Labor leaders and activists involved in social struggles gathered in downtown Cairo yesterday, invited by Tadamon for Iftar, followed by a discussion on the the country’s current state of affairs.
Tag: left
Qalyoubiya Free Union Fighter
When one talks about the fight for independent trade unions in Egypt, Qalyoubiya has to feature strongly. Though initially their involvement in the protests was not as strong as their counterparts from Giza and Daqahliya, the Qalyoubiya real estate tax collectors, led by Tarek Mostafa, the dynamic provincial organizer from Kafr Shokr, ascended strongly. Tarek’s efforts have been central in mobilizing the civil servants in his province to join the three month strike last year, and send delegations to the Hussein Hegazi Street occupation in December. Following the victory, members of the Higher Strike Committee convened to discuss its future, and whether its raison d’etre had ended. It was Tarek in specific who lobbied the committee members not to disband, and take the fight to a new phase with building a free union.
I love listening to Tarek in public meetings and social events. He’s a very charming person, and more importantly, has a clear sharp vision of what’s to be done. When he talks, he does it with passion and he wins over his colleagues smoothly to his side. Tarek seems to be among the most developed and politically able Higher Strike Committee members. Keen on coordination with other civil servants and blue collar workers, he understands well the significance of the current project he and his comrades are involved in.
Addressing them in Kafr Abu Goma’a, Tarek said:
What we are doing today is something that will change Egypt’s history forever. If we build our independent union, we will encourage other people to do the same in the government service and in the factories. We will have something the country hasn’t seen in half a century: Free unions… We are not confronting a government. These are thieves. Let’s be frank and say it as it is: They are a gang of thieves. They think they can use the tax collectors as a whip against the people, against the poor. But we will show them. We will only be a whip on the rich. We are poor ourselves. The poor are our brothers. Those we should collect taxes from are the rich, who are ruling Egypt… This state never compromised from the time of the pharaohs till today. The only time it compromised was with our strike. We are strong. But we were then acting united. We are all happy for the 325% increase. But come on, we know these are nothing. We thank God for the increase of course, but our rights have been eaten up for 34 years. This 325% is just the beginning. We need full equality in treatment with the General Tax Collectors now. They get more than 600% bonuses. We need decent retirement pensions. We need to be able to feed and cloth our kids, pay for their schools. Our sisters need paid maternal leave days. How are we going to do that? We need weapons to confront this state. We cannot carry firearms, but we need weapons. Our independent union will be one of those weapons. That will be the safeguard our rights are not taken.
Canal Ropes Company Workers’ Strike
I took the pic above Tuesday in Port Said, as the Canal Ropes Company strikers were about to break their Ramadan fast at sunset. The worker in the ground reaching with his hand to take the dates is a Coptic worker, named Labib Guergiss (Also seen in the pic below).
Virtually all workers I meet during strikes, including their leaders, tend to be religiously devout. Many of the Muslims have beards, prayer marks on their foreheads (zebiba), and pray regularly.
The women workers are usually dressed in higab, if not niqab.
The Copts have crosses tattooed on their arms, a practice common among middle and working class Christians. The religiosity however does NOT translate itself mechanically into:
1- Sectarian attitude among the workers from two sects: On the contrary, unity is strongly forged among the strikers, and among the newly rising layer of strike leaders there is a significant number of Copts.
2- A political affiliation or sympathy to the Muslim Brotherhood: No, the biggest and most organized opposition force, as the cliche goes, is not active among labor circles. Its base of support lies mainly among the middle class professionals, lower middle classes and the Islamized sections of our elite. Their capitalist economic agenda, and vague oscillating stands towards privatization, weak intervention on behalf of workers in industrial conflicts that erupt in their parliamentarian constituencies and the general retreat the organization is going through since the 2006 crackdown, means an confused stand towards the strike wave. I usually ask strike leaders I interview on their views regarding the MBs. The responses vary from overt hostility to “they are good people. They do charity.” But in almost all cases, the strikers cite no direct help from the group, let alone leadership.
3- Hostility to the left: Being religious, contrary to the stereotype, does not mean a hostility to leftists and secular activists. Unlike the liberal secularists, radical leftists have a different stand towards religion, and do not put religion as the enemy or as the focal point of the current malaise. I found the workers themselves when they are struggling, to be welcoming to any sincere effort to help them, whether it’s coming from a secular, an Islamist or the devil. What matters for them is who does what during the strike to make it successful? Who stands by them, who stands against them? Who puts 110% effort into a solidarity campaign with them, and who doesn’t give a shit? Some of the strike leaders I know in industrial and service sectors are increasingly describing themselves as “socialists” or “Marxists” while carefully observing the prayer timings, fasting Ramadan, and have zebibas on their foreheads. Personally they are religious, but the political program they present and advocate is left-leaning and secular. There is a clear shift in the mood among the workers and public to the left. It’s been a slow, incremental change that started with the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada eight years ago… a change that has been missed by the Western journalists and researchers obsessed with stories on terrorism, the veiled oppressed women, and the Red Sea Rivera.
4- Subordination of women in the industrial action: The participation of the women workers in the strike wave is an amazing story. They triggered the Winter of Labor Discontent, produced strike leaders and trade union activists, and are defying established gender roles. A Westernized feminist who looks at the pix of the strikers and finds the women to be veiled or in niqab and thus draws a negative conclusion about their status, will miss the whole point.