Security cracks down on Amonsito textile workers, Sunday 23 May, in front of the parliament.

Listen to the worker speaking at 2:33, drawing parallels between the state crackdown on the Amonsito workers to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Video of the Amonsito workers’ march in downtown Cairo yesterday, while chanting: “Megawer, you are a thief!” referring to Hussein Megawer the head of the corrupt, state-backed Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions.

The Egyptian government has committed one of the most stupid acts for this year. They have sent back the workers to their factories, and sent out a signal to all other protesters that none is welcome anymore in this little “Hyde Park speakers’ corner” that has been in the making over the past few months. In other words, the protests from now on will be in the workplaces, and the in the provinces, and inevitably I expect nothing short of direct actions by the workers to block the high roads like what they’ve been doing in Tanta, Alexandria, Damietta, Kafr el-Sheikh, and other places. Now in the coming days, you can surely add the 10th of Ramadan City and the Nile Cornish road.

Police crack down on Amonsito textile workers.

Amonsito textile workers sleeping in front of the parliament.