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Nadine Abdalla is a non-resident fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. She holds a Ph.D. from Sciences-Po Grenoble, France and an MA in international relations from Sciences-Po Paris. She has worked with several Egyptian and European think tanks and research centers, such as the Arab Forum for Alternative Studies (AFA), Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS), and the Center for Studies and Research about the Arab World and the Mediterranean (CERMAM) in Geneva. Her research interests include social movements, labor and youth movements, social and political change in Egypt, and the transition to democracy in a comparative perspective. Nadine writes a weekly column for the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Though it was not at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement, Egyptian labor played a decisive role in bringing down the Mubarak regime in 2011. Labor demonstrations had been increasing since late 2004, which helped to foster the atmosphere of protest in which Egyptians took to the streets in the thousands. The labor protests had emerged outside of the state-run Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), as workers felt that the institution that was supposedly representing their interests was actually defending the interests of the regime.
