Youth Movement of April 6th

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The April 6 Youth Movement ( Arabic شباب 6 ابريل) is a Facebook group founded by Ahmed Maher and Israa Abdel Fattah , which initially supported workers from Mahalla al-Kubra in Egypt during their strike on April 6, 2008, and later one of the initiators of the 2011 revolution in Egypt .

history

The two founders, the engineer Ahmed Maher and the personnel administrator Israa Abdel Fattah, already knew each other from the al-Ghad party's election campaign in 2005. For a short time, hopes for democratic reforms sprang up after President Mubarak allowed opposition parties, including the al -Ghad party of Aiman ​​Nur . Maher and Fattah worked in the party headquarters of al-Ghad ("The Morning"). The election, however, was neither free nor democratic, and party leader Nour was imprisoned for four years. Maher and Fattah withdrew from conventional politics in disappointment.

In March 2008, both of them decided to support a workers' strike planned for April 6 by the Misr spinning and weaving mill in the city of Mahalla al-Kubra and founded a Facebook group for this purpose . Via the social network they called for a general strike to protest against rising food prices. In a short time, 76,000 followers were won. Violent protests broke out, with several injuries and two dead. Numerous activists were arrested, including Fattah, because she had called for the protests. She then renounced political activism. Co-founder Maher said in the Washington Post in May 2008 : "Our main job is to educate people about their rights so that they know how to break their handcuffs and unfasten their shackles."

In 2011 the group mobilized parts of the population, for example through a video by Asmaa Mahfouz from January 18, 2011, about the revolution in Egypt . Young, well-educated Egyptians in particular, many of whom had previously had little to do with politics, rose up against the regime of Muhammad Husni Mubarak . According to their own presentation, the group was “independent of political directions or political trends”. Its members only motivated "the love for our country and the desire to reform it". The aim was the fundamental change towards a democracy, in particular the right to found political parties, the end of emergency legislation and a new, ideology-free constitution. She advocated a coalition of all opposition factions , supported Mohamed ElBaradei and was open to cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood .

The April 6th movement was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 .

On March 29, 2013, the movement organized an extraordinary demonstration in front of the home of the Egyptian Interior Minister. The activists wore underwear and a banner portraying the Minister of the Interior as "the regime's prostitute". Three movement activists were arrested: Abdel Azim Fahmy (Known by Zizo), Mohamed Mustapha and Mamdouh Hassan (Known by Abou Adam). Another activist was later captured: Sayed Mounir.

On May 10, 2013, Ahmed Maher was arrested on his return to Egypt. He was accused of inciting protests. Maher was released a day later. On May 12, 2013 the movement decided to join the campaign of the recently launched Tamarod platform, which called for a vote of no confidence in the then President Mohamed Morsi.

After the military came back to power , members of the movement took part in the initiative "The Third Square", which was launched by liberal, left-wing and moderate Islamist forces and was directed against rule by the Muslim Brotherhood and the military.

In October 2013, the youth movement held internal elections in which Amr Ali was elected to succeed the previous coordinator, Ahmed Maher. Ali is a co-founder of the movement and originally an accountant from Menufiya. In December 2013, Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel (co-founder of April 6) and well-known activist and blogger Ahmed Douma were sentenced to three years in prison for violating the right to demonstrate. On April 28, 2014, the movement was declared illegal by an Egyptian court.

backgrounds

In the early 1990s, the end of many tariff barriers was resolved by a new agreement between the IMF and Egypt . As a result, the economy was liberalized and able to produce more for export; the increased competition in turn resulted in an increase in the rent of land . The increase made peasant small-scale production more difficult and drove hundreds of thousands into poverty and unable to sell anything but their labor. This, too, did not always go smoothly, “obsolete” means of production and privatization in order to relieve public finances often led to job cuts. In April 2008, spontaneous strikes took place against the ensuing effects. As described, these were supported via the Internet.

In 2004 there were around 400 internet cafés in Kario. Today around one in ten Egyptians has a computer with an Internet connection. The social backgrounds of the users are different, even if it can be said with certainty that the poorer part of the population cannot actively participate in the design, even if the opportunity to blog is not only available to the elite. While at the beginning of 2011 the working population was stuck in other economic conflicts, the internet platform continued to develop. In the conflict between Hamas and Israel, for example, there was a unilateral position for Hamas , which initiated non-state political demonstrations as early as 2009, thus influencing the opposition movement even before the 2011 uprising in the Maghreb and the mass demonstrations.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Wolman: Cairo Activists Use Facebook to Rattle Regime , Wired , October 20, 2008 (in English)
  2. ^ Criticism of the “Facebook girl” Süddeutsche.de, January 31, 2011
  3. ↑ Lena Jakat: The children of April 6 and the day of the decision Süddeutsche.de, January 31, 2011
  4. ^ Karl Ritter, Bjoern H. Amland: Nobel Peace Prize 2011 For Arab Spring? ( Memento of March 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). HUFFPOST WORLD, September 29, 2011
  5. ^ The April 6 five-year anniversary: ​​How peaceful protests turned violent . Ahram Online . Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  6. ↑ The April 6 Activists Carrying Women Lingerie . Twitter account: @Mad Darsh . Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  7. ^ The April 6 Activists Carrying Women Lingerie in front of the Interior Minster's House . Kelmati "My Word" News . Archived from the original on April 1, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 1, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.klmty.net
  8. ↑ April 6's Ahmed Maher arrested . In: Daily News Egypt , May 10, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2013. 
  9. ↑ April 6 group leader Ahmed Maher freed in Egypt . In: BBC News Middle East , May 11, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2013. 
  10. ^ Egypt's 6 April joins signature drive against President Morsi . In: Ahramonline , May 12, 2013. Retrieved December 29, 2013. 
  11. ^ Between Tahrir and Rabaa: The Third Square . In: Al Jazeera English , July 29, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2013. 
  12. ↑ Amr Ali becomes April 6's new coordinator . In: Daily News Egypt , October 28, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2013. 
  13. ↑ Martin Gehlen: Three opponents of Mubarak condemned . Tagesspiegel, December 22, 2013, accessed April 28, 2014
  14. ^ Judgment in Cairo: Egypt bans democracy movement April 6th . Spiegel Online, April 28, 2014, accessed on the same day
  15. ↑ Wildcat No. 82, Fall 2008
  16. ^ Courtney C. Radsch: Core to Commonplace: The evolution of Egypt's blogosphere. Arab Media & Society, ISSN  1687-7721 No. 6, Fall 2008 (online edition with abbreviated references); Also available: Text output with unabridged references: - ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. PDF (in English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arabmediasociety.com
  17. ↑ Shapiro, Samantha M: Revolution, Facebook-Style , New York Times , January 22, 2009 (in English)