Abstract

GJERGJI, Iside. Egypt in the Revolutionary Age: Workers struggles before and after the 2011 uprisings. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais [online]. 2014, n.103, pp.81-110. ISSN 2182-7435.  https://doi.org/10.4000/rccs.5544.

Western commentators have referred to the Egyptian revolution as a Facebook-revolution, i.e. a social and political phenomenon mostly instigated (basically through social media) by middle-classes and highly-educated young people calling for Western democratic (and, ça va sans dire, pro-market) reforms. This untrue revolutionary postcard have been erased the underlying socioeconomic roots of the 2011 Egyptian uprising. As a consequence, the unprecedented wave of labour protests over the last three years almost seems to come out of the blue and, moreover, the Egyptian workers’ role in the 2011 upheaval receive little attention. This paper argues that socioeconomic factors are at the very heart of the Egyptian uprising and, in this perspective, it aims to contribute some essential aspects in considering the rising Egyptian labour movement as a key actor in a long-term revolutionary process.

Keywords : Egypt; labour movement; revolution; revolutionary process; social media.

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