Kifaya may be in its death throes but this week's workers sit-in at the Ghazl Al-Mahalla textile factory shows that dissent is alive and kicking, writes Amira Howeidy As the world watched tens of thousands of Lebanese fill Beirut's main squares in rallies to bring down the government an equally significant, albeit different situation, was simmering in Egypt. Last week, from Friday till Sunday, an estimated 30,000 workers went on strike, gathering in the Delta Al-Mahalla textile factory to protest the management's refusal to pay them a promised two-month bonus. Their demands were finally met, but only after the strike had cost the factory LE70 million (over $12 million). Back in Cairo hundreds of angry students organised demonstrations at Al-Azhar University to protest the suspension of tens of their colleagues for joining the Free Students Union (FSU), an independent body formed last year in response to regular security intervention in official student union elections. The recent October-November student polls turned violent when plain-clothed policemen entered campuses and attacked voters and organisers with sticks, knives and bottles. On Monday the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom published photos of Al-Azhar University students from the FSU in black outfits and masks with the word "steadfast" printed on them. They were photographed while performing martial arts exercises which they said they did on campus to show security forces that they could defend themselves if it proved necessary. The students claimed they were threatened by security personnel because of their affiliation with the FSU. While events marking the second anniversary of the founding of the opposition group Kifaya had been expected to garner the media limelight it was textile workers and angry students that hit the headlines. Kifaya's anniversary demonstration on Tuesday attracted barely 100 activists and was overshadowed by the resignation of seven prominent members who have accused the movement's leadership of adopting a dictatorial style. Born two years ago, Kifaya broke previously sacrosanct taboos by publicly saying no to president Hosni Mubarak. It inspired numerous other groups, including judges, university professors, women's groups and journalists, to agitate for reform and democratisation. Two years later this loose but expanded dissent movement was expected to have achieved at least some of its objectives, including mobilising public opinion in support of civil disobedience. Instead, signs of growing disobedience have surfaced among groups that have no affiliation with the movement. On 8 November 3,000 workers at Egypt's largest shipyard downed their tools to protest the death of a colleague killed in a crane accident the day before, bringing Port Said shipyard to a standstill. They demanded better working conditions and full compensation for the worker's family. On 24 November the Egyptian Pharmacists' Syndicate (EPS) held an extraordinary assembly at the EPS's headquarters attended by 2,000 pharmacists. The meeting was convened in response to a series of police raids on pharmacies during which a number of pharmacists were detained. The raids, say the EPS, are intended to intimidate pharmacists so they do not campaign against the government's proposed privatisation of parts of the Holding Company for Pharmaceutical Industries. The four-hour meeting discussed a range of responses to the recent police campaign as well as possible action opposing the planned privatisation. Their options included boycotting medicines produced by the state-owned company as well as closing Egypt's pharmacies for a day. The raids stopped and the strike plan was frozen. On 5 November 150 train drivers staged a strike at Cairo's main railway terminus. The angry drivers called for the release of a colleague arrested after his passenger train crashed into a cargo train last September killing three and injuring 36. They said he was a scapegoat for government negligence and technical problems caused by poor or no railway maintenance. The driver was released the following day. While demonstrations -- banned under the 24- year-old Emergency Law -- are not new to Egypt, the frequency and intensity of recent apolitical protests are evoking reactions from observers. Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, believes "we're seeing so many protests over a short span of time because the problems these sectors are objecting to continue to persist and the government continues to ignore them." For Ayman El-Sayyad, managing editor of the monthly Weghat Nazar (Points of View) magazine, what we're seeing today is the "outcome" of accumulated frustration. "We've pontificated a lot about accumulation and wondered why Egyptians are not reacting to the miserable socio-economic conditions of the past 25 years. It appears to me that we're actually witnessing the effect of all this on various social groups now." This is worrying for El-Sayyad because it smacks of "chaos". "The authorities blocked all legal channels for organised political activity and the politicians, oppressed and cornered, are not leading dissent which has been left to burst out both sporadically and chaotically. "Just look at the number of demonstrators who turned up for the last Kifaya protest and the masses we saw at Al-Mahalla textile factory," he said. While others, like ex-judge Tarek El-Bishri, find it a "healthy" sign that dissent and protests have survived the security blows directed at political groups like Kifaya, El-Sayyad is less sanguine. "Unfortunately the coming waves of dissent will be more anarchic and could prove uncontrollable," he said. "Oppressed people usually express themselves in violent ways. Look what happened during the first day of Eid [when dozens of men sexually harassed women in the streets of Downtown Cairo for two days.]"
