Tag: 6 april 2008

I do NOT endorse the May 4th General Strike Call

Posted on 24/04/200805/02/2021 By 3arabawy

I’m preparing a longer posting on the Mahalla Uprising and the aftermath.. It’s taking sometime… but till I’m done, I just want to state on the record from now that I DO NOT endorse the call for a general strike on May 4th. I repeat I do NOT endorse the call for a general strike on the dictator’s 80th birthday (fuckin hell.. the dude is turning 80.. can you believe this shit?!). This is a call that is coming from the cyberspace by bloggers, “Facebook activists” and the Islamist-leaning Labor Party whose leaders have declared themselves more or less as some “provisional govt” in cyber-exile… We, the Egyptian bloggers, have always prided ourselves on the fact that we have one foot on the ground and the other in the cyberspace… But this time, it seems some have thrown both their feet as well as brains in the cyberspace and are living some virtual reality, mistakenly believing (helped by the media sensationalist coverage of the “facebook activism“) that they are the ones behind the events in Mahalla…

More later… But I wanted to make my position from early on clear coz I keep getting queries from fellow activists about my stand towards this and why haven’t I publicized for the strike…

Updates on the detainees: Interior Minister decrees detention orders against Ghazl el-Mahalla labor activists

Posted on 22/04/200805/02/2021 By 3arabawy

I spoke with a Socialist source and a human rights lawyer in Cairo. The two confirmed that the following have been issued a detention decree by General Habib el-Adly, Mubarak’s Interior Minister, and were transferred from Mahalla’s local State Security bureau to Bourg el-Arab Prison in Alexandria:

Kamal Muhammad el-Sayyed el-Fayoumi, Ghazl el-Mahalla worker
Tarek Abdel Hamid Amin (Tarek el-Senoussi), Ghazl el-Mahalla worker
Abdel Kareem Ali el-Beheiri Abdel Kareem (Kareem el-Beheiri), Ghazl el-Mahalla worker and blogger
Ibrahim el-Zoghby, Mahalla resident
Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad, Security guard at Ghazl el-Mahalla
Ibrahim el-Yamani, doctor
Abdel Halim Ahmad, Ghazl el-Mahalla worker

Prosecutor had ordered earlier on Wednesday the release of the above mentioned Mahallans, but Mubarak’s State Security pigs kept them in custody, till the detention decrees were issued…

I spoke with Muhammad el-Sharqawi also today. He’s still recovering from the effects of the four day hunger strike he had staged demanding his release from illegal detention. Sharqawi said he expected the prosecutor to push for a trial in the case of Magdi el-Shafie’s “Metro”, saying it’s State Security’s way of getting back at him for his activism. Metro has been confiscated from Sharqawi’s publishing house, as well as bookstores, with financial losses incurred on Sharqawi.

Free Kareem.. Free Kamal.. Free Mahalla..

Posted on 22/04/200805/02/2021 By 3arabawy

This was among the first set of photos I snapped of Kareem el-Beheiri, the currently “disappeared” Ghazl el-Mahalla activist. It was a Workers’ Coordination Committee meeting in downtown Cairo, which took place on a Friday, one day after the victory of the Kafr el-Dawar textile strike. I recall I was totally exhausted that Friday, after my return on the previous night from Kafr el-Dawar and then stayed up late till I posted a report. I wanted to go home early on that day, but I had already volunteered to translate for three Swedish journalists who showed up at the event. Also I wanted to hear any of the participants in Ghazl el-Mahalla December 2006 strike. And it was Kareem that day who spoke very eloquently about the strike and the future of the struggle against the state-backed labor unions.

The photo below, which unfortunately not that focused and in low resolution, is the first I snapped of Kamal el-Fayoumi, the currently “disappeared” Textile Workers’ League activist. It was January 2007, and Kamal was among a delegation of the Ghazl el-Mahalla December 2006 strike leaders who descended on Cairo to meet with the (state-backed) General Union of Textile Workers officials in Shobra demanding the impeachment of the corrupt local union members who opposed the strike. He was the most fiery among the strike leaders, I recall. In response to Said el-Gohary scoffing the workers’ demands saying they had no right to ask for any since Ghazl el-Mahalla was losing and not generating profits anymore, Kamal stood up and with a high-pitched voice he thundered, while waiving his hands and pointing at the corrupt union officials, “I’m a worker! You give me a production plan every year, and I implement it. It’s not my business what I produced later gets marketed or not! This is the management’s responsibility not mine!” I remember I told myself, “Wow! This guy destroyed the neoliberal logic in four sentences, and I bet he never read either Chomsky or Klein.”

I hope to see Kareem, Kamal, all the political detainees free soon. My heart and thoughts go out to them and their families.