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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41486277/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/
Worker strikes spread, add to Egypt turmoil
State workers, poor join chorus of discontent; Cairo protesters
CAIRO — Thousands of state workers and impoverished Egyptians went on
strike Wednesday after weeks of anti-government protests cast a
spotlight on corruption and the wealth amassed by those in power in a
country where almost half the people live near the poverty line.
The protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak's ouster have been
spreading since Tuesday outside of Cairo's Tahrir Square, where they
have been concentrated for the past week. On Wednesday, demonstrators
also gathered at parliament, the Cabinet and the Health Ministry
buildings, all a few blocks from the square. Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq
was working out of the Civil Aviation Ministry on the other side of the
city because his office was blocked by protesters.
For the first time, protesters were forcefully urging labor strikes
despite a warning by Vice President Omar Suleiman that calls for civil
disobedience are "very dangerous for society and we can't put up with
this at all." His warnings Tuesday were taken by protesters as a thinly
veiled threat of another crackdown.
Strikes erupted in a breadth of sectors — among railway and bus workers,
state electricity staff and service technicians at the Suez Canal, in
factories manufacturing textiles, steel and beverages and at least one
hospital.
"They were motivated to strike when they heard about how many billions
the Mubarak family was worth," said Kamal Abbas, a labor leader. "They
said: 'How much longer should we be silent?'"
Egyptians have been infuriated by newspaper reports that the Mubarak
family has amassed billions, and perhaps tens of billions of dollars in
wealth while, according to the World Bank, about 40 percent of the
country's 80 million people live below or near the poverty line of $2 a
day. The family's true net worth is not known.
"O Mubarak, tell us where you get $70 billion dollars," dozens of
protesters chanted in front of the Health Ministry.
Growing labor unrest is adding a new dimension to the pressures for
Mubarak to step down. The protesters filling streets of Cairo and other
cities for the past 16 days have already posed the greatest challenge to
the president's authoritarian rule since he came to power 30 years ago.
They have wrought promises of sweeping concessions and reforms, a new
Cabinet and a purge of the ruling party leadership.
The labor strikes broke out across Egypt as many companies reopened for
the first time since night curfews were imposed almost two weeks ago.
Not all the strikers were responding directly to the protesters' calls.
But the movement's success and its denunciations of the increasing
poverty under Mubarak's rule resonated and reignited labor discontent
that has broken out frequently in recent years.
In one of the flashpoints of unrest Wednesday, some 8,000 protesters,
mainly farmers, set barricades of flaming palm trees in the southern
province of Assiut. They blocked the main highway and railway to Cairo
to complain of bread shortages. They then drove off the governor by
pelting his van with stones.
Hundreds of slum dwellers in the Suez Canal city of Port Said set fire
to part of the governor's headquarters in anger over lack of housing.
The farmers in Assiut voiced their support for the Tahrir movement,
witnesses said, as did the Port Said protesters, who set up a tent camp
in the city's main Martyrs Square similar to the Cairo camp.
In Cairo, hundreds of state electricity workers stood in front of the
South Cairo Electricity company, demanding the ouster of its director.
Public transport workers at five of the city's roughly 17 transport hubs
also called strikes, demanding Mubarak's overthrow, and vowed that buses
would be halted Thursday. It was not clear if they represented the
entire bus system for this city of 18 million.
Dozens of state museum workers demanding higher wages staged a protest
in front of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, crowding around
antiquities chief Zahi Hawass when he came to talk to them.
Several hundred workers also demonstrated at a silk factory and a fuel
coke plant in Cairo's industrial suburb of Helwan, demanding better pay
and work conditions.
In the desert oasis town of Kharga, southwest of Cairo, five protesters
have been killed in two days of rioting, security officials said. Police
opened fire Tuesday on hundreds who set a courthouse on fire and
attacked a police station, demanding the removal of the provincial
security chief. The army was forced to secure several government
buildings and prisons, and on Wednesday the security chief was
dismissed, security officials said.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has said about 300 people have been killed
since the protests began on Jan. 25, but it is still compiling a final toll.
In the city of Suez, strikes entered a second day on Wednesday. Some
5,000 workers at various state companies — including a textile workers,
medicine bottle manufacturers, sanitation workers and a firm involved in
repairs for ships on the Suez Canal — held separate strikes and protests
at their factories.
Traffic at the Suez Canal, a vital international waterway that is a top
revenue earner for Egypt, was not affected.
"We're not getting our rights," said Ahmed Tantawi, a public works
employee in Suez. He said workers provide 24-hour service and are
exposed to health risks but get only an extra $1.50 a month in hardship
compensation. He said there are employees who have worked their entire
lives in the department and will retire with a salary equivalent to $200
a month.
In Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-government protests, at
least 10,000 massed again on Wednesday, the day after a crowd of about a
quarter-million proved that they had not lost momentum even as Mubarak
clings to power. Visitors snapped pictures and took videos while vendors
sold nuts, popcorn, Egyptian flags, sandwiches and drinks.
Nearby, 2,000 more protesters blocked off parliament, several blocks
away, chanting slogans for it to be dissolved. A huge caricature of
Mubarak hung on the gates of parliament while soldiers stationed on the
grounds looked on.
Organizers called for a new "protest of millions" for Friday similar to
those that have drawn the largest crowds so far. But in a change of
tactic, they want to spread the protests out around different parts of
Cairo instead of only in the downtown square where a permanent sit-in is
now in its second week, said Khaled Abdel-Hamid, one of the youth
organizers.
A group called the April 6 Youth movement, which organized huge
demonstrations in Tahrir Square on Tuesday via Facebook, sent a defiant
response to Suleiman's assertion that the protests were "very dangerous."
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