Egyptian uprising - updates and discussion

Aljazeera have reported that many of the demonstrations by striking workers were largely about economic demands, not 'pro-democracy', and included people who wanted Mubarak to stay. I think this is very important: class demands can't be eased by political reforms.

Genuinely surprised, I was expecting the Establishment to throw Mubarak under the bus but he's just announced he's staying.

He's really fucking things up. What a crap speech! So disconnected from reality! Worst speech ever. Big FAIL.

Tsar Nicholas II eat your heart out. A man in touch with history. Communiqué #2?

Arabist

. here is the chart I was using to keep track of who stands where in Egypt's political crisis. Yup, it's a mess.

http://www.arabist.net/storage/post-images/Tahrir.pdf

VP Suleiman telling folks to leave Tahrir.

Omar Suleiman

: O youth of Egypt, go back to your homes & your work. Don't listen to the satellite channels, only listen to your conscience

He's pissing people off even more.

Suleiman also said that the reason to go back to work was to defend the gains of the revolution of 25th Jan. What's the arabic for chutzpah?

@ Khawaga #603
since when can speeches--and particularyly speeches given under extreme circumstances--be read/heard literally?

Hieronymous's post on the previous page bears re-reading in the context of events because it points to a faction fight, or rather faction fighting and tensions going on in within the Egyptian bourgeoisie.
Some time today, the CIA said that Mubarak was going to stand down from information that they'd got from their Egyptian military sources. The Egyptian Military attache in Washington told the White House that he was going. Before the broadcast, soldiers close to the demonstrators in the square told them that "their demands were going to be met".
Paul Aman in the post of H above details the different fractions of the state and confirms that the army and sections of the police moved against Gamal and co a week ago. There is more reckonings to come as the interests of different sections of the state fight for their own corner. I would think that a combination of military and Suleiman's police would be the strongest but things are not clear.
This is all the more reason for the working class to try to stick to its own ground.

@ Khawaga #603
since when can speeches--and particularyly speeches given under extreme circumstances--be read/heard literally?

Sorry, I don't understand your question.

it's pretty much a waste of time to get into this--there are more important things right now, i guess. but since you're asking for it:

He's really fucking things up

pl elaborate or are you just referring to your dreams (of a revolution) that he fucked up?

What a crap speech!

you seem to have expected something that pleased you.

So disconnected from reality!

when i read such a statement that has been made in the last 5 min by pretty much every media outlet, excuse me, i get the jitters. tell me about the real Egyptian reality, and especially the connex between Mubarak and the arm of the army/secret services that will still lend him a hand.

Worst speech ever. Big FAIL.

are you a teacher? or did you just miss something?

but as i said, i have no interest in flame wars, not here not anywhere. however, sometimes i don't feel like eating every diet. so don't get mad.

the situation in Egypt has now obviously become very dangerous and, although i go with taking any active political countermessures into the equation, when they seem appropriate, i do hope this is going to end without greater bloodshed. but that's only my hope.
to regorge about the power play at work here i refrain simply because i feel a little short on "real" inside knowledge.
but what i know is, there is something much more important going on here than most of what i read and hear seems to have any hunch of.

bioport

but what i know is, there is something much more important going on here than most of what i read and hear seems to have any hunch of.

Well, let's hope so. Please do inform us of it if you can.

Thank you for your contribution bioport. It was both informative and useful.

Bioport, I don't understand your point. You take my comments to be political tracts rather than visceral reactions to a guy I literally hate? Don't get me wrong, I don't think the speech was aimed at the protesters, he was posturing for a completely different audience. However, what he did say did piss people off; whether he intended that or not I am not sure.

Btw: I wasn't/isn't trying to start any flame war. I sincerely do not understand what you were asking or what your point is.

@ waxlax #612
to put it simply, i think this is the Magna Carta moment of the Middle East. only it is not going to take 600 years this time.

a case of life imitating art?

Guardian

10.39am: Apparently the following joke is splitting Egyptians' sides:

Communique No 2 from the Armed Forces: "A message from the Armed Forces to the Noble Egyptian People: our next Communique to you will be No 3."

[...]

12.10pm: [...]
Incidentally, a retired general has just told al Jazeera that the military will issue a third statement (the first was yesterday, the second this morning) soon.

I was interested in this idea from the arabist

The nation is split, wavering, living "in two different time zones" - the present and the post-Mubarak - as one local academic recently put it.

which turns out to be a reference to a piece last week in the NYT from Amr Shalakany
A Week in Egypt’s Twilight Zone

And this reminded me of some of the stuff about worlding from the Free Association in their Worlds in Motion piece for Turbulence 1, together with having only recently read China Miéville's The City and the City. Together with the mentions that have been repeatedly made about Mubarak and Egyptian State TV currently inhabiting an alternate reality.

I like the concept of two alternative zones of reality & time fighting it out in the streets and workplaces of the urban environment. Not merely in a simplistic territorial/military way, but in the way workers are confronting their bosses or parts of the bureacracy (e.g. housing dept.) and saying, your unquestioned power is a thing of yesterday, another time, another reality.

Either the Egyptian military, or the "assets" that matter, have been lying to the Pentagon and the CIA over Mubarak's departure, either there's some sort of conspiracy between all of them - which I very much doubt, or there's a real danger of a faction fight within the Egyptian bourgeoisie that could lead to bloodshed.

There are two million police in Egypt and while many of these will be low level state employees that still leaves enough of the nasty brigade to cause real grief.

Much is made of the Egyptian army being "kept" by the US to the tune of $1.5 billiion a year. This can't be entirely good for a national army such as Egypt's, which has the defence of its own imperialist interests at heart. At any rate, yesterday the Saudis, defending their own imperialist interests, offered to replace the subsidy if the US tried to cut it off, which I think unlikely. The position of the Americans has been weakened, which was a trend anyway.

Many of the workers' demands reported yesterday and the day before were entirely based on economic demands and its important, if there is a faction fight in the offing, that they stick to them.

ocelot

I was interested in this idea from the arabist

The nation is split, wavering, living "in two different time zones" - the present and the post-Mubarak - as one local academic recently put it.

which turns out to be a reference to a piece last week in the NYT from Amr Shalakany
A Week in Egypt’s Twilight Zone

And this reminded me of some of the stuff about worlding from the Free Association in their Worlds in Motion piece for Turbulence 1, together with having only recently read China Miéville's The City and the City. Together with the mentions that have been repeatedly made about Mubarak and Egyptian State TV currently inhabiting an alternate reality.

I like the concept of two alternative zones of reality & time fighting it out in the streets and workplaces of the urban environment. Not merely in a simplistic territorial/military way, but in the way workers are confronting their bosses or parts of the bureacracy (e.g. housing dept.) and saying, your unquestioned power is a thing of yesterday, another time, another reality.

"Get in real world."

Interesting analysis from Issandr El Amrani (the arabist blog)

A quick analysis of the situation
By Issandr El Amrani February 11, 2011 at 3:04 PM Share
The situation is evolving so rapidly that I hesitate to put thoughts down. Still, here's my take on what's happening:

1. Although we still don't have details about what powers Mubarak has transferred to Suleiman, it's become pretty evident that Suleiman is in charge.

2. Why then keep Mubarak around? Aside from the loyalty the regime's key men have for Mubarak — Suleiman, Tantawi and Shafiq have 20 years of being close confidantes to him — retaining Mubarak allows them to preserve the sanctity of constitutional authority.

3.Who cares about the constitution? Perhaps not many protestors, but for the regime the constitution represents legitimacy. Mubarak needs to be in place, even if only symbolically, for amendments to the constitution to be made. If the constitution is suspended, then this forces the army to take charge itself (presumably through the Supreme Military Council), which opens the way to demands for civilian government and lifts the last layer of distance that the army has vis-a-vis the people.

4. Why wouldn't the army want to take charge directly? Because it makes it directly accountable to popular demands and opens the way for calls for a new civilian transition government that could challenge or dilute its own authority. A civilian government that could for instance instigate wide-reaching corruption investigations.

5. The army could also be split on this issue, with hour-by-hour negotiations taking place between those who back the protestors' demands and the senior officers. It may also want to avoid an armed clash with the Republican Guards that would seriously destabilize the country and further rob the regime of legitimacy.

6. Have we passed the point that the army is becoming a target of the protestors too? There's always been a core of activists who want to see the end of military dominance over Egypt. It's not clear whether it's the majority, or even if this sentiment is echoed in the wider, silent Egyptian public. The army's key problem (and especially Suleiman's) is that they suck at communicating. Their battle to retain public legitimacy may be lost because of bad PR and tone-deafness.

7. What about the US in all this? The Obama administration has made a good step in returning to an emphasis on transition and the protection of civilians. However, its handling of this crisis has been poor, its statements mealy-mouthed and at times contradictory (esp. between State and the White House). It has shown it has neither control nor particularly good information on developments. This crisis has also revealed one of Obama's core problems, in domestic and foreign affairs: lack of resolve and initiative, to put it kindly. But there's no reason to dwell on this: for now the US is largely irrelevant to the events on the ground. It should keep quiet, back democratic transition, cut off military aid until this is achieved, and start rethinking (as the EU is starting to) its support for dictatorships in the region.

The idea of the army being afraid to take power for fear of then having more chance of losing power, makes a certain kind of sense. Also if they become the power that people are fighting against, they lose the veneer or neutrality that having a political intermediary layer gives them. Also, being put in a position of having to order soldiers to act against protestors may increase the risk of breakdown in the chain of command.

And just for light relief:

1.50pm: Things seem slightly sedate at the presidential palace protests in Cairo.

Nadia El-Awady has tweeted a number of amusing messages about the well-heeled nature of the demonstrators there.

Protesters in front of pres palace just standing around socializing. This is what i get for protesting with upper middle class #egypt

Not a single chant at pres palace. Posh upper middle class tires easily. We NEED tahrir lot here! #jan25

Advice from a protester (me): never protest with the rich crowd. They aren't angry enough. #jan25 #egypt

The thugs #AJ keeps reporting at pres palace is group of 30 posh-looking men & women chanting EGYPT. They just want others 2 stop protesting

Sandmonkey tells a similar story:

Heard from my aunt who lives next to the palace that the protesters are "very chic". Freakin heliopolis. :p #jan25

At helio protest. There are two of them. On marghany the army guy is arguing with the dude carrying blankets. #jan25

Very upscale crowd. Even the well off want mubarak gone. #jan25

There's also the daily rumours that Mubarak has left Cairo. Al Arabiya is reporting that himself and family have decamped to Sharm, Al Ahram is reporting that Al Arabiya is saying that (bit of hedging going on there), but the BBC are repeating the story, via their security correspondant, Frank Gardner. Oh, yeah and the Danish PM Rasmussen has become the first EU leader to call for Mubarak to step down immediately.

From the ridiculous to the sublime. Brilliantly informative piece on the tactical sleight of hand used to get a critical mass together on Day1 - a non-trivial task in Egypt. As El Amrani says, Rupert Murdoch doesn't deserve these journos.

WSJ: The Secret Rally That Sparked an Uprising

ocelot

There's also the daily rumours that Mubarak has left Cairo.

thats what it looks like.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/world/middleeast/12egypt.html?_r=1&hp

From Robert Fisk here: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-as-mubarak-clings-on-what-now-for-egypt-2211287.html

Last night, a military officer guarding the tens of thousands celebrating in Cairo threw down his rifle and joined the demonstrators, yet another sign of the ordinary Egyptian soldier's growing sympathy for the democracy demonstrators. We had witnessed many similar sentiments from the army over the past two weeks. But the critical moment came on the evening of 30 January when, it is now clear, Mubarak ordered the Egyptian Third Army to crush the demonstrators in Tahrir Square with their tanks after flying F-16 fighter bombers at low level over the protesters.

Many of the senior tank commanders could be seen tearing off their headsets – over which they had received the fatal orders – to use their mobile phones. They were, it now transpires, calling their own military families for advice. Fathers who had spent their lives serving the Egyptian army told their sons to disobey, that they must never kill their own people.

Thus when General Hassan al-Rawani told the massive crowds yesterday evening that "everything you want will be realised – all your demands will be met", the people cried back: "The army and the people stand together – the army and the people are united. The army and the people belong to one hand."

I've seen no other mention of this. If true it's obviously very significant and would go a long way towards explaining why the army seems incapable of making any kind of decision, but I'm not sure I quite believe it. Anyone know anymore about this?

Well, he's gone. Suleiman didn't look too chuffed.

He's gone.

he's handed power to the army

That statement in full

1612: Full statement from Vice-President Suleiman: "In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate, citizens, during these very difficult circumstances Egypt is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of president of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country. May God help everybody."

