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April 6 Youth Movement

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The April 6 Youth Movement is an Egyptian Facebook group started by Ahmad Maher in Spring 2008 to support the workers in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, an industrial town, who were planning to strike on April 6.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Activists called on participants to wear black and stay home the day of the strike. Bloggers and citizen journalists used Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs and other new media tool to report on the strike, alert their networks about police activity, organize legal protection and draw attention to their efforts.[7]

The New York Times has identified the movement as the political Facebook group in Egypt with the most dynamic debates.[8] As of January 2009, it had 70,000 predominantly young and educated members, most of whom had not been politically active before; their core concerns include free speech, nepotism in government and the country's stagnant economy.[8] Their discussion forum on Facebook features intense and heated discussions, and is constantly updated with new postings.

Public activism and arrests

Aside from discussing the state of the nation online, members of the group have organized public rallies to free imprisoned journalists and engaged in protests concerning the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict.[8] In its official pronouncements, the group stresses that it is not a political party. Ahmed Maher the founders of the group, were arrested by the Egyptian authorities in May 2008 in an attempt to shut it down.[9]

In July 2008, Maher was again arrested, along with 14 other members of the group, and charged with "incitement against the regime". He also claimed that Egyptian state security officers threatened to rape him in custody.[10]

On April 6, 2009 the group was subjected to attacks, suspected to have been orchestrated by the Egyptian government. Several websites supporting the group were hacked simultaneously, and protests in Cairo were confronted by plain clothed Egyptian policemen and numerous arrests.[11]

On January 29th, 2011 a wikileaks document was revealed to show how the United States actively supported efforts for regime change in Egypt by secretely assisting members of the movement, foreshadowing public protests developing in the 2011 uprising against the Mubarak regime, a former ally after the U.S. requests for democratic and social reforms were ignored.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Wolman, David (October 20, 2008). "Cairo Activists Use Facebook to Rattle Regime". Wired. Condé Nast Publications. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  2. ^ Ghafour, Hamida (August 25, 2008). "Parliament is burning, and the watching crowd is laughing". The National. Martin Newland. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  3. ^ Hussein, Abdel-Rahman (July 27, 2008). "Protestors say Agrium plant is like Nazi gas chambers". Daily News Egypt. Egyptian Media Services. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  4. ^ Carr, Sarah (July 30, 2008). "April 6 youth detainees still in custody despite release order". Daily News Egypt. Egyptian Media Services. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  5. ^ Hussein, Abdel-Rahman (September 18, 2008). "Emaar accused of culpability in Duweiqa rockslide". Daily News Egypt. Egyptian Media Services. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  6. ^ Al-Anani, Khalil (September 2, 2008). "In Focus: The Dilemma of Egypt's Liberals". Daily News Egypt. Egyptian Media Services. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  7. ^ Radsch, Courtney (Fall 2008). "Core to Commonplace: The evolution of Egypt's blogosphere". Arab Media & Society. American University of Cairo. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  8. ^ a b c Shapiro, Samantha M (January 22, 2009). "Revolution, Facebook-Style". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  9. ^ Ellen Knickmeyer (2008-05-18). "Fledgling Rebellion on Facebook Is Struck Down by Force in Egypt". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  10. ^ Liam Stack (2008-07-30). "Egypt detains Facebook activists – again". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  11. ^ http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/
  12. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289698/Egypt-protests-secret-US-document-discloses-support-for-protesters.html
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