Workers to protest privatization, demand minimum wage

Here's a (very) quick translation of parts of a statement (via Hossam al-Hamalawy) being circulated by several workers' groups in Egypt, calling for a demonstration in downtown Cairo on April 3: 

 

"We want to reach to poverty line

Stop the politics of privatization

Under these slogans, the labour and civil groups that have signed this statement will organize a protest meeting outside the cabinet, at 11 am on April 3, demanding a minimum monthly wage of no less than 1200 egyptian pounds, to be raised annually according to the rate of inflation, as well as an end to the waste of public funds through the politics of privatization."

(The statement goes on to criticize the national council of wages - consisting of representatives of the government, unions, and business organizations - for not fulfilling its role and making sure that wages keep pace with prices...) 

"Down with the politics of making workers poor, destroying Egyptian industry, and sacrificing workers rights in order to attract foreign capital - that never comes because of corruption, political tyranny, the imposition of emergency laws and the absence of democracy. 

What has the politics of selling and wasting public funds in the name of privatization brought except more destruction through kicking the workers out and halting production in order to sell the land of the companies and factories, after first using it as a security to obtain loans from the banks?

We call for all wage workers in Egypt to join the demonstration in order to defend our right to life.

Workers Preparatory Committee

The independent tax collectors union URETA

Postal workers committee 

Mahalla Textile Workers League

The Egyptian center for economic and social rights

Journalists without rights

Sons of the earth

Tadamon

Al-Hilali foundation for freedom

Workers union of Suez

Railway Workers

Workers Solidarity Committee

Nasr Car Workers

The Workers preparatory committee in Alexandria"

Copenhagen Mass Climate Protest in Pictures

Click the photo above for a set on flickr from the massive "planet first, people first" demonstration in Copenhagen this Saturday. Around 100.000 people took part in the march, demanding "climate justice" and "system change, not climate change." The march was peaceful, but Danish police intervened and detained almost 1000 people on the pretext of arresting a few masked "black block" activists who threw one or two stones against a bank and the Danish foreign ministry. Stupid, but hardly "a riot", as Naomi Klein points out.

Tomorrow, protesters plans to 'reclaim power.' (Note that Tadzio Müller, one of the organizers of Wednesdays march, which have been authorized by Danish police, was arrested shortly after the press conference.)

The Populist

Here's a few videos of protestors getting beaten up in Teheran on November 4, nicely followed up by this interesting quote from a story where Ahmadinejad offers his view on social justice (via Ali Esbati):

The three economists listened attentively to Ahmadinejad as he lectured on the waste caused by current subsidization policies and the fact that because of artificial prices any investment was hardly justifiable. He told his audience that a free market was the "best distribution system to guarantee social justice."

It does add some perspective to the argument that the current political confrontation in Iran somehow pits political liberties against economic justice because Ahmadinejad promised to bring the oil wealth to the dinner tables in his election campaign. I'm not an expert on Iran in anyway, but perhaps this is a sign that Ahmadinejad, having failed to mobilize the poorer segments in support of his rule and realizing that the opposition has its strongest base among the urban middle class, decided to try and placate his opponents by posing as a neo-liberal?

Egyptian frustrations

Daily News Egypt reports: "The bulk of Egypt’s population is “frustrated, demoralized, desperate and indignant,” revealed a recent study by Ministry of State for Administrative Development. /---/ The negative attitude Egyptians have is due to the fact that they believe the state is biased towards “businessmen” and those in power. According to the study, the state protects them, allowing them to make profit and benefit at the expense of the lower segments of society. In addition, 50 percent of Egyptian citizens have no trust in the government."

"Journalist ya basha? Come write about our troubles!"

Mahalla blogger and former detainee Mohamed Mar'ee reports (with pics) on cleaning workers on the streets of Tanta. He saw them working amidst the garbage without any protective clothing, and stoped to take some pics. But, he writes, "as soon as I took my camera out they stoped working and called at me: Journalist ya basha? Why don't you come and take pictures of us and write about our problems? We make 3 pounds a day!" The workers told him they are 280 workers all working on temporary contracts, with no job security, and a total monthly salary of 156(!) pounds. They also said they have attempted to strike to achieve permanent employment contracts and a raise but were threatened with loosing their jobs.

The narrative of the workers are familiar, but also the story surrounding it. It reminds me of when I first came to Egypt in 2006, believing that it would be hard to get ordinary people to talk openly about politics or criticize the government. Instead, as soon as I learnt a little of the Egyptian dialect I found that wherever I went people would be eager to tell their stories - usually about not being able to make a living anymore - and it would usually end with a tirade against the useless and corrupt "government of thieves" and surprisingly often against Mubarak himself. And that was before either the "global food crisis" or the "global financial crisis" hit.

Political Liberties vs. Economic Justice in Iran?

(Here's a link to a demotix story with a few good shots of today's mass rally in Teheran. And here's a slideshow from The Guardian.)

Continuing on a theme from my previous post, I'm having some doubts about the "class analysis" of the Iranian elections put forward by a few commentators. For example, Ron Jacobs writes: "Ahmadinejad’s support comes from those who need bread while Moussavi’s comes from those with plenty of bread and now want more civil liberties. While it is arguably true that Ahmadinejad’s policies have caused as many economic policies [problems?] as they have solved, the fact remains that his supporters believe in his 2005 campaign call to bring the oil profits to the dinner table."