Well, god help you Omar, anyway. 'Cos I'm not sure how many other folks you got watching your back right now. (Plus I have bad news about that god feller...)

re tickling_fool question on the military officers handing in their guns and joining the demo, the Major was on Sky News last night addressing the crowd (screaming at Mubarak and Suleiman to fuck off, basically), plus I believe mention of it made it into the various streams (Guardian, AJ, etc) as well, iirc. It's certainly the case that the particular units that have been stationed around Tahrir for the last few days are no longer reliable at all from the chain of command pov, but that's only a handfull of tank crews and a small contigent of RA. Compared to the size of the army, its a very small fragment. But anyway...

Evenso, I think the confidence of Tantawi and the General Staff on the loyalty of the troops in the face of a general order to attack the protesters and wipe them off the streets, no matter the casualties, is still probably open to question. The possibility of some troops disobeying and fighting against other still obeying orders, would create the kind of messiness that could threaten the chain of command.

Meanwhile, outside of Cairo, violence has continued this afternoon

5:32 Police uses tear gas and live ammunition to disperse protesters in Sohag.

5:21 Preliminary reports suggest four have been killed in clashes between protesters and police.

5:17 Reported armed attack on police headquarters in Arish, according to BBC.
[...]
4:20 According to AFP, Egyptian protesters in the north Sinai town of El-Arish exchanged gunfire with police on Friday and hurled Molotov cocktails at a police station, witnesses said, amid nationwide anti-government rallies. About 1,000 protesters broke off from a larger group and headed towards a police station, lobbing firebombs and burning police cars, witnesses said. Several people were wounded in the clashes, but the number was not immediately clear.

Sohag is Upper Egypt, on the Nile, not that far from El Kharga where the fatal clashes took place day before yesterday, Arish is on the north Sinai road, just west of Sheikh Zuwaid, where it appears there's been a virtual armed insurgency by the Sinai Bedouin against police and army for over a week.

ocelot

Arish is on the north Sinai road, just west of Sheikh Zuwaid, where it appears there's been a virtual armed insurgency by the Sinai Bedouin against police and army for over a week.

Not surprising at all, Arish is one of the most militarized and most repressive towns in Egypt. Your update begs the question: is this how military rule will look like in Cairo as well or is it "merely" a continuation of the general volatility of Upper Egypt and Sinai?

Looks like after that difficult second album, the widely-panned "Communiqué #2", critics are anticipating a return to cutting-edge relevance with the much-trailed third offering from the Supreme Council. Despite speculation that the third offering from the new chart-topping act might be entitled "From the Frying Pan, Into the Fire" or even the more funk-influenced "Who's the Daddy Now?", record company executives have confirmed that the actual title will be "Communiqué #3", continuing the post-ironic minimalism of their first two titles.

Oh well. Party tonight, hangover tomorrow, strike the day after? We shall see.

Reuters

Egypt's Supreme Military Council to sack cabinet, suspend both houses of parliament and govern with head of Supreme Court

Khawaga

Your update begs the question: is this how military rule will look like in Cairo as well or is it "merely" a continuation of the general volatility of Upper Egypt and Sinai?

Well absolutely. It seems to me that this moment provides a strong opportunity for a recuperative movement - hail the revolution and it's glorious martyrs, it's now the duty of every patriotic Egyptian to get back to work to save the country and the economy... type of thing. The possible counter-tendency would be a continuation of the disintegrative process of the ancien regime emboldening people to challenge long-standing injustices in the workplace, against local government & bureacractic corruption etc. Not to mention the cops...

Which of these tendencies will predominate, or how will the army respond to possible further disruptions like transport strikes etc? I guess we'll see.

ocelot

It seems to me that this moment provides a strong opportunity for a recuperative movement - hail the revolution and it's glorious martyrs, it's now the duty of every patriotic Egyptian to get back to work to save the country and the economy... type of thing.

Yeah, I think this is likely. It's no longer about the "people", but about class. So I see it likely that we will see this:

ocelot

The possible counter-tendency would be a continuation of the disintegrative process of the ancien regime emboldening people to challenge long-standing injustices in the workplace, against local government & bureacractic corruption etc.

at the same time.

The Guardian reports today that: "Earlier this month Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian telecoms tycoon and one of the world's richest men, gave his tacit support to the anti-government uprising, claiming that the end result would be a 'more solid foundation for future growth'. Despite worries about short-term instability, other major business players appear to be backing Sawiris's position."

Well, apparently the relevance it had for me at the beggining of the thread a split in the army, has been confirmed by the facts. However it is equally true what ocelot says about the moment of recuperation. Things look quite encouraging for a moment tho. I hope the blood bath posibility vanishes in the air definitely. I hope the egyptians in the know bear in mind the portiguese solution tho.

Is there any confirmation that that account of the tank commanders refusing orders is correct?

Following on from the above support for the "revolution" from the heights of Egyptian capital, Abdel Latif, an Egyptian economist said today: "One of the potential upsides is that labour productivity (very low in Egypt), increases when the system's cathartic atmosphere changes as a result of the revolution".

Meanwhile, the US bourgeoisie, in the form of its Director of Intelligence, James Clapper, has, following the long-term initiative of the British Foreign Office, been praising the Muslim Brotherhood as "secular" and "against violence". I don't think that the US is all that keen on ElBaradei given his percieved closeness to Tehran.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/disa-f11.shtml

Trotskyist perspective on the transition from Mubarak to the military. It's not us, but it's good enough for now.

What happens now is critical. If Tantawi and Suleiman are allowed to remain in power, they will become just as bad or worse than Mubarak was. Remember that they were heads of the secret police and military. All they know how to do is use force. They won't allow another movement to gain nearly enough strength to do this again, much less free and fair elections.

By tonight, I think we'll know more about the short-term direction of the protesters. Will they fizzle out? Or will they continue? A new government won't solve the economic problems that caused the revolution. Even if the protests fizzle out, there will still be some more awareness of the problem. If we're very lucky, this is only the February Revolution for a later October.

Jazzhands

If we're very lucky, this is only the February Revolution for a later October.

That's a great line!

Al Jazeera quotes a celebrating protester:

Let us leave this question for tomorrow. All that has happened is that Mubarak is now the ex-president. This is only the first step on the road to completely pulling apart his government.

So they haven't lost perspective just yet, but it's only been a few hours. Like the man said, let's leave this question for tomorrow. My only regret is that I don't speak Arabic, so I can't understand what the protesters are saying.

"Moments of respite" don't come cheap - a price beyond money
http://1000memories.com/egypt

Ah, so there was a coup, a lame attempt at a counter-coup by Mubarak and Suleiman, and the next day the rest was history.

LOL. Just watching Newsnight and General Lord Sir Mark Malloch Brown (to give him his full title, apparently, I mean "General Lord Sir.." who are they kidding?) counted off on his fingers why Mubarak was considered a "friend of the West".

"...he [Hosni] was [counts on fingers] against terrorism, for Israel, for oil..."

Magic. That US Middle East policy in 6 words. Well done.

The same Newsnight had a very interesting piece on the way the State Department has been backing the April 6th Movement, or parts of it.
This is a dangerous time for the proletariat, its strike movement and thus its class autonomy could be lost in this wave of nationalism and democracy.

And for light relief - Glenn Beck, "...you have emboldened every revolutionary on earth..."

http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/02/11/mubarak-steps-down-glenn-reacts/

never fails...

"...[Algeria, another extremely poor country, al Qaida has a significant presence there], is on the tip, right across the strait of Gibraltar from Spain. So is the Ivory Coast..."

Genuis.

ernie

This is a dangerous time for the proletariat, its strike movement and thus its class autonomy could be lost in this wave of nationalism and democracy.

Well, I think that their class autonomy needs to be affirmed or realized before it can be lost. Now is the time to affirm it, and to distance it(self) from nationalist, governmentalist 'solutions'. Perhaps you meant that the fight to affirm the class' autonomy could be lost now. With Mubarak gone, the opposition movement may well fragment. The class will then need to focus on its own demands and interests, and not get sucked into the various different governmentalist factions.

It is a great line, but didn't the February revolution pretty much smash the army? There are no soldiers and worker's councils yet, although no doubt it could happen...

Jazzhands wrote:
If we're very lucky, this is only the February Revolution for a later October.

It is a great line, but didn't the February revolution pretty much smash the army? There are no soldiers and worker's councils yet, although no doubt it could happen... (Forget previous post)

Just heard on the radio that a significant minority of people in Tahrir Square are resisting army attempts to dismantle the barricades and empty the square, though a majority are "happy" to leave.

Waslax. this is indeed what I was trying to say

Perhaps you meant that the fight to affirm the class' autonomy could be lost now.

a call for soviets?

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article20203

Demands of the Iron and Steel Workers

1. Immediate resignation of the president and all men and symbols of the regime.

2. Confiscation of funds and property of all symbols of previous regime and everyone proved corrupt.

3. Iron and steel workers, who have given martyrs and militants, call upon all workers of Egypt to revolt from the regime’s and ruling party workers’ federation, to dismantle it and announce their independent union now, and to plan for their general assembly to freely establish their own independent union without prior permission or consent of the regime, which has fallen and lost all legitimacy.

4. Confiscation of public-sector companies that have been sold or closed down or privatized, as well as the public sector which belongs to the people and its nationalization in the name of the people and formation of a new management by workers and technicians.

5. Formation of a workers’ monitoring committee in all workplaces, monitoring production, prices, distribution and wages.

6. Call for a general assembly of all sectors and political trends of the people to develop a new constitution and elect real popular committees without waiting for the consent or negotiation with the regime.

A huge workers’ demonstration will join the Tahrir Square on Friday, the 11th of February 2011 to join the revolution and announce the demands of the workers of Egypt.

Long live the revolution!
Long live Egypt’s workers!
Long live the intifada of Egyptian youth—People’s revolution for the people!

David McNally: Mubarak's Folly: The Rising of Egypt's Workers

Entdinglichung

a call for soviets?

Not necessarily. What do they mean by the call for workers to "establish their own independent union"? It could be a single 'revolutionary' union, it could be a federation of trade unions, or it could be soviets.

Also, on the sixth point, the call is for an assembly of "all sectors and all political trends of the people", without any reference to class. Not really compatible with soviets as understood as workers' councils.

But a sign of movement in a definitely proletarian direction. The issue of 'independent trade unions' is not even settled on libcom, so we can't expect the workers of Egypt to leap beyond it immediately. The key thing would be to develop the element which emphasises assemblies and committees, and which therefore points towards real workers councils in the future.

I was wondering as a born and bred leftie how has all the discourse of the left has shifted to the Arab world? If I can be a reductionist, I do not share any values with with the Arab world which is established on religious traditional narrative. Opposing the US does not constitute "them" as an alternative. I am very bewildered from these ambiguous connections: Marx-Humeyni-Chavez?I think it is transverse imperialism to ignore the vast difference in values only to negate western capitalism.

Mr. human bondage

I was wondering as a born and bred leftie how has all the discourse of the left has shifted to the Arab world? If I can be a reductionist, I do not share any values with with the Arab world which is established on religious traditional narrative. Opposing the US does not constitute "them" as an alternative. I am very bewildered from these ambiguous connections: Marx-Humeyni-Chavez?I think it is transverse imperialism to ignore the vast difference in values only to negate western capitalism.

radicalgraffiti

wtf are you talking about?

Mr. human bondage: take it somewhere else. You're wasting both your and our time here.

Just saw this in the Guardian:

Some of the organisers of Egypt's revolution announced they had formed a council to negotiate with the military and to oversee future demonstrations to keep up pressure on the army to meet demands for democratic change.
"The council will have the authority to call for protests or call them off depending on how the situation develops," said Khaled Abdel Qader Ouda, one of the organisers.

Anyone got any idea of the base of this council: is it a self-elected elite, does it represent something more or what?

Regarding industrial action, from: http://www.arabawy.org/blog/

#Jan25 The workers, middle class, military junta and the permanent revolution:

Since yesterday, and actually earlier, middle class activists have been urging Egyptians to suspend the protests and return to work, in the name of patriotism, singing some of the most ridiculous lullabies about “let’s build new Egypt,” “Let’s work harder than even before,” etc… In case you didn’t know, actually Egyptians are among the hardest working people in the globe already..

