Tag: copts

Police prevent Copts from repairing church

Posted on 26/08/200810/04/2015 By 3arabawy

From AFP…

Police used violence earlier this month to prevent villagers from repairing the only church in their area, a rights group said on Monday, warning of a rise in sectarian tension as a result.

On Aug. 17, “a policeman assigned to guard the Archangel Michael Church in Deshasha (Beni Sweif province south of Cairo) hit three women while they were taking sand into the church to fix the floor which was cracked as a result of water collection underneath,” the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said in a statement.

After the incident rumors spread in the village that Copts had locked up the policeman inside the church, beat him up and tore his clothes, leading to the brief arrests of several Copts and to threats of retaliation from Muslim villagers, the group said.

“The worrying rise in sectarian tension that we have seen in Deshasha is a direct result of violations committed by the police,” EIPR director Hossam Bahgat said.

“This incident must be investigated and those responsible held accountable.”

Kafr Elw portraits

Posted on 18/12/200714/01/2021 By 3arabawy

Like the case of Qale’t el-Kabsh slum, the protests by Kafr Elw’s residents are mainly led by the women. The reason you hear from them (in both cases) is that their husbands have already been arrested and tortured by the police, and they fear another detention decree.

The families are under the impression that if women step forward, the police will be less likely to attack. [Of course our experience with the Egyptian police whether when it comes to demonstrations, or women in custody, proves to be different, but occasionally the logic applies if there are no direct orders from senior pigs to disperse the demo.]

Anyone who is closely observing the ongoing wave of social struggles in the country, whether they are in the factories, the countryside, or the urban slums, can well see there is a high participation of women in the protests, strikes and sit-ins.

In cases like the Mahalla strike in December 2006, it was 3000 women workers from the garments sections who started the strike, credited with unleashing the Winter of Labor Discontent. The involvement of women in strikes later was noticed in the textile sector (where the garments sector is overwhelming feminine), and the cases are numerous, though I previously highlighted on this blog more or less three cases only: Mansoura-España, Kafr el-Dawar, El-Hennawi Tobacco. But I can safely say that in virtually every strike I attended or heard of if there were women present in the labor force, you would find that they have a say.. and in most of the occasions, you can find a figure or two at least among the spontaneous labor leaders who are mushrooming in the places that witnessed industrial conflicts or clashes with the authorities over land and/or housing.

The other interesting phenomenon you see in the current social struggles is the Coptic-Muslim relations. While the country is going through some of its worst sectarian tensions, ringing some bells also about the episode that preceded Sadat’s killing, a contradictory process is happening in the industrial urban centers that have or are witnessing the revival of industrial action. Coptic workers and civil servants for example played a leading role in railway and the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strikes, two sectors where Copts have constituted a sizable portion of its labor force from their founding. And in fights over slums, like the ongoing Kafr Elw crisis, I noticed some of the men who were protesting outside the Governorate HQ had crosses tattooed on their hands (a practice mainly common among working and middle class Copts), still they were standing side by side with veiled Muslim women in lobbying the govt, organizing and planning the next move to save their community.

These social struggles from below are the ONLY way forward to unite the oppressed from the two sects and genders against the system that in essence bred such discrimination and exploits it for its survival, despite all the horseshit we hear coming from the presidency about how the regime is committed to “equality” between the citizens.

More needs to be said about that, and about the Egyptian working class and religion, but I’ll reserve it to a future posting.

Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike: INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY URGENTLY NEEDED

Posted on 12/12/200714/01/2021 By 3arabawy

I’m passing a message from the Higher Strike Committee for the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ Strike.

If the government does not respond to the demands of the 55,000 strong strike today, then tomorrow Thursday escalation is expected. More buses carrying striking tax collectors and their families will descend on Cairo from the provinces, and the downtown Cairo sit-in participants can well amount to 20,000.

The strikers (who receive a basic monthly salary of roughly US$50) are demanding their inclusion to, or receiving similar treatment to their colleagues at, the Ministry of Finance, as well as impeaching the corrupt head of the Real Estate Tax Collection Authorities Ismail Abdel Rassoul. This is probably the first time the tax collectors go on strike since the 1919 revolution against the British occupation. There is large presence of Copts and women in this branch of the government. Anyone who visits the strikers camping outside the Ministerial Cabinet building in downtown Cairo can see for themselves the fantastic solidarity between Muslims and Christians, men and women, in a society that often stands accused of sectarianism and chauvinism.

Yesterday some NDP MP showed up at the sit-in and summoned the strike leaders to the parliament to negotiate with Fathi Surror, the parliament speaker. They went there, but no meeting took place! They were promised a meeting the following day (ie, today). This was interpreted as a confusion among the govt ranks on how to handle the strike, which is turning into a national and international embarrassment for the govt.

Meanwhile, another 6 million govt civil servants are watching closely what’s happening. The latter have their grievances and a victory for the Real Estate Tax Collectors will be a victory “to the whole mowazzafin (civil servants) and the Egyptian people,” as one of the strikers from the Kafr el-Sheikh province told me.

This strike is no less important than Ghazl el-Mahalla‘s. And the strike leaders are calling on the international labor unions to issue solidarity statements on their behalf, and lobby the Egyptian government to respond to the strikers’ legitimate demands.