Tag: mahalla

Mahalla Updates: ‘This is a liberated zone’

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received the following statement from the Workers’ Coordination Committee:

Coordinating Committee for Trade Union and Workers Rights and Liberties
Statement No. 5
Concerns Regarding Possible Security Attack against Protesting Mahalla Workers
Although the prosecution has ordered the release of the eight workers arrested earlier, still security authorities continue to illegally hold them in custody, in Mahalla 2nd police station since 12 noon time and until the release of this statement at 9 p.m.
On the other hand the company management has distributed a leaflet today at 5 pm announcing the days 23/9 (date of beginning of sit in) until 30/9 to be “holidays” for the company, in an attempt to provide a legal pretext to force the workers to leave the company and end their strike. This move raises serious concerns, for either the decree was issued on the 23rd and had not been distributed until now, which is quite unlikely, or else it was issued today with an earlier date to provide a pretext to force the workers out of the company, since the company in on “official holiday”.
In the meantime harassment of the striking workers continues where electricity and water supplies have been cut from the company to force the workers, who are fasting in the month of Ramadan, to leave the premise.
As a reaction, the workers tore the leaflets and announced that they have been on strike since Sunday the 23rd of September and until their demands are met. They put up another banner stating” This is liberated territory and belongs to the weaving workers of Mahalla”. They continued chanting their slogans against company policies, the ministry of investment, the ministry of labor and the complicity of the official union federation.
In the meantime solidarity with the striking Mahalla workers is expanding, involving a solidarity demonstration by Kafr El Dawwar workers and another by Mit Ghamr waving workers, while Delta Weaving workers in Zefta and Tanta marched and chanted slogans of solidarity with their colleagues upon their entry and exit from the company. Several calls have been launched to establish a strike fund in the different companies and factories to support the Mahalla strike.
The committee recognizes that those maneuvers by the government and the management are attempts to provide a legal cover for a forceful eviction of the workers form the factory.
The committee warns those official bodies of the consequences of their plots of aggression and oppression against the Mahalla workers. Also, as the committee salutes the determination of the Mahalla weaving workers and their families and all social groups and forces who have expressed solidarity with them, it calls for a widening of the solidarity movement, to block attempts of aggression against Mahalla workers.
Coordinating Committee for Trade Union and Workers Rights and Liberties
25 September, 9 a.m.

Here’s the photo of the management statement posted by Kareem el-Beheiri:

Kareem reports that thousands of workers, angered by the management’s decree, tore down copies of the decree, chanted against the government and the ministerial cabinet, and raised posters that mocked the “Managerial Statement” reading: “Workers’ Statement: The Workers Refuse the Holidays.. Signed: Ghazl el-Mahalla Workers”

and another beautiful one that read: “This is a Liberated Zone.”

Videos of the demonstrations could be found here. My heart and thoughts go out to the Mahalla strikers.

Solidarity committee with Mahalla workers launched

Posted on By 3arabawy

Labor organizers and leftist activists are rallying for the Mahalla strikers. I received the following statement…

Solidarity Committee with Mahalla Workers
We, the undersigned announce the formation of a solidarity committee with Mahalla Spinning and Weaving workers, supporting their fight for their rights, which are basic and legitimate rights for all workers. We shall use all means to express our solidarity with the workers and their families for their courageous stand and their struggle to seize their rights.
We also call upon all workers in all locations to act in solidarity with their colleagues at the Mahalla Spinning and Weaving Company. We salute the initiative of the Grain Mills workers for their symbolic solidarity sit in, which they organized on the 23rd of September 2007 and their release of solidarity statements together with their colleagues in Shebeen El Kom Spinning and Weaving Company. We also salute the weaving workers in Kafr El Dawwar for their decision to organize a solidarity sit in with their Mahalla colleagues on the 25th of September 2007. We also salute the students, foremost the Tanta university students, for their release of several solidarity statements with the workers. We also salute all centers and movements who expressed solidarity with the workers.
We condemn the policy of terror which the regime is using in the face of the legitimate demands of the masses of workers.
We especially condemn Mahmoud El Gebali, chair of the management board of the Mahalla Spinning and Weaving Company and Mohsen El Gilani, chair of the Spinning and Weaving holding company for filing complaints against the workers struggling for their rights.
We condemn the policy of blockade, which has failed to intimidate the workers and has increased their determination to continue their strike for their rights.
We condemn the yellow puppet General Federation of Trade Unions and the Ministry of Labor who stand against the will of the workers and against their interests. We condemn the statement by the minister of investment to “wait” for the general assembly meeting since it is that same minister who issued the decree of disbursing a loan as an advance for the incentives until the general assembly meetings of all companies have been held. According to this decree LE2000 loans have been disbursed to all workers at the Iron & Steel and Kuk companies, as well as a two months pay to the rest of the companies. Why then are Mahalla workers denied the same treatment?
Signatories:
Grain Mills Company Workers, Helwan Iron and Steel workers, Cement Company Workers, Coordinating Committee for Trade Union Rights and Liberties, Workers For Change, Center for Trade Unions and Workers’ Services, Committee for Workers Solidarity, Kefaya Movement, Egyptian Antiglobalization Group (AGEG), Popular association for the Protection of Citizens from Corruption, Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Center for Socialist Studies, Afaq Ishterakeyya Center, Social Democratic party (under establishment).

Mahalla Updates

Posted on By 3arabawy

More updates from Mahalla:

State Security Prosecutor ordered the release of the Mahalla Five today sometime between 3 to 4pm. But the labor leaders are still in police custody as I write now, as they will have to be reviewed first by State Security Police.

More importantly, the state-owned management issued today a statement, decreeing that the days from 23 September to 30 September are “holidays”… which basically enforces the “illegal” status of the strike, as the workers according to the law, should not be present at all inside the factory.

The workers met the statement with wrath. “They tore the posted statements down from the walls, and started chanting against the management,” one activist inside the company told me. “But this could well be Step 1 towards crushing the strike. They declare your presence illegal, and then send someone in to set fire or sabotage something to give the excuse for the troops to storm the compound.”

Meanwhile the strike continues. There will be more reports and photos that I’ll upload later in the day.

Down with Mubarak… Victory to the Mahalla Strikers.