Employees at the Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit on strike over work conditions, calling for impeaching the bank director, Ali Shaker, accusing him of corruption. The strikers are using similar slogans to those used in Tahrir.

Alexandria Bank workers protest privatization and corruption among the management, using the same chants as those shouted in Tahrir.

During the protest I heard this worker, talking to someone on the phone. I only managed to record the last bit in the conversation: “… have to have courage, awareness, and forget about fear. Listen to those respectable people, and make others listen to them too.”

Moments earlier, the worker, Ramadan Muhammad Morsi was telling his colleague on the other end of the line: “Listen to the chants. Tell the people back home not to be afraid. We are demonstrating here in Cairo and no one touched us.”

Hundreds of workers showed up for this protest on Saturday, not hundreds of thousands. But it was a very diverse crowd, in terms of sectors and geographical location. Each of those workers will go back home after the protest to tell their colleagues the same message Morsi had for his colleague: “Don’t be afraid. We demonstrated. We felt empowered. You can do it too.” I have no doubt the 1st of May protest will be bigger than the 3rd of April’s.

The Grain Mills workers demonstrated last week, demanding equal treatment to that received by the Mahalla textile workers.

The Tax Collectors were cited as an inspiration for bank workers slamming their incompetent state-backed union officials.

The Education Ministry’s civil servants are moving nationally, forming new structures of mobilization parallel to the state-backed General Union. The latter, coming under strong pressure is moving against the government, but in a very very very regulated way that diffuses the militancy of what amounts to more than half a million civil servants. But just like what the tax collectors did in 2007, the Education civil servants’ grassroots leaders are pushing for an occupation in Hussein Hegazi St., due to start this Sunday.

The above are just few examples of how the domino effect works. Small victories snowball into mass strikes by blue and white collar workers, spilling from one sector to the other.

Thank you Mahalla.