Year: 2009

US, UK, Ireland: BDS campaigners score victories

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Haaretz:

Irish trade unionists said this week that they plan to launch a boycott of Israeli goods in 2009. Meanwhile, Manchester University Student Union adopted a resolution supporting a boycott of Israel.

And in the US:

Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, has become the first of any college or university in the US to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. More than 800 students, professors and alumni have signed SJP’s “institutional statement” calling for the divestment.

Tax Collectors Updates: 30,000 join free union

Posted on By 3arabawy

Via Per…

30.000 real estate tax collectors have signed the founding statement of the Free Union, El-Badeel reports. More than 300 collective resignation letters have been sent to the state-backed union. Representatives of the union also extended their support to the workers in Mahalla, firmly rejecting accusations of the state-controlled union that attempts to establish a free union there is illegal and funded by organizations with a “foreign agenda”. Leading unionist Kamal abu Eita says that such accusations can only come from “someone who doesn’t know anything about the international agreements that Egypt signed”, adding that it is in fact the state-controlled union that is operating outside the law.

Continuous updates on the fight for free unions in Egypt could be found here.