A more generalized distrust of Mubarak's government is showing itself. Even those who have been given pay raises by the government have defected and become protesters themselves. The diversity and commitment of the protest -- the revolt -- is stunning.
Thousands of workers throughout industry, education and transportation joined Egypt's popular revolt Wednesday by staging strikes or protests that raised the specter of a general strike, an ominous sign for U.S.-backed President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
In Cairo and hardscrabble towns across the country, working-class Egyptians went on strike, demanding higher pay, better conditions and Mubarak's ouster, and there were reports of violence in at least one provincial town.
The government announced a 15 percent pay boost for public servants earlier this week, but some workers who joined the protests Wednesday said they couldn't be "bribed" out of joining the uprising. More labor unrest is expected Thursday, in solidarity with the huge crowds that have occupied Cairo's main square and are now expanding to the parliament and other strategic sites.
Railroad technicians, teachers, sanitation workers and many others took to the streets as part of the impromptu labor rallies. Of chief concern to western countries was the Suez Canal, which is vital to international trade and a foreign currency earner for Egypt. Some workers affiliated with Suez Canal Authority mounted a protest according to news reports, but traffic in the waterway was not affected.
Many protesters hope that a general strike, closing down transportation, industry and the Suez Canal would paralyze the country and deliver a fatal blow to Mubarak's weakened regime. ...McClatchy
Among the latest to join the protests, thousands of chanting lawyers in black robes and physicians in white laboratory coats marched into Tahrir Square — the epicenter of the uprising — to join the clamor for Mr. Mubarak’s ouster.
Engineers and journalists also headed for the square on Thursday as the numbers there began to swell once again into their thousands, with demonstrators mingling among the tents and graffiti-sprayed army tanks that have taken on an air of semi-permanence. ...NYT
They are risking a brutal government crackdown. Aboul Gheit, the foreign minister, is using strong words.
“If chaos occurs, the armed forces will intervene to control the country, a step which would lead to a very dangerous situation,” he was quoted as saying on the broadcaster’s Web site , a day after he dismissed calls by Egyptian protesters and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scrap the country’s emergency laws, which allow the authorities to detain people without charge.
Up until now, the military has pledged not to use force against the protesters who have occupied Cairo’s central Tahrir Square and whose tactics have broadened to the establishment of a fresh encampment outside the Egyptian Parliament. But it has also deployed tanks and reinforcements across the city, setting up a narrow access point to the square that forces would-be protesters into single file after they stand in long lines to enter. ...NYT
Some of the focus remains on Obama -- what he should and shouldn't have done, what he can and can't do. As for what US has done over the past decades, the Washington Post "follows the money." For the past thirty years, the US has given more or less $2 billion yearly to Egypt.
...The largest chunk of the annual largess, about $1.3 billion, was given to Egypt's military and security forces. The security forces have been repeatedly cited in the State Department's human rights report for torture, prolonged detentions without charge and other abuses. While overall aid to Egypt has declined in recent years, the budget for the security forces and the military has remained mostly intact.
The Bush administration tried to change this.
There were banner headlines in the Egyptian press the first time a U.S. ambassador actually gave money to institutions that were independent of Hosni Mubarak's regime, even though the funds amounted to just $1 million. One Egyptian newspaper called it a "bombshell announcement."
But the Obama administration reduced the amount dedicated to "democracy promotion" by a staggering 70%.
Meanwhile, money that was to be given directly to civil society groups was eliminated and the administration agreed to once again fund only those institutions that had Mubarak's seal of approval. Jennifer L. Windsor, an associate dean at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and former executive director of Freedom Watch, said she was told at the time by U.S. Ambassador Margaret Scobey that the shift was made to "facilitate" better relations with Egypt's government. ...The Obama administration signaled it would cut democracy funding for Egypt within weeks of taking power, even before the president went to Cairo and made his famous speech on outreach to the Muslim world.
All of that comes from the Washington Post's fact checkers who give Obama "two pinocchios" (out of four) in their truth test. "Two pinocchios" means "Significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual error may be involved but not necessarily. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people."
