Egypt
Strikes in Egypt spread from centre of gravity
The longest and strongest wave of worker protest since the end of World War II is rolling through Egypt. In March, the liberal daily al-Masri al-Yawm estimated that no fewer than 222 sit-in strikes, work stoppages, hunger strikes and demonstrations had occurred during 2006.
Take from Middle East Report Online
In the first five months of 2007, the paper has reported a new labour action nearly every day. The citizen group Egyptian Workers and Trade Union Watch documented 56 incidents during the month of April, and another 15 during the first week of May alone.[1]
Egypt: strike wave update
The latest news on the militant strike wave, with analysis from an Egypt-based libcom user.
Workers from Kafr el-Dawwar have issued a "very significant" statement of solidarity with the Ghazl el-Mahalla workers who have been subject to a state crackdown in recent days for their organising activity (libcom.org coverage 1, 2).
Kafr el-Dawwar workers are in the same trench as Ghazl el-Mahalla
A very significant statement of solidarity with the Ghazl el-Mahalla workers from the workers at Kaffr el-Dawwar, April 2007.
They promise to conduct political actions in solidarity with Mahalla workers if they will take further industrial action, and stress the need to struggle not only against their bosses but also the official unions which are obstructing their struggle.
Egypt: Mahalla crackdown day two
An update from an Egypt-based libcom poster on the state repression of the workers movements in Mahalla on the Nile Delta.
At least four central security trucks with police have been deployed around Mahalla's train station, another six are deployed around the textile company's compound. Plainclothes security agents are everywhere inside the company and in Mahalla. Strike leaders, known to the security services, have been banned from entering the factory when it's not their work shifts.
Egypt: New crackdown on Mahalla workers
A report posted from a libcom user in Egypt concerning repression following the recent wave of strikes there.
I just received a text (at 9.35 am) from a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Organization (Trotskyists) saying that state security have besieged the workers in Mahalla preventing them from going to Cairo. The workers started a strike immediately protesting security intimidation. Ghazl Shebeen workers have declared their solidarity and is threatening to launch a new strike.
Egypt: Strikes continue despite clampdown
Workers centres have been shut down by police as the Egyptian government tries to quell the wildcat strikes sweeping the country.
Simon Assaf reported in Socialist Worker that "the Egyptian government has begun a crackdown on trade unionists at the heart of a recent wave of strikes."
In fact, the trade unions themselves have been vehemently opposed to the recent strikes, which have all been unofficial wildcat actions.
He continued:
Egyptian textile workers confront the new economic order
An analysis of the recent strike-wave in Egypt which involved tens of thousands of textile workers and a look at the history of labour militancy in the country.
For the last ten years Muhammad ‘Attar, 36, has worked in the finishing department at the gigantic Misr Spinning and Weaving Company complex at Mahalla al-Kubra in the middle of the Nile Delta. He takes home a basic wage of about $30. With profit sharing and incentives, his net pay is about $75 a month.
Records of the strike in Egypt under Ramses III, c1155BC
A contemporary document recounting the first ever recorded labour strike, which occured in Deir el Medina, Ancient Egypt during the reign of Ramses III when workers did not receive their rations.
The stoppage occurred in the 12th century BC, on the 21st day of the second month in the 29th year of the reign of the pharaoh Ramses III, while Ramses was fighting a series of wars and engaging in an extensive building campaign.
Egypt's wildcat strike wave continues unabated
As reported previously on libcom, tens of thousands of workers in Egypt continue to defy their unions and the government in the nation's state-owned industries to strike and occupy their workplaces.
The often-successful struggles are over wages, jobs and privatisation at a time when prices are rising, government-owned industries are being sold off and jobs are being slashed.
Dan Morrison on sfgate.com reported:
Unprecedented strike wave sweeps Egypt
A wave of unprecedented strikes by disgruntled workers has swept Egypt this week.
The atmosphere at the mammoth Factory No 1 belonging to the Misr Shebin Al-Kom Spinning and Weaving Company (SSWC) in the Delta is glum. The din of roaring machines at the 47-year-old factory is no more, after someone flicked the shut down button last week for the first time in nearly half a century.
