A return to the past? Egypt's neoliberal counter-revolution

In a harshly worded statement Egypt's "interim government" led by Essam Sharaf - a former member of the influential "higher policies secretariat" of the ruling party NDP - today vowed to begin enforcing the "anti-strike law" that was issued in April and bans any strikes or protests that disrupts the economy (in contradiction with international treaties signed by Egypt that confirm the right of workers to resort to peaceful strikes to press their demands on employers).

Shortly after the statement was issued on the governments web page, Central security forces and plain-clothes agents descended on tenant farmers that had been staging a peaceful sit-in outside the Cabinet, protesting years (or rather decades) of displacement and ill-treatment by the state. Several farmers were arrested and hauled into police vans, according to Nora Shalaby who was there and took these pictures:

These images are a dark reminder of the state of things before January 25, when central security forces in cooperation with plain-clothes agents and thugs routinely clamped down on peaceful demonstrations in Egypt, and comes days after the military arrested five Petrojet workers, who had been taking part in a two-week sit-in outside the petroleum ministry protesting the sacking of 1200 workers. It also comes after renewed accusations of police brutaliy, most notably in the case of a bus driver that was allegedly taken to the police station in Ezbekiyya and beaten to death last week after refusing to pay a bribe to a police officer - an event that sparked protests and riots in the area.

On the same day Samir Radwaan, new minister of finance after Youssef Boutrous Ghali (who fled Egypt before Mubaraks ouster and was handed a prison sentence of 30 years in absentia last week on charges of corruption and squandering of public wealth), promised that Egypt won't back away from the "economic reforms" and free-market polices pursued under Mubaraks decades-long rule. (He doesn't seem to understand that in a supposedly democratic Egypt, that should be up to the voters to decide). As elsewhere where the neoliberal doctrine has been applied since the 70's, these "reforms" (mainly privatization of public enterprises and tax-cuts for companies and the rich) resulted in exploding inequality, a rapid decline in the quality of public welfare and increasing poverty. They have proved disastrous for the majority of the population, to the extent that they may be identified as the single most important cause of the revolution.

In what was perhaps an unintended coincidence but still a very clear signal of the inclinations of Egypt's current rulers, a proposed capital gains tax of 10% was reportedly cancelled today, after pressure from investors and the head of the national stock exchange. So today's events can be summed up: at the same time as the government vows to use force against farmers and workers who insists on demanding a fairer share of Egypt's wealth after the revolution, demanding "patience" of poor families who can barely feed their children let alone send them to decent schools, they quickly bow to pressure from the privileged minority who benefited most of Mubarak's corrupt and neglectful rule. Disturbing, but hardly surprising.

Egypt, the Left and International Solidarity

Note: As I was about to publish the post below, I read the news on twitter that Egyptian journalist and blogger Hossam al-Hamalawy has been summoned to a military prosecutor for questioning tomorrow, after talking about military tribunals against civilians and violations by the military police against peaceful protestors on a TV-show broadcast last thursday (the clip above). This futile - I'm sure - attempt to silence one of Egypt's most well-known radical voices, and one who has played a vital role in spreading news about Egypt's nascent labour movement and the wave of strikes and protests that lead to the revolution has to be condemned. More than anything it underlines the need for international solidarity with the democratic and progressive forces in Egypt as they struggle to create a just and democratic society. Protests in solidarity with Hossam and the other summoned journalists will be held tomorrow in Cairo and Alexandria.

Here it goes - another attempt to revive the blog which consumed so much of my time back in they days, when strikes and protests occured almost every day but a revolution stilled seemed like a distant possibility (a funny thing I learned about revolutions is that they always do, even as more and more people tell you it has become inevitable). I switched to blogging in Swedish after I was kicked out of Egypt back in 2009 and have been blogging intensely the past few months, as well as giving talks about Egypt around Sweden. However, there are very few resources in English about the Egyptian left and labour movement (Hossam al-Hamalawy’s blog remains one of the best place to go to find such news), which is one of the reasons I have decided to go back to writing in English - at least now and then. Being barred still from entering Egypt this is at least something I can do. Don't expect daily updates however - expect irregular postings, far-from-perfect-translations of news or articles, and an occasional commentary or rant.

Besides the labour movement and left in Egypt, another theme that I will try and highlight in this blog is that of international solidarity. Last week the Egyptian doctor and leftist Alaa Shukrallah and the women’s rights activist and author Azza Kamel visited Sweden to meet political activists, feminists and unionists, and to speak at a seminar at the Worker’s Educational Association (ABF) in Stockholm (watch part of Alaa's speech here). The subject was international solidarity, and if the importance of this wasn’t already apparent it became so the next day, when news reached us that Azza Kamel’s daughter had been arrested by military police while putting up posters ahead of the May 27 protest in Cairo (she was released later that same day).

