Year: 2009
Cairo U updates تحت ضغط الطلبة رئيس جامعة القاهرة يوافق على دعم الكتاب الجامعي
This is probably the one of the few, yet significant, positive outcomes of the protests on the 6th of April, which witnessed a pathetic performance by the opposition groups in the streets, contrasted with strong mobilization on the campuses, namely Ain Shams, Helwan, Mansoura and Cairo. Except for the first, the other three universities are witnessing a steady growth of the radical left, with the balance of power in a university like Helwan for example totally shifting to the left, probably for the first time ever on a university campus since the late 1970s!
On the 6th of April, after mobilizing hundreds of students in Cairo University, a delegation from the Students Coordinating Committee (a united front that includes Haqqi, MBs, Labor Party and 6th of April Youth) pressured the president university into holding a public meeting, which took place yesterday, to discuss the set of demands the SCC was putting forward that day: subsidizing the text books, expulsion of police from the campuses, among others. After a stormy meeting attended by roughly 200 students, the Haqqi activists managed to play a central role in extracting a promise from Cairo U president Hossam Kamel (the brother of Telecommunications Mnister Tarek Kamel) that by the 20th of April a Kiosk will be set up in each faculty on Cairo U campus, which will sell the university text books for prices no more than LE10.
This is really really significant.. and if the activists keep up the pressure on the administration to stick to its promise, such outcome would tremendously benefit the student community and create more legitimacy for the activists as militant campaigners for the issues that directly affect the daily lives of students on campus.
Doctors Syndicate calls on private clinics to strike today
Today, the Doctors’ Syndicate has called for a national strike over job reform package. Well, not really.. The syndicate called on “private clinics” to shut down, but that won’t include govt or private hospitals… i.e., the syndicate is calling on doctors who are financially well enough to own a clinic to close it down for the day and go home to snooze instead. Moreover, the syndicate stated the participation in the strike was “not mandatory.” In other words, the pressures exerted by the government is almost ZERO!
The NDP and MB leadership of the Doctors’ Syndicate continue their best to diffuse the rank and file anger and curb any militant action vis a vis Nazif’s govt over the reform packages. After aborting last year’s national strike, exerting the syndicate’s time and resources, not in lobbying for the doctors’ demands but in, confronting and isolating lobby groups like Doctors Without Rights, the syndicate’s leadership, namely the NDP’s Hamdy el-Sayyed and Essam el-Erian of the Muslim Brothers, have been forced to raise their rhetoric, making symbolic moves like the small protest they held in front of the Finance Ministry (and avoiding any direct confrontations with Nazif).
Doctors Without Rights group has already criticized the syndicate’s move. The group, composed of leftist and independent doctors, have been pushing hard since last year for a national strike, with a set of demands that decorate the header of their blog. Unfortunately the balance of power hasn’t always been on their favor. The group’s mobilizational power is not strong enough to take on the shaky NDP-MB alliance. They have been instrumental to the series of protests and sit-ins spring 2008 and in providing an alternative to the MB and NDP in voicing the anger of the majority of the doctors, but so much building on the ground is still needed. At best, the group has been able to effectively mobilize only few hundreds. I wish them all the best…