Tag: 6 april 2008

Seminar dubs April 6 strike a turning point in Egypt history

Posted on 07/05/200806/02/2021 By 3arabawy

Sarah Carr reports on the seminar organized by the Center for Socialist Studies on the April 6th strike:

The April 6 general strike was an unprecedented turning point in the Egyptian protest movement, concluded a discussion held Monday at the Center for Socialist Studies titled “What next after April 6 and May 4?”
El-Dostour journalist Haitham Gabr and Al-Karama editor and Kefaya activist Abdel Halim Qandil discussed the factors which led to the calls for the April 6 and May 4 general strikes and their implications for the future of political and social protest in Egypt.
“I regard April 6 as an unprecedented event in the history of the Egyptian [social] movement,” Gabr said.
“It was one of the biggest explosions of anger against the regime and the process of privatization,” he continued.
He said that the current wave of protests is the product of a regime unable to respond to an economic crisis.
“April 6 and May 4 were signs of weakness of a regime crippled by the illnesses associated with old age: a regime which has Alzheimer’s, which increases wages by 30 percent one day, forgets, and then increases fuel prices by 40 percent the day after that.”
“This regime finds itself in an impossible situation: it cannot contain society’s anger through the use of force as this would compromise its international image but, equally, it does not have any economic solutions to appease this anger,” Gabr said.
Gabr attributes current events to the resurgence of the labor movement which began after the December 2006 strike in the Ghazl El-Mahalla factory.
“Mubarak’s regime could not have taken this step except against a background of what has been happening over the last year and half.”
“The driving force behind the Egyptian movement is workers, and the driving force behind the workers themselves is the Ghazl El-Mahalla Factory. On April 6 there was huge solidarity with the Ghazl El-Mahalla strike amongst political movements which were inspired by the workers’ movement.”
“It is this which led to the widening of the Mahalla strike to a political strike.”
While he acknowledged the impact made by the April 6 protest, Gabr was more circumspect about the ability of internet-led activism to initiate credible forms of protest.

Lebanon, Canada, Sweden: SOLIDARITY WITH MAHALLA

Posted on 05/05/200806/02/2021 By 3arabawy

The Lebanese comrades staged a protest in front of Mubarak’s Embassy in Beirut, in solidarity with the Mahalla workers and detainees.

Carole has more photos:

I also received a video of the protest that took place in Toronto, Canada, on 11 April in solidarity with the Mahalla workers:

And here are letters of solidarity from Canadian labor unions:

April 11, 2008
His Excellency Hosni Mubarak
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdin Palace
Cairo, Egypt
Re: Egyptian Workers at the El Mahalla El Kurba
Dear President Mubarak:
On behalf of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), representing 3.2 million working women and men across Canada, I strongly condemn the recent violent acts against the workers of the El Mahala El Kurba factory in the Nile Delta.
The CLC has been informed that thousands of textile workers at El Mahalla El Kurba went on strike for increased wages to compensate for continually rising inflation. We were shocked to learn that, to disperse protesters, the police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd. Many people were injured and hundreds acquired breathing problems resulting from gas inhalation.
We urge the Egyptian government to ensure an immediate stop to all attacks on workers and involved citizens, and immediately release all political prisoners who have been detained for their labor and political activism.
We note that, in the last few years, Egypt has witnessed many workers’ protests and strikes, in a number of industries, particularly in the spinning and weaving sectors. Your governmnet has cracked down on political opposition, jailed journalists and editors, closed human rights organization and imprisoned hundreds of political activists.
The CLC urges you to take direct action against these violations of basic human and trade union rights – namely the right to organize, freedom of expression, freedom of opinion and freedom to publish information.
We are also calling for the immediate enforcement of the Administrative Court judgement annulling all unfair decisions to close the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) headquarters and allow its legal right to register.
I look forward to your immediate and decisive action in these matters.
Very sincerely,
Kenneth V. Georgetti
President
Canadian Labour Congress

