Workers' Liberty

The longest and strongest wave of worker protest since World War II is rolling through Egypt.

Initially concentrated in the state-owned textile mills of the Nile Delta, the job actions have now proliferated in other factories and workplaces, including those operated by private companies.

The regime of President Husni Mubarak has started to crack down on the strikers, as the most militant activists are shifting their gaze from wages, benefits and working conditions to the explicitly political question of labor's relation to the state.

Joel Beinin and Hossam el-Hamalawy report from Cairo in "Strikes in Egypt Spread from Center of Gravity," now available in Middle East Report Online.