The uprising in Cairo began with the Egyptian labor movement several years earlier. Tens of thousands of employees from public and private textile mills started protesting in El Mahalla el Kubra in April 6, 2008. In 2008, the protests started off as labor demands, but today, in 2011, they now have become demands for general change.
See "Egypt uprising has its roots in a mill town", Timothy M. Phelps, Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2011