I received a statement signed by “Workers for Change in Kafr el-Dawar,” calling for establishing “Representatives’ Committees” that would “monitor the performance of the Union Committee (in the factory)” to act as a “democratic liaison between the workers and the Union.”
The statement also called for “expanding the the coordination between workers in companies that went on strike with us, to create the necessary solidarity links and exchange experiences.”
This is a very interesting development. Prior to the strike there was no entity by the name “Workers for Change in Kafr el-Dawar” that existed. This statement clearly shows there are sections (or at least elements) from the largely spontaneous strike leaders are developing politically and pushing for a more sophisticated forms of organizations that can sustain future strike activities. It’s a slow process, but it has started.
In Ghazl el-Mahalla Company, the situation remains unclear, that’ why I did not blog about it earlier. I had received information that the mass resignations from the govt’s General Federation of Trade Unions campaign started roughly a week ago. The workers, as far as I understood, are mailing the union around 50 resignations a day. The General Union of Textile Workers denied it received any, according to a socialist journalist friend of mine who called Said el-Gohary. I’m still uclear about the total number of workers who have already resigned, and what the next step will be. I’ll post more about this in the coming few days, as I get more details.