While there is a great need for immediate solidarity work and campaigns against human rights abuses in post-Mubarak Egypt, both Alaa and Azza stressed the importance of another task for the left in Europe today: to raise awareness about the link between democracy and social justice in Egypt and the region. This involves exposing and resisting the failed neoliberal economic policies that caused increasing poverty and inequality and ultimately led to the revolution - but are still being promoted by the international financial institutions and European and US governments. An international campaign for debt cancellation would be very helpful, as the regime now uses the external debt and the threat of “bankruptcy” as a propaganda weapon against any demands for social reforms.

The international left should also work to expose the regional counter-revolutionary alliance with Saudiarabia as the driving force, and the hypocrisy of Western governments that still ally themselves with authoritarian regimes while claiming to “support democracy” in Egypt and Tunisia. (Another suggestion that came up during the meeting was for international activists to put together lists of companies from their countries that collaborated with Mubaraks regime, especially within the security field, or benefited from or contributed to corruption in Egypt.)

Both Alaa and Azza pointed out that the Egyptian people need support in hard times as well as good times. While some in the west (as well as within Egypt) may have had unrealistic expectations of what the revolution would achieve in the short term it is necessary to realize that the people of Egypt are only in the beginning of a long and difficult struggle – the outcome of which will not only decide the future of Egypt for decades to come but will influence the whole region and the world. Alaa stressed again and again that the left in Egypt doesn’t need or ask for financial support (something which foreign embassies and NGO:s has been all to eager to throw on Egyptian youth activists and bloggers) but practical solidarity and cooperation based on the notion that “our struggle is one”: “A democratic and just Egypt can only survive in a democratic and just region, which in turn can only be built in a democratic and just world”.

Solidarity with Youssef Shaaban

Activists will demontrate today in solidarity with journalist Youssef Shaaban who was detained while covering a demonstration on Friday:

Solidarity with Yucef Shabaan and all the detainees

The popular democratic movement for change (7ashd),

The Justice and Freedom Movement,

The Free Front for Peaceful Change

The 6^th of April movement

Invite you to join their open sit in

Wednesday at 7 p.m.

At Press Syndicate

Freedom for Yucef Shabaan

Freedom for all Detainees

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"

The Regime is Responsible

The legacy of Mohamed Hosni Mubarak: After decades of "emergency laws" the Egyptian state still can't prevent things like this from happening, because it is too busy maintaining a devastating siege on the Palestinians of Gaza. Tragic and disgusting.

Egyptian police arrest local journalists during Gaza protest

Hossam el-Hamalawy reports that three journalists working for Al-Masry Al-Youm was arrested today while covering a pro-Palestine protest in front of the french embassy in Cairo. Follow Hossam on twitter for updates. 

Free union celebrate anniversary, State unions withdraws from international federation

Two days ago, members of the independent URETA-union for real estate tax collectors gathered to celebrate the opening of their headquarter and the one year anniversary of the founding of the first free union in Egypt since 1957. The celebration was attended by the regional secretary of the Public Services International, which accepted URETA as a member last spring and has criticized interference in the work of URETA by state-controlled union officials. 

Apparently, this visit has now provoked three state-controlled unions in Egypt to withdraw from PSI in protest against recognition of the "illegal" URETA union. State union officials explain that they are not against the right of free association (of course) but only against "interference in the internal affairs of Egypt," something every "honorable Egyptian would reject." 

Also, on December 26 the new general union for employees of tax- and customs authorities will be officially included in the Egyptian Trade Union Federation as the 24th general union in Egypt; a move that should be understood as part of the ongoing attempts by the ETUF to marginalize the free URETA union. 

 

Egypt drowning? Yawn...

A UN analysis shows that emission cuts on the table in Copenhagen could raise the global average temperature by 3 degrees. Meanwhile, new studies show that even a more moderate warming could lead to a much bigger increase in sea levels than previously thought, drowning the Nile delta. Even so, the voice of Egypt can hardly be heard on this issue - tiny island nations like Tuvalu and the Maldives are making a lot more noise. Is it because they are not busy building walls protecting against the dreaded palestinians in Gaza and cracking down on opposition movements ahead of coming elections? Or is it because Egypt's ruling elite believe they will be safe behind the walls of their luxury compounds with the consolation aid offered by Hillary Clinton when the flood hits? I just wonder.

Update: Egyptian blogger Zeinobia also shares her opinion on this subject here.

Mahalla labour activist fired

Tadamon reports that Mahalla Spinning and Weaving labour activist Mustapha Fouda has been fired following attempts by workers at the factory to organize a strike last Monday (January 6). Workers had presented five demands, including raising the minimum wage and improved housing and transports.

Pic above: Mustapha Fouda on someone's shoulders during an anti-privatization protest in Mahalla on October 30, 2008.

