Egypt on strike

Inside Story asks if the calls for protests across the country have run out of steam [AFP]

With increasing bread shortages and the weakened purchasing power of the pound plenty of Egyptians feel pushed to the corner.

 

Yet it was not a knee jerk reaction that precipitated the call for a general strike, rather it was a well thought out campaign organised by trade unionists and opposition activists.

 
Today it has turned into a nationwide protest with internet bloggers urging Egyptians to stay home and skip work.

 
But police contained the workers’ strike at the country’s largest state-run textile factory and now it seems the calls for protests across Egypt have run out of steam.

 
Sympathy protests elsewhere in the country were also cancelled, as police came out in force in central Cairo.

 
Opposition activists have been trying to use the planned strike to call for wider protests against government policies and rising food prices.

 

Has the strike been a success or a failure? And what is expected of the Egyptian opposition and the ruling party as tension escalates?