Those activists want us to trust Mubarak’s generals with the transition to democracy–the same junta that has provided the backbone of his dictatorship over the past 30 years. And while I believe the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who receive $1.3 billion annually from the US, will eventually engineer the transition to a “civilian” government, I have no doubt it will be a government that will guarantee the continuation of a system that will never touch the army’s privileges, keep the armed forces as the institution that will have the final say in politics (like for example Turkey), guarantee Egypt will continue to follow the US foreign policy whether it’s the undesired peace with Apartheid State of Israel, safe passage for the US navy in the Suez Canal, the continuation of the Gaza siege and exports of natural gas to Israel at subsidized rates. The “civilian” government is not about cabinet members who do not wear military uniforms. A civilian government means a government that fully represents the Egyptian people’s demands and desires without any intervention from the brass. And I see this hard to be accomplished or allowed by the junta.

The military has been the ruling institution in this country since 1952. Its leaders are part of the establishment. And while the young officers and soldiers are our allies, we cannot for one second lend our trust and confidence to the generals. Moreover, those army leaders need to be investigated. I want to know more about their involvement in the business sector.

All classes in Egypt took part in the uprising. In Tahrir Square you found sons and daughters of the Egyptian elite, together with the workers, middle class citizens, and the urban poor. Mubarak has managed to alienate all social classes in society including wide section of the bourgeoisie. But remember that it’s only when the mass strikes started three days ago that’s when the regime started crumbling and the army had to force Mubarak to resign because the system was about to collapse.

Some have been surprised that the workers started striking. I really don’t know what to say. This is completely idiotic. The workers have been staging the longest and most sustained strike wave in Egypt’s history since 1946, triggered by the Mahalla strike in December 2006. It’s not the workers’ fault that you were not paying attention to their news. Every single day over the past three years there was a strike in some factory whether it’s in Cairo or the provinces. These strikes were not just economic, they were also political in nature.

From day 1 of our uprising, the working class has been taking part in the protests. Who do you think were the protesters in Mahalla, Suez and Kafr el-Dawwar for example? However, the workers were taking part as “demonstrators” and not necessarily as “workers”– meaning, they were not moving independently. The govt had brought the economy to halt, not the protesters by its curfew, shutting down of banks and business. It was a capitalist strike, aiming at terrorizing the Egyptian people. Only when the govt tried to bring the country back to “normal” on Sunday that workers returned to their factories, discussed the current situation, and started to organize en masse, moving as a block.

The strikes waged by the workers this week were both economic and political fused together. In some of the locations the workers did not list the regime’s fall among their demands, but they used the same slogans as those protesting in Tahrir and in many cases, at least those I managed to learn about and I’m sure there are others, the workers put forward a list of political demands in solidarity with the revolution.

These workers are not going home anytime soon. They started strikes because they couldn’t feed their families anymore. They have been emboldened by Mubarak’s overthrowal, and cannot go back to their children and tell them the army has promised to bring them food and their rights in I don’t know how many months. Many of the strikers have already started raising additional demands of establishing free trade unions away from the corrupt, state backed Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions.

Today, I’ve already started receiving news that thousands of Public Transport workers are staging protests in el-Gabal el-Ahmar. The temporary workers at Helwan Steel Mills are also protesting. The Railway technicians continue to bring trains to halt. Thousands of el-Hawamdiya Sugar Factory are protesting and oil workers will start a strike tomorrow over economic demands and also to impeach Minister Sameh Fahmy and halt gas exports to Israel. And more reports are coming from other industrial centers.

At this point, the Tahrir Square occupation is likely to be suspended. But we have to take Tahrir to the factories now. As the revolution proceeds an inevitable class polarization is to happen. We have to be vigilant. We shouldn’t stop here… We hold the keys to the liberation of the entire region, not just Egypt… Onwards with a permanent revolution that will empower the people of this country with direct democracy from below…

#Jan25 Suez strikes:

I was watching Al-Jazeera Arabic, which was reporting minutes ago on mass strikes in Suez among industrial workers from different sectors. In the case of a textile factory, the army intervened directly to try to mediate between the CEO and the strikers. The negotiations failed, and the army whisked away the CEO.

A unified demand across the strikes, Al-Jazeera reported, was prosecuting the corrupt managers. This comes amid continued demands for the impeachment of the Suez governor.

A trade unionist source in Suez had told me last week that the Suez Governor is not even in Suez, and had to escape in the protection of the army. It was rumored then the army had arrested him, but he wasn’t. And he tried to continue managing the affairs of the town via telephone from somewhere outside the town.

This governor is widely hated by the Suez citizens who accuse him of corruption and of massacring protesters during the uprising. There is no accurate figure for how many died in Suez, but it’s safe to say the biggest numbers of casualties took place in that province.

Hence you can imagine how the Suez people feel about the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces’ decision to reinstate “temporarily” the governors in office, till the “civilian elected government is shaped” god knows when.

And a few more recent tweets from http://twitter.com/3arabawy

Al-Jazeera: Thousands of Tawheed wal Nour store #egyworkers protested today in several provinces demanding contracts. #egyworkers #Jan25

Assuit University #egyworkers staged protests today over conditions, joined by Education ministry civil servants, reports Al-Jazeera #Jan25

Following their colleagues in Cairo, Alexandria public transport #egyworkers on strike http://bit.ly/dPzpvJ

...and very bloody.

Also, they might well be under international pressure to make an example of the Egyptian working class to the rest of the world of what happens if you go beyond the limits of wanting merely political change.

There are already hundreds dead

In 1989 (I think) in Algeria 800-900 people were slaughtered in an uprising (it was hardly mentioned in the world media, attention being focussed on Tiananmen Square). 300 or more dead in Egypt's "peaceful revolution" is nothing compared with what they could do if necessary, possible and userful for them. Their problem would be to present workers' struggles as being an obstacle to the progress towards a stable democracy, and therefore give justification for crushing them. We know that all significant social movements nowadays risk, in the short term or long term, depending on what part of the world, a very brutal repression, and perhaps it's not much use in speculating - though I'd guess it's there in the minds of many of the working class in Egypt.

Egypt Stock Exchange

Announcement Regarding the Resumption of Trading in The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 13/02/2011
In light of the latest conditions and due to the regularity of work in the banking sector, telecom and internet services. In addition to the discussions with the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), Misr for Central Clearing, Depository and Registry Company (MCDR) and all the brokerage firms and market participants. EGX announced that trading will be resumed on Wednesday 16 February, taking into considerations performing the following procedures during Sunday and Monday:

First: Completing the technical requirements needed to start trading.

Second: Resuming the discussions with brokerage firms concerning the procedures that should be applied as soon as the trading begins.

Third: Granting listed companies the opportunity to disclose available information concerning their financial and operational conditions, this will allow investors assessing the recent developments and take the appropriate investment decisions.

Fourth: Providing institutions and individuals, all over Egypt, the opportunity to invest in The Egyptian Exchange (EGX).

The Exchange was supposed to re-open today (Sunday is a workday).

Smells like panic to me.

Update on that Reuters story

(Warning now expected Monday instead of Sunday)

CAIRO Feb 13 (Reuters) - Egypt's new military rulers will issue a warning against anyone who creates "chaos and disorder", an army source said on Sunday.

The source said the military statement was now expected to appear on Monday, not Sunday as the source had said earlier. The Higher Military Council will also ban meetings by labour unions or professional syndicates, effectively forbidding strikes, and tell all Egyptians to get back to work after the unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The army will also say it acknowledges and protects the right of people to protest, the source said. (Reporting by Marwa Awad, writing by Alistair Lyon)

Dunno if the delay's significant or not.

Overall, from a point of view most concerned about recuperation. Great - bring it on. (I know that's a bit of a dickish thing to say from the safety of an EU living room, but you know what I mean...)

In 1989 (I think) in Algeria 800-900 people were slaughtered in an uprising (it was hardly mentioned in the world media, attention being focussed on Tiananmen Square).

That was 1988, not 1989. Before Tiananmen, that is. And it was, if I remember correctly, basically a revolt against unemployment, high prices etc. Authorities repressed it - and then opened the door to multy party elections in 1992, with the Islamists winning the first round, a military coup to prevent whem winning agein, and the civil war that ensued from that.

It seems what is happening in Egypt is much broader - and much more risky to repress (they tried in recent weeks, and they did not succeed). That is why they decided that getting rid of Mubarak, opening up the political process - combined with threats against further street and strike movements - seems to be their strategy now.

300 or more dead in Egypt's "peaceful revolution" is nothing compared with what they could do if necessary, possible and userful for them.

True. It is not a matter of them objecting morally to instigating massacres (they don't have such objections), but of strategic choices.

The question is 1. is it necessary for them? I would say: not yet, as long as workers' struggles are on an on-off basis, rather fragmented, and not on an enormous scale as yet, as they seem to be at this stage. The numer of strikeers are in the thousands, not in the millions as were the number of demonstrators. I think they believe they can manage, with a combination of concessions and selective repression. Of course, this may change.
2. Is it possible? At the moment: hardly. Just a few days after millions have been on the streets, giving the military ample reason to dump Mubarak (and Suleiman), people have broken through barriers of fear. And there have been encouraging signs of dissent among soldiers and now even among police.

This is NOT a good time for them to go for frontal, all-out repression. It would easily provoke an even bigger, much more openly working-class-based, explosion. It does not seem to be a useful strategy for them at all - as long as the confidence of people is so strong and the memory of the revolt of recent weeks so fresh. That is, not in the short run. In the long run? That depends on how workers' struggles either subside or grow stronger - and on what happens in other countries.

That was 1988, not 1989. Before Tiananmen, that is.

Got it wrong then. But remember thinking how little the media said about it, compared with the massacre in Tiananmen (the hundreds in Algeria being a far greater proportion of the population than 6000 in China.). Not really relevant to Egypt at the moment though.

It got mentioned a lot in France! Of course, France has always taken an interest in Algeria after the war for Algerian Independence. Just like it is now with the protests.

I think, Samotnaf, you were right in a sense. The comparison, however, was not with the massacre in 1988, but in the army coup after the Islamist election victory in 1992. Army action in Tiananmen: widely opposed by Western leaders and media. Army intervention in Algeria: widedly supported by Western leaders and media. Maybe that is the comparison you meant to highlight. A bit off-topic, indeed - though the underlying ruling class/ media hypocrisy is as current as can be...

Steve Negus

A despised autocrat is forced to abdicate, a military junta takes power, jubilation in the streets of Cairo -- maybe we've seen it all before, 60 years ago, and it didn't work out so well.

"Whereas some predicted as recently as Thursday that Egypt was moving forward, with the rise of the Military Command Council, Egypt seems to have reverted to 1952," writes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the Washington Post. He argues that the military's coup will take away the protest movement's momentum, and allow the forces of the status quo to control the transitional process.

There is certainly a danger that the military will attempt to pull a Leopard, creating the illusion of change so that things stay the same -- and reports that the military is warning against strikes are frighteningly reminiscent of the Free Officers' brutal crackdown on workers in Kafr al-Dewar in August of 1952. However, there are also a number of key differences between the situation now and the situation sixty years ago, which I think will make it very difficult for the military to simply ditch Mubarak and keep the system in place.

From the Arabist.

ocelot

David McNally: Mubarak's Folly: The Rising of Egypt's Workers

This seems most relevant:

McNally

... by 2004 it was strike action, sit-ins and demonstrations by workers that comprised the most determined and persistent oppositional activity – most of it illegal under the emergency edicts and laws that deny workers the right to form independent unions. Over the past six years or so, more than two million workers engaged in thousands of direct actions. Most importantly, they regularly won significant concessions on wages and working conditions. The result was a growing confidence among workers – so much so that genuinely independent unions began to emerge in a society where the official unions are effectively extensions of the state.

In 2006-7 mass working class protest erupted in the Nile Delta, spearheaded by the militant action of 50,000 workers in textiles and the cement and poultry industries. This was followed by strikes of train drivers, journalists, truckers, miners and engineers. Then 2007-8 saw another labor explosion, with riots at the state-owned weaving factory in Al-Mahla Al-Kobra. The youth-based April 6th Movement emerged at this point in support of workers’ strikes. Meanwhile, workers began to address the general interests of all working people, particularly the poorest, by pressing the demand for a substantial increase in the minimum wage.

[...]

In the course of a few days during the week of February 7, tens of thousands of them stormed into action. Thousands of railworkers took strike action, blockading railway lines in the process. Six thousand workers at the Suez Canal Authority walked off the job, staging sit-ins at Suez and two other cities. In Mahalla, 1,500 workers at Abul Sebae Textiles struck and blockaded the highway. At the Kafr al-Zayyat hospital hundreds of nurses staged a sit-in and were joined by hundreds of other hospital employees.

