Tag: left

Solidarity with Mahalla in London

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received the following statement:

UK trade unionists, human rights campaigners call for release of Mahalla 49
A delegation of trade unionists and campaigners handed a petition to the Egyptian embassy in London today, 7 August, calling for the release of 49 Egyptian citizens facing trial in the Higher State Security Court on 9 August on charges related to protests in Mahalla on 6 and 7 April this year.
Lindsey German, representing the Stop the War Coalition, Rob Owen from the National Executive of the National Union of Students, Sami Ramadani and Sabah Jawad from Iraqi Democrats against the Occupation presented the petition to the embassy. They were joined by trade unionists, students and representatives of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.
Mark Serwotka, leader of the civil servants’ trade union PCS, journalists’ union leader Jeremy Dear and campaigning human rights lawyer Louise Christian are among the signatories to the letter which condemns the Egyptian government for using testimony extracted under torture in the case.
Embassy staff refused to receive the petition, although the 2nd Secretary was apparently present in the building. Instead, Egyptian officials communicated with the delegation via British police officers who came out of the embassy front door to tell protesters to put the petition through the letter box.
Petition text and main signatories below.
Petition organized by the Cairo Conference Committee UK
===================================================
Solidarity with the people of Mahalla
Stop the show trial of Egyptian protesters
We the undersigned express our full solidarity with the 49 Egyptian citizens, whom the Mubarak regime has decided to prosecute in an Emergency High State Security Criminal Court, accused of involvement in the two day uprising in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla in April. On the 6th and 7th April, Mubarak’s troops occupied, Ghazl el-Mahalla, the biggest textile mill in the Middle East, home to 27,000 workers, aborting a strike announced by the independent Textile Workers’ League in protest at spiralling food prices and to demand a raise in the minimum wage which has remained stagnant since 1984.
The troops used live ammunition, tear gas, water cannons and sticks against the peaceful protesters in the town who took to the streets after the crushing of the strike. At least three were killed, and hundreds were injured and detained. The 49 detainees face a list of trumped up charges, to which some have confessed under torture. They will be tried in an exceptional court, systematically denounced by human rights watchdogs for lacking the international standards for a “safe and just trial.” We call on the Egyptian dictatorship to release them immediately.

Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), UK
Jeremy Dear, General Secretary, National Union of Journalists (NUJ), UK
Jane Loftus, President, Postal Executive, Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), UK
Trevor Ngwane – Anti-Privatisation Forum, South Africa
Professor Alex Callinicos, King’s College, London, UK
Eamonn McCann, journalist and anti-war campaigner, Ireland
Richard Boyd-Barrett, People not Profit Alliance, Ireland
Lindsey German, Stop the War Coalition, UK
Chris Nineham, Stop the War Coalition, UK
James Eaden, National Executive, University and College Union (UCU), UK
Liz Davies, Secretary, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, UK
Richard Harvey, Bureau Member, International Association of Democratic Lawyers
Louise Christian, Human rights lawyer, Christian Khan solicitors, UK
John Rees, Cairo Conference (UK)
John McDermott UNISON NEC, UK
Rob Owen, National Union of Students, National Executive, UK
Dave Lewis, National Union of Students, National Treasurer, UK
Katie Dalton, National Union of Students, Wales, UK
Susan Nash, National Union of Students, National Executive, UK
Beth Walker, National Union of Students, Vice President, UK
Ama Uzowuru, National Union of Students, Vice President, UK
Elizabeth Somerville, National Union of Students, National Executive, UK
Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy, National Union of Students, Black Students Officer, UK
Herbert Docena, Focus on the Global South researcher, (Philippines)
Professor Colin Sparks, Westminster University, UK
Professor Gilbert Achcar, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
Professor Claudio Katz, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rebecca Branford, MoC, NUJ BBC White City, UK
Graham Dyer, President, UCU, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
Donny Gluckstein, National Executive, Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS)
Penny Glover, National Executive, Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS)
Explo Nani-Kofi, African Liberation Support Campaign (ALISC)
Geoff Brown, Secretary, Manchester Trades Council, UK
Umut Kocagöz, National Executive Committee of GENÇ-SEN (Student Union of Turkey)
Gözde Mutlucan, National Executive Committee of GENÇ-SEN (Student Union of Turkey)
Zeliha Kabataş, National Executive Committee of GENÇ-SEN (Student Union of Turkey)
Kıvanç Eliaçık, National Executive Committee of GENÇ-SEN (Student Union of Turkey)
Simin Gürdal, National Executive Committee of GENÇ-SEN (Student Union of Turkey)
Ozan Ersan (National Membership Organizer and International Officer), GENÇ-SEN (Student Union of Turkey)
Donatella Binacardi, delegata sindacale SdL Intercategoriale, Italy
Reynaldo de Guzman, National Chairperson, Philippine Peace and Solidarity Council
Karen Evans, University and College Union, National Executive
Karen Reissmann, Unison, Manchester Community Mental Health Branch
Jacques Bidet, Professeur émérite à l’Université de Paris-X
Sami Ramadani, Writer and academic, London
Sabah Jawad, Iraqi Democrats against the Occupation
Plataforma Aturem la Guerra (Stop the War Platform, Barcelona)
Guy Taylor, Globalise Resistance UK
Dave Barnes, National Executive, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA)
Clare Solomon, Co-President Students’ Union, School of Oriental and African Studies
And more than 570 other signatories. All signatures are in a personal capacity

Claire posted a report here, while Clara has some photos here.

