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AUC / Stanford Professor Joel Beinin, a leading expert on the Egyptian labor movement, has an article about the wave of strikes in Egypt over the past two years in the wonderfully designed magazine Waghett Nazar, a kind of Egyptian New York of Review of Books (only better looking). PDF link below. WN 2008-07 Beinin.pdf
Al-Ahram announced this morning that Mahmoud Gabali, the chairman of Mahalla for Spinning and Weaving, has been sacked and that workers would be given 135 days of pay. The decision, taken by the company's board, was based on accounting inconsistencies detected by the Central Auditing Agency, a government watchdog. Apparently the audit uncovered irregularities in inventory stock, large discounts given to local traders, and other possible signs of mismanagement or corruption.
The decision appears to meet most of the pay-related demands of the workers and has been greeted with joy by those who organized the biggest strikes in decades at the factory this year. It appears the government has finally shown sense and investigated the allegations made by the workers regarding the chairman of the company. This will no doubt encourage workers elsewhere to persevere with their own demands. I am certain that Hossam, who is traveling at the moment, will follow up with more details once he gets news from his labor activist contacts.
Update: Here is an English report.
Blogging Egypt's Factory Strikes:
Whether or not this is picked up in the American press shouldn't matter. It's a story to pay attention to, however you can. The textile factory at Ghazl el-Mahalla in the Nile Delta is Egypt's largest, with over 27,000 workers. Nearly all of the factory's workers went on strike last December to demand their yearly bonuses, which had been withheld and which provide most of their annual salary. On Sunday, some 10,000 of those factory workers went on strike again, demanding 150-day shares of annual profits, improved industrial safety, and a raise in their monthly bonuses. Within a few hours the number swelled to 15,000 as Egyptian police surrounded the factory. The Egyptian government quickly declared the strike "illegal." "The numbers of strikers are expected to rise in the coming few hours...the factory is under police siege," according to posts today by Egyptian blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy. His blog, 3arabawy, is one of Egypt's most widely read in English. Along with Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger who gained international attention last year by posting (and continuing to post) videos of police brutality, el-Hamalawy is a go-to source on the rumblings of a wide scale labor movement in Egypt.Keep track of Hossam's frequent updates to follow news of the strike. And come on, American journalists in Cairo, make the effort to do a different kind of story and head over to Mahalla al-Kubra. They make the best taamiya in Egypt. Update: AP has a report on the arrest of labor leaders.
At last some Western coverage of Egypt's labor strikes -- Labor movement possible future for Egypt opposition:
For every single strike over the past few months, government agencies have been quick to negotiate with the workers and grant their demands, which have generally been for unpaid bonuses, benefits, and salaries. "The government has the money to pay it because the price of oil is high and they've sold off a bunch more public sector enterprises," explained Joel Beinin, the head of the Middle East Studies department at the American University in Cairo and a long time observer of Egypt's labor scene. "This is the biggest, longest strike wave at least since the fall of 1951," he added. "Just in terms of the size of what we are talking about, it is substantially different from what we've had before." In his writings, Beinin has described the strikes as "the most substantial and broad-based kind of resistance to the regime." In 2006 alone, the independent daily Al Masri Al Youm counted 222 instances of labor unrest, including a weeklong strike at the massive spinning and weaving complex at Mahalla Al Kobra north of Cairo involving some 20,000 workers. The trend has continued in 2007 with daily reports of strikes. There are indications, however, that the government has become fed up with these protests and sit-ins, and labor minister Aisha Abdel Hadi has suggested that rabble rousers are behind the wave. "This situation has gone on long enough - we are working to solve the problems of the workers, but there are those who want to ignite a revolution," she said on television mid-April. Government ire has recently focused on labor nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like the Center for Trade Union and Worker Studies (CTUWS), which they have publicly accused of fomenting the strikes. In April, the organization's offices were closed down in the southern town of Nag Hammadi, the northern industrial complex of Mahalla, and Wednesday police dragged activists out of their headquarters in Cairo's gritty industrial suburb of Helwan. "Closing the offices of a labor rights group won't end labor unrest," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of the Human Rights Watch. "The government should be upholding legal commitments to Egypt's workers instead of seeking a scapegoat."Don't forget to read our own Arabawy for obsessive coverage of Egypt's labor movements!
