In addition to the solidarity protest planned today in Talaat Harb Sq, activists are calling on all Egyptians to show solidarity with the Mahalla workers by demonstrating Sunday, 30 Sept, 12 noon, in front of the building of the corrupt, state-sponsored General Federation of Trade Unions HQ, in Galaa St., downtown Cairo.
Down with Mubarak’s Neo-Liberal Dictatorship… Long Live the Struggle of the Textile Strikers…
State Security Police tried to seal off the factory Wednesday morning by closing the main gate, but the workers stormed the gate and opened it by force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_OxePhwe-c
The troops are still deploying around the factory. Kareem took some pix of the troops clearing out the area around the factory compound of street vendors:
And here are the troops stationed at the entrance to the city:
Some clips taken by Kareem el-Beheiri of the strike on Tuesday night.
You can find in the first video the Mahalla Five cheered by their colleagues following their release. But then the mood changes a little bit in the second and third video as the workers’ militancy is pretty clear, as Muhammad el-Attar said State Security was “pushed to get involved, but didn’t want to”, and as it became clear there was an inclination to disband the strike based on ‘promises’ from security officials that the CEO and the head of the Factory Union Committee will be impeached and demands related to work conditions met. So you find the workers whistling and chanting “A’adeen! A’adeen!” (We are staying, we are staying).. and you can see how strike leaders rush to assure everyone that they are staying also with them, and not giving up, after there were some hints initially that the issue was more or less “settled.”