CAIRO, Feb 10: For the first time, Egyptian labour unions have gone on a nationwide strike, adding momentum to pro-democracy demonstrations in Cairo and other cities.
Around 20,000 factory workers stayed away from work on Wednesday, demanding raise in salaries, Al Jazeera reported.
Anti-government activists also called on supporters to expand their demonstrations in defiance of the vice-president’s warning that protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster would not be tolerated for much longer.
Vice-President Omar Sulaiman, who is managing the crisis, raised the prospect of a new crackdown on protesters when he told Egyptian newspaper editors there could be a "coup" unless demonstrators agree to enter negotiations.
Although it was not completely clear what the vice-president intended in his “coup” comment, the protesters heard it as a veiled threat to impose martial law - which would be a dramatic escalation in the standoff.
Sulaiman, a military man who was intelligence chief before being elevated to vice president amid the crisis, tried to explain the remark by saying: “I mean a coup of the regime against itself, or a military coup or an absence of the system. Some force, whether its the army or police or the intelligence agency or the [opposition Muslim] Brotherhood or the youth themselves could carry out ‘creative chaos’ to end the regime and take power,” he said.
Sulaiman, a close confidant of Mubarak, also reiterated his view that Egypt is not ready for democracy.
“The culture of democracy is still far away,” he told state and independent newspaper editors in the roundtable discussion Tuesday.
http://en.harakahdaily.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2253:no-end-to-protest-as-labour-unions-join-egypts-revolution&catid=37:world&Itemid=59
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