Check info posted below on the international solidarity protests, as well as some of the messages of solidarity I received. I’ll add more later…
BRITAIN
There will be a solidarity protest in front of the embassy in London around noon today (Friday April 11.). The following letter was also sent to the embassy:
MANCHESTER TRADES UNION COUNCIL
Established 1866 , incorporating Trafford TUC
Secretary: Geoff Brown, Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street, Manchester M1 6DD.
secmtuc@googlemail.com , www.mtuc.org.uk 07857 610 426
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The Ambassador,
Egyptian Embassy
26 South Street
London
W1K 1DW
By fax and email
Dear Ambassador,
Protest against shootings and mass arrests of strikers and demonstrators
On behalf of Manchester Trades Union Council, I am writing to protest at the occupation of the El-Mahalla complex by security forces and the shootings, tear gassing and mass arrests of strikers and demonstrators in Egypt since Sunday 6 April.
Across the world we are seeing unending attacks on workers as governments and employers try to keep wages down while prices rise. In Britain too, as you know, we have experience of this. On 24 April, hundreds of thousands of teachers and government officials will be on strike against the attempts of the government to hold wage increases below inflation.
These attempts to use the so called ‘free market’ follow the neo-liberal policies of the international financial institutions: the IMF, World Bank, WTO and governments around the world are anti worker, anti trade union policies which increase the poverty of millions while enriching the few,
We formally request you to inform your government of our protest and our call for the release of the hundreds detained including the protesters at Mahalla and the Mahalla strike committee leaders.
Yours sincerely,
Geoff Brown
Secretary
CANADA
1) Solidarity rally on Friday (TODAY APRIL 11)
Join an emergency rally this Friday to protest the violent repression of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime that has attacked thousands of striking workers, arrested hundreds of protesters and killed two people in recent days. Show your solidarity with Egyptian workers, and their struggle for wages and democratic reform.
Emergency rally
Friday, April 11
5:00pm to 6:30pm (join us when you can)
Outside the offices of EgyptAir
151 Bloor Street West, downtown Toronto
(east of Avenue Road, south side of Bloor)
TTC: St. George or Bay
For more information, please phone 416-795-5863 or e-mail stopthewar@sympatico.ca.
Organized by the Toronto Egyptian Solidarity Campaign.
2) Send a protest message to the Egyptian Embassy
Please take a few moments to send the message below to the Egyptian Embassy in Ottawa, the Egyptian Cosulate in Montreal and senior government officials in Egypt (Prime Minister, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs):
Step 1:
Cut and paste the following e-mail addresses into your address line:
egyptemb@sympatico.ca, egyptian.embassy@rogers.com, primemin@idsc.gov.eg, center@iscmi.gov.eg, minexter@idsc1.gov.eg, questions@cabinet.gov.eg
Step 2 (optional):
Personalize your message – explain, in your own words, why you support Egyptian workers and oppose the repression by the Egyptian government.
Step 3:
Cut and paste the sample message below into your e-mail, and send:
Ambassador Dr. Mahmoud El-Saeed
Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Canada
454 Laurier Avenue East
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 6R3
Dear Dr. Mahmoud El-Saeed:
I am writing to you today to condemn in the strongest terms possible the violent acts of the Egyptian state in its attacks on Egyptian workers at the El-Mahalla factory in the Nile Delta. I want you to know that the Canadian public is both alarmed and outraged at the behaviour of the Egyptian state and its flagrant violations of human rights, labor standards and international law.
So far, thousands of striking workers have been attacked, hundreds of protesters have been arrested and two people have been killed. Many more have been injured. These are shameful acts.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that your government has attacked the Egyptian people. I am aware that hundreds of pro-democracy and pro-reform campaigners have suffered repression at the hands of the Egyptian state, including forty men who are currently being tried by military tribunals in Egypt, despite the fact that many of them have been acquitted by civilian courts on numerous occasions.
I call on you to pressure your own government to stop immediately all attacks on workers at the El-Mahalla factory and on all Egyptian citizens, and to release immediately all political prisoners who have been detained for their labor and political activism.
Please be advised that the illegal and undemocratic actions of the Egyptian state will not go unnoticed in the rest of the world. The people of Canada are watching, and are expecting you to do the right thing: end the repression, and release the detainees now!
Sincerely,
Your name
Your address (optional)
Date
Step 4 (optional):
Cut and paste the same message above into the online feedback box on the websites of the Egyptian Embassy in Ottawa and the Egyptian Consulate in Montreal.
3) Send a solidarity message to Egyptian workers
It is vitally important that Egyptian activists know about your solidarity and support. Please send a message of support to the address below to let Egyptian workers know about what you’re doing to support their struggle.
Messages from trade union activists in Canada are especially important. If possible, please ask your union leadership to send an official letter of support.
6apri08@gmail.com
– – – – –
USA
there will be a protest at the Egyptian consulate in New York at 1PM Monday, April 14th. For more information, get in touch with jenroesch[at]gmail[dot]com
Some messages of solidarity:
We send greetings and solidarity to the strikers of Al Mahalla, as well as to the other sectors in Egypt who are struggling for their dignity as workers and as human beings.
We are with you.
Emilen Castro Oteo, Officer for International Solidarity in the National Secretariat of the trade union STEE-EILAS (Union of Education Workers of the Basque Country)
—
IZQUIERDA SOCIALISTA DE MÁLAGA
P.S.O.E. DE ANDALUCÍA.
is-psoe.malaga@terra.es
SOLIDARITY LETTER FROM ANDALUSIANS WORKERS (SPAIN)
Dear brothers and sisters,
(Estimados hermanos y hermanas),
We have been informed by the comrades of In Defence of Marxism that the government has isolated the city of Mahala Kobra from other parts of Egypt and also cut off the electricity to prevent any means of communucation and preventing journalist and media from goin into the city. And have closed down Trade Union.
