Ray Abernathy of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) paid a visit to Cairo, from where he sent two dispatches to the AFL-CIO Weblog about the Egyptian working class.
The first is about the struggle of the women workers at the Mansoura-España Garments Company. And the second is on child labor in the so-called “Carpet Schools”.
A group of journalists from the independent daily Ad-Dostour staged a sit-in Saturday at the Press Syndicate, protesting the refusal of the Press Syndicate Council to accept their membership applications during the review scheduled this Monday, citing bureaucratic reasons.
The journalists left the syndicate around 1am, and are expected to return again today, joined by their colleagues from Ad-Dostour (who are threatening to go on strike) and other publications in solidarity.
I finally received a copy of the statements distributed in the Ghazl el-Mahalla last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Both statements are agitating for a sit-in on 21 July if demands related to work conditions and housing are not met. The first is signed by “The 7th of December Movement- Workers For Change,” in reference to 7 December 2006, when a 27,000-strong strike brought the factory to halt causing an upturn in industrial militancy. The statement starts by affirming that this previously unknown entity is not affiliated with any political or religious group, refuses to recognize the corrupt Egyptian General Federation of Trade Unions (EGFTU) officials, and then blasts the “ruling regime” for “selling Egypt with the lowest price,” for corruption, rigging elections, and repression.
And below is the second statement, calling for a sit-in, and demanding the impeachment of the company’s CEO:
What is interesting is the name this previously unknown group has picked for itself. “Workers For Change” was Kefaya’s not-that-successful attempt to link the anti-Mubarak campaign with working class struggle championed by the radical left. Its representatives did not perform well during the labor union elections in fall 2006, and not necessarily because of the security interventions. But the wave of strikes instigated by Ghazl el-Mahalla’s truimphant industrial action last December, produced some political impact… whether it’s the demand to impeach the corrupt, state-sponsored trade unionists and the threats to launch an independent national labor union parallel to Mubarak’s EGFTU by the most advanced sections in the movement, or the “Workers For Change” statements we are receiving from places like Kafr el-Dawar and now Ghazl el-Mahalla that is slowly adopting the lingo of the radical left even if it is not necessarily affiliated organizationally with the current operating leftist groups.