Category: Blog

Statement on the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received a statement signed by the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, the Workers’ Coordination Committee and the Egyptian Workers and Trade Unions Watch with more details of the agreement between the government and the strikers.

There’s a mistake however in the last line. The statement says the tax collectors are threatening to resume their “strike” on 9 January if the govt betrays its promises. In reality however the strike resumes. The civil servants will go to their offices but will not collect the taxes. They are threatening to resume the downtown Cairo “sit-in” once again on 9 Jan if the agreement is not fulfilled.

Real Estate Tax Collectors' Strike إضراب موظفي الضرائب العقارية

Mahalla updates: More than 1,000 are demonstrating now against price increases

Posted on By 3arabawy

While the Cairo protest has been called off, I’m receiving news from Mahalla that more than 1,000 workers and political activists have turned out to protest increase in prices of basic commodities. The demonstration is still going on now, and is taking place at El-Shoun Sq.

UPDATE: I chatted with Kareem el-Beheiri who attended today’s Mahalla’s protest:

حضر النهاردة المظاهرة حوالى 1000 شخص من مختلف البلاد
حضر حزب التجمع والوفد والناصرى والعمل والاخوان المسلمين وجبهة اليسار المصرى ولجنة الدفاع عن الصحة ولجنة الدفاع عن القطاع العام
ومواطنيين من المحلة الكبرى
الحالة الامنية كان الامن محاوط المظاهرة كلها
رفع الامن حالة الطوارىء امام هتافات المتظاهرين
من الهتافاات
ياهالينا ضموا علينا رغيف العيش مش لاقينة
اعلى واعلى وعلى الصوت اللى هيهتف مش هيموت
دقى ياساعة الشركة ياحرة على ايامنا السودا المرة
صحى النوم يازعيم
دا احنا اجورنا بالملاليم
صحى النوم يارئيس دا احنا وصلنا للتفليس
سيبوا الناس متمشوهاش ياللى بعتوا بلادنا بلاش
خلصت المظاهرة الساعة 2 الظهر

Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike update: Partial agreement reached with minister; Sit-in and demos called off; STRIKE CONTINUES

Posted on By 3arabawy

I’ve received news from the strikers’ camp in downtown Cairo:

Negotiations took place yesterday between the Finance Minister and State Security officers on one side and the strike leaders on the other… A partial agreement has been reached. I still need to confirm the details, but roughly here are the highlights:

1-Two month salary will be paid to the 55,000 strikers before Eid.

2-The Minister will meet with the strikers on 23 or 24 December to finalize a decree granting the Real Estate Tax Collectors the same bonuses and incentives as those received by their colleagues at the Ministry of Finance.

3-No striker will be victimized.

4-The camp set up by the strikers in front of the Ministerial Cabinet in downtown will be disbanded today temporarily for two weeks, and the solidarity demonstrations will be called off. However, the strike will continue until the above mentioned ministerial decree is issued.

UPDATE: Nora has some details in Arabic here.

UPDATE: It’s 12:30pm now, and the downtown sit-in is suspended by the strikers who folded their tents, carried their bags, exchanged hugs and kisses, chanted for hours confident about victory, and are now mounting buses back to the provinces. A group of the strike leaders, I was told, are meeting with the Finance Minister again today for further negotiations. Police troops had stepped up their presence since the morning. Agents from Qasr el-Nil Police Station, as well as State Security’s Counter-Communism Bureau, were spotted around the parliament and in el-Qasr el-Eini St.

UPDATE: It’s confirmed the strike is continuing in Cairo and the provinces, despite the temporary supension of the downtown sit-in.