Across Egypt, thousands of others – bus workers in Cairo, employees at Telecom Egypt, journalists at a number of newspapers, workers at pharmaceutical plants and steel mills – joined the strike wave. They demands improved wages, the firing of ruthless managers, back pay, better working conditions and independent unions. In many cases they also called for the resignation of President Mubarak. And in some cases, like that of the 2,000 workers at Helwan Silk Factory, they demanded the removal of their company’s Board of Directors. Then there were the thousands of faculty members at Cairo University who joined the protests, confronted security forces, and prevented Prime Minister Ahmed Shariq from getting to his government office.

What we are seeing, in other words, is the rising of the Egyptian working class. Having been at the heart of the popular upsurge in the streets, tens of thousands of workers are now taking the revolutionary struggle back to their workplaces, extending and deepening the movement in the process. In so doing, they are proving the continuing relevance of the analysis developed by the great Polish-German socialist, Rosa Luxemburg. In her book, The Mass Strike, based on the experience of mass strikes of 1905 against the Tsarist dictatorship in Russia, Luxemburg argued that truly revolutionary movements develop by way of interacting waves of political and economic struggle, each enriching the other. In a passage that could have been inspired by the upheaval in Egypt, she explains,

Luxemburg

Every new onset and every fresh victory of the political struggle is transformed into a powerful impetus for the economic struggle. . . After every foaming wave of political action a fructifying deposit remains behind from which a thousand stalks of economic struggle burst forth. And conversely. The workers condition of ceaseless economic struggle with the capitalists keeps their fighting spirit alive in every political interval . . .

And so it is in the Egyptian Revolution. Tens of millions of workers – in transportation, healthcare, textiles, education, heavy industry, the service sector – are being awakened and mobilized. They are fusing demands for economic justice to those for democracy, and they are among the hundreds of thousands building popular power and self-organization. Moreover, should the rising of the workers move toward mass strikes that paralyze the economy, the Egyptian Revolution would move to a new and more powerful level.

What the coming weeks will bring is still uncertain. But Mubarak’s folly has triggered an upsurge of workers’ struggle whose effects will endure. “The most precious, because lasting, thing in this ebb and flow of the [revolutionary] wave is . . . the intellectual, cultural growth of the working class,” wrote Rosa Luxemburg.

Like the stock exchange the banks are now closed until Wednesday
AA: Egypt banks closed tomorrow, reopen Wednesday

The Central Bank of Egypt decided to close Egypt's banks on Monday after massive strikes and sit-ins in public financial institutions on Sunday
Sunday 13 Feb 2011

also
Reuters: Egypt rebellion spreads to sprawling state economy

[...]
In Egypt, there have been reports of protests, sit-ins and strikes at state-owned institutions including the stock exchange, textile firms, media organisations, steel firms, the postal service and railways, the police and the health ministry.

The workers cite an array of grievances. What unites them is a new sense of being able to speak out in the post-Mubarak era.

Tarek Amer, chairman of state-owned National Bank of Egypt, the country's biggest commercial bank, submitted his resignation on Sunday after angry employees prevented him from reaching his office, bankers said. He could not be reached for comment.
[...]

Egypt Stock Exchange spokesman drops plan to re-open Wednesday and goes for unspecified date in the future. Panic and confusion.

Reuters: Egypt stock exchange delays reopening again

CAIRO Feb 14 (Reuters) - Egypt's stock exchange, shut since Jan. 27 because of the country's political turmoil, will remain closed until stability returns to the economy and the financial sector, a bourse official said on Monday.

He first said the bourse would re-open on Sunday, but then said it would take place on an unspecified date. Trading would resume 48 hours after the announcement is made, he added. (Reporting by Ehab Farouk, Writing by Sherine El Madany)

Al Ahram site (English and Arabic) is down at the moment, but other news sources say that the redcaps successfully cleared Tahrir square of the last of the protestors this morning (seemingly confirmed by pictures at egypt daily news).

Although, now AJE reports

12:53pm [GMT+2] Hundreds of police in uniform and plainclothes march in Tahrir Square to show solidarity with protesters who toppled Hosni Mubarak, Reuters reports. Waving Egyptian flags, the police demonstrators shouted "We and the people are one" and said they wanted to "honour the martyrs of the revolution".

edit: same source

1:20pm Hundreds of people have gathered in Tahrir Square, most of them protesting against the police.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/5575/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-tourism-workers-stage-Pyramids-protest.aspx

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/protesters-block-vital-cairo-tunnel

That statement from the army about strikes has finally been read out on State TV, however, I think the Reuters report is wrong somehow, as Communiqué #5 was read out yesterday (translated full text here) and was the dissolution of parliament/suspension of constitution, etc, statement (no mention of unions). Not the statement on industrial unrest being threatened since yesterday.

Reuters: Egypt army urges unity, criticises strikes

CAIRO Feb 14 (Reuters) - Egypt's army called on Monday for national solidarity, urged workers to play their role in reviving the economy and criticised strike action, after many employees have been emboldened by protests to demand better pay.

In "Communique No. 5" [sic] read out on state television, the army spokesman said: "Noble Egyptians see that these strikes, at this delicate time, lead to negative results", adding that it harmed security and economic production.

He also said the army "calls on citizens and professional unions and the labour unions to play their role fully". (Reporting by Cairo bureau, Writing by Edmund Blair)

The Guardian puts it like this

1.58pm: Egypt's ruling military council has called on labour leaders to halt strikes and protests. News that the military was planning such a move first emerged yesterday. The response will be interesting.

Which is not at all informative on the all-important detail (they appear to be more interested in Bahrain and Iran today, I guess in the goldfish attention-span of the media, Egypt is "so yesterday", forget Tunisia...). However, taking both badly flawed reports together, it looks like the threatened interdiction of all union meetings and activity has been replaced with an exhortation to cease and desist, which is a bit of a different story.

from the bbc

Many employees blame bosses for what they consider to be huge earnings gaps in companies.

Ambulance drivers parked 70 of their emergency vehicles along a riverside road in a pay protest.

Near the Great Pyramids, some 150 tourism industry workers also demanded higher wages.

The tourism sector, which accounts for 6% of GDP and is in its peak season, has been badly hit by the anti-government demonstrations.

Strikes and protests at other state-owned firms across Egypt have hit the postal, media, textile and steel industries.

Military police closed in on the hard core in Tahrir Square but it filled again later on Monday There are reports the military is planning to prevent meetings by labour unions or professional organisations, effectively banning strikes. Correspondents say this could cause more unrest and trouble.

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/assiut-workers-protest-living-conditions
7.500 workers/ employees in action, in one city alone...

blackrainbow

Military police closed in on the hard core in Tahrir Square but it filled again later on Monday There are reports the military is planning to prevent meetings by labour unions or professional organisations, effectively banning strikes. Correspondents say this could cause more unrest and trouble.

Naw, that's just the "statements about statements" from yesterday. It seems like the actual statement has been made this afternoon on State TV and didn't have any of that stuff in it, neither banning meetings by labour unions and professional syndicates, nor threatening those creating "chaos and disorder". I say "seems" as the actual coverage has gone to shit today, guess all those budgets are spent up and the Western reporters on their way home now that they can't hang out in Tahrir square all day.

According to my twitter feed it seems like the military junta has indeed banned strikes etc. The class struggle is heating up. E.g. this just happened:

Arabawy

A group of around 100 protesters gathered outside the state-controlled Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions, demanding the resignation of EFTU head Hussein El-Megawer a businessman who is also a member of the National Democratic Party and who workers accuse of corruption.
Workers tried to enter the EFTU lobby – peacefully – but were met with EFTU thugs carrying sticks, chairs and fire extinguishers. These clashes ensued. EFTU officials also threw empty bottles at workers from 5th floor, leading to several injuries.

It seems that the army has backed away (for the time being) from its intention to ban strikes and meetings of strikers. Instead, they are just criticizing them as "leading to negative results". Surely this is because they have assessed the situation, and decided that they do not, at this time, have the capacity to enforce such a ban, and thus, if they were to try to do so, they would be exposed as not all-powerful, and then things could really start to unravel, for them. On the other hand, given that their intention to ban the strikes was leaked ahead of its planned announcement, and they have since backed off from it, they also risk appearing as less than all-powerful. They screwed up, but the choice they made limits the damage for them. But it can only embolden the strikers. Hopefully we will see more strikes spreading. And hopefully workers are widely discussing this idea that their strikes will "lead to negative results" and see it for what it is, the view of their class enemy. I don't think these hopes are at all unrealistic, given what we have seen so far.

This is really getting interesting now…

Call me a pedant, but for some reason this sloppiness from news sources over the numbering and timing of the army communiqués is starting to disturb me. Al Jazeera's at it now:

AJ: Army urges Egyptians to end strikes

Last Modified: 14 Feb 2011 16:28 GMT
[...]
In "Communique No 5", read out on state television on Monday, a spokesman for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces called for national solidarity and criticised strike action that has severely disrupted the country's economy.

"Noble Egyptians see that these strikes, at this delicate time, lead to negative results," he said.
[...]

Just for the record let's get the timeline and content of the communiqués down

#1 - Thursday 10 Feb - we had a meeting. we're going to have more.
#2 - Friday 11 Feb, morning - we had another one
#3 - Friday 11 Feb, 10 pm (Cairo GMT+2) - sssumption of power
#4 - Saturday 12 Feb - current govt. as caretaker, reaffirm international treaties [Israel], stop hating on the cops plz
#5 - Sunday 13 Feb - dissolution of government, suspension of constitution, rule by decree, new constitution and elections by 6 months, reaffirm international treaties (again)
#6 - Monday 14 Feb - please stop with the strikes already

sources:
Full text #1
Full text #2
Full texts of #3 & #4
Full text #5

Egyptian Chronicles reports #5 Sunday
Angry Arab commentary on #5 on Sun 13 Feb
Angry Arab commentary on #6 on Mon 14 Feb

Unfortunately no-one seems to have bothered their arse to actually obtain and translate the full transcript of yesterday's statement, being happy with the two short quotes from Reuters.

About the only possible clue to this is from Daniel Berhane's coverage where he has the Sunday statement down as a "Constitutional Proclamation" rather than a communiqué.

Apologies, I've no idea why mainstream news sources getting the most basic facts wrong should bother me at all really, but so it is.

But the interesting political point is what waslax stated, the relative backing down from the more aggressive position they had been trailing for 24 hours previously.

Reuters: Egypt declares Wednesday, Thursday bank holidays

CAIRO Feb 15 (Reuters) - Egypt's central bank said the country's banks would remain closed on Wednesday and Thursday after having been closed on Monday because of strikes that had disrupted their operations, state television said on Tuesday.

Banks were closed on Tuesday, which is an official holiday marking the Prophet Mohamed's birthday.

Waslax

It seems that the army has backed away (for the time being) from its intention to ban strikes and meetings of strikers. Instead, they are just criticizing them as "leading to negative results". Surely this is because they have assessed the situation, and decided that they do not, at this time, have the capacity to enforce such a ban, and thus, if they were to try to do so, they would be exposed as not all-powerful, and then things could really start to unravel, for them. On the other hand, given that their intention to ban the strikes was leaked ahead of its planned announcement, and they have since backed off from it, they also risk appearing as less than all-powerful. They screwed up, but the choice they made limits the damage for them. But it can only embolden the strikers. Hopefully we will see more strikes spreading. And hopefully workers are widely discussing this idea that their strikes will "lead to negative results" and see it for what it is, the view of their class enemy. I don't think these hopes are at all unrealistic, given what we have seen so far.

I think this is pretty spot on, but would add that since the strike wave started the Egyptian regime has been at a loss to what to do with strikers. Rather than the typical concession and then repression tactic from the past, they only did the concession part, which made workers more confident since the worst thing that could happen with a strike was that their demands would be (partially) met. The military junta must re-assess how to deal with an emboldened working class and cannot, as Wasalax states, go on full attack now. However, as soon as they find some partners in the Egyptian bourgeoisie (I am thinking of el Baradei and folks like Wael Ghonim) that are willing to legitimize attacks workers I think we will see more repression. But by that time I hope that workers are even more organized and ready to defend themselves.

I don't think that the Americans want ElBaradei involved.
The Egyptian state can relatively easily accomodate the Muslim Brotherhood and the likes of the April 6 movement but not the demands of the working class over the longer term.
I can't find any reports of strikes today but a consistent demand over the last five or so days in differnt strikes has been against the casualisation of work (echos of South Korea in 2007) and the integration of part-time and temporary workers into full-time pay and conditions. This will be diametrically opposed to the needs of Egyptian capital and productivity. A real class opposition opening up here.

I don't think that the Americans want ElBaradei involved.

Maybe not, but he is one of the guys that the April 6 movement likes. If not him, then a figure like him that can effectively recuperate the non-working class elements of the protesters. Wael Ghonim looks like a figure that could do that (he's even met with the junta already and has made plenty of statements that would wet the pants of any liberal capitalist).

