Ghazl el-Mahalla workers threaten sit-in

Posted on By 3arabawy

A 100-strong delegation of Mahalla textile workers is arriving in Cairo, today Sunday morning, 10am, to meet with the head of General Federation of Trade Unions, Hussein Megawer, for negotiations over their January demands, that include the improvement of working conditions as well as the impeachment of their corrupt Factory Union Committee, threatening to stage a sit-in at the Federation’s HQ, to be followed by a strike. Another delegation from Mahalla will be also sent to the Ministry of Social Affairs to denounce the closure of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, and to lobby for the factory workers’ demands.

One of the December strike leaders called me to say he and his colleagues are requesting solidarity from Kefaya and Cairo’s press corps.

PLEASE SHOW UP AT THE GENERAL FEDERATION’S HQ, 90 GALAA ST., (NEAREST UNDERGROUND METRO STATION: AHMAD ORABI) 10AM TO WELCOME THE MAHALLA WORKERS IN CAIRO AND TO EXPRESS YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THEM.

Crackdown on labor activists in Mahalla

Posted on By 3arabawy

Mubarak’s crackdown on the left continues. Ministry of Social Affairs officials, in the company of State Security agents, shut down the Center of Trade Union and Workers’ Services branch in Mahalla, on Wednesday 8pm, sealing its door with red wax.

Activists will assemble Sunday 15 April, at 1pm, in front of the Ministry of Social Affairs HQ in Cairo’s el-Qasr el-Eini, for a two-hour sit-in, to protest the closure.

MB blogger’s house raided

Posted on By 3arabawy

Muslim Brotherhood blogojournalist Abdel Moneim Mahmoud is now in Mubarak’s police custody on the run. A police force raided Moneim’s house early this morning, but he was not present. He mass mailed us a message about the raid, before he said he was to turn himself in.

Blogger and Journalist Abdel Moneim Mahmoud

I have so much respect for Moneim, who is one of the greatest and most active young Brothers in the media field. In the journalist and activist circles we like to call him “Ikhwan’s Reuters.” Polite, diplomatic, and does not miss an event, whether organized by the Islamists or secularists, Moneim enjoys wide popularity among his peers in the MB and leftist circles.

Moneim was detained in 2004, and brutally tortured by Mubarak’s Gestapo in State Security’s HQ in Nasr City (also known as Egypt’s Guantanamo, as victims of extraordinary renditions like Abu Omar, Muhammad el-Zawahri, Mamdouh Habib were tortured there).

The Muslim Brotherhood bloggers are calling for a solidarity sit-in tomorrow Saturday, 5pm, in front of the Press Syndicate. They are asking for the solidarity of activists from all political tendencies.