Ghazl el-Mahalla workers to receive General Union’s reply today

Posted on By 3arabawy

The General Union of Textile Workers has invited the Ghazl el-Mahalla December strike leaders to come to Cairo for a meeting, one day before the end of the ultimatum set by the labor activists. The workers are expected to arrive in buses at the General Union’s HQ at 11am, and should receive the latter’s reply to the workers’ demand to impeach their Factory Union Committee officials.

After their strike victory last December, the Ghazl el-Mahalla workers submitted on 29 January a petition signed by around 13,000 workers demanding the impeachment of the factory’s local union branch officials, after the latter took a negative stand towards the strike.

Ghazl el-Mahalla Textile Worker slamming his union officials

The workers gave the General Union an ultimatum of the 15th of February, threatening, for the first time since 1957, to resign en masse from the General Federation of Trade Unions, stop paying their membership fees, and launch an independent labor union.

The General Union’s HQ is located: 327 Shobra – Mazallat St. There’s an Underground Metro station meters away: El-Mazallat Station, Shobra line.

Clashes erupt at al-Azhar mosque

Posted on By 3arabawy

On Friday, Al-Azhar Mosque was the scene of mass police intimidation against protesters who wanted to demonstrate against the Israeli excavations in Jerusalem.

Check this interesting quote at the end of a report by Al-Jazeera:

The few journalists present at the demonstration were instructed by security forces to leave immediately and not take photos of the clashes.
The ones who did not abide by the rules, including a photographer from the the Al-Masry Al Youm daily, were threatened by security forces. Sally, 23, told Al-Jazeera.net: “The police hate the cameras because they are scared that photos depicting them beating activists will end up on the blogs that everyone reads.”

Mubarak’s vendetta against MB

Posted on By 3arabawy

A report by Aziz el-Kaissouni:

Egypt crackdown is political revenge-Brotherhood MPs
CAIRO, Feb 10 (Reuters) – The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc on Saturday slammed an escalating government crackdown on the group as a political revenge for the gains it made during the last parliamentary elections in 2005.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak referred 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s strongest opposition group, to military court Monday, the first military trial of Brotherhood members since 2001.
Sobhi Saleh Moussa, a Brotherhood parliament member said the referrals were politically motivated, coming as they did after a civilian court had ordered 16 of the Islamists released.
“After the (ruling National Democratic) party’s failure to make any gains in popularity … they punished us,” Moussa, who is also part of the defence team for the defendants, told reporters at a news conference.
“We’re paying the bill for the elections, as is the (Palestinian) Hamas government,” he added, speaking on behalf of the Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc.
The Islamist Hamas group swept to power in Palestinian elections in January 2006, dislodging the secular Fatah group that had long dominated Palestinian politics, and prompting Western states to impose crippling economic sanctions on the Palestinian government.
The Brotherhood won nearly one-fifth of seats in the lower house of the parliament in 2005, its members running as independents to bypass a 53-year-old ban on the group.
The government widened its crackdown on the Brotherhood after a protest by Islamist students at al-Azhar University in which Brotherhood students appeared wearing militia-style uniforms.
More than 270 Brotherhood members have been jailed in the current crackdown. The group’s finances have also been targeted, with authorities detaining key financiers, freezing assets, and raiding businesses.
Moussa and other Brotherhood parliamentarians condemned the referral to military courts, whose rulings cannot be appealed, saying that Egypt’s largest opposition group had initiated legal proceedings to declare such tribunals unconstitutional in 1995, but that the constitutional court had not yet ruled in the case.