Still desperately kicking the financial can down the road

Reuters: Egypt bourse to stay shut on Sunday

CAIRO Feb 16 (Reuters) - Egypt's stock exchange will remain closed on Sunday and will reopen only when it is certain banks are functioning properly, an official at the exchange said.

The central bank closed the country's banks until Sunday after employees at a number of state-owned banks went on strike earlier this week.

The official said the exchange was looking at a number of possible measures to help small investors who lost money after receiving requests to cancel trades made on Jan. 27, when share prices plunged as investors frightened by political unrest sold shares.

On the industrial front. Remember the banks are shut until at least Sunday now, so that action in the public banks and insurance sector both against precarity and lack of contracts for workers and to evict the placemen of Gamal & Co.'s crony capitalist network, can't go further this week (a deliberate cooling off period, by the looks of it).

from Guardian stream

12.23pm - Egypt:

Labour unrest is continuing in Egypt despite the ruling military council's call for "noble Egyptians" to end all strikes immediately, the Associated Press reports:

Hundreds of Cairo airport employees were protesting inside the arrivals terminal Wednesday to press demands for better wages and health coverage. In the industrial Nile Delta city of Mahallah al-Koubra, workers from Egypt's largest textile factory went on strike over pay and calls for an investigation into alleged corruption at the factory.
In Port Said, a coastal city at the northern tip of the Suez canal, about 1,000 people demonstrated to demand that a chemical factory be closed because it was dumping waste in a lake near the city.

http://juralibertaire.over-blog.com/article-luttes-de-classes-en-egypte-16-fevrier-67290084.html

Some more detail on numbers of folks involved in the strikes mentioned above, and some mention of the knock-on effect of the bank closures to industry

Reuters: Egyptian bank shutdown and strikes hit industry

[...]But unions, emboldened by the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last week, are still pressing their demands. More than 12,000 workers at state-owned Misr Spinning and Weaving went on strike on Wednesday. In the coastal city of Damietta, about 6,000 spinning and weaving workers were also striking.

Eleven flights were cancelled at Cairo airport as customs officials and maintenance staff stepped up industrial action. Airport officials said they were looking into demands for better health, transport and other benefits.

In sectors not hit by strikes, the central bank's decision to keep banks closed was forcing many to scale back production because clients were unable to pay for the goods.

The political instability has prompted many buyers of industrial goods to close for business, said Mohamed Said Hanfy, General Manager at the Chamber of Metallurgical Industries.

Hanfy said the group's members, which include leading heavy industrial firms, were forced to operate at between 20 and 50 percent of capacity and employ extra security to protect stocks which are piling up.

"When the banks open again I think that the utilisation rate will rise to 50-60 percent," he told Reuters. "But until security is assured and the police are in control of everything, a lot of people will be afraid to work."

"REVIEWING DEMANDS"

Some food and textile producers are suffering strikes or have sent workers home for fear that industrial action will spread. Companies such as ceramics maker Lecico have already bowed to some union demands.

Textile manufacturer Arafa closed its garment making plants in Tenth of Ramadan City until Saturday after a quarter of the workforce went on strike.

"The demo was absolutely peaceful," said Chief Financial Officer Ahmed Kamal Selim. "We are reviewing the demands and some will be met but, for others, we need to run the figures."

He said he expected some impact on the company's results but played it down, saying five to seven days of disruption would not have a major impact for a firm operating 320 days a year.

Sinai Cement said earnings would be affected by the bank shutdown and ASEC Cement, a unit of private equity firm Citadel Capital, said contractors were having trouble due to strikes and this was affecting its work schedule.

"If strikes are for a day or two we won't be affected but (for) 10 days or more there is worry," said Israa Gabr, a senior financial analyst at the company. "So far we don't know the affect on earnings ... It should be clear in two weeks or so."

The careful wording of the army's plea for union restraint marked a change of tone from the more dogmatic official style of the past and has raised some eyebrows in industry.

"The army must use stronger language to the people," said Hanfy at the metal industry association. "A lot of them don't have a problem but want to seize the opportunity presented by the political situation."

also, as well as the banks, all schools and universities are still closed and Al Masry Al Youm reports:

Egyptian schools and universities will remain closed the week starting Saturday 19 February, Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education and the acting Minister of Education Hani Helal has announced.

ocelot

On the industrial front. Remember the banks are shut until at least Sunday now, so that action in the public banks and insurance sector both against precarity and lack of contracts for workers and to evict the placemen of Gamal & Co.'s crony capitalist network, can't go further this week (a deliberate cooling off period, by the looks of it).

That's the point. Maybe before the army is able to do something, industry and finances are planning a massive lockout. What do you reckon?

At the risk of repetition, just some clarification on how that strike ended up taking the form of an occupation

AMAY: Mahalla's textile workers strike despite army warnings

[...]In response [to the strike call], the company's administrative board announced a factory lock-out and a paid holiday from Thursday to Saturday. The company's security workers unsuccessfully struggled with the employees to keep the gates shut.

"Their aim is to thwart our strike, to shut the gates and to keep us outside to prevent us from protesting," said a worker who asked to remain anonymous.[...]

Just from that article - "An army tank is strategically stationed outside the main gate of this massive industrial complex..." - the image of the tank sitting impotently outside of the gates of the occupied factory is, imo, emblematic of the limits of military power to manage industrial conflict.

ocelot

At the risk of repetition, just some clarification on how that strike ended up taking the form of an occupation

AMAY: Mahalla's textile workers strike despite army warnings

[...]In response [to the strike call], the company's administrative board announced a factory lock-out and a paid holiday from Thursday to Saturday. The company's security workers unsuccessfully struggled with the employees to keep the gates shut.

"Their aim is to thwart our strike, to shut the gates and to keep us outside to prevent us from protesting," said a worker who asked to remain anonymous.[...]

Just from that article - "An army tank is strategically stationed outside the main gate of this massive industrial complex..." - the image of the tank sitting impotently outside of the gates of the occupied factory is, imo, emblematic of the limits of military power to manage industrial conflict.

You are right. My fault, i didn't bother to read the text in full.

Do we know anything about the currents - political or trade union - involved in this group/appeal?

Reuters

CAIRO Feb 18 (Reuters) - Egypt has approved the passage of two Iranian warships through the Suez Canal, a source said on Friday, a move Israel's right-wing foreign minister described as "provocative". "Egypt has agreed to the passage of two Iranian ships through the Suez Canal," the security source told Reuters.

State TV and the official news agency subsequently reported the news, without citing sources. An army source earlier said the Defence Ministry was considering a request by the Iranians to allow the naval ships to cross the strategic waterway.

Israeli govt. loving that

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/5900/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-military-says-will-not-allow-strikes-to-cont.aspx
Military tries it again, somewhat more forceful than earlier...

The Muslim Brotherhood, in the person of its intellectual leader Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, has joined the military and industrialists, in calling for an end to strikes.

http://www.marxist.com/egypt-mahalla-textile-workers-stirke-oil-workers-victorious.htm
Egypt: Mahalla textile workers go on strike and oil workers win victory
Written by In Defence of Marxism Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Despite appeals by the Army Council that strikes should stop, Egyptian workers, emboldened by the revolution, have continued to take mass action to solve their long held grievances. We publish here two reports we have received about the growing movement of the Egyptian working class.
One is about the workers at the largest factory in the country (original in arabic), Misr Spinning and Weaving textile factory in Mahalla al-Kubra, with 24,000 workers, who have today walked out on strike again for a combination of economic, social and political demands. They have also been joined by 6,000 textile workers from Damietta Spinning and Weaving factory who have also walked out of their jobs demanding the removal of the Directors’ Board. Strikes continued in other sectors, forcing the ruling Army Council to extend the bank holiday they declared on Tuesyday to be extended until the weekend. Some capitalists are not happy about what they perceive as the Army not being strong enough in dealing with strikes. "The army must use stronger language to the people," said Hanfy a representative of the metal industry association. "A lot of them don't have a problem but want to seize the opportunity presented by the political situation."
The other report (original in arabic) we are publishing is from the oil workers at Petrotrade who have won a victory in their demands and now decided to go back to work, though they make clear that they remain vigilant. Victories like this will only encourage other sectors of the working class to come out on struggle.
________________________________________
The uprising of Misr Spinning and Weaving in Mahalla al-Kubra
[original in arabic]
More than 20.000 workers from Misr Spinning and Weaving company in Mahalla started the day with an open-ended strike. The strike was organised by the morning shift workers and was later joined by the workers of the second shift. The workers demanded the dismissal of the general-manager, Fouad Abdel-Alim Hassan, and the chairman of the company, Mohsin Al-Gilani, who are accused of being responsible for the company’s deficit of more than 270m Egyptian pounds over the last two years. The workers further demanded the dismissal of Ibrahim Haniyeh, head of legal affairs and Rida Sayem, chairman of security of the company.
The workers also demanded a temporary board to be setup to run the company until the next board elections, the setting up of a trade union and full support of the army for the workers. Also they demanded that evaluation of the qualifications of the workers before and after employment while a new sector of marketing and development be setup [translator: ie. that the workers skill sets should be upgraded]. Children of the workers should be granted the right to counseling and employment in the company and qualified women should be given the right to occupy leadership positions. Another demand was the increase of monthly bonuses by 300% depending on the nature of the work and life circumstances.
The workers also demanded that the employers should abide by the ruling of the constitutional court, that has ruled the minimum wage to be 1200 Egyptian pounds with 100% equality in employment. Besides this they demanded an end-of-service bonus of 100 pounds a month like in all other parts of society, where a solidarity fund will pay immediately after end of service. Finally the workers also demand reinstatement of all labour leaders who have been fired or removed in the course of the last years.
________________________________________
We have been victorious!
[original in arabic]
Congratulations to all; we have achieved all our goals and all the honor goes to those who have sacrificed. To insist on our rights is the reason why all our demands were met.
If anyone tries to run around corners with us, they will regret it. It is necessary now to defend the gains of our revolution by showing the way forward and setup independent unions who represent the demands and dreams of all workers.
Today you know the way. If the implementation and giving in to our demands is too slow, we will revolt again and announce a national general strike for all workers and demonstrate in front of the ministry of petroleum.
Among the good news, we have delivered a report to the Attorney-General with documents highlighting corruption in the company. We encourage anyone who can document corruption to hand it over to us or the administration immediately so we can process it.
And after the fulfillment of our demands we have decided to celebrate with a big party, in Tanta. Here the party will begin and we will butcher a calf.
I encourage all dismissed colleagues to go to the centre and re-occupy their positions tomorrow. If you have any problems you can contact us and we will do everything possible to address the problems.
Congratulations
The remaining rights will be implemented retroactively.
In the struggle of a free Petrotrade

===========

Mahalla workers win 25% pay rise...

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/business/8806.html
21 Feb 2011
Egypt factory workers end strikes after wage hike

Agence France-Presse . Cairo
Workers at Egypt’s largest factory ended a strike and went back to work on Sunday, one of the protest leaders said, days after the ruling military warned it would no longer tolerate labour unrest.
Faisal Naousha, one of the leaders of the walkout at Misr Spinning and Weaving, said the factory was running again after the strikers’ main demands were met.
Around 15,000 workers from the plant — which employs 24,000 people in the Nile Delta city of Al-Mahalla al-Kubra, 100 kilometres north of Cairo — went on strike last week.
‘We ended the strike, the factory is working. Our demands were met,’ including a 25-per cent increase in wages and the dismissal of a manager involved in corruption, Naousha said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/23/libya-gaddafi-showdown-live-updates#block-24

11.56am – Egypt: In Egypt, hundreds of low-ranking police officers have thrown firebombs at part of the security headquarters in Cairo and set part of it ablaze. They are demanding a pay rise. As the Associated Press news agency points out: "Egypt's police fired on protesters early in the uprising, cementing the loathing many Egyptians feel for the security forces over widespread bribe-taking, abuse and torture."

Ahram Online

The human resources section of the Egyptian interior ministry building is ablaze. The police have been pressuring the interior ministry to have human resources review which of the police had a clean record so those can return to work.

Allegedly, some policemen have set the human resources section of the interior ministry building on fire and it is rumoured they did this to burn any archives proving any corruption.

Several fire fighting trucks are in the area to put out the fire. Not so surprisingly, fire fighters were missing when the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) building and several police stations were on fire during the Egyptian revolution.

Three cars outside the building also caught on fire.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/6254/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-police-allegedly-set-building-on-fire-in-pos.aspx

Interesting discussion on Twitter right now amongst those who were in Tahrir Sq last night as regards the chant of "the people and the army are one". It may seem naive while the military are beating them off the streets, but surely the anti-regime movt should be encouraging mass defection on the part of the military?

