secular political parties are likely to follow suit.
However, in contrast to its boycott of the April 6 strike, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s biggest opposition power, has said it will join the May 4 protest.
The group’s Supreme Guide, Mahdi Akef, urged people in a statement on Tuesday to stay at home “on this day in peaceful protest to demand solutions to the crises” they are suffering from.
The U-turn came two weeks after a military tribunal in Cairo handed jail sentences to 25 members of the banned group.
“Since its creation in Egypt (in the mid-1970s), the multi-party system has been the subject of public criticism as political parties have been torn apart by internal disputes,” said Safwat Al Allem, a professor of political media at the Cairo University.
“As a result, many young people in Egypt have lost confidence in the ability of the traditional political parties to express their agonies and aspirations,” he told Gulf News.
“In contrast, the young people have found in the internet, especially on Facebook, a forum to air their views freely and propose solutions.”
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