[Marxism] Wow, does this ever answer my question about Facebook

[Johannes Schneider]

Louis Proyect wrote:

> [Marxism] Wow, does this ever answer my question about Facebook

> Egyptian Islamists join call for general strike
> Tue 29 Apr 2008, 15:06 GMT
> 
> By Jonathan Wright
> 
> CAIRO, April 29 (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest 
> opposition group, on Tuesday joined the campaign for a general strike 
> against the government on May 4, the 80th birthday of long-serving 
> president Hosni Mubarak.
> 
> Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef said people should stay at home on 
> that day "in peaceful protest to demand solutions to the crises and to 
> tackle the deteriorating conditions which the people are suffering".
> 
[snipped]
> 
> Advocates of a May 4 strike, grouped on the social networking system 
> Facebook, are demanding a minimum wage, salary rises linked to 
> inflation, legislation and other measures to control prices, and the 
> release of people detained in Mahalla.
> 

Louis, I fear the situation is a bit more complex, than what comes out of the Reuters dispatch.

1. The alleged Brotherhood support for the strike. Actually they are calling on their supporter "to stay at home", in fact a very limited support for the strike. This means they will not be present in any rallies or pickets.
See these articles about the MB and the call for a general strike:
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=13426
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=13344
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=13208


2. On to the Facebook matters, looks to me that Egypt is very special case given the repressive nature of the Mubarak regime. For this see the attached article from Al-Ahram Weekly.
More on Facebook in Egypt see here:
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=13321
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=13249


3. On the Egyptian left there is some discussion about the call for a general strike, which I thinks exposes the weakness of the Facebook left very well. Hossam el-Hamalawy writes:
"I just want to state on the record from now that I DO NOT endorse the call for a general strike on May 4th. I repeat I do NOT endorse the call for a general strike on the dictator’s 80th birthday (...) This is a call that is coming from the cyberspace by bloggers, “Facebook activists” and the Islamist-leaning Labor Party whose leaders have declared themselves more or less as some “provisional govt” in cyber-exile… We, the Egyptian bloggers, have always prided ourselves on the fact that we have one foot on the ground and the other in the cyberspace… But this time, it seems some have thrown both their feet as well as brains in the cyberspace and are living some virtual reality, mistakenly believing (helped by the media sensationalist coverage of the “facebook activism“) that they are the ones behind the events in Mahalla…"
Full:
<http://arabist.net/arabawy/2008/04/24/i-do-not-endorse-the-may-4th-general-strike-call/>

and:
"ON GENERAL STRIKES, INTERNET ACTIVISM & CYBER-FANTASIES:
A general strike is when the workers bring the entire country to halt by stopping work. That’s the simple definition.. That’s it! Bring the bloody country to halt! How can this happen?
1) The action can happen spontaneously, without the direct intervention of political groups, just like the case of the Jan ‘77 Bread Uprising… (...)
2) A general strike can be called for by a political group(s)… BUT IN THAT CASE, WHOEVER CALLS FOR THE GENERAL STRIKE MUST HAVE THE ABILITY TO EXECUTE IT!!! A few bloggers sipping coffee in the Boursa Cafe in downtown Cairo cannot bring about this general strike… A group of “Facebook activists” cannot also mobilize for it, neither are the current opposition groups all together… You gotta have your cadres in the workplaces who will distribute leaflets in support of the strike, debate with their colleagues who may be skeptic about the action and its fruits, to be in touch with other workplaces who will simultaneously go on strike, organize smartly against the expected police assaults or management witchhunt… A general strike is not a fucking joke! This is serious business people!
I expressed previously huge reservations, which I and my comrades in the Socialist movement had re the April 6th Strike call, and we made it clear for everyone that the Socialists are NOT endorsing the call, but will be mobilizing solely in Mahalla, the campuses and in some of the industrial centers where the movement has presence ON THE FREAKIN GROUND NOT THE CYBERSPACE!
And let’s face it: The country was not brought to halt on the 6th. Yes, traffic was very light in Cairo, and attendance in some universities was low.. But the trains kept on going, so did the buses and virtually all other main govt and business facilities… The factories that were brought to a halt or semi halt where the cement and grain mills… PLACES WHERE THE SOCIALISTS EITHER HAVE PRESENCE OR SYMPATHIZERS ON THE GROUND… ON THE GROUND PEOPLE…
(...)
The media hype around the bloggers and “Facebook activism” meant that the credit for the Mahalla events more or less went to the cyberspace! This was presented in the independent and foreign media as largely an effort mobilized by Israa and her peers on the Facebook strike group.(...)
But to make the problem worse, some bloggers and facebook activists actually believed what the media said, and they think now they are the ones who hold the keys to street dissent. Others like the Islamist-leaning Labor Party went as far as founding a “provisional government” on facebook!! Well, good luck! And now the internet activists are calling for another “general strike” on May 4th to coincide with the dictator’s birthday.. What we are doing is making fools out of ourselves, destroy our credibility, confirm stereotype about bloggers being “IT nerds who sit in front of their computer screens and live in virtual reality’ remote from what goes on in the street… and cause demoralization among our supporters… Already I can read on my Twitter feeds some bloggers who were enthusiastic for the 6th of April strike are now feeling demoralized– especially when Ghad Party member Israa, who was presented in the media as the “leader” of the strike being the facebook group administrator and in the cyberspace she turned into some national champ with some even going as far as naming her the new “Baheyya” of Egypt, came out from prison to shower praise on the regime and express her “regret” over her initiative to launch this facebook strike group, and said she “repented” in prison and “would never do this again”…!

This does NOT mean we shouldn’t stage actions on that day… Let’s mobilize in solidarity with the detainees in Mahalla and elsewhere who are still in prison, thanks to the detention decrees by Mubarak’s Torturer-in-Chief General Habib el-Adly…"
Full:
http://arabist.net/arabawy/2008/04/27/some-notes-on-the-mahalla-uprising/