DigiActive.org

Action Alert: Free Esraa and her Companions

What? Join one of the Facebook groups pushing for the freedom of the 3 digital activists jailed in Egypt: Esraa Abdel-Fattah Ahmed, Mahamed El Sharkawi,and Kareem El Beheiri

When? Now!

Where? The Facebook groups to join are divided linguistically. Join the one in the language you are most comfortable with, as you will likely be receiving messages in that language from the group.

Arabic: Free Esraa افرجوا عن إسراء ورفاقها

English: Free Esraa and her Companions! أفرجوا عن إسراء ورفاقها

French: Libérez Esraa et ses Camarades. Free Esraa.

Norsk: Free Esraa and her Companions!

How? Click one of the links above to visit the group you would and then click the “Join” button on that page.

Why? On April 6th we covered the story of Egyptian activists using 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’s founder Esraa Abdel-Fattah Ahmed, and bloggers Mahamed El Sharkawi and Kareem El Beheiri were arrested by Egyptian police in connection with the Facebook group and the call of the strike.

Who is organizing the action? There are slightly different officers and admins for the 4 groups, but Egyptians Hany Elkhayat, Samy Harak, Wael Nawara, Manal Fahmy, and Mohamed Zaki Elsheemi seem to be involved with most of them. Dina Ibrahim is the sole admin of the French group.

Tactic: Egyptians Use Facebook to Organize Strike

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…

Read more »