The final schedule for the Conference and Forum meetings is now available in Arabic and English. Click on the poster below to download it...
I'll be speaking in two meetings. The first is on the fight against police torture in Egypt...
Sorry, some last-minute rearrangements... I won't be speaking at the anti-torture forum. Blogojournalist and friend Abdel Moneim will be kindly replacing me.
Cairo 3rd Social Forum
Raise your Voices against Torture
Activists against Torture
Friday 30th of March 2007
3.30 – 6.00 pm
Press Syndicate – 3rd floor
Slide show: Victims and Tormentors
Interventions by activists against torture
Testimonies by survivors and their families
Join us with testimonies and recommendations for an international movement against torture
And the other one on "Citizen Journalism," scheduled Saturday, 6pm, at the Press Sydicate 4th floor, Room 5..
I'll be speaking on the Egyptian blogosphere, part of the following forum: "Young Journalists: State Oppression and Violation of Economic Rights, Saturday from 3.30-5.30 pm, The Press Syndicate's 4th floor, Room 4
The conference should be a golden opportunity for us ya shabab to exchange experiences with international and local activists. I hope to see as many of you there. Click on the cartoon below to download the invitation and a background on the conference in Arabic, English, and French...
Kefaya activists in Alexandria have called for a sit-in, to protest Mubarak's dictatorial constitutional amendments, on Monday 26 March, at Manshiya Square, from 9am to 5pm.
Activists from different political tendencies are calling for a demonstration in Tahrir Sq., Sunday 25 March, 6pm, to protest Mubarak's dictatorial amendments to the constitution.
The organizers of the Fifth Cairo Conference Against Imperialism and Zionism invite you to attend their press conference, 22 March, 12 noon, at the Press Syndicate.
Representatives from the Muslim Brothers, Karama Party, The Revolutionary Socialists' Organization, Labor Party will brief journalists and activists on the international gathering of anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist activists planned from 29 March to 1 April, and will take questions from the audience.
Activists from at least 15 countries, including Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Venezuela, South Korea, Turkey, Greece, Nigeria, Britain, Canada, Tunisia, Sudan, France, Iran, will be taking part in the conference sessions and forums, starting from 29 March. Such international contingent will be comprised of young and veteran trade unionists, human rights activists, leftists, Hamas members, several social movements representatives.
Click on Latuff's cartoon below to download the invitation to the conference in Arabic, English and French...
The conference sessions will tackle the challenges and prospects facing the international anti-war and pro-Intifada movements, as the clouds of war on Iran gather. The participants will also discuss strategy and tactics for bridging the gap and uniting Islamist and leftist ranks in the face of US imperialism and Zionism.
Click on the poster below to download the final shedule of the conference talks and forums (in Arabic)...
Click on the logo below to download the registration form...
Bloggers and human rights activists have called for an anti-torture protest tomorrow Thursday 25 January, 4pm, in front of the Press Syndicate, to celebrate "Egyptian Police Day."
This, from the great code poet Alaa Seif, the Pink Dragon of the Bamboo Grove, is more elegant than Haiku:
< /mubarak>
If the new language of Egyptian activism is code, it looks like it will be as direct and as sparse.
Here's a scan of the front page from the Dec. 19 Daily Star Egypt:
And here's the original photo:
Enlarge
Notice anything?
Sources at The Daily Star say their printer unilaterally censored the photo.
Others who have edited publications registered abroad aren't buying it: They say the printer would sometimes warn them about content that could get an issue banned, but the final decision would always be the papers'.
But let's give The Daily Star the benefit of the doubt. So when are they firing their printer?