Kamal abu Eita defends RETA union against campaign in state-controlled meida

According to a statement form the Center for Social and Economic Rights (via the Center for Socialist Studies and Hossam al-Hamalawy) the independent Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees has been subject to a "smear campaign" by the state-owned papers al-Ahram and al-Gomhoriyya, claiming that there has been "mass resignations" from the free union. The head of the RETA union, Kamal abu Eita, has demanded the right to reply to these statements in a letter to the editors of both papers. In the letter, he states that in fact, the number of members of the free union continues to rise and has now reached 40.000, and that a new local union committee has just been formed in South Sinai. According to Kamal abu Eita, the free union now has a local presence in 29 governorates, whereas the state-controlled union only exists in 9.

Tanta Workers Continue Sit-In, Threaten Hunger Strike

Tadamon reports: 9 workers at Tanta Flax & Oils, who were fired after a strike last year, moved their sit-in from the headquarters of the General Union of Textile Workers to the factory grounds in Tanta, where around 1000 workers has been on strike since May. Earlier this week, an agreement was reached between the union and the company management, giving the workers a raise in meal allowances and retroactive payment of a yearly raise since 2007 on condition that they resume work on November 10. 

Workers fired during the strike has been offered early retirement with financial compensation of around 35,000 egyptian pounds. According to Tadamon, many workers are still refusing the terms of the agreement - the main reason being that it does not include re-hiring the 9 workers who were fired last year, despite previous court verdicts ordering the company to re-hire them.

The union initially supported the strike, but a majority of the workers refused to accept a previous agreement between the union and the management, and instead voted to continue their strike even as they were denied access to strike funds. The 9 workers are now threatening to start a hunger strike until their demands are met.

Update: As pointed out in the comments below, 50 workers who were fired during the strike had initially been promised 45,000 pounds each as compensation, but was suddenly told they would only get 35,000. Today, the two groups of workers (those fired during the previous strike and those during the last one) decided to join forces and occupied the factory, forcing security men and members of the management out while doing so, according to the center for socialist studies.   

Victory for Aisha

The center for socialist studies reports that labour organizer Aisha abu Samada or "Hagga Aisha" has been returned to her work at Hennawy Tobaco in Damanhour today, after more than a year of struggle against the employer. Aisha was subject to a hostile campaign from the state-backed union and eventually fired after she led her mostly female colleagues in a campaign for better work conditions and salaries. I met Aisha in Damanhour last December - on the same day Israel launched the war on Gaza - and was deeply impressed with her strong personality and her courage to challenge the all-male union committee who refused to back the workers in their struggle.

Egypt Labour Updates - October 26, 2009

More links from the Egyptian Workers diigo group:

* Al-Youm Al-Sab'e reports that security forces laid siege to the HQ of the General Union of Textil Workers as workers from a self-managed factory in 10th of Ramadan City gathered there on Saturday morning to demand a meeting with the labour minister and the head of the union. Workers at the factory have been campaigning for the ministry of labour to pay their wages and help finance a restructuring of the company whose owner fled the country to escape a prison sentecne. (See earlier update.)

* Tadamon reports that security forces surrounded Tanta Flax and Oils on Sunday, to prevent the workers - who are on strike since the end of May - from leaving to stage a demonstration in front of the Cabinet in Cairo.

Egypt Labour Updates - October 22, 2009

More links from Diigo and Hossam al-Hamalawy: 

* Al-Masry Al-Youm reports (in English) that South Cairo Electrical Company workers threaten to strike over incentives and equal pay with workers that were recently transfered from the Rural Electricity company.

* Mohammed Maree posted pics and a report (in Arabic) as well as a short video from the fourth day of the sit-in of the Ghazl al-Mahalla cooperatives (see previous post). The Center for Socialist Studies reports that the sit-in was suspended as workers met with the head of general union of commercial workers on Tuesday. According to one local unionist, the general manager of Misr Spinning and Weaving in Mahalla first offered them a compromise deal of a 10 day bonus (instead of the one month bonus given to all workers within state-owned enterprises), then retracted this offer and accused the local union committee of slandering him in interviews with the press.

* Al-Youm Al-Sab'e reports that security forces intervened to abort a demonstration by workers at Nasr Glass and Crystal Company in Shubra on Wednesday morning. The workers protested mass layoffs before an expected privatization of the company.  

* Al-Youm Al-Sab'e also reports that 300 teachers in Shuhadaa in Monofeyya went on strike today, protesting a decision to transfer them to other schools far from where they live.

* The Center for Socialist Studies reports that the General Union for Textile Workers is refusing to use strike funds to pay the salaries of workers at Tanta Flax and Oils, who have been on strike for close to five months. The union stopped supporting the strike two months ago, changed its mind only after workers demonstrated outside the Cabinet in downtown Cairo, and now abandoned the workers completely again. Negotiations between the Saudi owner of the factory and the workers are stuck in part because the owner refuses to re-employ strike leaders who were fired after a previous strike - despite a court verdict ordering him to do so.

