My interview with KPOO-FM 89.5:
Tag: workers
I do NOT endorse the May 4th General Strike Call
I’m preparing a longer posting on the Mahalla Uprising and the aftermath.. It’s taking sometime… but till I’m done, I just want to state on the record from now that I DO NOT endorse the call for a general strike on May 4th. I repeat I do NOT endorse the call for a general strike on the dictator’s 80th birthday (fuckin hell.. the dude is turning 80.. can you believe this shit?!). This is a call that is coming from the cyberspace by bloggers, “Facebook activists” and the Islamist-leaning Labor Party whose leaders have declared themselves more or less as some “provisional govt” in cyber-exile… We, the Egyptian bloggers, have always prided ourselves on the fact that we have one foot on the ground and the other in the cyberspace… But this time, it seems some have thrown both their feet as well as brains in the cyberspace and are living some virtual reality, mistakenly believing (helped by the media sensationalist coverage of the “facebook activism“) that they are the ones behind the events in Mahalla…
More later… But I wanted to make my position from early on clear coz I keep getting queries from fellow activists about my stand towards this and why haven’t I publicized for the strike…
Updates on the detainees: Interior Minister decrees detention orders against Ghazl el-Mahalla labor activists
I spoke with a Socialist source and a human rights lawyer in Cairo. The two confirmed that the following have been issued a detention decree by General Habib el-Adly, Mubarak’s Interior Minister, and were transferred from Mahalla’s local State Security bureau to Bourg el-Arab Prison in Alexandria:
Kamal Muhammad el-Sayyed el-Fayoumi, Ghazl el-Mahalla worker
Tarek Abdel Hamid Amin (Tarek el-Senoussi), Ghazl el-Mahalla worker
Abdel Kareem Ali el-Beheiri Abdel Kareem (Kareem el-Beheiri), Ghazl el-Mahalla worker and blogger
Ibrahim el-Zoghby, Mahalla resident
Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad, Security guard at Ghazl el-Mahalla
Ibrahim el-Yamani, doctor
Abdel Halim Ahmad, Ghazl el-Mahalla worker
Prosecutor had ordered earlier on Wednesday the release of the above mentioned Mahallans, but Mubarak’s State Security pigs kept them in custody, till the detention decrees were issued…
I spoke with Muhammad el-Sharqawi also today. He’s still recovering from the effects of the four day hunger strike he had staged demanding his release from illegal detention. Sharqawi said he expected the prosecutor to push for a trial in the case of Magdi el-Shafie’s “Metro”, saying it’s State Security’s way of getting back at him for his activism. Metro has been confiscated from Sharqawi’s publishing house, as well as bookstores, with financial losses incurred on Sharqawi.