Mass protests and strikes escalate as Egyptians reject “orderly transition”
Cairo’s Tahrir square was filled with the largest demonstration yet Tuesday, as masses of Egyptians rejected the “orderly transition” through which the Obama administration and its principal ally, former military intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, are attempting to salvage Egypt’s dictatorial military regime. The mass demonstration in Cairo, staged as the uprising shaking the US-backed dictatorship of President Hosni Mubarak enters its third week, was accompanied by similar outpourings in Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest city, and in smaller towns and cities across the country. Even more significantly, the mass popular demonstrations demanding the ouster of Mubarak were joined by a growing wave of strikes by Egyptian workers and angry demonstrations by youth demanding jobs.