Follow Up: The General Strike 6 April

Public Interest:

Yesterday, my hair dresser asked me suddenly if I was going to participate in the strike at this point I knew that we all achieved something.

I could not take the day off despite I could because my work load in Sunday is too much to be postponed to Monday ,despite I believe in the Strike , already I decided not to buy today.

Today, I found the cleaning lady at the office in the morning asking me if I found an easy means of transportation , this lady told me that she could not find any micro-bus in the morning and she had to take a taxi , when she asked about the reason they told her that it was because of the strike.

Many people fear the strike effect's on the transportation in Cairo especially.

Today I also knew that down town is so quiet more than usual , very quiet and there is about 200 protesters currently there surrounded by 50,000 anti-riots forces "The usual scene".

The traffic in Egypt is so so so smooth ; there is no usual morning traffic jam and this means either two things : The interior ministry can actually solve the traffic problem when it wants or People are in their homes and they did not go to their jobs today ..I think the last one is the correct one

Broken Promises:

Beside the silly warning of the interior ministry against the Vandals who are destroying the general Peace and the Nation , I found that both Al Ahram and Al Ahkbar announcing today in their front page with big bold fonts a happy surprise for the citizens , a rise in the annual social bonus ,instead of 5% or 7% it became 20% and that the citizens will receive it in July 2008 !!!!!!!!!! 

Oh yes they have to wait about another 3 months !!!

The regime is trying to drug the people with these false hopes

already I was thinking about the raise, from 5% to 20% , you raise the bonus 4 times so you know in advance that the current bonus was not enough.

The regime is trying to absorb the people's anger by all ways , it is scared from the general strike and this is why it is trying to fool them with stupid promises.

The strike economic effect:

Live From mes amigos in the Egyptian Stoke market : The trading session is postponed.

Bad News :

I read that the security cracked down the strike of the great and honorable Mahalla textile workers , already the general strike was the brain child of these workers . As far as I know from my resources there is a whole army from anti-riots forces around the factories and things are really ugly there

The workers demand a rise in their minimum wages to reach to L.E 1200 , already their factory is from the top factories in its categories in the Mideast

Who is in and Who is not in the Strike :

Here is a list with the Egyptian Parties and groups participating in the Strike and those who are not participating in the group

With the Strike :

• Kafiya
• The Democratic Front Party
• The Arab Nasserite Party
• El- Gad Party
• The Karama Party
• The Wassat Party "it is not official party as till it did not take the approval from the party committee , it is a Islamic liberal party and it is against the MB"
• The independent Parliament Members like PM Talaat El-Sadaat
• Teachers syndication in Alexandria "From the civil society groups"
• The National company for papers in Alexandria "A factory whose workers demand better wages"

Against the Strike :

• Al Wafd Party
• The Tagammou Leftist Party
• The Wafak Party "Never heard about it"
• The Arabic Egypt Party 

The MB said that they were with the strike then they said no

The Universities

There is a huge presence of the security forces around the Universities more than usual

There is a strike in Cairo and Helwan universities whereas there are currently exams in the Ain Shams university, 

Ain Shams is headed by the son of Zaki Badr the infamous interior minister and Ain Shams university scares the regime because of its role in the 1970s protests

More to come