unions archives — Page 87 of 133

From repression to revolution: Egypt’s Tax Collectors

Posted on 24/08/200809/02/2021 By 3arabawy

The pic below is taken by archeologist Nora Shalaby, in Sakkara’s Tomb of Mereruka. The latter was the Prime Minister and the son-in-law of Pharaoh Teti, from the 6th Dynasty. The full mural shows Egyptian tax collectors torturing tax evaders, dragging the village elders to give evidence on their faulty tax returns, to be paid in produce. One man has been stripped, and his arms and feet are bound round a post where he is being beaten

Egypt's Tax Collectors

This was 5,000 years ago. Today, under King Mubarak I, the Egyptian property tax collectors are the ones leading the fight against the state.

‘There is a different, more radical, mood in the country’

Posted on 22/08/200809/02/2021 By 3arabawy

Leftist activist and engineer Hamdi Qenawi attended the Mansoura Tax Collectors’ meeting:

There is a different, more radical, mood in the country today. Fear (from the regime) is much less than what it used to be. The movement for change has brought down barriers. We need to unite the movement, and do not fragment it along sector-related demands. We need to help one another, and exchange experiences. In their fight to build their free union, the Tax Collectors need to open channels with the workers in Mahalla and the Railways. And as our colleague said, we cannot stand in the middle. We either stand with the killer or the victim, with the robber or the robbed.

‘We have to build our new union structures on the ground to be solid’

Posted on 22/08/200803/01/2021 By 3arabawy

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.