A new round of negotiations, over a number of unfulfilled promises from the December 2007 occupation, took place three days ago between the leaders of the General Union for Real Estate Tax Collectors and the Finance Ministry, ended in victory.
The free union activists gave the ministry one month ultimatum to implement the agreement, threatening renewed protests if faced with delays.
Actor Khaled el-Sawy addressing an audience of workers, farmers and fishermen, during Tadamon’s gathering, speaking about his experience as an activist with the Center for Socialist Studies.
Khaled compared the current times with his university days in the 1980s. “No students used to show up for demonstrations or strikes,” he said. “Everyone was scared. Today the situation is different. You see protests in the universities, in Mahalla, in the factories… among the peasants and fishermen that give you hope. The revival of the Socialist movement in Egypt was something I couldn’t have imagined in the past. Today it is a reality.”
The Interior Ministry has issued a detention decree against two journalists, Ad-Dustour’s Hossam el-Wakil and Ikhwan Online’s Muhammad Dawoud. The two were arrested and beaten up by the police while covering Alexandria’s school closure clashes and ordered to be released by the prosecutor on 25 September.