Police is trying to smash the Bani Sweif Cement workers strike, detaining three workers and tearing down the tents set up by the strikers.

And in Cairo, the public prosecutor has ordered 10 protesters (five farmers, three auto workers and two students) to remain in police custody for 15 days, following their arrest last Wednesday during their sit ins in downtown Cairo.

As you can see our police force since its return to the “streets” have been busy fighting crime and thugs everywhere.. in video games.

And they still get paid their salaries from our tax payers’ money.

A video purportedly showing victims killed by the police during the uprising in the town of Bebba, located in the Upper Egyptian province of Bani Sweif.

The Beheira tax collectors said they have publicly announced the formation of a free union committee, which already held its first meeting after they held elections in their province. This is the second branch for the General Union of Real Estate Tax Collectors – Under Establishment to be formally announced by the Real Estate Tax Collectors after Bani Sweif.

Abdel Nasser updated his colleagues about the situation in Bani Sweif. He said the corrupt, state-backed union officials are now totally smashed, as the free union activists managed to seize their funds and freeze their operations.

Abdel Nasser was contacted several times by SS officer Hisham of Bani Sweif, requesting he showed up for interrogation. After refusing to show up for days, Abdel Nasser went yesterday to the SS office in Bani Sweif, and was interrogated from 9pm to 11:45pm.

It turned out that the state-backed union officials reported the independent trade unionist to the SS, claiming he was fund raising for an “illegal trade union” and agitating for a strike. It goes to show once again what sort of people those General Federation of Trade Unions officials are… They are not representatives of the workers. They are not campaigners for labor rights. They are nothing but a bunch of police informers and cronies.

In a great show of solidarity, Abdel Nasser’s colleagues accompanied him, and assembled outside the SS building waiting to see if he would come out safe or get detained.

Inside the building, SS officer Hisham started the interrogation by threats, ordering Abdel Nasser not to leave Bani Sweif without taking prior permission from SS. Abdel Nasser refused.

“They say you are raising funds,” said SS officer Hisham.
“Not yet, but we will,” answered Abdel Nasser.
“For what?”
“For our union”
“What union?”
“We are building a free union, away from those who reported me,” Abdel Nasser said. “You and I know they are thieves and do not represent us in negotiations or get us our rights.”
“Yes, I know they are thieves. But they say you are raising funds for another strike.”
“No, I’m raising funds for our retirement sandouq and for our welfare. We are doing this in public and we have nothing to hide. The Minister of Finance knows it. The head of the Real Estate Tax Agency knows it. We meet with them regularly as the legitimate representatives of the civil servants. You can ask them yourself.”
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“I need you to pass by me and tell me everything you do,” Officer Hisham said. “If you’ll meet [the head of the General Federation of Trade Unions] Hussein Megawer or the minister or you decide anything, I have to know.”
“I’m sorry I’m not an informer! If the Higher Strike Committee tells me I come to you, then I’ll come. If not, then sorry I can’t come and tell you what we are doing. If we’ll do a public event, then I’ll come to let you know. It’s going to be public anyways, so everyone will know. I don’t mind then telling you. But I can’t come here every day to tell you we are doing this or we are doing that.”

The interrogation went on till around 11:30pm, and Abdel Nasser was very courageous and assertive in his answers, showing no grain of fear.

“You can do whatever you like to do as long as it’s legal,” continued Officer Hisham. “I like and respect what you are doing, but I will not allow any strikes. You can do whatever you want, but no strikes. What happened last year cannot be repeated again.”
“We are not planning any strikes,” said Abdel Nasser. “We want to negotiate at the present time. But we strike when we do not find any channels of communications and when we find all the doors closed in our faces. We have no choice then but to strike to get our rights.”
“Ok, I know your friends are waiting outside. I don’t want them to think I detained you. You can go.”

Abdel Nasser left the SS building around 11:45pm, to be showered with hugs and kisses from his comrades who’d been waiting for him with concern outside… ending the night with shisha and cups of tea at the Qahwa in front of the SS building.

The first provincial union branch for the “Independent General Union of the Real Estate Tax Collectors” has been established on the ground and officially declared in the Upper Egyptian province of Bani Sweif. This is the first independent union micro-entity to exist, since 1957, outside the framework of the state-controlled General Federation of Trade Unions.

The Bani Sweif tax collectors quietly carried out the elections, after an overwhelming majority endorsed the call for a free union. Nine union officers were elected, representing the nine directorates in the province, and held their first meeting on Sunday, 24th of August.

The state-backed General Union for Bank and Insurance workers has 11 union committees in the country’s 29 provinces. The only committee in Upper Egypt is in Bani Sweif, and it stood against the strike and does not enjoy any legitimacy. Though the participation of Upper Egyptians in the strike and the movement in general was of a lower profile compared to their northern brethren, as I posted before, things have started moving and the militancy is ascending, that ironically the first union committee is now established in the south before any other leading Nile Delta province. The Bani Sweif free union officers literally overthrew the state-backed union men, even holding the first meeting in the latter’s office, and took possession of the room keys. The management did not intervene. The free union officers agreed they will be holding their meetings regularly on the first Thursday of every month at 1pm.

State Security police has phoned up Abdel Nasser Abdallah, the elected treasurer and one of the leading strikers last December, summoning him to the Bani Sweif State Security Police office today. Abdel Nasser refused to show up, and there are concerns SS may raid his home. International trade unions and labor associations are urged to start opening channels and building contacts with Abdel Nasser and his colleagues to support their efforts.

UPDATE: Here’s a photo of the Bani Sweif protesters:

UPDATE: Here’s a report by Sarah Carr:

One hundred employees of the Egyptian Railway Authority from El-Wosta, Beni Suef, protested against pay and conditions Saturday.
The five-hour protest, which began at 10 am in El-Wosta, was intended to draw attention to a number of demands.
Railway drivers are calling for the payment of withheld housing allowances and other benefits, increased pay and health insurance, which they say are received by employees based in other areas of Egypt, but not by them.
They are also calling for better maintenance of rolling stock whose neglect poses a safety risk, according to train drivers, and demand that they be based in central Cairo, rather than the Upper Egypt governorate of Assiut.
“El-Wosta is 90 km from Cairo and yet we report to Assiut, which is 300 km away – it’s illogical,” train driver Ahmad Ramadan explained.
Ramadan told Daily News Egypt that further action is planned.
“We will hold another protest on the March 10 if management does not respond to our demands,” he said.

Around 3600 tax officers in the Upper Egyptian town of Bani Sweif and the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya staged a sit-in Sunday, demanding improving their work conditions to match those of their colleagues in Cairo.

In the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya, civil servants in the Ministry of Education are threatening to strike over their exclusion from a govt work reform package.

UPDATE: Here’s a report on the Bani Sweif protest by blogger Egyptian Pegasus.