This is certainly true to some extent, even though I think it's over-simplified - but I don't think Jabobs is right to draw the conclusion that the struggle for "political liberties" and "economic justice" is currently "at odds" in Iran. First of all, to argue this would seem to imply that in at least some instances, only an authoritarian regime can bring economic justice. Secondly, it is not clear that Mousavi would bring political liberties to Iran any more than Ahmadinejad is going to bring any significant economic justice. But if Mousavi (or rather the mass protests currently under way in Teheran since I don't think Mousavi should take credit for this) did in fact bring more political liberties or even the fall of the Islamic regime, wouldn't Iranian workers and poor be the biggest winners in the long run - even if Mousavi and his allies are in favour of slightly more neo-liberal economic polices than Ahmadinejad?

Iran is not Venezuala, and Ahmadinejad is not Hugo Chavez. If he really was this populist - if slightly authoritarian - leader advocating economic justice and staunch anti-imperialism that he is sometimes portrayed as, then why doesn't the urban poor of Teheran, who surely outnumber the upper middle-class by at least 5 to 1, come out in support of him? Maybe if he had in fact brought the "oil profits to the dinner table" during his last period in power, they would have.

Bonus Bonanza

I'm usually not easily chocked by stories about greed or corruption - after all this is two of the fundaments of the world economy - but I almost spilled my coffee when I read this article in New York Times: "The American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses by Sunday to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year." The bonus plan covers 400 employees - giving an average of about $400.000 each. Meanwhile, somewhat closer to the base of the social pyramid that is global society, Egyptian textile workers have to go on strike and occupy their factory to receive their full pay. But I'm sure it all makes sense, somehow.

Erdogans "outburst"- a distraction for the global elite

It's a sign of the impotence of the global elite that news from the World Economic Forum this year was dominated by the ridiculous quarrel between the Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli president Shimon Peres.

It was just a show, of course, as Stratfor writes: "Turkey is effectively an ally of Israel. Given this alliance, the recent events in Gaza put Erdogan in a difficult position. The Turkish prime minister needed to show his opposition to Israel’s policies to his followers in Turkey’s moderate Islamist community without alarming Turkey’s military that he was moving to rupture relations with Israel." (By the way, I believe the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt would face the same problem if they ever came to power).

For the participants of the WEF this event probably came as a welcome distraction, as they are unable to come up with any credible answers to the global economic crisis, which according to the ILO is threatening the jobs of 50 million people, and may push 200 million workers into poverty. After all, those folks gathering at the WEF are the ones who created the conditions for this crisis in the first place, aren't they?

It's not surprising then that a number of Latin American presidents decided to abandon the WEF and instead go to the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil. Generating some pathetic coverage in the international media of course; This meeting of more than 100.000 activists from around the world was reviewed by the AFP correspondent in this way: "Through it all, references to the global economic crisis were rife. But few realistic solutions were advanced."

Never mind that this journalist hardly did any serious attempt to examine the multitude of proposals and solutions that does exist at the WSF, chosing instead to refer dismissively to the anti-capitalist rhetoric of the leftist groups that participated. But of course it's very "realistic" to maintain a system that is threatening to throw 50 million people out of their jobs and push 200 million into poverty?

Railway union "grateful" - workers vow continued struggle

The announced train strike did not take place today. Instead, officials from the state-controlled union had hung banners in the train station, expressing their gratitude towards the management and the ministry of transport for "agreeing to the demands of the union" (pic above).

At the drivers rest-house, two representatives of the union said there was no need for another strike since there is now "open channels of communication" between the union and the ministry of transport. They also argued that strikes should be avoided since they hurt the country and the passengers, and that the workers have to consider the financial cirumstances of the company and the state. (A valid point, of course, but given the fact that the Egyptian economy has been growing by around 7 percent annually for a few years now, resulting in a explosion of luxury consumption and an unbelievable boom of luxury villas and gated communities around Cairo, I think it's also fair for the workers to ask why they should put up with becoming poorer every day, while risking their lives driving poorly maintained trains.)

According to the decree that was issued on Thursday, the lowest paid workers will receive an additional allowance of 50 pounds, or 75 in the case of drivers. However, it will not be paid until July this year, and then only half of it. This means that for many of the workers the pay raise amounts to less than 1 pound per day - if the decree is ever implemented, that is. Taking inflation into account, their real wages will probably continue to decrease this year, even with the promised raise.

The drivers are not satisfied, of course. Their minimum demand had been that any raise should be paid immediately, for the simple reason that they have no guarantees whatsover that any decision taken now will actually be implemented six months later (there is already a number of similiar decrees dating years back that has never been implemented). One driver told Sarah Carr from Daily News over phone that workers are going to meet in the coming days to discuss further action.

Telemisr and Ericsson: Profit before people

El-Badeel reports on the interrupted Telemisr sit-in: Apparently the governor of Giza intervened and asked the workers for a 10 day respite to hold new negotiations between the management and the local union, while the workers promise to take new action if those negotiations fail. The Daily News also has a report in English, giving some of the background to this conflict. One of the employees is quoted as saying about the owner: “This man doesn’t want to produce anything. He’s a merchant, he wants to buy and sell but doesn’t care about the factory or the employees who spent their lifetime building this place.”

This is the story of the "economic reforms" pushed in Egypt for 30 years now by international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. But putting profit before people is not unique to Egypt, as this article demonstrates: Swedish telecom giant Ericsson is cutting back its work force with 5000 this year despite huge profits (about 2,4 billion euro) during 2008...