Introduction

“We started the 2011 revolution and the rest of Egypt followed,” say Egyptian workers with strong conviction. Egyptian independent workers’ continuous claims of contention and repertoires of protest were one of several main factors leading to the January 25, 2011, uprising. After thirty-two years of a Mubarak-led authoritarian regime, massive protests began in January 2011 and forced President Mubarak to step down from his position. The first question addressed in this research endeavor is, How did Egyptian workers challenge the regime and how did they become one of the factors leading to the January 2011 uprising? These workers were organized into loose networks of different independent groups that had been protesting for a decade and longer prior to January 2011. However, their regular protests for over a decade before 2011 challenged the authoritarian regime.