Today, the Doctors’ Syndicate has called for a national strike over job reform package. Well, not really.. The syndicate called on “private clinics” to shut down, but that won’t include govt or private hospitals… i.e., the syndicate is calling on doctors who are financially well enough to own a clinic to close it down for the day and go home to snooze instead. Moreover, the syndicate stated the participation in the strike was “not mandatory.” In other words, the pressures exerted by the government is almost ZERO!
The NDP and MB leadership of the Doctors’ Syndicate continue their best to diffuse the rank and file anger and curb any militant action vis a vis Nazif’s govt over the reform packages. After aborting last year’s national strike, exerting the syndicate’s time and resources, not in lobbying for the doctors’ demands but in, confronting and isolating lobby groups like Doctors Without Rights, the syndicate’s leadership, namely the NDP’s Hamdy el-Sayyed and Essam el-Erian of the Muslim Brothers, have been forced to raise their rhetoric, making symbolic moves like the small protest they held in front of the Finance Ministry (and avoiding any direct confrontations with Nazif).
Doctors Without Rights group has already criticized the syndicate’s move. The group, composed of leftist and independent doctors, have been pushing hard since last year for a national strike, with a set of demands that decorate the header of their blog. Unfortunately the balance of power hasn’t always been on their favor. The group’s mobilizational power is not strong enough to take on the shaky NDP-MB alliance. They have been instrumental to the series of protests and sit-ins spring 2008 and in providing an alternative to the MB and NDP in voicing the anger of the majority of the doctors, but so much building on the ground is still needed. At best, the group has been able to effectively mobilize only few hundreds. I wish them all the best…