I’ve spoken with a Socialist activist in Mahalla…
Five strike leaders are now in Mubarak’s police custody, locked up in Abu Ali Police Station in Mahalla, after the State Security Prosecutor ordered them imprisoned for four days pending investigation into charges levelled against them by the state-owned company management, that include sabotage, inciting riots, and causing the company losses that amount to LE10 million!!
The five are: Muhammad el-Attar, Faisal Laqousha, Wael Habib, Magdi Sherif, Gamal el-Saadawi.
I asked the Socialist activist what was the impact of the arrests on the strikers, and he assured me this got the workers into a more militant mood. “They are now saying even if they win their demands, they are not disbanding their strike without the release of their colleagues,” he said. “Now the release of the detained leaders has topped all other demands. The government may also be trying to reach a settlement with the strikers in the absence of those leaders, as an attempt to sideline them. In my view, this will probably fire back, because now the state has turned these detainees into heroes.”
Down with Mubarak’s Police.