The 25 January 2011 revolution is the product of a long process of dissent accumulation over decades in Egypt led by workers and students.
![[19-1-1977] Demonstrators protesting increased food prices regroup on a rubble strewn street in Cairo Wednesday, after battling the Central Security Forces (Photo by AP)](https://arabawy.org/wp-content/uploads//2007/11/Jan-1977-Bread-Intifada-e1427489793383-434x315.jpg)
Hossam el-Hamalawy
The 25 January 2011 revolution is the product of a long process of dissent accumulation over decades in Egypt led by workers and students.
![[19-1-1977] Demonstrators protesting increased food prices regroup on a rubble strewn street in Cairo Wednesday, after battling the Central Security Forces (Photo by AP)](https://arabawy.org/wp-content/uploads//2007/11/Jan-1977-Bread-Intifada-e1427489793383-434x315.jpg)
It’s unlikely to see Mahalla now rising against Sisi, but such industrial actions are slowly laying the seeds of what could be a full-fledged challenge to the ruling junta in the coming years.
UPDATE: The strike has been suspended on Saturday.
At time of writing, 4,000 workers in Helwan’s steel mills, south of Cairo, are on strike over pay and claims of corruption among its state management.
Strikes have occurred since the military coup, such as the mass strikes over national minimum wage in February 2014, but they are unlikely to cross over from the economic realm to political street mobilizations soon.
In a time of retreat, those revolutionaries still outside of jail cells must choose their battles carefully. Organising street protests is suicidal in the current climate and such attempts only boost the prison population.
Our limited resources should be solely devoted, during this period of retreat, to cementing what is left of the networks we have built, supporting those held in prison, and trying our best to connect with those economic struggles.
We are awaiting a change in the tide.