Excerpts from a message I received from journalist Jano Charbel:
I went to the Mahalla Strike on Sunday.
7aga Gamda Gamda! (This is solid solid!) 25,000 men and women on strike.. very uplifting!
The company’s security guards wouldn’t let me in, they then took me and photographer Ahmad Ismail to the security chief – some brigadier general – who told me that we couldn’t enter. He said “da beiti wenta deif, wana ka sa7eb el beit men 7a2i en amna3ak men dukhoul beiti (This is my house, and you are my guest. It’s my right to ban you from entering my house).”
He told us to do our work outside the company’s walls.
Workers whom I don’t know saw that we couldn’t get in, so they brought us inside by force.
Around 10 workers intertwined their arms in mine and cannon-balled me through three lines of security guards.
The mood inside was one of total defiance. People are sick of the ultra low wages, company corruption, and financial fraud.
The security is totally pissed off, and will crackdown and arrest the heroes.
This (Mahalla strike) looks likes it could very well spread further and beyond – to Kafr El Dawwar to elsewhere across the country.
Here are some of the pix taken by Jano:
