The April 6 Nationwide Strike: Worldwide Support, Including Demonstration in Washington DC, Governme
In the spirit of last year's national protest, the opposition group known as the April 6 Youth Movement has called for another national strike this upcoming April 6th. The strike call was reportedly endorsed by several opposition parties, including the well-known Kefaya group, as well as labor movements. Last year's strike did not witness wide scale participation, but nonetheless successfully damaged the image of the Egyptian regime. As was the case last time, opposition groups have made serious use of online technology like Facebook to propagate their message. The statement listed several specific demands, including: salary adjustment, constitutional reforms to put a curb on the number of terms that a president can serve and the halt of exportation of natural gas to Israel, as well as to call for civil and political freedoms. Though two opposition parties in the People's Assembly, namely the Wafd and Tagamu' parties, have boycotted the strike, the call is being met with widespread approval and support from various political forces within and outside Egypt who salute the effort of Egyptians to bring about change and their legitimate rights through exercising their right to non-violent civil disobedience. A coalition of Egyptian and Egyptian American organizations are organizing solidarity protests in: Washington D.C., New York, Montreal, and London, among other cities; the worldwide support has been documented in numerous independent newspapers in Egypt and beyond. Meanwhile, strikes among various labor movements have already begun this week in Egypt, which has witnessed major strikes among administrators in the Ministry of Education over unpaid bonuses. The government, meanwhile, is reportedly responding with intimidation to activists involved with the strike, and has reportedly arrested two female students, Sarah Rizk and Mena Allah, in the Kafr El Sheikh University for distributing flyers for the strike; the girls have been reportedly handed over to state security and remain detained in an unknown location.
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