Tag: mahalla

Ghazl el-Mahalla workers protest privatization and corruption

Posted on By 3arabawy

In response to a call by the Textile Workers’ League, Ghazl el-Mahalla workers demonstrated yesterday against corruption and privatization, calling for prosecuting their managers who’ve caused LE147 million losses to the company. The workers also repeated some the April 6th demands of a LE1200 national minimum wage, and denounced the increase in food prices.

It was very difficult for me to find out the exact size of the demonstration. Two journalists I spoke with put the number in the hundreds. Three activist sources inside the company and two labor journalists gave me different estimates that ranged from 4,000 to 10,000.

Some notes about yesterday’s demo:

  • The protest was spearheaded, yet again, by the female garment workers.
  • No matter how big or small the protest was, it marks a huge step forward in breaking the barrier of fear in the factory, following the April police crackdown. As I posted before, political propaganda and agitation on the factory floor have been resumed following the severe setbacks due to the crushing of the April Intifada.

Mubarak renews media crackdown

Posted on By 3arabawy

From the AFP:

An Egyptian court on Sunday fined a television agency boss LE 150,000 ($27,000) after his company broadcast images of food rioters tearing down portraits of President Hosni Mubarak in April.
The court fined Nader Gohar, who owns the Cairo News Company, LE 100,000 for operating a broadcast network without the necessary permits and LE 50,000 for operating unlicensed broadcasting equipment, Gohar told AFP.
The case was brought following a complaint by the government-owned Egyptian Radio and Television Union, which owns all broadcast signals in Egypt.
Gohar, who could have faced up to five years in prison after broadcasting images of Mubarak posters being torn down during deadly riots in April, said his equipment had been confiscated, effectively putting him out of business.
“I’m not happy with the sentence. [The judge] didn’t give me a prison sentence because they know it would be a shame for them, so they make me pay money and confiscate the equipment to stop me broadcasting.”
Gohar said the ruling meant he was “almost out of business.”

Ghazl el-Mahalla workers to protest privatization

Posted on By 3arabawy

The Textile Workers League has distributed leaflets today calling for a one-hour protest against privatization this Thursday, 30 October, 3:30pm by the end of the first work shift.

Propaganda and agitation in Ghazl el-Mahalla Co factories have been resumed in full force following the set back caused by the April security crackdowns, and I learned last week that the circulation of the League’s newsletter has doubled.

More details later.