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Tactic: Egyptians Use Facebook to Organize Strike

Written by Mary on April 6, 2008 – 8:53 pm -

See UPDATE after the jump….

Description: Egyptian activists used a Facebook group, 6 April - اضراب عام لشعب مصر (April 6 - General Strike for the People of Egypt), to drum up participation in a general strike on Sunday, April 6. The group currently has over 66,000 members. The page also features several original graphics promoting the strike.

Organizer: It is unclear who first called for the strike, which was originally limited to the the Mahalla al-Kobra state-owned textile factory in northern Egypt. From this strike, a general solidarity strike was devised and several organization became involved in promoting it, including bloggers, members of the progressive group Kefaya (Enough!), the Muslim Brotherhood, and the opposition El Ghad (Tomorrow) Party.

Purpose of Action: The purpose of the strike was to protest low wages and rising food prices in Egypt, as well as to make a more general show of disapproval of the Egyptian government, led by Hosni Mubarak

Organizing Tools: Facebook, digital images

Outcome: On Sunday, thousands of people participated in the strike in Mahall al-Kobra, clashing violently with police. In other parts of the country, thousands of Egyptians skipped work and school in solidarity with the factory workers, in spite of harsh threats from the government. (source: IHT) It is not clear what role the Facebook group had on participation.

Ease of Replication: Starting a Facebook group is very easy, but coordinating with offline groups is also extremely helpful in getting people to attend a protest.

Here is one of the images posted to the Facebook group. View more original graphics after the jump…

Update from the AFP (April 8):

Galvanised by their call for a general strike on Sunday, Egypt’s cyber dissidents have set a new date for anti-regime action on May 4 as an 80th birthday present for President Hosni Mubarak.

“We succeeded on April 6, so let’s do it again on May 4,” read a message on the Facebook social networking site where 64,000 people joined the group calling for action on Sunday.

While that general strike largely failed to materialise, an unknown number of people took part in the Facebook group’s call to stay at home.

translation: 6 April

translation: 6 April 2008 | we are all strikers | for the benefit of [Egyptian flag]

translation: strike

Tags: collectiveaction, Egypt, labor, mahallahalkobra, strike
Posted in Digital Images, Mid-East & N. Africa, Social Networks, Tactics |