(Hemos sido informados por compañeros de En Defensa del Marxismo, que el gobierno ha aislado la ciudad de Mahala Kobra de otras zonas de Egipto y también ha cortado la electricidad para prohibir cualquier medio de comunicación e impedir a los periodistas entrar en la ciudad. Y han cerrado el Sindicato.)
More than 350 people were detained in this city alone. (Más de 350 personas han sido detenidas sólo en esa ciudad)
We are sending you our solidarity and support and wish you well in your struggle.
( Les enviamos nuestra solidaridad y apoyo, con el deseo de que ganen la lucha.)
Comradely,
Fraternalmente,
COORDINADORA PROVINCIAL DE MALAGA.
IZQUIERDA SOCIALISTA-PSOE ANDALUCIA.
(ESPAÑA)
Fdo. José Martín Rodríguez.
Portavoz en Málaga.
Is-psoe.malaga@terra.es
—
We read on the internet today about these events. We send solidarity from the UK Labour party members here.,please tell the strikers, and journalists, we are with them in mind, and wish to organize practical aid
Forward to victory!
M Murpy, M Todd, Scunthorpe CLP, UK pers. caps.
—
Dear Comrades,
We wish you good luck, and all success in your strike. Your bravery is an inspiration to us all.
Comradely,
Middle Tenneesee Worker’s International League
—
In response to a call for a strike on April 6th by the workers in the Mahalla Textile Complex, the biggest factory in Egypt, the Mubarak regime decided to occupy El-Mahalla Complex with security forces, abduct strike committee leaders Kamal El-Faloumy and Tarek Amin and arrest political activist of every tendency in Cairo and other cities.
Not able to supress the protest, Mubarak security forces used rubber-bullets, tear gas, and live ammunition against the Mahalla people who decided to protest on the streets of the city and in different villages, leaving at least two dead (one being a child) and hundreds injured and around 800 arrested.
From the USA I send solidarity to the Egyptian workers and their supporters, calling on the Egyptian dictatorship to release the 800 arrested, including more then 150 political activist (socialist, liberals, and Islamists) more then 600 protesters from Mahalla (mainly women and children) and Mahalla strike committee leaders.
I kindly request your efforts to stop the repression of the Egyptian workers movement and promote human rights
Respectfully Submitted:
Eva Shannon USA
—
Dear Egyptian Comrades,
Your heroic struggle is not going unnoticed. Here in the United States a layer of workers looks on with great admiration and anticipation at your heroic battle. Here, too, workers are fighting on the picket lines for justice. The workers of American Axle have brought the automotive industry to its knees.
Your militant mass struggle is a model for the workers of the world. Until we can all stand together to overthrow this rotten world system of exploitation, we are doomed to be subjugated to the whims of the capitalists. Your fight is our fight. Long live the Egyptian workers! A victory for one is a victory for all! Our hearts are with you.
Warmest Comradely Regards and Hoping for a Swift and Decisive Victory,
Karl Belin
Workers International League
National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981 (personal capacity)
—
Dear comrades,
I read reports about the Egyptian general strike and calls for solidarity
on the www.marxist.com website, and, as Marxist, internationalist and avid
reader of www.marxist.com, the least I can do is to offer you my
solidarity. I am the president of my university’s Socialist Society in
England, so if we can in any way be of assistance, we are ready and
waiting. I shall write a report for my student newspaper.
Comradely,
Dan Morley
—
Union brothers and sisters,
We are watching your struggle carefully and support
your hard work and bravery in the face of such
undemocratic measures taken by your government.
The world is watching.
In solidarity,
Crystal Geyer
Shamus Cooke
Service Employees International Union
—
Dear Comrades
I write to express my solidarity with your struggle. I will do what I
can to spread information about whats happening in Egypt.
In solidarity
Martin Lööf
Left Party
Gothenburg, Sweden
—
Comrades,
I am very glad to hear about your struggle for higher wages, a general strike,…. In Europe we are facing similar problems (inflation, unemployment, attacks on wages,…) and your courage to take action will serve to strengthen us as well.
I wish you the very best with your actions, and I will tell about it in Belgium where I live. I also use this as an example to the workers here that Islamic people too have the same basic interests at heart, and that in fact they should support the Arabic working people everywhere in the world, rather than think of them as a threat. This would only serve the bosses.
The workers of Egypt are not alone!
Workers of the world unite!
Long live the struggle of the Egyptian workers!
kind regards,
Laurens Deprez, student activist
—
keep up the fight for the workers. we in london are thinking of you
James Manwaring
—
Comrades,
We, the Southern Star Front – Sri Lanka pledges our utmost support to the workers’ struggle in Egypt, we stand by your militancy and every attempt to fight the repressive hand of the Capitalist regiment. We vehemently abhor the attempts of the Egyptian State to suppress the workers movement and the freedom of the journalists to report the developments of the mass struggle; the Egyptian State has thereby truly show casted the inherent terrorism that it bears in its essence.
We declare our solidarity with the workers struggle in Egypt and support the protest against repression. And indeed, the workers of Egypt are not alone, it is the age of the revolutionary fist and it’s coming down evermore stronger on the armies of moribund capitalism.
Long live the struggle of the Egyptian workers!
Comradely Yours,
Southern Star Front – SSF –
www.southernstarfront.blogspot.com
—