Tag: mahalla

Mahalla Updates

Posted on By 3arabawy

The Mahalla labor leaders are to be interrogated Tuesday by the Prosecutor, after a complaint was submitted from the Ghazl el-Mahalla company – acting at the behest of SS Police – accusing them of “agitating workers to strike”.

The five names included in the interrogation are of the Leading Textile Workers’ League activists Gihad Taman, Wael Habib, Gamal Abu el-Esa’ad as well as the two detained workers Kamal el-Fayoumi and Kareem el-Beheiri… It’s unclear, whether Kamal and Kareem who are currently on a hunger strike in Bourg el-Arab Prison will be transferred to Mahalla for the interrogation or not.

In other news, Muhammad Maree, Buck’s translator, was re-categorized by the prison authorities as a “political (not criminal) detainee,” and moved to the same cell where the Mahalla 3 are kept. Here’s a report by Sarah Carr:

Three former employees of the Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning factory have launched a second, open-ended, hunger strike in protest against their detention.
Kamal El-Fayyoumy, Tareq Amin and Karim El-Beheiry were arrested separately on April 6.
All three were involved in the organization of a strike in the factory planned for the same day, which collapsed following worker disunity and intimidation by security bodies.
Violence subsequently erupted in the Delta town after security bodies clashed with residents protesting increasing food prices.
The three men are currently being held in Alexandria’s Borg El-Arab prison.
In a letter sent to the head of the Judges’ Club last week, the men announced that they are on hunger strike, and called for a public prosecution office investigation into why they are being held without charge over a month after their arrest.
El-Fayyoumy, Amin and El-Beheiry were dismissed from their employment in the factory shortly after their arrest
Lawyer Ahmad Ezzat visited the men on Saturday with three other lawyers from a group formed to assist individuals detained in connection with the events of April 6.
He told Daily News Egypt that the three men have decided to launch a second, open-ended, hunger strike to protest their illegal detention and summary dismissal from the factory.
“Sacking workers involved in labor organizing is a common tool used by the authorities in order to make it impossible for them to pursue these activities without a source of income,” Ezzat explained.
Muhammad Maree, a translator who was arrested in Mahalla with American national James Buck on April 10, is also being held in Borg El-Arab prison without charge.
Buck was released the day after the Mahalla public prosecution office ordered that both men be released.
Ezzat says that Marei has been moved to a different prison wing.
“Prison authorities have finally agreed to requests that he be held with political prisoners rather than convicted criminals and he has been moved,” Ezzat told Daily News Egypt.
Under Egyptian law political detainees are meant to be separated from those convicted of ordinary criminal offenses.

Updates on the Mahalla detainees

Posted on By 3arabawy

AFP is saying that those who joined the hunger strike in Bourg el-Arab Prison have gone up to 280 prisoners:

Dozens of inmates at a prison in northern Egypt went on hunger strike on Sunday to protest against their continued detention despite repeated court orders for their release, an inmate said.
Some 280 prisoners at Borg El-Arab jail near Alexandria launched the protest because the authorities have not freed them despite individual court orders to do so, the inmate said.
The man, who asked that his name not be used, told AFP by telephone that he has been in jail for five years and had obtained 13 court orders for his release.
“Every time I got a court order I would be taken to a police station to finish the paperwork for my release and instead I’d be rearrested and sent back to jail,” he said by telephone.
“We now appeal to President [Hosni] Mubarak to intervene and look into our cases,” the inmate added.
Rights groups have repeatedly criticized Egypt for keeping prisoners behind bars after their release has been ordered.

I spoke with a Socialist source in Cairo, who also did not have much details about what’s going on, except that he said the news he’s getting talks about 500 detainees joining the hunger strike, not just 280.. But nothing can be confirmed at the moment.

More worrying, according to the Socialist source in Cairo and another in Ghazl el-Mahalla, State Security Police has submitted a new report to the Prosecutor, accusing the five following Textile Workers League activists in Ghazl el-Mahalla of “agitating for a strike”: Gihad Taman, Wael Habib, Gamal Abu el-Esa’ad as well as the two detained workers Kamal el-Fayoumi and Kareem el-Beheiri. This means the govt is moving to try to keep the already detained Mahalla activists for a longer period of time in prison, add more labor organizers to the detainees’ population, and turn it into a trial in court.

Turkish Textile Workers send solidarity message to the Mahalla 3

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received the following message from Turkey…

SOLIDARTY MESSAGE FOR MAHALLA WORKERS
Tekstil-Sen, an independent trade union of the textile workers in Turkey, declared solidarity with the hunger striker worker leaders in Egypt.
Tekstil-Sen made a press statement today for condemning the anti-democratic practices of the Egyptian state and government over the Ghazl el Mahalla textile workers’ strike on 6th April. In the press statement where it is emphasized that imprisonment of 3 Ghazl el Mahalla workers in illegal it is said:
“Capitalism both in the world and in our country is imposing slavish working conditions to the working class. The situation of the Egyptian textile workers is an example of this. Egyptian textile workers continue their struggle to organize for two years for a human life. In Mahalla city, 25 thousand textile workers started a strike on 6th April in order to increase their wages and to maintain human working conditions. Egyptian state and government imposed state terror over the striking textile workers. They killed 7 people, including one child. Hundreds of workers are wounded and hundreds are detained and tortured. 3 worker leaders are arrested after being tortured under custody for 4 days. As in all capitalist countries in Egypt too the state showed that it is defending the interests of the capitalist class. 3 arrested workers stated that they started a hunger strike since more than a week and they will resist to death with a letter and called for class solidarity from the whole world.
As Tekstil-Sen, we salute the hunger strike of the 3 Egyptian workers who resist for their labor and honour. We send them the international solidarity feelings of the working class. We call all workers and laborers and labor organizations of the world to solidarity.
We condemn the aggressive and murdering attitude of the Egpytian state against the working class.
We demand:
-Those who are responsible for murdering 7 people including a child for starting a strike to be found and punished,
– Acceptance of the demands of the Egytian workers for their wages to be increased and for maintenance of human working conditions,
– Immediate release of the 3 workers under arrest and tortured and to be cured.
Solidarity Address with the Egyptian workers:
Kamal El-Fayyoumy, Tareq Amin, Karim El-Beheiry
Mahalla detainees
Borg el-Arab Prison
Wing 22, Cell 5 Alexandria/Egypt