At the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008, there were some calls from a group of workers in Mahallah. [Mahallah is an industrial city in Northern Egypt, which became a focal point for anti-government demonstrations.]
A call for a general strike in the factories in Mahallah. They were protesting against high prices, low wages, and lack of social justice.
But the call to some extent failed at the end of 2007, and at the beginning of 2008, the call was renewed. Ahmed Maher [co-founder of the April 6th Youth Movement] was very much interested in Mahallah workers and was always in touch with them. Mahallah is considered a very large industrial city that has its history in struggling against the regime.
Ahmed Maher was communicating with them and the idea of a general strike in Mahallah started to emerge, a strike in the factories against high prices, low wages and lack of social justice.
Ahmed and Esraa Abdel Fattah [Egyptian Internet activist and blogger also known as “Facebook Girl”] embraced the idea of a call for a general strike in Egypt in solidarity with the Mahallah workers as well as protesting against high prices and the political and economic situation in Egypt.
Thus, they created a group on Facebook calling for a general strike in Egypt on April 6th, 2008. A huge number of activists from all places in Egypt joined the group on Facebook. Three days after the creation of this group, 77,000 people joined the group; they were saying that they will join in the general strike.
The strike was very successful in Egypt on the 6th of April. In the same day of the strike, Esraa Abdel Fattah was arrested and a week later Ahmed Maher was arrested.
After Ahmed Maher was set free, he, along with some colleagues who joined the strike, decided to found a political movement under the same name [April 6th]. They wanted the movement to be formed of youth only, seeking to overthrow the regime and to change the political situation in Egypt.
At that time, Esraa was a member in Al Ghad Party [a liberal-orientated, Egyptian political party], and she refused to join the movement. However, Ahmed and a group of the founders decided to found a youth movement under this name. It was launched exactly on June 23, 2008; they announced its founding in the first general conference. Since then, they are working in groups on the streets aiming to overthrow the regime and to change the political and economic situation in the country.
Mahmoud Afifi is an Egyptian democracy activist with the April 6th Youth Movement, a group formed in 2008 to support striking workers; afterwards, it transformed into a nationwide opposition network against Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Today, Afifi serves as the Director of the April 6th Youth Movement’s Information Office. He is a lawyer by profession and graduated from Banha University in 2006.
Afifi joined the April 6th Youth Movement in 2009 and founded the group’s chapter in Egypt’s Qalyubia governorate. There he rallied youth to take part in various awareness campaigns and street protests against the government. As part of this strategy, he engaged the poorest segments of the population and strengthened their voice in the political arena. Following his success in Qalyubia, Afifi worked to organize April 6th Youth Movement campaigns at the national level. As the government cracked down on these demonstrations, Afifi was arrested several times and even abandoned in the desert.
Prior to the Egyptian Revolution that unseated President Hosni Mubarak, Afifi coordinated with other organizations encouraging citizens to participate in a January 25, 2011 demonstration in Cairo. On that day, Afifi marched to Tahrir Square with thousands of others demanding Mubarak’s resignation and a free Egypt. The protests intensified and expanded nationwide. Almost three weeks later, on February 11, 2011, Hosni Mubarak stepped down from power ending his 30 year reign.
With a history dating back to the 10th millennium B.C., Egypt has long played a central role in the Middle East. Egypt is the largest Arab nation and has an influential voice in Arabic and Middle Eastern culture. Egypt has a diverse economy, but has struggled to create sustained economic growth and opportunities for its population of 84 million people.
The country has little experience with representative democracy. From 1956 to 1970, President Gamal Abdel Nasser ruled Egypt with a strong hand, nationalizing the Suez Canal and taking the country into conflict with the new state of Israel. Upon his death, Anwar al-Sadat became president. Together with other Arab nations, Sadat launched the October War against Israel in 1973. In 1979, Sadat signed a groundbreaking peace treaty with Israel.
From Sadat’s assassination in 1981 until the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Egypt was governed by President Hosni Mubarak. For all of Mubarak’s time in office, and for much of the time since his resignation, Egypt has been under “Emergency Law,” which allows the government to suspend constitutional rights, including limiting political activity and restricting free speech. Emergency Law also allows the government to use summary arrests against political opponents.
For four successive terms, Mubarak was reelected in referenda without an opponent. In 2005, under domestic and international pressure, Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment to allow Egypt’s first multicandidate presidential elections. Because the amendment would have imposed severe restrictions on the eligibility of opposition candidates, opposition groups boycotted the vote. Mubarak claimed to have won the September 2005 presidential election with an official 88 percent of the vote, amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging. The main opposition leader, Ayman Nour, was subsequently prosecuted by the government for forging signatures on petitions and was sentenced to five years in prison, provoking protests from the United States and other democratic countries.
Following the example of the Tunisian Revolution, large protests swept Egypt in early 2011. The military, led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), withdrew its support of Mubarak. On February 11, 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi then assumed power in Egypt. SCAF dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution.
In November 2011, Egypt held parliamentary elections that were reportedly fair and democratic. In June 2012, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi was elected President, in part because liberal and secular forces failed to coalesce around a single candidate. Morsi’s popularity declined as he declared his orders immune from challenge, removed judicial review processes, and was accused of taking steps towards the implementation of Islamist policies. Conflict arose between those supporting Islamist policies and those seeking a more liberal and secular government. Protests occurred throughout his presidency until Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013. Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested and their camps and offices raided. Until new elections are held, a SCAF-installed provisional government led by acting President Adly Mansour is in control.
In its most recent report, the independent watchdog group Freedom House classifies Egypt as “partly free.” On its scale where 1 is the most free and 7is the least free, Egypt earned scores of 5 in both the civil liberties and political rights categories.
See all Egypt videos