From the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE):
April 22, 2008
His Excellency Hosni Mubarak
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdin Palace
Cairo, Egypt
Your Excellency:
We write to express grave concern about the recent acts of violence against textile workers in El Mahalla, an industrial town in the Nile Delta. We are told that several workers have been killed and that more than 250 workers were arrested after the April 6 strike at the factory, one of the largest in the Middle East.
We are aware that thousands of textile workers, on strike for better wages to cope with continually rising inflation, have faced rubber bullets and tear gas. We understand that many workers were injured as the police resorted to this violent response.
In recent years, we are aware that your government has cracked down on political opposition, jailing journalists and other critics, shutting down human rights groups and detaining political activists.
We join with many others in urging you to stop the attacks on citizens and workers, particularly those at El Mahalla, and to release political prisoners detained because of their labor and political activism.
We further urge you to guarantee citizens’ democratic rights to gather, strike and protest the failure of the government to guarantee a safe and dignified living, fair wages and suitable working conditions. Also of concern is the closure of the Center for Trade Union and Workers services headquarters. We urge you to reverse that decision.
We endorse the call for a public investigation into the El Mahalla events with a view to bringing to justice those who ordered shots to be fired on strikers. Clearly, these recent incidents of violence suggest the need to insure the economic stability, social justice and protection of citizens’ rights to security, equality and dignified living.
Yours truly,
Paul Moist
National President
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
Claude Généreux
National Secretary-Treasurer
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
cc:
Ambassador Dr. Mahmoud El-Saeed, Egyptian Embassy, Ottawa
Egyptian Consulate, Montreal
The Council of Ministers
Karam Saber, Executive Manager, Land Center for Human Rights
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Maxime Bernier, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister
Canadian Embassy, Cairo
Ken Georgetti, President, Canadian Labour Congress
National Executive Board members, Canadian Union of Public Employees

From the International Solidarity Committee, Ontario Division, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE):
Statement of Solidarity with Egyptian Workers
10 April 2008
CUPE Ontario International Solidarity Committee Condemns Attacks on Striking Egyptian Workers
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario International Solidarity Committee strongly condemns the latest round of repression by the Egyptian government against workers and protesters in El-Mahalla, an industrial town in the Nile Delta.
Eyewitness statements from workers, human rights, and solidarity organizations in Egypt indicate that thousands of workers and their families have been targeted by government troops in the area. At least two protesters have been killed by security forces, over 300 workers arrested, and the area placed under siege.
The repression follows a courageous call for a one-day general strike, originating in El-Mahalla, and supported widely by workers, human rights groups, and political organizations across the country. El Mahalla Factory is one of the largest textile factories in the Middle East.
CUPE stands firmly with our Egyptian brothers and sisters in their fight against neo-liberalism and state repression. We call on the Egyptian government to immediately release all those arrested in the last few days, particularly children. The Egyptian government must immediately cease the practice of torture in detention and bring to justice all those involved in human rights abuses. Furthermore, we call on the government to respect the right to strike and organize, and for workers at El Mahalla to be granted a livable wage and decent working conditions.
CUPE International Solidarity Committee urges its members to send messages of protest to Egyptian officials in Canada as well as emails of support to the striking workers (see below). We note the call by workers for further strike action on May 4th and will continue to stand in solidarity with all workers in the region.

And I received the following message from Sweden:

We in the SAC, Swedens Workers Central Organization, protest strongly and with anger against the violence that the aggressive agents of the police used on the protesting workers. The Egyptian workers need to be treated with the fullest respect, as they deserve, since they create everything.
When they struggle for what is just and fair, their demands should be listened to and fulfilled. Using brute, fatal force and lethal weapons against those who feed and dress a world is unacceptable! These simple demands should be met.
– all activists should be released immediately
– the right to strike left untouched
– the right to demonstrate should be left untouched
– no more violence against the workers of Egypt
– justice for the injured workers and the family of the murdered boy
– the demands of the workers should be met
The International committé of the SAC
Per Lundin

Egyptians ignore strike call by Facebook activists group

Posted on 05/05/200806/02/2021 By 3arabawy

As expected, yesterday’s “Facebook Strike” was a failure.. I hope our peers in the activist community will wake up and realize now the limitations of online activism. Let’s get back to organizing on the ground, fellow bloggers, and leave behind these cyber-fantasies.

