(Adds inflation figures, paragraph 4)
By Jonathan Wright
CAIRO, April 29 (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, on Tuesday joined the campaign for a general strike against the government on May 4, the 80th birthday of long-serving president Hosni Mubarak.
Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef said people should stay at home on that day "in peaceful protest to demand solutions to the crises and to tackle the deteriorating conditions which the people are suffering".
"The Muslim Brotherhood is against public policies which entrench corruption and despotism ... The executive has blocked its ears and shut its eyes to all calls for reform," he added.
The prestige of the ruling establishment has been shaken over the past year by an increased number of labour strikes demanding higher wages to face inflation which has hit 14.4 percent in the year to March. Food prices from dairy goods to cooking oils have also hit record highs.
A group of activists, mainly leftists and liberals, agitated for a national strike on April 6 to coincide with a strike by textile workers in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla al-Kubra, without much success outside the town itself.
The Brotherhood, which can mobilise larger crowds than any other opposition force in Egypt, did not actively back that strike, depriving the protest movement of crucial support.
Advocates of a May 4 strike, grouped on the social networking system Facebook, are demanding a minimum wage, salary rises linked to inflation, legislation and other measures to control prices, and the release of people detained in Mahalla.
Two people were killed and more than 150 injured in Mahalla in riots spread over two days.
The government, on the defensive after recent big jumps in food prices, quickly offered the Mahalla workers more money. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has promised that public-sector workers will get pay rises of at least 20 percent in July.
The main Facebook group promoting the strike now has close to 74,000 members, up from about 60,000 a month ago.
The Muslim Brotherhood did not state in detail the political demands behind the strike but the Islamist movement has been in the forefront of calls for fair elections and the rule of law.
The Brotherhood has borne the brunt of a government crackdown on many forms of dissent over the past 15 months, and hundreds of members are usually in custody without charge.
A May 4 strike also has the support of the umbrella protest movement Kefaya, which began in 2004 in opposition to a new presidential term for Mubarak or any attempt to install his politician son Gamal as his successor.
Mubarak's current fifth term expires in 2011 and he has not said what he intends to do afterwards. His son Gamal, a senior official of the ruling party, has denied having any presidential ambitions but is widely seen as Mubarak's obvious heir.
Issandr el-Amrani, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said it was natural for the Brotherhood to take a more confrontational attitude toward the government after a military court jailed 25 members on April 15.
"But I don't really see that this strike in itself, even if the Muslim Brotherhood supports it, is going to be a decisive moment," Amrani said. (Editing by Giles Elgood)
