Gamal Oweida, Daqahliya Tax Collector:
We have to build our new union structures on the ground, to be solid. They (govt) will fight us hard. The (state-backed General) Federation (of Trade Unions) will not like any new independent union entities in the country… Are there others thinking of (building) independent unions? Yes, in Mahalla and other places. We have to build bridges with them, and with our colleagues in civil service.
Salah Abdel Salam, Daqahliya Tax Collector:
All union presidents work for State Security. And all State Security (officers) serve only the regime… Egypt has turned from a welfare state to a savage capitalist state… Strikes are the only means to get our rights, as we saw in the Real Estate (Tax Collectors’ strike), Mahalla, Mansoura-España and others… There is marriage between the regime and capital. If the workers stick together they will be able to confront (this marriage).
I traveled to Mansoura on Wednesday to attend a meeting of some of the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike leaders, who came largely from Daqahliya and the Nile Delta provinces, to discuss the fight to build their independent trade union.
I’ll post some notes and impressions of the meeting later, but for now, I want to share with you some quotes from Tarek Mostafa, the Qalyoubiya representative in the Higher Committee for the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ Strike and one of the heroes currently leading the struggle to build the first independent trade union in Egypt since 1957.
The government has struck an alliance with capital and forgot about the people. Today this country is for businessmen. This country is being looted by the biggest thieves on earth, not just at the present time but, from the time of the Pharaohs.
We salute the Mahalla workers for taking the initiative to demand an independent union and a national minimum wage.
Around 30 per cent of the (Real Estate Tax Collection Agency) employees have signed (the call for launching an independent union). Our independent union will be the locomotive that drags behind it other sectors in the civil service and (blue collar) workers to do the same.
The regime’s base of support depends of three things: 1-Security services, 2-Parliament and legislative councils, and finally 3-Labor unions. We have arena number 3 to play in it. And we will.
The word ‘Reform’ has become meaningless and useless. We need something different. We need radical change. Reform means giving a doze of anesthesia to calm down the problem here or there, but it doesn’t solve anything. We cannot stand in the middle. We have to take sides. Either we stand with the regime which is looting us, or with those who are getting robbed. We cannot stand in the middle.
I don’t care how many times I heard it before, I still get shocked listening to this hardcore anti-capitalist talk coming from a TAX COLLECTOR! It’s fascinating to see the “economic” struggles have created a layer, still evolving, of strike leaders whose visions have clearly transcended the boundaries of demands related to their employment sector, into strategizing for regime change. Our salvation from Mubarak’s dictatorship is a direct function of how wide will this layer of militant strike leaders grow.