Egyptians largely ignored a call by online activists for a general strike Sunday to protest against the government on President Hosni Mubarak’s 80th birthday.
Analysts said the failure showed the limited influence of activists organizing on social networking site Facebook after their successful strike last month generated enthusiasm that a new form of political protest was emerging in the Arab world’s largest nation.
Veteran political analyst Mohammed Sayyed Said sees the networking sites as excellent tools for political discussion. But he said the “total failure” of this strike showed their inability to connect with the common people here.
“The advantages were very clear,” he told The Associated Press. “Several thousand people were debating an issue, which is extraordinary by any standards. … But when it comes to touching cause with the public, it’s a different story,” said Said, who is also editor of the independent Badeel newspaper.
Only 8 percent of Egyptians use the Internet, according to the International Telecommunications Union.
Egypt’s so-called “Facebook party” burst onto the political scene in March when a group set up on the site called for a nationwide strike April 6 in solidarity with nation’s dissatisfied workers. It quickly garnered 60,000 members.
The lack of traffic and nearly empty schools and universities on that day suggested that the online advocacy had convinced many Egyptians to express their dissatisfaction over low wages and rising prices.
But the response may have had more to do with the fact that workers at the country’s largest textile factory in Mahalla el-Kobra had already decided to strike that day and they had popular sympathy.
Still a flurry of local and international media reports hailed what they said was a new method of political opposition to subvert heavy state restrictions on dissent.
Buoyed by their success, the Facebook group called a second strike for Sunday to coincide with the president’s 80th birthday. They are demanding legislation to raise wages, control prices and battle corruption.
“Everybody is suffering, if not from corruption, then from prices hike,” said Ahmad Maher, a construction engineer who helped set up the Facebook group. “All want a change to take place in Egypt.”
Inflation in Egypt reached 14.4 percent annually in March, making life even more difficult for the 20 percent of the country’s 76.5 million people who live below the poverty line of about US$2 per day. In the last two months, eleven people have died in clashes while standing in line to buy subsidized bread, according to police.
Activist Hossam el-Hamalawy, a left-wing blogger with close ties to the labor movement, dismissed their efforts ahead of the strike in what proved to be prophetic criticism about the limitations of the group.
“A few bloggers sipping coffee … in downtown Cairo cannot bring about this general strike,” he wrote on April 27.
El-Hamalawy argued that only groups with deep links to the people, such as some of the labor organizations in Egypt’s vast public sector factories, can pull off a successful strike and pressure the government.
“A group of ‘Facebook activists’ cannot also mobilize for it,” he wrote on this blog. “Neither are the current opposition groups all together.”
In the capital Cairo on Sunday, it was business as usual with snarled traffic and busy commuters filling the streets despite the strike call.

You can continue reading Paul Schemm’s and Maggie Michael’s AP report here. And here’s also a report by Sarah Carr on the downtown Cairo protest:

Protesters gathered outside the Lawyers’ Syndicate yesterday and called for an end to the rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, on his 80th birthday.
Around 40 people took part in the demonstration on the steps of the Syndicate, the only protest in the capital on a day when activists on Facebook had called for a general strike throughout Egypt.
The call was made last month, a few days after another general strike called for by opposition groups on April 6 in solidarity with textile workers at Ghazl El Mahalla who had announced their intention to strike.

Ahmad has some pix too of the Kefaya students’ demo at Assiut University.

Again, let’s get back to organizing on the ground. The general strike is coming, but will come from below, not from above and certainly not from the cyberspace. I urge you all to read this classic by Rosa Luxembourg: “The Mass Strike” [available in Arabic here]. Be patient as you decipher names and events that took place a century or two ago. The politics and dynamics of the mass strikes are still the bloody same.

And please also take time to read the Center for Socialist Studies statement re the April events and Comrade Yehya’s article in the Lebanese Al-Akhbar.

We should be grateful we have today all these technological resources that didn’t exist for the 19th and 20th Century revolutionaries. But this technology should be complimentary and a logistical support for whatever we do ON THE GROUND. I’m neither depressed nor demoralized about yesterday. I never believed it’s gonna work. I hope others do not get demoralized either. This enthusiasm among the youth for strikes and bringing the country to halt as a means of toppling the dictator is a positive phenomenon, yet should be channeled into reaching out to those workers in the factories in the Nile Delta as well as the urban poor in the slums. These workers and urban poor are NOT on Facebook, and I’m afraid I don’t expect them to be on it anytime soon. They will only listen to and liaise with bloggers and activists they see in person. So, Let’s focus on reality and not virtual reality.

Down with Mubarak… Down with the Ministry of Torture… Power to the Egyptian Workers…