“There are two systems for education in Egypt,” said Omar Morsi, a Cairo teacher, during the Saturday protest. “A foreign system for the children of the rich, who live in closed compounds and lead a different life-style; and the other one for the children of the ugly duckling–our children! The first one has all the privileges, while the second has none… We want a free syndicate! We want a syndicate that doesn’t sleep! We want a syndicate that doesn’t fear (the govt)!”
“We (the teachers) have become proletariat el-ta’aleem (the education proletariat),” said N Sinai teacher and left wing activist Ashraf Ayoub in the meeting that followed Saturday’s protest. “Are we different from the workers? No. The government treats us in the same way. We are exploited and oppressed… We need to mobilize for a national conference for teachers in Egypt and overthrow the (state-backed) syndicate.”
Kamal Abu Eita, addressing other members of the Higher Committee for the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ Strike who convened in Cairo on Saturday, to carry on their fight to build what will be Egypt’s first independent labor union in half a century.
