CAIRO: Marking a year since ousted President Hosni Mubarak handed over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Feb. 11, 2011, university students have called for a general strike to end military rule, but their calls have yet to mobilize the masses. Osama Ahmed, spokesman of the students of the Revolutionary Socialists movement, said that the strike has not started yet, but that the group has been promoting it and establishing coordination committees to rally the people. "University students usually don't come to class in the first couple of weeks of the semester because the schedules are still mixed-up and some of the professors don't attend," Ahmed told Daily News Egypt. "So there's no way to confirm whether the majority of students are on board with the general strike, but calls for it started on Feb. 11" he added. The second semester in public universities began on Feb.11. Thousands of students marched through Cairo and Ain Shams University on Saturday and Sunday, chanting against SCAF and distributing flyers explaining why students should join the general strike. The aim is to achieve the objectives of the January 25 revolution, end military rule and the military trial of civilians, hand over power to civilians, and demand the acceleration of trials of remnants of the former regime and those responsible for the killing of protesters. Ahmed stressed that the people want the policies of Mubarak and his corrupt regime to change, not just remove SCAF and other corrupt officials. "The policies of Mubarak favor a minority of the Egyptian people and give them economic leverage that allows them to rip off millions of Egyptians who work hard to make a living," he said. Ahmed slammed the quality of education and health care in Egypt saying that free education and health care was a "myth." "Students are forced to pay obligatory donations and administrative fees, in addition to buying expensive books that range from LE 200 to LE 3,000," he said. Private universities including the American University in Cairo (AUC) and the German University in Cairo (GUC) also participated in calls for a general strike. The AUC, whose student union was one of the first to announce its participation in the strike, suspended classes for three days, allowing the students to hold awareness programs on campus. The program includes teach-ins, lectures with prominent figures and activists such as novelist Belal Fadl, activists and journalists Hossam El-Hamalawy and Rasha Azab, and history professor Khaled Fahmy, in addition screenings of “3askar Kazeboon” (Military Liars) campaign, which uses videos to expose false claims made by the military rulers. Though the program saliently highlights talking topics such as civil disobedience amongst others, Ahmed Rahim, a mechanical engineering student and organizer of ‘AUC Strike,' the official page for the AUC student movement, says that student organizers saw that “AUC was not ready for civil disobedience.” “We started our awareness campaign with Kazeboon, which received a high turnout,” he added. Two showings were scheduled at AUC in the past week. Ahmed Hassan, vice head of GUC's student union, told DNE that the new semester is slated to start on Feb.18. "But we are rallying the students and raising awareness regarding the strike and its benefits until Feb.18," he said. GUC student Karim Khouzam, freshman studying management, was among 71 killed on Feb. 1 in the Port Said football violence following a match between home team Al-Masry and Al-Ahly. Several other students were killed in the clashes from AUC, Cairo and Ain Shams universities. Other private and public schools held a one-day strike either on Saturday or Sunday. "The English [language] schools started on Sunday and the French [language] schools started on Saturday, so students affiliated with each held a one-day strike," said a member of the “Egypt's School Students for Change” movement. He added that several students were threatened with expulsion for participating in the strike and protests outside their schools. "Schools are different from universities, we can't hold a strike for several days because it compromises the students' future and they could easily get expelled," he said, adding that they are going to have mass protests and marches in the upcoming days. Hundreds of school students marched through Heliopolis, Down Town Cairo, Zamalek and Maspero from several schools including Jesuit and Saint Fatima on Saturday and Sunday. It was the first time for some of the 14-year-olds to take part in a march. Many said it had struck closer to home when some of their friends and classmates were killed in Port Said. Others got their parents to finally approve their participation because the marches were organized by and for school students and in the neighborhoods they lived in. However, most workers, who Ahmed described as the “the backbone of any successful general strike”, shied away from participating. Wael Habib, leading member of the Labor Union of Mahalla, the Delta city known for the textile industry, said that the workers were not convinced with the idea of a general strike. "We all agree that SCAF needs to leave, but the workers don't believe it's worth putting their jobs and the factory on hold in order to achieve this," Habib said. In December 2006 employees of the publicly-owned Mahalla textile factory went on strike after the administration reneged on a promise by then Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif that annual bonuses would be increased to the equivalent of a two month pay, rather than a fixed LE 100. The workers succeeded in achieving their demands and the importance of Egypt's labor sector and its power to change government policies was recognized by political and national forces. The only thing that would push workers to hold a general strike is when their daily wages and livelihoods are drastically affected, said Habib. He added that the factory's administration gave the workers a 20-day bonus, following Feb.11. Ahmed said that it was up to the activists and political powers to rally workers to join the strike and explain that the revolution's demands for bread, freedom and social justice represent are their main demands. However, some workers started a strike on Saturday in other provinces including more than 200 workers in the Aluminum industry in the southern town of Nagaa Hammadi, according to a statement by the Center for Trade Union and Workers' Services (CTUWS). Temporary employees in Nagaa Hammadi's hospital also participated in a general strike, while other hospital employees said they would participate in a sit-in inside the hospital, out of concern for the lives of the patients. In the mechanized agriculture sector, 6,000 farmers around Egypt announced their participation in the general strike, demanding permanent jobs. The statement added that employees of the underground metro started a multi-stage strike on Saturday. The underground transportation system wasn't paralyzed or gravely affected by press time. SCAF issued a statement on its Facebook page on Sunday, hailing the Egyptian people for choosing to work and ignoring calls for a general strike. "You have said your word in the biggest public referendum across the country … you said: Yes to work for Egypt and its people who are struggling for freedom (and a piece of bread)," read the statement, declaring the general strike as a failure. On the other hand, MP Kamal Abou Eita, head of the Egyptian Federation for Independent Trade Unions, said in an interview with Mehatet Masr on Modern Horeya channel on Saturday night that the vicious campaign against the strike was the reason why it didn't gain momentum. Those calling for the strike were accused of vandalizing the country and its economy to serve foreign agendas. Abu Eita said that a general strike was a legitimate act called by people reiterating the revolutions' demands to a military council that only answers to public pressure. –Additional reporting by Nadeen Shaker.
School students marched to state-TV building on Sunday, chanting against military rule. (Daily News Egypt Photo/Hassan Ibrahim)