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/labor-protests-escalate-throughout-egypt

Labor protests continued in various governorates yesterday as hundreds of mine workers in Bahariya Oasis held sit-ins to protest poor living conditions. Around 50 Ministry of Religious Endowments workers also called for salary increases and dozens of temporary agricultural supervisors continued to protest for permanent positions.

In Port Said, hundreds of residents in the village of Radwan demanded investigations into violations regarding the sale of land allotted for college graduates (under the Mubarak project for young graduates) without official permission.

In Beni Suef, 1000 new graduates, workers, and teachers protested for the second day in a row in front of the Education Ministry building in the governorate. They called for real and permanent job opportunities. Protesters tried to storm the building but security forces stopped them. The protesters gathered on Saleh Salem road, one of the city’s main roads leading to surrounding highways, and blocked traffic. They threatened to storm the teachers’ union and set the Education Ministry building on fire if their demands are not met.

In Alexandria, tens of employees of the medical research center at the University of Alexandria organized a protest in front of the university’s administrative building. They called for permanent contracts for temporary employees, higher wages, and immediate administrative reforms to cleanse “the remnants of the previous regime.”

Dozens of residents of Nadha village in Amriya protested in front of the carbon factory. The protesters complained about the carbon emissions coming out of the factory, which they say have caused illness among residents. In addition, secondary school students organized a protest in front of the Qa’id Ibrahim Mosque, demanding they not be equated with vocational school students when applying for college. They also demanded that exams be postponed another month given the current unrest.

In Suez, around 1200 workers in the Egyptian and national steel companies blocked the Al-Adabiya-Ain Sokhna Road. The workers said the appropriate agencies have not yet interfered to solve their problems with the administration and meet their demands. Workers in the Egypt Amiron company for steel pipes continued their sit-in for the fourth consecutive day at company headquarters, hoping to get better financial and employment conditions, and a stake in the company’s profits. In Kafr al-Sheikh, bus drivers in the city of Desouk went on strike to protest the increasing cost of their insurance.

In Daqahlia, 1500 farmers protested the actions of the Ministry of Religious Endowments. The ministry had illegally sold land to traders and businessmen in a public auction. The farmers had been renting the land for more than 70 years.

In Damietta, tens of employees in the health departments in Farsco and Zarkaa held a protest, calling for increases in bonuses, the restructuring of wages, and the removal of the department’s financial manager.

In Menoufiya, 50 women from the families of prisoners in Shibin al-Kom general prison, protested in front of the courts’ complex to demand that their relatives be released or that they be allowed to visit them in the prison.

In Qalyoubia, around 300 drivers stormed the governorate’s building, destroying the main gate. They went up to the second floor, occupied the halls and encircled Governor Adli Hussein’s offices.

In Aswan, 700 workers in Al-Nasr mining company in Edfu presented a memorandum to the general miners’ union, the Egyptian Trade Union Federation and the Holding Company for Mining Industries, demanding the withdrawal of confidence from the chairman of the board and the employees’ union committee. Workers demanded a new temporary administrative committee composed of workers.

In Ismailia, a number of members of the chamber of the commerce demanded the dissolution of the current board of directors.

In response to labor strikes, the Ministry of Health distributed an administrative pamphlet to governorate health departments announcing that protesting is unacceptable and that there will be no negotiations with any group that protests.

The ministry confirmed that it formed a supreme committee to look into the employees’ problems and propose solutions, in an attempt to protect state agencies and ensure the continuation of its functions.

Since it took over power, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces has issued several statements calling on citizens to end strikes and protests and return to work.

From here:

Many Wounded in Egypt Prison Riots
Mar/02/11
A mass riot has broken out in the Al-Abadiya prison in Egypt, and guards have opened fire on prisoners, according to the Egyptian paper Al-Youm A-Saba. Many people have been wounded on both sides.
The riot broke out when prison guards accused of firing on unarmed protesters during the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak were allowed to return to work. Prisoners protested the violent guards' continued presence.

anyone read thomas friedman's article on the hidden hand behind all this? http://inanities.org/2011/03/this-is-just-the-start-and-it-never-fucking-ends/ is a response.... hilarious

As it appears to have escaped the record, the Egyptian stock exchange postponed re-opening yet again last Sunday, until this coming Sunday, 6th March.

Bloomberg: Egypt's Exchange Risks Losing Overseas Investors as Locals Protest Opening

[...]
Exchange chairman Khaled Seyam stormed out of a news briefing on Feb. 28 after some investors angrily criticized a plan to start trading yesterday. Hours later, the bourse capitulated, saying it won’t open before March 6. Trading was halted after the Jan. 27 session, and a two-day decline of 16 percent, as a popular revolt led to President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last month.

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, chairman of mobile- phone operator Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, said the delays are being driven by the “fear” of angering individual investors. Egypt risks being cut from the MSCI Emerging Markets Index if the market is shut more than 40 business days, BNP Paribas SA said. Foreigners hold about $13 billion in Egyptian shares, Barclays Capital said in a Jan. 18 report, and account for almost 25 percent of trading.
[...]
Dozens of investors protested outside the bourse in Cairo in the past two weeks, demanding trades in the last two sessions, be cancelled. They also said trading should be suspended in companies with executives linked to Mubarak or his former ruling party, such as Ezz Steel, the country’s biggest producer of the metal.
[...]
“There is a fear because of small investors who have been demonstrating in front of the Cairo stock exchange in masses and they put the fear into the management of the stock exchange,” Sawiris told Bloomberg Television yesterday. “It is unwarranted. I am optimistic about the future of Egypt. If there is going to be a short-term scare and people are going to be selling their stocks we will have to deal with that.”

Not everybody agrees. Individual investors including Ashraf Khairy said many stockholders are vulnerable because local brokerages lent them money to buy stocks on margin.

The stocks weren’t on a regulator’s list of shares that could be traded on loan. This may cause brokers to sell hundreds of millions of pounds worth of stock when trading resumes to cut their losses, and pursue investors in court later, he said.
[...]

Also, on the state finance front
Reuters

Egypt T-bill yields climb at 6.5 bln pound auction
Thu Mar 3, 2011 12:51pm GMT

CAIRO, March 3 (Reuters) - Egypt's central bank said it sold 6.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.1 billion) in domestic treasury bills on Thursday and that average yields had risen.

Demand by foreigners for Egyptian treasury bills has plummeted since the political protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak first erupted on Jan. 25.

The average yield on 3 billion pounds of 182-day T-bills rose to 12.085 percent from 11.906 percent at an auction last week, while the yield on 3.5 billion pounds of 350-day T-bills climbed to 12.521 percent from 10.541 percent at the last auction on Dec. 21.

The central bank said sold the same amount it had offered. ($1=5.8979 Egyptian Pound)

12% on a 6 month bill? Yipes.

squaler

anyone read thomas friedman's article on the hidden hand behind all this? http://inanities.org/2011/03/this-is-just-the-start-and-it-never-fucking-ends/ is a response.... hilarious

Absolutely brilliant. Are we sure Friedman doesn't post on here?

Jano Charbel

After 50-year hiatus, Egypt's first independent labor union is born

The Preparatory Conference for the Egyptian Federation of Independent Unions held on Wednesday marks thebirth of Egypt's first independent trade union federation since 1957.

Several hundred workers, professionals and labor activists from across the country cheered what they anticipated would amount to impending death for the state-run Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF). For more than five decades, the ETUF has acted as the only federation of its kind allowed by law. ETUF President Hussein Megawer, along with other federation officials, has undergone investigation on charges of administrative corruption and union fund mismanagement following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.

The new union falls within a larger context of political restructuring and the creation of new political parties following the 18-day uprising that began on 25 January. Workers and employees are capitalizing on the momentum by restoring their right to unionize and staging protests to demand long-ignored rights.

The ETUF claims a nationwide membership of over 4 million workers, most of whom are employed in the public sector. Owing to allegations of corruption, mismanagement, and misrepresentation, however, the state-controlled federation's is declining and the organization is on its way to becoming obsolete. Indirect elections had handed members of Mubarak's ruling party the presidencies of 22 out of 24 general unions within the ETUF.

Labor-leader Kamal Abu Eita declared the official inauguration of the independent federation, and added "from here we announce the downfall of the yellow Egyptian Trade Union Federation!" In response, a crowd of workers chanted "Oh Megawer, go away! Go away! Let unions see the light of day."

The formation of the independent federation was initially announced on 30 January, but its structure, membership mechanisms, electoral guidelines and bylaws are still being formulated. The Egyptian Federation of Independent Unions currently includes: the Real Estate Tax Authority Employees' Union, the Egyptian Health Technologists' Syndicate, Federation of Pensioners, and the Independent Teachers' Syndicate, all of which were established in the last two years.

Elsewhere across the country, an untold number of workers are organizing their own independent associations--leagues, unions, syndicates and federations--outside the framework of the ETUF.

Other workers have announced they will be joining the ranks of the new independent federation. These include tens of thousands from the Mahalla Textile Company, the Public Transport Authority (bus drivers, conductors, mechanics, engineers and employees across Cairo), national postal workers, the Helwan Iron and Steel Complex, and the industrial workers in the town of Naga' Hamadi.

Thousands in private sector enterprises, including industrial workers from the cities of Tenth of Ramadan and Sadat, have also expressed their intention to unionize and join the Egyptian Federation of Independent Unions.

"We have some 5,000 factories in the Tenth of Ramadan City, yet only 13 of these have unions,” lamented a worker-delegate who attended the conference.

Nearly all the worker-delegates who spoke at the conference expressed their support for the 25 January revolution and democratic demands. Speakers also mentioned that workers' protests and strikes assisted in ousting Mubarak, and that such actions must be allowed to continue as part of the ongoing fight for democracy.

Salah Abdel Salam, President of the Real Estate Tax Authority Employees' (Branch) Union in the Daqahliya Governorate, emphasized that the ETUF, along with Egypt's labor and trade union laws "denied us the right to strike or protest… or to establish our own independent unions." Abdel Salam added that independent unionization will help realize a new minimum wage law of LE1200 per month (US$215) and safeguard the right to peaceful strikes and protests.

Abu Eita explained to workers, "All that you need in order to unionize is to collect notarized signatures from your co-workers and submit them, along with documents pertaining to the establishment of your union, to the Ministry of Labor. You don't have to ask, or wait, for the approval of Megawer's federation to establish an independent union in your workplace."

In the lobby outside the conference hall, a labor lawyer addressed dozens of workers. “Since the Constitution and the legislation of the old regime are suspended,” he said, “we are entitled to organize ourselves in line with conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) which Egypt has ratified." His voice grew louder. "We are entitled to organize ourselves on the levels of workshops, factories and companies across the country; and on the basis of our industries, neighborhoods, towns, cities and governorates,” he added.

The lawyer was referring specifically to ILO conventions concerning “Freedom of Association & Protection of Right to Organize” (No. 87) and the “Right to Organize & Collective Bargaining” (No. 98). Though Egypt ratified the conventions in 1957 and 1954, respectively, it has failed to uphold them.

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/337515

from the g liveblog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1jnh8wo49c&feature=player_embedded

Video just posted to YouTube appears to be from inside the state security HQ in Alexandria, showing mounds of shredded documents and some of the protesters who stormed the building.

Al-Jazeera also has an eyewitness to the siege of the state security building in Alexandria:

"People are still there, the state security forces are still inside, surrounded by the army. There's probably hundreds and thousands of people here now, in the building ... [the army] is also saying they have orders to arrest [the state security officers]," but say they can't do so until they are able to take them out of the building safely, the eyewitness says.

The clashes broke out earlier this evening, with the eyewitness reporting seeing Molotov cocktails thrown from the building and ammunition fired.

Today protesters stormed and captured state security's HQ in Nasr City in Cairo. They discovered all kinds of documents, secret cells, torture chambers etc.

Edit: a version of the event from Egyptian Chronicles: http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/03/night-capital-of-hell-fell-down.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+EgyptianChronicles+(Egyptian+chronicles)

http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23amndawla

havent found news on it but havent looked hard... on the net there are messages though about people being stuck inbetween thugs and military at the ministry of interior HQ... seems many have escaped but some cant get out, others are being pushed around but regrouping in tahrir I've read.

AJE: fearing leaked #SS #AmnDawla documents in past 2 days, #USA #Obama sends Defence Secretary Robert Gates to #Egypt http://bit.ly/f3wnjk

Meanwhile it appears that media sources have got so bored with reporting that the Egyptian stock exchange has still not re-opened, that no-one has reported that yesterdays' deadline has passed and still no opening.

