i think the protests started beginning after the april 6th, 2008 strike in the textile factory with the workers. now we ve seen after this uprising led by the facebook generation, the youth here, we ve seen 16,000 workers of several companies working for the suez canal authority. we ve seen 1500 workers in mahala strike again. we ve seen workers strike out of the journalists building which is the state s newspaper here. we ve seen electrical workers strike. and so now that organized labor has joined this will put much greater economic pressure on hosni mubarak. already the tourism industry has been greatly affected. if that is shut down that will be very significant. right now the pressure is only mounting on hosni mubarak to step down. he keeps saying he is making concessions. none of these concessions meet
uprising this week. it s very significant. there are strikes happening across the country right now. i saw tens of thousands of lawyers walk in here today. tens of thousands of doctors in their lab coats walked in here today. labor is very much rooted in this uprising and has now joined it full force and is putting a lot of pressure on hosni mubarak right now. i want to want you to elaborate a little bit more on that. this, i think, is very under reported right now, that the root of this is labor and you say that there are more strikes that are taking place throughout the country which of course was set off by what really happened back in 2008. but this is starting to gain momentum. correct? well, this uprising started on january 25th but it has been smoldering for years and really i think the protests started beginning after the april 6th, 2008 strike in the textile factory with the workers.
all the violence that has come has come from the regime. the protesters here have defended themselves against that violence. but as they continue to remain peaceful and they plan to march to make their voices heard tomorrow, as one protester told me they will take cairo bit by bit if they have to until mubarak leaves. sharif, there was a a story printed in the l.a. times within the last 24 hours that said that the root of all of this is labor. did this whole thing start because of labor issues? what do you know about that? well, look. this uprising is led mainly by the youth generation, what they call the facebook generation but one of those groups is called the april 6th youth movement. april 6th is the date of a strike in 2008 in a textile city, one of the biggest in the world, 30,000 textile workers
peaceful and they plan to march to make their voices heard tomorrow, as one protester told me they will take cairo bit by bit if they have to until mubarak leaves. sharif, there was a a story printed in the l.a. times within the last 24 hours that said that the root of all of this is labor. did this whole thing start because of labor issues? what do you know about that? well, look. this uprising is led mainly by the youth generation, what they call the facebook generation but one of those groups is called the april 6th youth movement. april 6th is the date of a strike in 2008 in a textile city, one of the biggest in the world, 30,000 textile workers went on strike. that started this wave of protests that ultimately led to this uprising on the 25th. organized labor joined this
al sayed al badawi. his party is called the new wavwafd party. then mohammad badie leading the largest and most recognized opposition party in egypt, the muslim brotherhood. his biggest problem is the muslim brotherhood is officially banned in egypt. it s illegal. they still manage to hold a few seats in parliament for a while but not anymore. then there is the april 6th youth movement. you may have heard a little bit about them. they started on facebook about three years ago. they organized pro democracy rallies and they threw a big party for mohamed elbaradei. remember i mentioned him as one of the leading opposition leaders when he returned to egypt last year after his nobel peace prize and also running the atomic energy agency.