Egypt Labour Updates - October 19, 2009

More links from Diigo: 

* Al-Youm Al-Sab'e reports that 1200 workers at the cooperatives at Misr Spinning and Weaving in Mahalla staged a sit-in when the morning shift ended on Sunday after the management refused to pay a bonus granted by the minister of investments to all workers in the public business sector, on the grounds that the workers belong not to this sector but to the federation of cooperatives.

* Last Thursday, workers at the carpet factory in Mahalla staged a sit-in for the same reason, and ended it only after their demands were met. Labour leaders in Mahalla described the bonus - which amounts to one months salary - as a "new victory for Egypt's workers" since it is an attempt by the government to contain ongoing tensions and protests in the industrial sector.

* The Center for Socialist Studies also reports: Workers at the self-managed factory in 10th of Ramadan ended their strike (se previous update) after a promise by the ministry of labour to pay two months wages from the emergency fund. According to a local unionist, the real battle will be to get the required funding for revitalizing the factory according to a plan drawn up by the workers, and making it financially independent.

* Workers at the General Authority for Financial Markets threatened to strike against a decrease in their monthly salaries with up to 25 percent, which occurred after the ministry of finance merged three authorities (the Capital Market Authority, the Egyptian Insurance Supervisory Authority and the Mortgage Finance Authority) to create the General Authority of Financial Regulation. 

* Tadamon reports that Ghazl Al-Mahalla unionist Mohamed al-Attar started an open-ended sit-in at the company warehouse in Alexandria after managers fined him for alleged "absence."  Al-Attar played a leading role during the strikes of December 2006 and September 2007, but were later criticized by socialist activists and labour leaders at the factory for his willingness to compromise with the management and the state-controlled union - especially in connection with the declared strike of April 6 in 2008. After an anti-privatization in October last year he was transfered to Alexandria and is now accusing the management of creating an excuse to fire him.

Blogger arrested, beaten up by police in Tanta

Yesterday, Egyptian blogger Demaghmak was arrested on the streets of Tanta along with his brother, and beaten by a police commander together with two plain-clothes men and six regular troopers.  The commanding officer told them "I will make sure you motherfuckers kiss the feet of any policeman you see" (roughly translated...). They were thrown into a police jeep and released after a while, Demaghmak reports on his twitter page.

Egypt Labour updates - October 15, 2009

A few updates from the Egyptian Workers diigo group:

* Tadamon reports that workers at the Abu Sebae textile factory in Mahalla returned to work on October 10 after two weeks of forced (unpaid) holiday ordered by the factory owner, blaming a drop in demand because of the global financial crisis. Workers at the factory still hadn't received their salaries for september 1-15, but was promised they would be paid this week. Workers at the factory, which is located in a QIZ-zone (where producers receive exemptions from US import-tariffs on condition they use a certain amount of Israeli raw materials) demonstrated in the streets of Mahalla last month, demanding their delayed salaries.

* On October 12, doctors from "Doctors without rights" and "Young Doctors of Egypt" staged a protest on the stairs of the Doctor's syndicate, protesting stagnating salaries.

 * 1500 workers at Misr-Iran Spinning and Weaving resumed work this morning, following a meeting two days ago between the management and the local union committee. After a series of protests and sit-ins a number of their demands were met, including the resignation of the previous general manager and a promise by his successor to pay monthly bonuses and incentives.

* Workers at a self-managed textile factory in 10th of Ramadan industrial free zone has been on strike for three days, protesting the refusal of the Ministry of Labour to fulfill an earlier promise to pay their salaries from the emergency funds. 

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."

Labour Photo of the Year

Click this link to vote in Labourstart's competition "Labour Photo of the Year," featuring the above pic by Hossam al-Hamalawy of a Tanta Flax & Oils worker and other great shots... Despite being a fan of Hossam's work, I'm totally impartial, of course :)

"Boss-napping" ends peacefully

Hisham Omar Abdel-Halim reports for al-Masry al-Youm: "Workers at the privatized Telephones Equipment Company, in Helwan, south of Cairo wrapped up a 12-day sit-in during which they held company board and syndicate members captive for ten hours. Security forces, which had quickly surrounded the area, failed to convince the company's roughly 1200 employees to release the captives. Frustrated workers only agreed to free the men after prominent MP Mustafa Bakri assured them they would receive unpaid salaries and bonuses by 18 October. Over the course of the negotiations, Bakri made a telephone call to Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hadi, putting the conversation on speakerphone for workers to hear. Abdel Hadi assured them over the phone that they would continue to receive their salaries for the next three months."