The meeting scheduled today between the Labor Ministry officials, Mansoura-España trade unionists and the representatives of the United Bank was canceled, after the latter claimed they were “busy” and “had not time to show up” to discuss the workers’ problems.
I’m receiving news that a number of workers from the light bulbs factory in the 10th of Ramadan City, are now staging a protest in downtown Cairo, in front of the Social Insurance building. No more info is available at the moment. But it’s worth mentioning that this company is one of the two companies we have in the country that are run by the workers themselves after their owner, billionaire Rami Lakkah, fled the country around seven years ago following his failure to pay his bank debts.
UPDATE: I spoke with a journalist who is in downtown now. There’s roughly 400 workers from the factory, half of them are in Al-Alfi Street, near the Social Insurance building and the other half are in front of the Ministry of Social Solidarity. The workers, who’ve been running the company since 2001 are being punished by the government which took their names off the social insurance schemes, though the company is making profits due to the workers’ self-management. This means the drivers cannot renew their licenses, and the rest of the workers do not have retirement schemes or access to insurance.
UPDATE: Photos and report available on Tadamon.
A young Muslim Brotherhood activist who was in Mahalla during the April uprising:
There was confusion in the group on the position regarding the April 6 strike. Yes, there was a strong conflict. Mahdi Akef’s statement was vague, and this was deliberate, so that those who are against the strike would regard it as an anti-strike statement, and those who supported the strike would see it as a pro-strike call.
Ezzat’s interview [with Ikhwan Online] was directly against the strike. But this caused a crisis. His initial interview had very harsh criticism of those who supported the strike that was close to denunciation, and almost no mention of Akef’s statement. The editors of Ikhwan Online took down the interview shortly after, and re-edited it and changed the URL address so as not to point to the old version [of the interview:http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.asp?ArtID=36099&SecID=270] anymore.
There were some Muslim Brotherhood members who took to the streets in Mahalla that day, although they were not necessarily told specifically to do so. They participated as “individuals” but not as a “group.” The problem is the security attacked all the town, so the whole town responded back. Everyone was hit, including Muslim Brothers members of course.
I’m certain the current labor militancy is causing splits among the MB along class lines, amid disenchantment among a good number in the rank and file, some of whom I know in person, over the retreat in the face of the regime and the very weak mobilization against the military tribunals and continued police crackdowns. It’ll be interesting to see how this evolves in the near future.