Solidarity with the people of Mahalla

1976

Posted on By 3arabawy
[25-11-1976] Leftist students demonstrate outside the parliament building to protest the high cost of living and Sadat's economic policies. Two months later, the country was to witness a national uprising on 18 and 19 January 1977, that was crushed by Sadat's army [Photo by Popperfoto, Courtesy of the UK Socialist Worker Archives]
[25-11-1976] Leftist students demonstrate outside the parliament building to protest the high cost of living and Sadat’s economic policies. Two months later, the country was to witness a national uprising on 18 and 19 January 1977, that was crushed by Sadat’s army [Photo by Popperfoto, Courtesy of the UK Socialist Worker Archives]

Kamal Khalil, recalling the 25 November 1976 Cairo University march which he led as an Engineering graduate student and a communist organizer:

The Nasserists and the Communists were due to march on that day. But there were divisions in every faction.. both among the Nasserists themselves and the Communists. The Workers Communist party activists had announced they were not joining the march. My group’s cell leaders back then, the “Communist Party-8th of January,” voted 3 to 2 against joining the march. I decided to break the organizational orders, and agitate for the protest by noon. We had drafted together with the Nasserists, the “November Progressive Document”, where we stated the demands of the student movement against the reconciliation with Israel, the repression of the opposition and the “Open-Door” Policy [Sadat’s neoliberal reforms]. The original plan, before the student leaders started hesitating, was that we were to mobilize for a march on the parliament, and hand the “Document” to the parliamentarians. The march started by only 200 students, but soon swelled to more than 3000 and those who were hesitating, ended up joining when it became clear the Central Security Forces were not going to obstruct the march.
We camped outside the parliament, at el-Qasr el-Eini. Back then it was two-way street. One thing I’ll never forget was a bus driver who was on the opposite direction. We started chanting: “El-Ta’ayeed el-Tam el-Tam, li Edrab el-Na’l El-‘Am! [Our full solidarity for the transport workers’ strike]”. The bus drivers in Cairo had gone on strike earlier in the summer, bringing the capital to halt. The bus driver stopped his bus, and leaned out of the side window, to hug the demonstrators and kept on honking. A student delegation went up to deliver the “Document” to the parliamentarians. Of course their response was “sure we’ll look into that”.. but nothing happened. In less than two months, the intifada broke out.

An appeal to the German trade unions and rights activists

Posted on By 3arabawy

To our comrades, brothers and sisters in Germany,

The US-backed regime of Hosni Mubarak is prosecuting 49 Egyptians in the Emergency High State Security Criminal Court. It is accusing them of involvement in the recent two day uprising in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla. The Egyptian security forces occupied Ghazl el-Mahalla, the biggest textile mill in the Middle East with 27,000 workers, on the 6th of April, attempting to crush a strike in protest against skyrocketing food prices. The workers also demanded a raise in the national minimum wage, which has remained stagnant since 1984. The strike was organized by the Textile Workers’ League, an independent association formed last year following a wave of successful textile workers’ occupations.

The association called the strike on 6 April. The regime responded by flooding the Nile Delta town with thousands of troops. They surrounded and occupied the textile factory compound, and rounded up a number of the Textile Workers’ League activists. This move triggered a mass demonstration that drew in workers and the urban poor from the town. Protesters fought back when security forces attacked demonstrators with batons, tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and live ammunition.

At least three people were killed and hundreds injured. Police then swooped on neighborhoods and arrested hundreds of Mahalla citizens. Many of these activists were released following international pressure, but 43 ordinary people swept up in the crackdown are still in jail.

Detainees who were released shortly afterward spoke of horrific torture meted out to them in police stations and state security facilities.

These included severe beatings, electric shocks and sexual abuse. Prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor and threatened with rape. On several occasions security forces personnel trampled over the detainees as they lay helpless on the ground.

The detainees have found themselves trapped in a maze of laws and prisons. State security agents have ignored orders from the prosecutor’s office to release some of the prisoners.
Others who had made it out of the detention facilities were either kidnapped or rearrested under wide-ranging security powers.

Mubarak’s regime has decided to transfer 43 of the detainees to an exceptional court, opening on 9th of August – which has been denounced by human rights groups as lacking the international standards for a “safe and just trial”.

Six others are on the run and will be tried in absentia.

All the detainees will be tried on trumped up charges and face prison sentences of between six to ten years hard labor.

Egyptian activists have denounced the regime for using the detainees as scapegoats for the uprising.

International solidarity with the Mahalla detainees is urgently needed. Statements of support from German trade unions and human rights groups, as well protests in front of the regime’s embassies and consulates, will help put pressure on the Egyptian dictatorship, which is a trading partner with the German state.

1-The Center for Socialist Studies
2-Workers For Change Movement
3-The Mahalla Textile Workers’ League