From AFP:
A US military ship about to cross the Suez Canal opened fire Monday on barges of hawkers that approached their boat, killing one Egyptian and wounding two others, a security source said.
The ship, Global Patriot, had arrived from the Red Sea and was waiting in the Gulf of Suez to sail to the Mediterranean when a group of Egyptians seeking to sell merchandise approached the boat on small barges, the source said.
Around 12,000 workers at Helwan Steel Mills have started a pay strike, refusing to receive their salaries from the management, demanding salary raises and increase in bonuses.
Let’s remember that the last major industrial action in the Helwan mills was the 1989 sit-in. Mubarak back then sent in his police troops, which broke the protests by live ammunition, killing one worker, Abdel Hai Sayyed Hassan, and arresting hundreds.
There has been however increased activities on the factory floor, located south of Cairo, since the outbreak of the Winter of the Labor Discontent. Underground leftist organizers have been agitating for improving the work conditions, and drawing parallels with the textile workers in Mahalla, in previous statements that were distributed in the factory (some of which were posted here on the blog).
Good luck to the comrades in Helwan. And good luck to the comrades in Mahalla who continue to inspire their brothers and sisters in virtually every industrial and service sector.
From Reuters:
The number of U.S. soldiers to die in Iraq has reached 4,000, the U.S. military said on Monday, just days after the fifth anniversary of a war that President George W. Bush says the United States is on track to win.
The U.S. military said in a statement four soldiers were killed late on Sunday when a roadside bomb, the biggest killer of American soldiers in Iraq, exploded near their vehicle in southern Baghdad. One soldier was wounded in the attack.
