Year: 2007

Ghazl el-Mahalla on STRIKE!

Posted on 25/09/200704/02/2021 By 3arabawy

Excerpts from a message I received from journalist Jano Charbel:

I went to the Mahalla Strike on Sunday.
7aga Gamda Gamda! (This is solid solid!) 25,000 men and women on strike.. very uplifting!
The company’s security guards wouldn’t let me in, they then took me and photographer Ahmad Ismail to the security chief – some brigadier general – who told me that we couldn’t enter. He said “da beiti wenta deif, wana ka sa7eb el beit men 7a2i en amna3ak men dukhoul beiti (This is my house, and you are my guest. It’s my right to ban you from entering my house).”
He told us to do our work outside the company’s walls.
Workers whom I don’t know saw that we couldn’t get in, so they brought us inside by force.
Around 10 workers intertwined their arms in mine and cannon-balled me through three lines of security guards.
The mood inside was one of total defiance. People are sick of the ultra low wages, company corruption, and financial fraud.
The security is totally pissed off, and will crackdown and arrest the heroes.
This (Mahalla strike) looks likes it could very well spread further and beyond – to Kafr El Dawwar to elsewhere across the country.

Here are some of the pix taken by Jano:

September 2007 Mahalla textile workers' strike, Photo by Jano Charbel.

MB students referred to disciplinary committee

Posted on 25/09/200729/03/2015 By 3arabawy

From the Daily Star Egypt…

Twenty-six students at Assiut University, along with others in a number of other national universities including Cairo University, were referred to a disciplinary committee for their affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood group, said Mahmoud Ezzat, a leading member of the group.
Ezzat told Daily News Egypt that the students had not displayed any violent or “even political” behavior.
“They [the students] were only participating in social activities that will benefit their communities and train them to be useful in society,” Ezzat added.
He regretted the fact that student activities have been hijacked by the government.
“Both the faculty and administration are hired by the president of the university who, in turn, is hired by the government and hence they are all expected to follow government policies,” Ezzat added.
These universities’ administrative systems are undemocratic, paying no respect to privacy laws, he lamented, alleging that students are always being watched.
Abdel-Aziz Mogahed, a lawyer representing some of the 28 students who were arrested at the Faculty of Commerce in Helwan University last year during the student union’s presidential elections, told Daily News Egypt that national universities had meted out very harsh punishments to MB-affiliated students, disregarding their legal and constitutional rights.
“The punishments of some of the Helwan students arrested last year ranged from suspension to jail sentences which, in some cases, reached up to three years,” Mogahed added.
When Mogahed filed a lawsuit against Helwan University asking for the re-admission of some of the dismissed students, the court ruled in their favor within two weeks. But the university did not implement the verdict immediately. Instead, it slowed down the admission process on purpose, which meant that they missed a whole semester.

Microbus drivers abused by police, threaten to strike

Posted on 25/09/200729/03/2015 By 3arabawy

From the Daily Star Egypt…

Firmly stuck at the bottom of the pecking order, Egyptian microbus drivers are forced by the police to transport investigation teams to security missions on a daily basis.
In addition to the social stigma attached to being a microbus drivers in Egypt, drivers at the Ataba-Helwan (Downtown Cairo) line have been ousted from their bus station by the local authorities, who now have no alternative but to pick up patrons from Port Said Street.
Drivers are threatening to go on strike due to a hectic situation where they have no protection from police harassment or even space where they can pick up commuters.
“We now stand in the middle of the road, which makes us vulnerable to traffic police officers who confiscate licenses for any reason,” microbus owner, Muhammad Negima told Daily News Egypt.
When the buses were removed, street vendors invaded the space where only a week ago microbus drivers used to pick up patrons, turning it into a miniature market area.
“There are more than a 100 buses on this line, which means that it supports at least 300 families,” said Negima.
Most of the commuters are either lawyers from Helwan that come to Baab El Khalq court house or Helwan residents who sell merchandise in Ataba.
“This line in particular is a major transport artery because it moves thousands of people everyday,” Negima explained.
A similar scenario took place three years ago when the buses were removed from the area previously known as the Gaza market.
“We went on strike and they reacted by impounding a number of buses and detaining drivers. When they saw that things were getting out of hand, they provided us with space beneath the intersection of Azhar Bridge. This is the space they removed us from a week ago,” Negima said.
Negima also complains that on a daily basis, security personnel from the Gamalia police station force drivers to transport them on their raids, denying them a full working day’s income.

There’s nothing that describes the abuse faced by the Egyptian microbus drivers and Mubarak’s pigs more than the case of Emad Kabeer.