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As predicted, while accepting that while it's true that  the unions were not "ignored", as alleged, nor were they necessarily presented as less significant than the facebook people, you DO now add to the requirements: "Too late, since most people form their opinions from the initial coverage. Not enough", oh and not quite the right "feel" for you.

Well I didn't research this exhaustively, but the earliest one of those I cited, Published Feb 9th, before Mubarak left, has this, but I'm sure this isn't enough and it could have been even earlier, even fuller, a better "feel", etc. But then the NYT IS MSM and not in the business of fulfilling the most exacting requirements of those of us on the left;  


Even protests that were not directly against Mr. Mubarak centered on the types of government neglect that have driven the call for him to leave power.

Protesters in Port Said, a city of 600,000 at the mouth of the Suez Canal, set fire to a government building, saying local officials had ignored their requests for better housing. And in one of the most potentially significant labor actions, thousands of workers for the Suez Canal Authority continued a sit-in on Wednesday, though there were no immediate suggestions of disruptions of shipping in the canal, a vital international waterway.
...

Increasingly, the political clamor for Mr. Mubarak's ouster seemed to be complemented by strikes nationwide. While many strikes seemed to focus on specific grievances related to working conditions, labor leaders suggested they were energized by protests against Mr. Mubarak.

Rahma Refaat, a lawyer at the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services, said, "Most of those on strike say that we have discovered that the resources of our country have been stolen by the regime."

The protest against the Suez Canal Authority began Tuesday night and was staged by about 6,000 workers. In Helwan, 6,000 workers at the Misr Helwan Spinning and Weaving Company went on strike, Ms. Refaat said.

More than 2,000 workers from the Sigma pharmaceutical company in Quesna began a strike while about 5,000 unemployed youths stormed a government building in Aswan, demanding the dismissal of the governor.

Postal workers protested in shifts, Ms. Refaat said. In Cairo, sanitation workers demonstrated outside their headquarters.

In Al Ahram's lobby, journalists called their protest a microcosm of the Egyptian uprising, with young journalists leading demands for better working conditions and less biased coverage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/world/middleeast/10egypt.html




Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
by Ted Welch (tedwelch-at-mac-dot-com) on Tue Feb 22nd, 2011 at 05:45:00 PM EST
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