Ghazl el-Mahalla on STRIKE!

Blogger Nora Younis uploaded the first part of her short documentary about the victorious Ghazl el-Mahalla strike:

Comments (5)

Go, Nora, go!

So basically these are workers who voted for Husni Mubarek in the last election,but they are now fighting for a share in the profit made by the Spinning and Weaving company. They are appealing to the Rayyiss (Mubarak) to meet their demands. The woman who was crying was speaking about the misery and harsh daily conditions and the plight of the families who cannot afford for their basic necessities. Those interviewed obviously either out of fear or of loyalty to the regime are not attacking the president himself and the regime as a whole, but the corruption of the bosses.
The Eyptian workers need to look at the Venzuelan workers and draw some lessons because without transforming the economic struggle into a political struggle the plight and the suffering of the Egyptian textile workers, and the Egyptian workers in general, would not come to an end. There may be gains here or there, but the capitalists and the dictatorship will tomorrow take by the right hand what has conceded today by the left hand.

Ya Nadim..

I hope you dont develop a final reading for the strike and workers plight till you see the other three parts of the documentary. For webhosting reasons i can only upload 10 minutes at a time. Part 2 is now online here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120103022648/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8504350690093174751&hl=en
and part 3 will go online later tonight.

In part 1, indeed these are the workers who voted for Mubarak, like many others among working class and civil servants who get allegedly stuffed in busses for group voting to the president and ruling NDP in recent elections! They justify their vite for Mubarak for perceiving him to be familiar, “protected Egypt from wars, our [old] father”, etc as the woman listed on camera.

If we consider the first two women to be classic ndp voters – and not the silent majority- we will see a dramatic change of tone and perception. They now sense the power of their vote, and that it wasn’t given to Mubarak for free. They expect a pay back and the president, and cabinet to stand up to their promises, and they are serious about it – no kidding!

1) first woman asks mubarak to prove worthy of her support during last elections. She admits she was blamed for her vote. “support us like we supported you on election day. I gave him my vote and people blamed me for it”. However, when another worker says syndicate should be sacked, she dismisses the suggestion passively saying “we don’t want to cut anyone’s bread [i.e. income]”

2) second woman challenges mubarak asking him to stick to his words “you said you will not sell this factory! you said ‘this factory is a standalone state, how can I sell a state behind walls?’ you said ‘I support low income people, I support Egypt’s workers’… we are Egypt’s workers… If we lose one step, they lose 24! We have nothing to lose, but they have contracts, due deals, etc! let the government say whatever bla bla bla we are sitting in”.

At last, it is crucial to understand that Mahalla workers, like anywhere else i assume, are not unified.. there are differences among them.. some want sweeping change, and some want some instant benefits to make ends meet momentarily.. Eventually, the sign at the factory’s front gate says “when will you hear us ya Mubarak?”

In his recent piece in MERIP, Joel Beinen says “Indeed, the workers do not have a unified political position. Some remained hopeful that Husni Mubarak would intervene to compel the paying of bonuses and incentives, perhaps banking on the regime’s record of meeting economic demands in many of the strikes of the 2004-2007 wave. Others are more militant and identify the regime as their enemy.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20180202144159/http://www.merip.org/mero/mero092907.html

Actually, a main concern is how several workers strongly deny (in part 3) belonging to Muslim Brotherhoos or Socialist Groups and keep insisting “we are normal people” as if political affiliation is a stain that makes one “abnormal people”!

bass keda, for now :-)

Let me know what u think..

I see nothing wrong with workers not wanting to be partisan. I imagine that at least some of them realise the power in their hands (who’s begging for whose attention now?). The priority now for the workers is organising themselves and confederating with other workers.

I expect any sane political movement that wants a mass of workers to balance the regime to focus solely on helping the workers confederate, but alas.

Hi Nora and thanks for commenting
I agree with many points you raised. I believe that the achievement of the Mahallah workers is a very positive thing that will awake other workers in Egypt. Consciouness under a regime like the Egyptian one has been supressed for decades and distorted by an illusion that makes people believe that the same regime which has been exploiting and repressing them could be reformed, that the Rayyiss could always help because he is always different and cares!

What matters now is how to develop the struggle struggle, how the economic struggle and the political struggle become one. This will be decided by thewrokers themselves through lessons like this one and when they get more deceived by so-called elections and unfulfilled promises.

I believe in a historical fact called class struggle. In my opinion Egypt in run by tow dictatorships intrinsically linked to each other: the Mubarak dictatorship and the dictatorship of capital.

Yes, I agree with some points raised by Joel (I interviewed him once when the wave of strikes started).

Finally, I recommned this article:
http://www.marxist.com/egypt-victory-mahalla-workers041007.htm

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