Tag: 6 april 2008

Mahalla testimony

Posted on By 3arabawy

A young Muslim Brotherhood activist who was in Mahalla during the April uprising:

There was confusion in the group on the position regarding the April 6 strike. Yes, there was a strong conflict. Mahdi Akef’s statement was vague, and this was deliberate, so that those who are against the strike would regard it as an anti-strike statement, and those who supported the strike would see it as a pro-strike call.
Ezzat’s interview [with Ikhwan Online] was directly against the strike. But this caused a crisis. His initial interview had very harsh criticism of those who supported the strike that was close to denunciation, and almost no mention of Akef’s statement. The editors of Ikhwan Online took down the interview shortly after, and re-edited it and changed the URL address so as not to point to the old version [of the interview: http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.asp?ArtID=36099&SecID=270] anymore.
There were some Muslim Brotherhood members who took to the streets in Mahalla that day, although they were not necessarily told specifically to do so. They participated as “individuals” but not as a “group.” The problem is the security attacked all the town, so the whole town responded back. Everyone was hit, including Muslim Brothers members of course.

I’m certain the current labor militancy is causing splits among the MB along class lines, amid disenchantment among a good number in the rank and file, some of whom I know in person, over the retreat in the face of the regime and the very weak mobilization against the military tribunals and continued police crackdowns. It’ll be interesting to see how this evolves in the near future.

Mahalla’s domino effect

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Zeinobia’s blog re El-Burullus uprising:

This uprising happens after two months exactly from Al Mahalla uprising in April. This scares the regime that the other Governates and cities began to imitate what happened in Al Mahalla and Al Burullus then it will be a very big problem threatening the existence of the regime and its security.

Mahalla testimony

Posted on By 3arabawy

A Mahalla labor organizer involved in the April 6 Uprising…

None of us expected the events to explode in such manner on 6 April. What we were hoping for at best was to repeat what happened on 17 February on a larger scale. May be instead of 20,000, we’ll get double that.

After the round up of the (Textile Workers’ League) leaders and the occupation of the factory, all of us thought the day was over. But the citizens outside the factory were waiting. They were the real heroes of the day. They all saw what we did on 17 February. They felt what we were talking about. They were our families at the end of the day, not strangers. From the early morning many were roaming outside the company gates and waiting for us to do something. They were waiting for the strike. When the strike was aborted, they took the initiative.

It’s wrong to ignore the direct link between 17 February ‘organized’ demonstration and the April 6 ‘spontaneous’ uprising. The first was a dress rehearsal for the latter, and helped hype up the morale of the citizens in the town. If the factory had gone on strike, the events would have taken a different direction of course.

There’s anger towards the Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarian for not doing anything for the people in Mahalla. The group itself refused to support the strike and did not mobilize its supporters on that day to the streets… But at the same time, some young Muslim Brotherhood students from Mahalla and Tanta disobeyed their organizational orders the joined the protests on occasions… Yes, I assure you, they were acting without the consent of their leadership.