I spent the day, together with a number of left-wing bloggers and journalists, at the “camp” set up by the Tax Strikers and their families in front of the Ministerial Cabinet HQ in Downtown Cairo. Roughly two thousand Real Estate Tax Officers are protesting, with their families, in front of the ministerial cabinet HQ in Downtown Cairo. Around 55,000 officers are taking part in the national strike. More photos, reports, updates, announcements, calls for solidarity coming soon.
Socialist Days 2007 Finale was smashing. I’ll be posting, together with other bloggers, gigabytes of pix from the conference in the coming few days, so keep an eye on the Egyptian Socialists Flickr group.
[Women from Qale’t el-Kabsh slum reading the new issue of The Socialist, Cairo’s Press Syndicate. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]
Speakers in the closing session included women from the Qale’t el-Kabsh slum who spoke about their plight, government corruption, police crackdowns, detentions, mistreatment, and resistance…
[Om Refa’i speaking about the struggle of Qale’t el-Kabsh slum residents, Socialist Days 2007 Finale, Cairo’s Press Syndicate. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]
Muhammad el-Nahhass, an activist involved in Burullus’ “Revolution of the Thirsty” fascinated the audience with stories about the bravery of the fishermen’s community in fighting the government which refuses to provide them with the basic necessities including drinking water…
[Muhammad el-Nahhass, an artist and activist from the northern province of Burullus, speaking about the struggle of the mass anti-govt demonstrations in Burullus this year, protesting govt corruption. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]
Last but not least, were the speakers from the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike…
The first speaker, named Mostafa, took the microphone and said: “The problem of this country is capitalism.” I almost fainted.. A tax collector denouncing capitalism?! This was the equivalent of some Sheikh declaring God is dead, I thought..
[Mostafa speaking about the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ Strike, Socialist Days 2007 Finale, Cairo’s Press Syndicate. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]
The press conference which followed the closing session was even stronger, as a contingent from the Tax strikers moved from their open-ended sit-in in front the Ministerial Cabinet building in downtown Cairo to join us at the syndicate…
Veteran Socialist Kamal Khalil assumed the stage together with his long-time friend Kamal Abu Eita who is part of the Higher Committee for the Real Estate Tax Officers Strike that is running the 55,000-strong strike in the absence of the Union Committee whose state-backed officials betrayed the strikers..
Kimo gave a very passionate speech as always… Saluting the strikers, declaring the solidarity of the Socialists and other political forces with their struggle, spoke of how the Egyptian workers are becoming a model for militancy and direct action against oppression which is inspiring the students and civil servants to follow suit…
Kimo’s speech moved the strikers, and he was interrupted several times by applause and chants…
…chants that were similar to those we heard in Ghazl el-Mahalla…
On my way out of the syndicate I received news that hundreds of civil servants at the Workers’ University were staging a sit-in at Darrassa had started a sit-in demanding the allowances and bonuses the new university dean had decided to cut back. I called one of the civil servants taking part in the sit-in to get the details of their demands and find out more about the situation (I’ll post more about it later). Two hundred of them were sleeping over in the university offices. In the morning they were 900 taking part. “The women and old men had to go home to their families, but they are returning in the morning,” said the civil servant. The leaders of the industrial action were in negotiations with State Security officers and govt officials at the Workers’ University’s HQ in Nasr City. They were promised a reply in 24 hours. “If our demands are not met by today,” the civil servant said, “our action will spread to the other ten branches of the university in the provinces. We will be more than 3,500 civil servants taking part.”
My confidence in overcoming Mubarak’s US-backed dictatorship grows day by day…
The Egyptian Workers and Trade Unions Watch has issued a new report, citing 35 industrial actions in 35 locations during the first two weeks of November: 8,000 workers took part in either strikes, sit-ins, or hunger-strikes, while 33,000 others threatened to go on strike or stage a sit-ins.