The only up to date (yesterday) mention I could find was this

MENAFN.com

[...]The continued closure of the Egyptian bourse added to the ambiguity of the situation with investors predicting Egyptian stocks to dive when the stock market re-opens, sending a series of negative repercussions across regional markets[...]

seems some proper disgusting things happened today to the intl womens day demo in cairo. looks like it built up into a brawl/stampede vs a counter demo of men... women say they were repeatedly groped etc.

also I saw on twitter 1 copt killed today in clashes vs muslims, though later people were tweeting that a copt demo entered tahrir to general applause... and that they are chanting together eed wahda (one hand)... yeah didn't see it in the news though

also some tweets from #tahrir in the last hour

The protesters in #Tahrir square are preparing to DEFEND themselves against a second attack by thugs #Jan25 #Egypt

Groups of thugs yelling and screaming armed with pipes and stones heading towards #tahrir from bab el louq. Mltry police doing nothing

http://www.arabawy.org/2011/03/09/jan25-video-thugs-attack-tahrir-revolutionaries/ Video of thugs attacking #Tahrir

Around 20 lunatics throwing Molotovs at #tahrir protestors but not reaching #Jan25

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/08/egypts_syndicalist_future

On yesterday's attack on protestors in Tahrir

AJE: Clashes erupt in Cairo's Tahrir

[...]
"We were attacked by the army and plainclothes thugs destroying the tents and beating up everyone," Salma Said, one of the pro-reform campaigners, said.

"I was very shocked seeing the army coming with sticks, beating everyone and destroying tents over people's heads."
[...]
"We [local Amnesty Int.] have spoken to eyewitnesses who have told us that the army allowed thugs to attack protesters with sticks and swords, the same practice that was used under former president [Hosni] Mubarak.

"It appears that the Armed Forces are simply continuing the same old tactics of repression."
[...]
In another development, clashes that broke out late on Tuesday night when a Muslim mob attacked thousands of Coptic Christians protesting against the burning of a Cairo church have left at least 13 people dead and about 140 wounded, officials said.

The Muslims torched the church amid an escalation of tensions over a love affair between a Muslim and a Copt that set off a violent feud between the couple's families. [fact or rumour?]

The officials said all 13 fatalities, at least six of them Coptic Christians, died of bullet wounds.

You know you've reached a certain stage when the dictats of the government are justified in the name of fighting the counter-revolution.

Egyptian Chronicles: These men are dangerous on the revolution

The Mubarak regime is not a centralized regime , the fall of Mubarak will not end it. Mubarak was not the head of the serpent which if it is cut , the rest of the serpent will die but it seems that there are many serpents we have cut their heads.
The counter revolution we are currently witnessing is being operated by Mubarak’s loyal men or to be accurate Mubarak’s regime men who are not loyal with one except themselves and everybody knows them by name.
Now the Egyptian Cabinet has admitted officially for the first time there is a counter revolution in its first communiqué* we must wonder why the cabinet and the armed forces council are leaving those men doing what they have been doing all that time !?
[...]
The Yes man [Fathi Sorror] who approved and also tailored the infamous laws that enable Mubarak and his gang to rape the country for decades is accused of sending the thugs of his electoral committee to create sectarian tensions in Moktam and other parts of old Cairo from two days ago. Oh Yes the people identified some of thugs as his there !! Do not be surprised from that , do not forget Al Adly is accused of bombing the two saints Church , these men do not give a damn by anyone except themselves.
[...]

* Statement from Egyptian Cabinet, including statement of standing against the counter-revolution (Arabic) here.

Al Ahram: Why does the counter-revolution target women and Copts?

* Statement from Egyptian Cabinet, including statement of standing against the counter-revolution

lol @ counter-revolution:

The cabinet issued at the conclusion of its meeting this evening, headed by Essam Sharaf first statement, confirming bias in the government fully to the interests of the people and achieve the goals of his revolution, and stand firmly against the schemes of counter-revolution, and appealed to all citizens to uphold the interests of the country, and to refrain from all practices that would disable the wheel of production.

The cabinet is following with great interest and concern what is going on in the country, has in today's meeting Wednesday, March 9 in studying the current situation in the country, and in particular phenomena and practices, which he will block the regularity of natural life, and causing a state of lawlessness and the spread of bullying and intimidation of innocent people, as well as the tensions that affect the national unity, which is reflected on the suspension of work in state facilities, institutions and the cessation of production, with its negative impact on the economic situation, where are the current practices threaten the ability of the Egyptian economy to recover and create employment opportunities and incomes for our youth.

ocelot

You know you've reached a certain stage when the dictats of the government are justified in the name of fighting the counter-revolution.

That blog you linked buys into this line of reasoning, which is not so much surprising as revealing about the nature of the 'revolution':

Now the Egyptian Cabinet has admitted officially for the first time there is a counter revolution in its first communiqué we must wonder why the cabinet and the armed forces council are leaving those men doing what they have been doing all that time !?

What the communiqué identifies as counter-revolution is first of all strikes. These don't have to be only from workers, it can also be within the security forces (like in Algeria). These do effect national unity, which is after all the slogan used by protesters on Tahrir square.

There is also nothing surprising about the fact that the government labels religious tensions counter-revolutionary, and that protesters agree with that; again, the harmony between Copts and Muslims on Tahrir square was under the banner of national unity. In effect the religious bloodshed is harmful to the national unity (I don't think these are part of a Machiavellian plot of the state).

again, the harmony between Copts and Muslims on Tahrir square was under the banner of national unity. In effect the religious bloodshed is harmful to the national unity (I don't think these are part of a Machiavellian plot of the state).

That may be so, though I am not at all sure about the role of state security in all this.... still, I'd rather see unity between people from different religious background, than violence between Copts and Muslims. Whether security forces are instigating the violence or not, these clashes undermine workers' potential strength much more than they undermine 'national unity'. And they give state forces all kinds of excuses and credibility to restore 'order' and pose as 'friends of harmony'. They may or may not have a hand in this, but they certainly profit from it.

It's the gift that keeps on giving

AA: Opening of Egyptian Bourse postponed - again

Bassem Abou Alabass, Tuesday 15 Mar 2011
Print Send Tweet “The date for the re-opening of the Egyptian Exchange has not been yet been set, and it is under cabinet control now” Sobhy Shehata, spokesman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), told Ahram Online.

There is much speculation from brokers and journalists that the closure of the exchange and the suspension of trading will last until the completion of the referendum for the new constitutional amendments.
[...]
A fund worth LE 250 million ($42 million) has already been set up to offer loans to small investors who were involved in margin trading or who used credit.

"We are now in the process of discussing options with the Ministry of Finance to increase this amount but so far we have not succeeded," said Mohamed Abdel Salam, chairman of the exchange's Clearing, Settlement and Central Depository.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf approved changing the rules of the country's Capital Markets Law in order to ease margin calls by brokerages, to limit volatility when the exchange opens.

When the client's debt reaches 70 per cent of the shares' value at the end of trading each day, brokerages will require investors to pay margins or present more collateral, the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority said on its website.

Brokers had previously been required to make margin calls at 60 per cent. Brokers can also now sell a client's shares when debt reaches 80 per cent of their value, instead of 70 per cent.

The constitutional amendment referendum is due this Saturday 19th. Army, NDP establishment, the MB and the Salafis are for a Yes vote, Copts, liberals, leftists etc. are for a No.

AA: Will Egypt vote 'Yes' or 'No' to constitutional amendments?

[...]
Among the groups campaigning for a “No” vote is the National Front for Justice and Democracy. For Mohamed Waked, a member of the front, the amendments betray the spirit of Egypt’s revolution. “The revolution wanted to dismantle the regime. The amendments recreate the regime. The amendments stipulate that the newly elected parliament will be the entity responsible for drafting the new constitution. The whole game is set so that only the most organized political organizations will win in the next elections.

“Effectively that means that a revamped version of the NDP and the Brotherhood will together win the majority of Parliament. That means that they will be the ones responsible for drafting the new constitution. On top of that, voting “Yes” for the amendments actually includes a direct acceptance of roughly 200 points in the new constitution; it brings “Mubarak’s Constitution” back in the act of amending it. The current Constitution should be completely rewritten by a council that represents Egyptian society as a whole with all its different political spectrums and that includes a fair percentage of women and Copts.”
[...]

AA: Army violently disperses new Copts' protest

Ahram Portal, Wednesday 16 Mar 2011
Thousand of Copts organised a protest calling for the punishment of all those who attacked and injured pro-Coptic sit-in demonstrators on Sunday night in front of the State TV building (Maspero). The protest began in Shubra after which the protesters mobilised and marched on Maspero.

When the protesters reached State TV, the army met them first by firing into the air and then chasing them off, beating them with electric batons and sticks.

The protesters began as Copts – Muslims also joined in unity – called for the prosecution of any parties involved in the church burning in Atfeeh at Soul Village two weeks ago.

AA: Suez Cement Group trade unionists attacked by thugs

Yassin Gaber , Tuesday 15 Mar 2011
Trade unionists from the Suez Group for Cement were attacked by thugs at the Airport Sheraton Hotel after trying to attend the company’s general assembly, which typically consists of the board of directors, the company’s trade union and government representatives.

"Thugs the size of door frames grabbed me and broke my leg,” shouted Mohamed Abdel Monsef, head of the trade union.
[...]
By law, workers are allotted ten per cent of company revenues. Today, when the board announced that it would not grant its workers their profit shares, the trade unionists began protesting the decision, but were denied entry into the hall.

Ramadan Omar, general-secretary of the Suez Group trade union, stated: “After being denied entry into the assembly, we will return to the company’s headquarters in Torah and continue our sit-in.”
[...]
Suez Group, one of the largest cement producers in Egypt, is comprised of several companies with production facilities in Suez, Torah, Kattameyya, Helwan and El-Minya. The company which employs more than 3,000 workers was bought out by an Italian cement company called Italcementi Group in 2005.

Abdel Monsef stated that “Torah Cement and El-Mahla Textiles were the first companies to organise strikes in 2005, opposed to company policies on profit-sharing.”

A press conference will be held tomorrow at 10:00am at the Torah Cement factory to state the demands of the trade union, namely the renationalisation of the company.

How big were they, again?

Interesting question...

AA: Egypt's bourse: Much ado about nothing?

[...]
But since [the Eqyptian stock market shut down], there has been much debate among economic analysts and commentators between those who think the bourse’s meltdown means a collapse in the economy and others who believe the Egyptian stock exchange can never be taken that seriously. For them, it’s a scarecrow used to split the revolutionary forces, wreck the strike and put down the revolution.

However, “investing money in the stock market will not save the Egyptian economy,” Wael Gamal, senior business reporter and author, counters.

Even the basis of a healthy stock market, such as transparency, is lacking in Egypt’s version, which has led to its overvaluation. Gamal thinks Egypt’s stock market is still underdeveloped and its role in the economy is being highly exaggerated by the media “I believe these alarms were just a scarecrow, a counter-revolution to get people to stop protesting.”

Maged Shawqi, former chairman of Egypt’s bourse says conversely: “I think that a market with total capitalization accounting for 50-60 per cent of the total GDP, that lists the largest Egyptian companies is quite significant.”
[...]

Post-Mubarak Egypt 'running out of food'
May 18, 2011

CAIRO, May 18 (UPI) -- Egypt, struggling to consolidate a revolution that deposed President Hosni Mubarak in February, faces what could be even worse turmoil because the country is running out of food as well as the money to buy it.
Food prices went up 10.7 percent in April compared to the same month in 2010, government statistics indicate.
At the same time, Egypt's annual urban inflation rate surged past 12 percent in April, underlining how key factors that triggered the popular uprising that forced Mubarak from office after 30 years remain in play....
What transpires in Egypt, long the leader of the Arab world, could be a pointer to how other Middle Eastern states may emerge from their wrenching political upheavals.
"The most populous country in the Arab world shows all the symptoms of national bankruptcy -- the kind that produced hyperinflation in several Latin American countries during the 1970s and 1980s -- with a deadly difference: Egypt imports half its wheat and the collapse of its external credit means starvation," Asia Times Online observed May 10.
"The civil violence we have seen … foreshadows far worse to come. The Arab uprisings began against a background of food insecurity, as rising demand from Asia priced the Arab poor out of the grain market.
"The chaotic political response, though, threatens to disrupt food supplies in the relative near term. Street violence will become the norm rather than the exception in Egyptian politics."
This bleak assessment in Asia Times Online's Spengler column was underlined by a warning from Ahmad al-Rakaibi, head of Egypt's Holding Company for Food Industries, of "acute shortage in the production of food commodities manufactured locally as well as a decline in imports of many goods, especially poultry, meat and oil."
Egypt is reported to have only four months' supply of wheat on hand and only one month's supply of rice.
According to Al-Ahram, Egypt's leading daily, hoarding of rice by wholesalers has pushed prices up by 35 percent this year.
Egypt's foreign exchange reserves have fallen by $13 billion, or roughly one-third, in the first quarter of the year amid a flight of capital.
The business elite who flourished under Mubarak and ran the economy for half a century are hustling their wealth to safer climes....
Following the 2008 food price crisis, which triggered bread riots in Arab cities, some regional states, increased public sector wages and sought to aid the poor by increasing bread subsidies.
But those measures weren't sustainable without increased revenues, which weren't forthcoming. The non-oil producers all have fiscal and trade deficits.
The wealthy oil states of the Persian Gulf produce little food and import 85 percent of basic food requirements.
The Arab world's dependence on imported food isn't likely to change anytime soon.
The regional states have little arable land and even less water and worsening climate change will make their food situation even more precarious.
"Arab countries are very vulnerable to fluctuations in international commodity markets because they are heavily dependent on imported food," a recent World Bank report cautioned.
"No Arab country is protected from future food-price shocks."

