I attended a meeting last night that included the leaders of the independent union of public transport workers, where they were discussing their ongoing fight with the government over pay and corruption in the transport authority.

There are divisions among the trade unionists whether to pursue the strike on Sunday or to postpone it for two weeks to coincide with the start of schools on 17 September so as to have more impact. The situation should be clarified on Saturday night.

On Saturday, 10 am, activists will be holding a protest in front of the State Council, in Dokki, in solidarity with Ali Fetouh, the president of the independent union of public transport workers, who is undergoing trial over charges of “inciting strikes.” Fetouh has also received international support from trade unionists in the UK.

The continued crackdown on the labor movement is taking place while the International Labor Organization is awarding our military junta by taking Egypt off its black list. For the ILO, it seems, military tribunals and anti-strike laws mean nothing other than the Egyptian workers are now free.

Ali Fetouh, a leading independent trade unionist at the Cairo Public Transport Authority, whose role was central to their 2009 and February 2011 strikes, will show up on 7 May at a penal court at the State Council, accused of “agitating for strikes and publicly talking about the problems of workers in the media.”

And they tell you “Mission Accomplished” and Egypt’s workers are free now? Tell that to Ali Fetouh!

Thursday was a fantastic day! I attended the launching of a new independent union in Egypt, by the BRAVE public transport workers, whose strikes were central to the overthrow of Mubarak. This was followed by another declaration of another free union, by the Manshiyet el-Bakri Hospital workers.

Many of the workers present in the event also signed to join the Democratic Labor Party. More free unions are coming soon, mark my word. The strategy adopted by the radical left is giving full support for the strike wave, pushing strongly in the direction of forming a unified labor party that represents the political interests of the working class in the ongoing revolution and, in parallel efforts, building a new federation of independent trade unions.

This revolution is hardly finished, and we have to work 25 hours a day to liaise between strike leaders and organizers of social protests across the country. We need to create national coordinating mechanisms. The spontaneity of the current strikes is not enough to achieve victory. We need structures, formed by the workers themselves, that will link the different industrial centers together, and reach out to the civil servants and students. Only then we can talk of overthrowing the military dictatorship.

The mass strikes since the first week of February, which effectively led to Mubarak’s fall, saw workers putting forward a wide array of demands related to their work conditions and right to unionize. But more or less the common denominator in those strikes has been the impeachment of corrupt managers and directors, all remnants of the Mubarak’s regime. The public transport workers in specific played a central role in the bringing the capital to halt, adding more pressure on Mubarak with a set of clear political demands for regime change.

Minister Abdel Hameed has to listen to the workers.

The Cairo Public Transportation workers, who started a strike today in five Garages: Nasr Station, Fateh Station, Ter’a Station, Amiriya Station, Mezzalat Station, Sawwah Station, have issued a statement with a list of demands, calling for overthrowing Mubarak. No public buses will roam Cairo tomorrow, except those buses that will bring the drivers to the central station in Nasr City’s el-Gabal el-Ahmar, where the strikers have announced they will declare an independent union.

The strikers’ statement has also called for abolishing the emergency law, removing NDP from the state institutions, dissolving the parliament, drafting new constitution, forming a national unity govt and setting a national minimum wage of LE1200 and prosecuting corrupt officials…

This comes as strikes have spread literally everywhere. It’s happening people… It’s happening. The working class has entered the arena with full force today. Mubarak’s regime’s fate will be sealed off SOON!

The strike leaders are already coming under severe security pressures to abort the strike, as I’m blogging now, and some have expressed fear of arrest.

UPDATE: The strike has been aborted, early Wednesday morning, due to pressures from the police and the Ministry of Transportation officials.