Tag: left

Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike update: Partial agreement reached with minister; Sit-in and demos called off; STRIKE CONTINUES

Posted on 13/12/200714/01/2021 By 3arabawy

I’ve received news from the strikers’ camp in downtown Cairo:

Negotiations took place yesterday between the Finance Minister and State Security officers on one side and the strike leaders on the other… A partial agreement has been reached. I still need to confirm the details, but roughly here are the highlights:

1-Two month salary will be paid to the 55,000 strikers before Eid.

2-The Minister will meet with the strikers on 23 or 24 December to finalize a decree granting the Real Estate Tax Collectors the same bonuses and incentives as those received by their colleagues at the Ministry of Finance.

3-No striker will be victimized.

4-The camp set up by the strikers in front of the Ministerial Cabinet in downtown will be disbanded today temporarily for two weeks, and the solidarity demonstrations will be called off. However, the strike will continue until the above mentioned ministerial decree is issued.

UPDATE: Nora has some details in Arabic here.

UPDATE: It’s 12:30pm now, and the downtown sit-in is suspended by the strikers who folded their tents, carried their bags, exchanged hugs and kisses, chanted for hours confident about victory, and are now mounting buses back to the provinces. A group of the strike leaders, I was told, are meeting with the Finance Minister again today for further negotiations. Police troops had stepped up their presence since the morning. Agents from Qasr el-Nil Police Station, as well as State Security’s Counter-Communism Bureau, were spotted around the parliament and in el-Qasr el-Eini St.

UPDATE: It’s confirmed the strike is continuing in Cairo and the provinces, despite the temporary supension of the downtown sit-in.

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.

Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike: Solidarity protests planned tomorrow in Cairo and Mahalla

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

The Center for Socialist Studies, Workers for Change, the Workers Coordination Committee, The Workers’ Solidarity Committee and the Socialist Afaq Center are calling for a solidarity demonstration in front of the Parliament, tomorrow Thursday 1pm, in support of the Real Estate Tax Strikers. Ghazl el-Mahalla workers are mobilizing for a simultaneous protest at El-Shoun Sq in Mahalla.