VZCZCXRO5457
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #0930 1261415
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 051415Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9166
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS CAIRO 000930 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR PASCUAL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PGOV PREL KDEM ECON EG
SUBJECT: MAY 4 STRIKE FIZZLES 
 
REF: A. CAIRO 783 
     ¶B. CAIRO 862 
 
Sensitive but unclassified. Not for internet distribution. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The general strike called for May 4 to 
protest rocketing inflation and low wages was largely a 
non-event. Activists from Kefaya ("The Egyptian Movement for 
Change") and virtual oppositionists using the social 
networking site Facebook called for the strike (scheduled 
purposefully on President Mubarak's eightieth birthday) as a 
follow on to an April 6 strike, which resulted in noticeably 
quieting Cairo's busy streets, and coincided with riots in 
the Nile Delta milltown of Mahalla (reftels).  While a 
Facebook group calling for the May 4 strike attracted almost 
75,000 members, the virtual activists were not able this time 
to translate their online rhetoric into a real-world work 
stoppage. End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) May 4 was a normal day in Cairo, albeit with a 
noticeably heightened security presence throughout the city. 
The independent media reported on small-scale protests in 
front of the Lawyer's Syndicate, and the Muslim Brotherhood's 
(MB) website claimed that absenteeism reached eighty-percent 
at Al Azhar University's theological colleges (we are unable 
to verify this figure). There were also press reports of 
small protests of Nasserite party-affiliated students at 
Assiyut University, in southern Egypt. Mahalla, scene of 
violent rioting on April 6 and 7, was an "armed camp" on May 
4, according to the independent press and bloggers, with GOE 
security forces patrolling in large numbers to ensure a 
scheduled "silent protest" did not occur. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The MB, which had previously announced it would 
participate in the May 4 strike, quickly declared the strike 
"a success even before it started."  MB Deputy Supreme Guide 
Mohamed Habib, noting President Mubarak's April 30 
announcement of a thirty percent raise in public sector 
salaries, progress in shortening bread lines, and the release 
of several detainees directly prior to the strike, said that, 
"The strike has achieved some of its desired objectives, 
despite the limited public participation."  Habib also 
alleged, "But for the MB's endorsement of the strike, the 
executive would never have hastened to take these measures." 
One secular civil society activist speculated to us that the 
MB's support for the strike may have actually reduced 
participation, as many more liberal potential strikers feared 
the MB would take the credit for a large-scale event.  A 
statement posted by the administrators of the strike's 
Facebook website claimed that the strike was successful: "The 
strike succeeded because we achieved our main goal - to 
inform ordinary citizens of their rights." 
 
¶4. (SBU) Comment:  The calculated timing of Mubarak's 
announcement of the salary increase (originally planned for 
May 5, but subsequently changed to April 30, once the May 4 
strike was announced), and the government's clear willingness 
to arrest online activists (as occurred to several supporters 
of the April 6 strike), drained the oxygen from the May 4 
endeavor.  The GOE's well-practiced carrot and stick tactics 
seem to have derailed Facebook's budding political activism, 
at least for the time being.  However, with bread prices 
still on the rise, and gas and cigarette prices set to 
increase substantially in order to finance the thirty percent 
government pay raise, simmering public anger at the 
government is not likely to ease. 
 
SCOBEY