Year: 2008

The Egyptian ’68

Posted on 26/05/200806/02/2021 By 3arabawy

24 February 1968: Cairo University students take to the streets, protesting the light sentences given to the Air Force generals blamed by Nasser for the 1967 defeat, and calling for political reforms, freedom of expression, the liberation of the universities from the control of the security services. The students, in the pic, are crossing a bridge, heading to the parliament.

The radicalization was to continue. In November, 1968, mass confrontations took place in the streets of Alexandria, between the Alexandria University students joined by the citizens vs the security forces.

US-backed Mubarak extends state of emergency for another 2 years

Posted on 26/05/200802/01/2021 By 3arabawy

Hosni Mubarak, has done it again:

Egypt on Monday extended a controversial decades-old state of emergency by two years despite pledges to replace it by new legislation, in a move slammed by rights groups as anti-constitutional.
“Parliament has accepted during its afternoon session today the decision by the president of the republic to extend the state of emergency for two years starting from June 1, or until a new terror law is drafted, whichever comes first,” the state news agency MENA said.
“It was passed with 305 votes in favor and 103 against,” Issam al-Mokhtar, an MP with the Muslim Brotherhood, told AFP by telephone.
The state of emergency was first imposed in 1981 after the assassination by Islamists of president Anwar Sadat and has been repeatedly renewed since then despite protests from rights groups and regime opponents.
Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif pledged to “only use the law in the fight against terrorism… and to protect the security of the nation and its citizens,” MENA reported.
“The government… has only used the articles of the law strictly for the goals intended, namely the fight against terrorism,” Nazif told parliament.
Last year, Judicial and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mufid Shehab said the state of emergency would end in 2008, even if the new anti-terror law meant to replace it was not ready.

Textile strike in Alexandria

Posted on 26/05/200812/01/2021 By 3arabawy

I still don’t have details about this, but Abdel Gelil is reporting a textile strike in the state-owned Al-Ameriya Company for Spinning and Weaving.

You of course remember the bribe Nazif gave the workers last April following the Mahalla Uprising. Back then, Mubarak’s prime minister decreed a 15-day bonus to all workers in the state-owned textile companies and a one-month bonus for Ghazl el-Mahalla in specific… which is totally foolish! Does Nazif think that the workers in the other textile mills are gonna be satisfied with that?! Now Al-Ameriya workers are striking demanding similar treatment to Ghazl el-Mahalla, and they want a full one month bonus.

If Al-Ameriya wins, expect the domino effect to explode. Other textile mills will follow suit.

UPDATE: More details from Abdel Gelil.