I finally received a copy of the statements distributed in the Ghazl el-Mahalla last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Both statements are agitating for a sit-in on 21 July if demands related to work conditions and housing are not met. The first is signed by “The 7th of December Movement- Workers For Change,” in reference to 7 December 2006, when a 27,000-strong strike brought the factory to halt causing an upturn in industrial militancy. The statement starts by affirming that this previously unknown entity is not affiliated with any political or religious group, refuses to recognize the corrupt Egyptian General Federation of Trade Unions (EGFTU) officials, and then blasts the “ruling regime” for “selling Egypt with the lowest price,” for corruption, rigging elections, and repression.
And below is the second statement, calling for a sit-in, and demanding the impeachment of the company’s CEO:
What is interesting is the name this previously unknown group has picked for itself. “Workers For Change” was Kefaya’s not-that-successful attempt to link the anti-Mubarak campaign with working class struggle championed by the radical left. Its representatives did not perform well during the labor union elections in fall 2006, and not necessarily because of the security interventions. But the wave of strikes instigated by Ghazl el-Mahalla’s truimphant industrial action last December, produced some political impact… whether it’s the demand to impeach the corrupt, state-sponsored trade unionists and the threats to launch an independent national labor union parallel to Mubarak’s EGFTU by the most advanced sections in the movement, or the “Workers For Change” statements we are receiving from places like Kafr el-Dawar and now Ghazl el-Mahalla that is slowly adopting the lingo of the radical left even if it is not necessarily affiliated organizationally with the current operating leftist groups.
I hope this translation works for the first document in the 7th of December movement. I took a crack at it:
To All Egyptian Workers
Announcement from the December 7th Movement – Workers For Change
First: The December 7th Movement (Workers For Change) is purely a workers movement with the association of all honorable Egyptian workers in all variety of workplaces on Egyptian soil.
The movement does not belong to political parties or holds any political or religious leanings. We grew out of the Ghazl Al Mahalla uprising on 7 December, 2006.
The goal of the movement is unification of the ranks of all Egyptian workers in all variety of workplaces so they can have political, economic and social weight and have a prominent role in defining the direction of Egyptian politics in all aspects of life political, economic and social.
Therefore the December 7th Movement (Workers for Change) itself undertakes and issues this announcement carrying the number one and has been sent to a few newspapers to be published. A definition and goals of the movement was needed after Egypt was swept by a series of workers strikes in the previous period making it necessary the movement announce itself and on one of its first goals which is to not recognize official worker representatives such as the workers syndicates and the workers union which have proven to everyone they have abandoned workers legal demands. (These representatives) specifically reached their positions by rigging their elections with not one of them actually being elected but threw themselves into the ruling system and became allied with corruption in harming the interest of workers and even contributing to squandering national wealth by joining in and selling Egypt at the lowest prices and agreeing to unjust laws that increase hardship for workers. This has led to a degradation of (workers) standard of living and a deterioration of society for the Egyptian people in exchange for bribes, kickbacks, plundering, theft, corruption, nepotism and counterfeit elections in their favor in all aspects of life, in the parliament or in the syndicate. So the question which now presents itself is how long will this state of affairs continue with us in a continuous deterioration of wages, out of control prices and the monopolization of every single thing until the country is monopolized and destroyed or goes to a point where we find ourselves unable to find the country we live in and become Egyptian refugees? – Should we wait until that happens? – of course not. We will not wait, for the time has come for us to rise up as one hand and shout in one loud voice to put an end to this corruption, tyranny, injustice, subjugation and humiliation and wipe out all of this and take back the rights, first among them freedom and democracy, from the thieves, robbers and hypocrites in this country we suffer from. Let’s go workers of Egypt and fear nothing. Now is the time to carry out what is agreed upon with the decision makers who are the president of the Egyptian Federation, the Minister of Manpower, and doctor the Minister of Investment with the demands the Ghazal Al Mahalla workers which are:
1- Increase the percentage of incentives by 100 percent from the basic salary adding to the monthly incentives.
2- Raise wages and production quotas.
3- Establish a transportation service for workers.
4- Pay the remainder of profits according to the text of Decree 467 of 2006.
5- Establish a project to build vertical housing instead of horizontal housing and this is the smallest of requests of Al Mahalla workers to achieve social peace and (end) class differences that are now a common characteristic of Egypt.
Our time is 21 July, 2007, to build a new free nation if these demands – which all Egyptian workers, not just Al Mahalla workers – have never benefited and history bears witness to this.
December 7th Movement (Workers for Change)
Thanks!!!
Excellent, thanks.
Hossam, could you perhaps explain to me a bit about this:
5- Establish a project to build vertical housing instead of horizontal housing and this is the smallest of requests of Al Mahalla workers to achieve social peace and (end) class differences that are now a common characteristic of Egypt.
Does this refer to housing as in the provision of homes, buildings? Or am i completely off the mark?
It refers to the style of building the houses… Horizontal: Constructing two story buildings… which has been criticized by the workers, who are demanding the state instead expands “vertically” in the housing projects, ie building high rises to house more workers close to the factory