Activists are holding a stand in front of the State Council in Dokki, Saturday 16 December, 10am, in solidarity with Egypt's Bahaai minority, who are suffering state descrimination against them, that includes refusing to issue any official documents to them, since Mubarak's "secular" government requires the religion of the citizen to be mentioned on his/her ID cards. However, the Interior Ministry's computer can only process three entries: Muslim, Christian, Jew. Bahaai's cannot issue birth and death certificates, ID cards, or any govt document, since the Interior Ministry does not recognize they exist.
اذا كنت ترÙ�ض التمييز الديني، اذا كنت تؤمن بØقوق المواطنة، اذا كنت تنادي بالتغييــر الجذري ووطن عادل لجميع أبنائه شاركنا الوقÙ�Ø© التضامنية ضد التمييز السبت 16 ديسمبر 2006 - العاشرة صباØا - مجلس الدولة ندعوكم لمساندة المواطن البهائي المصري Øسام عزت Ù…Øمد موسى مواليد 22 يناير 1965 المهنة مهندس الديانة بهائي بطاقة شخصية رقم 5120 الصادرة عام 1995 من ØÙ‚ الأستاذ Øسام استخراج شهادات ميلاد لابنائه وبناته المصريين البهائيين For Background on the subjet, check EIPR's statement...
The Center for Socialist Studies is organizing a talk on "Lebanon: Between Politics and Sectarianism," Sunday 17 December, 7pm. Speakers include: Dr. Refa'at Seed Ahmad, Director of the Jaffa Center for Studies Engineer Wael Khalil, Socialist activist
ندعوكم Ù„Øضور ندوة Ù�ÙŠ مركز الدراسات الاشتراكية بعنوان: لبنــــــــان بيـن السـياسة والطـائÙ�ية يتØدث Ù�يها د. رÙ�عت سيد Ø£Øمد، مدير مركز ياÙ�ا للدراسات والأبØاث وائل خليل، مركز الدراسات الاشتراكية وآخرين
وذلك يوم الأØد 17/12/2006 الساعة7:00 مساء مركز الدراسات الاشتراكية 7 شارع مراد- الجيزة
Egyptian activists are holding an anti-torture protest in front of the Lawyers' Syndicate, this Wednesday 6 December at 4pm. More details in Arabic here...
Kefaya is calling up on civil society and environmental activists to join the movement's anti-corruption demo, Sunday 3 December, 1pm, in Matarriya Square to protest the unfair garbage collection fees.
I received news that leftist academics are holding a protest tomorrow Wednesday, from 11am to 12 noon, at Ain Shams University to protest the state-sponsored thuggery against activist students over the past couple of weeks. The professors will assemble in front of Qasr el-Za'afarana, the university's administration building.
It's about two weeks old, but Baheyya has written a beautiful portrait of the recently deceased Marxist intellectual and public servant (in the best sense of the term) Ismail Sabri Abdullah. I wish Baheyya would write more these days, but then again things are so much more depressing than they were last year. I can't blame her for hibernating. Update: Al Ahram Weekly also has pieces on Abdullah here and here.
For a follow up, click on the photo below...
In response to the Beit Hanoun massacre of Palestinian women and children, The Muslim Brotherhood, the Revolutionary Socialists and Kefaya have called for a women's demonstration in front of the Arab League in Tahrir Square, Thrusday November 16 at 2:00 p.m. The demonstration will be the first street event organized jointly by women activists from the secular and religious opposition.
اØتجاجا على مقتل النساء والأطÙ�ال Ù�ÙŠ بيت Øانون على أيدي قوات الاØتلال الإسرائيلي، تدعو جماعة الاخوان المسلمين وتيار الاشتراكيين الثوريين ÙˆØركة ÙƒÙ�اية لمظاهرة نسائية أمام مقر جامعة الدول العربية بميدان التØرير الخميس 16 نوÙ�مبر، الساعة 2 ظهراً
تعد المظاهرة الأولى من نوعها لجمعها نساء المعارضة العلمانية والدينية معاً
Kefaya is calling for a demonstration to support judicial independence in Egypt, Friday 17 November at 1pm, in Abdel Khaleq Tharwat Street, on the same day the Judges' Club general assembly will be convening.
Issandr El Amrani