By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Egypt’s Interior Minister declared that government “agencies will take the necessary and immediate firm measures against any attempt to demonstrate, block traffic, or hinder public services – or inciting any of these acts.”  Also, state-owned daily Al-Ahram warned that individuals inciting or participating in the strike could face prison.

Egypt’s largest state-owned textile factory, Mahalla al-Kobra, called for its workers to strike on April 6 to protest against low wages and increasing food prices.  A call for a general strike has been circulating for a week via the internet and cell phones.  For example, a group on the social network site Facebook, “April 6”, has attracted over 64,000 members.

Strike organizers urge people to stay home from work, avoid shopping, wear black clothes and hang the Egyptian flag from windows and balconies in a show of support for the strikers.

UN’s World Food Programme said that the average household expenditure has risen by 50 percent since the start of the year.  The price of food in Egypt has sky-rocketed since the start of the year.  As food prices increased, so has popular discontent.  Since the strike was announced last week, President Mubarak has lifted taxes on some foodstuffs in an effort to soften economic affects of the price increase.

The Interior Ministry stated that the government was not trying to prevent freedom of expression, but that “such actions must come through legitimate channels and the qualified unions and professional associations according to the law.”  Under Egypt’s emergency law, strikes and public demonstrations are illegal.

For more information, please see:
AFP – Egypt Rails Against General Strike Call – 5 April 2008

Al Jazeera – Egypt Issues Strike Warning – 5 April 2008

International Herald Tribune – Egypt’s Interior Ministry Warns Against Participating in a General Strike – 5 April 2008

AHN – Egyptian Opposition Groups Call for Sunday Strike – 3 April 2008