- from UPI.

Youth groups walk out of Egypt constitution talks, call for mass demonstrations on Friday
Two of Egypt’s most prominent youth groups walked out of a conference of national dialogue on Monday, saying members of ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s party were using the meeting to try to return to political life.
Many Egyptians fear members of the National Democratic Party (NDP), which ruled Egypt during Mr. Mubarak’s 30-year reign, are trying to regain power after a court ordered the party dissolved in April.
The April 6 Youth group and the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution have called for mass demonstrations on Friday in what they billed a “second revolution” to press Egypt’s military rulers to speed up political reforms and accelerate the trials of Mr. Mubarak and his aides.....
The youth groups complain that not much has changed since Mubarak was toppled on February 11. They are demanding the government cracks down on corruption in state institutions and ensures Mr. Mubarak and his family and aides are put on trial.
“We want the military council to involve us and other political movements in drafting important political laws like those regulating parties and elections,” Ahmed Maher, the general coordinator of the April 6 Youth group told Reuters.
Launched in 2008 on Facebook, the April 6 Youth group was one of Egypt’s first organizations to call for annual protests against Mr. Mubarak’s regime.
The Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, which includes protesters who participated in Egypt’s uprising that ousted President Mubarak in February, was set up after the revolution to ensure the views of the activists are heard.....
Neither Mr. Mubarak nor his wife has joined other former officials in jail, fuelling speculation they were getting special treatment from the military council. The council last week dismissed speculation it would pardon Mr. Mubarak and said it did not interfere in judicial affairs.

- from here.

Samotnaf

Post-Mubarak Egypt 'running out of food'
May 18, 2011

[...]
The Arab uprisings began against a background of food insecurity, as rising demand from Asia priced the Arab poor out of the grain market.
[...]

This is a side-issue, I agreed with the main thrust of the article, but that particular argument needs to be watched out for. It's a lazy market fundamentalist argument - because markets are an efficient mechanism for balancing supply and demand, therefore it follows that... the recent hike in food prices is due to an increasing mismatch of supply and demand.

In fact, not necessarily so. There is a more complex story around the recent hikes in food prices. I've been meaning to write on this, on a political level for some time. But in the meantime, there are a couple of good critical sources from a liberal, specific issue perspective.

First is Frederick Kaufman's "The Food Bubble" (pdf) article for Harper's last year.

Then there are the resources that the World Development Movement have put up in support of their "make the government stop evil capitalists, now!" campaign around this issue. While you may consider the form of their demands to be hopeless, the educational information about the issue is useful (if, limited).

Long interview on background of and prospects for this year's events; http://libcom.org/library/revolt-egypt-hazem-kandil

"Clashes between protesters and security forces engulfed Cairo once again on Tuesday night, as the fiercest street battles since the fall of Hosni Mubarak left dozens injured."

From today's Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/29/egypt-battle-tahir-square-tear-gas

Carrying on today - pretty large scale by the looks of it:

Al Ahram: Live updates

11:16 Police retreat to the other end of Falaki Street, according to an eyewitness. Around a hundred demonstrators begin moving towards the retreating police.

11:05 In the twitterverse, ElBaradie messages: 'Credibility has been corroded due to the lack of transparency, the slow pace with which things are moving and the inconsistency. We need a clear vision, true participation, a timetable and transparency.'

11:00 Clashes are still on-going at the interior ministry. Protesters are marching down Bab El-Louq Street towards the ministry but are finding their way obstructed by volleys of tear gas. Hundreds are being transferred to the ambulances.

10:58 The cabinet issues a statement on its official Facebook page, stating that Prime Minister Essam Sharaf is calling on all Egyptian youth to protect the revolution. Sharaf adds that there is some systematic plan to spread chaos throughout the country. Furthermore, the prime minister is following the matter and has been in contact with the interior ministry since Tuesday night.

10:55 Health ministry confirms the death of one of the wounded protesters at the Balloon Theatre in Agouza, Cairo.

10:45 Thousands are gathered in Tahrir Square after a bloody night . Police are firing tear gas relentlessly into crowds of protesters along Qasr El-Aini Street close to the American University in Cairo's downtown campus. According to an Ahram Online reporter more than a dozen ambulances are lined up nearby, providing aid to numerous victims, asphixiated by the barage of tear gas.

edit: add

Gigi Ibrahim's account of last night

Guardian live blog

Later today another potentially explosive encounter will occur in Cairo at football derby match between Ahly and Zamalek. Jack previews the game:

Five months on from the uprising that toppled Egypt's dictatorship, Zamalek and Ahly will clash in one of the world's most hotly contested sporting derbies, commanding a television audience of 40 million in Egypt alone. Parts of the capital will be put into lockdown as thousands of armed police and army soldiers attempt to keep opposing supporters apart.

"It's not just a game," says Hassan Almstkawy, a columnist for Al Ahram newspaper and the country's premier sporting pundit. "Apart from war, only two things can bring millions and millions of people onto the streets: revolution and football. Now we have both at the same time."

which will no doubt be giving the cops something to worry about

edit2: like this in fact (from Al Ahram live blog)

11:27 Zamalek Ultras group announces on Twitter that they will soon head to Tahrir Square to join the protesters.

Guardian:

11.08am: Following last night's violence in Tahrir Square and the ongoing street clashes this morning, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) has announced it is 'indefinitely postponing' tonight's crunch match between Cairo footballing giants Ahly and Zamalek, writes Jack Shenker.

The game had been set to be a championship-decider and was already a major security concern for the authorities. The protests over the past twelve hours - in which Zamalek 'ultra' fans were among those battling against the police - have convinced the authorities to call it off. The EFA is itself at the centre of revolutionary subversion at the moment.

Prompt, but unsurprising response from the authorities.

Guardian/AMAY:

1.16pm: The Cairo derby between Ahly and Zamalek is back on, after the Ministry of Interior appeared to over rule the Egyptian Football Association.

Al-Masry Al-Youm reports:

Egypt's security authorities have declared that a soccer game between the country's leading teams, Ahly and Zamalek, will be played as scheduled despite renewed unrest Tuesday and Wednesday in Tahrir Square.

Clashes broke out on Tuesday night between Central Security forces and protesters, including some of the families of those killed during protests earlier this year.

The Ministry of Interior released a statement appealing to football fans and sports authorities to cooperate with the ministry in securing a safe game.

Sheesh.

meanwhile, earlier:

12:55 Ahly Ultras join the fray.

(from AA)

Guess someone decided the Zamalek and Ahly fans would be better off in the stadium tonight. Quite what happens after the match may be interesting.

OVER 1, 000 WOUNDED IN CLASHES IN CAIRO'S TAHRIR SQUARE
19:49 29/6/ 2011

(AGI) Cairo - At least 1,036 people, including 40 police officers, were injured in clashes in Tahrir Square in central Cairo. It was announced by the Egyptian Health Ministry.

from here

Several thousand protesters gathered in the square, including many of the relatives of those killed throughout the Arab Spring, to call for the defacto leader of Egypt to resign and country’s military rulers to speed up the prosecution of police officers accused of brutality during the protests. Some demonstrators tore up stones from the street and threw them toward the police, as the police fired bullets in the air and showered the square with tear gas canisters.

- here.

A key youth group, April 6, described the police’s handling of the protests as “brutal” and called in a statement for a sit-in in central Cairo to protest what it said was the failure to implement many of the revolution’s demands and also to show solidarity with the families of the uprising’s victims.

- here.

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2041/egypt_the-struggle-continues

Thousands of demonstrators filled expressing anger and determination rallied in Tahrir Square on Friday, July 1. Sharp clashes between youth on the one hand and police and regime thugs on the other on Tuesday and Wednesday June 28 and 29 were the immediate impetus for the demonstration. But in addition to outrage about police brutality, which most Egyptians had hoped was a thing of the past, there is growing dissatisfaction with the limited changes since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak. [...]

Large protests have been called for the coming Friday. From friends I heard that the clashes last week were full on. Maybe the lull is over now?

Daily News Egypt

During the first half of 2011, there have been 338 sit-ins, 158 strikes, 259 demonstrations and 161 protests by workers, all demanding better working conditions, according to a report by a human rights group.

Awlad Al-Ard Association for Human Rights compiled and analyzed the activities of workers during the first half of 2011, finding that 11,077 workers have been terminated from their jobs while 22 were arrested and referred to military or civil courts.

Twelve workers have committed suicide because they could not endure the hardships of their conditions, the report said.

In a section titled “Workers and the Revolution,” the report stated that ever since the privatization policies of 2004 and up until the January 25 Revolution, there have been thousands of demonstrations by workers along with numerous detentions and jail sentences.

In the last four years, more than 300,000 workers in Egypt lost their jobs.

More than 51 percent of demonstrations, strikes, protests and sit-ins in the first half of 2011 happened in the weeks before the end of February, amid an 18-day uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11.

There have been two opposing positions adopted regarding workers’ demonstrations since Mubarak’s ouster. One side claims that ongoing demonstrations affect the economy’s “production wheel,” hindering the government’s ability to rebuild. In this context, workers’ demos are described as sector protests.

The other viewpoint sees that during the past 20 years, workers have been silent amidst all the corruption taking place; but as the January 25 Revolution called for social justice, it is the time to stand up and demand their rights. Demands include minimum and maximum wages and job opportunities for the youth, the priority for which has dissipated among calls for freedom and democracy.

Another section of the report titled “Sharaf and the Step Backward” criticizes the anti-protest law which criminalizes strikes, protests, demonstrations and sit-ins that interrupt private or state-owned businesses or affect the economy in any way.

The association called it a violation of human rights, suggesting that “they should have listened to the people instead.”

The association also denounced the Cabinet’s labeling of workers’ demonstrations as “sector” demands.

The report outlines a list of recommendations for the government, including cancelling the anti-protest law, promoting freedom of syndicates and labor unions, dissolving the Egyptian Trade Union Federation, setting a minimum and maximum wage to close the gap between workers as well as hiring all temporary employees on full time contracts.

http://thedailynewsegypt.com/human-a-civil-rights/workers-demos-intensify-during-first-half-of-2011.html

Riots in Egypt after court releases police
05/07/2011
Hundreds of Egyptians attacked a courtroom in Cairo yesterday, scuffled with security guards, and blocked a major highway for hours after the court ordered the release of 10 policemen charged with killing protesters during the country's uprising.
The unrest added to tensions already running high in Egypt over the ruling military council's failure to hold accountable security forces involved in killing protesters during the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. Nearly five months later, only one policeman has been convicted in the deaths of more than 846 people killed in a government crackdown on protesters. He was tried in absentia.
In the court proceedings, guards had to separate between the relatives of the victims and the families of the defendants even before the decision was read. In his initial statement, the judge seemed to suggest he would impose harsh sentences, saying that "the blood of those killed will not be spilled in vain," according to the Egyptian news agency MENA.
However, he then ordered the release of the defendants, setting off a riot. The victims' families scuffled with the guards and tried to rush toward the defendants who were whisked out of the courtroom. A number of family members of the slain protesters tried to storm the judge's office in the courthouse, but were blocked by soldiers guarding the building.
After the riots broke out, Egypt's Prosecutor-General Mahmoud Abdel-Meguid ordered the court's decision overturned in a clear attempt to defuse anger. However, a lawyer for the victims' families said that such a decision is "illegal" because the prosecutor general has no authority over the court.
"They are trying to deceive the people to pacify them," said the lawyer Amin Ramez. "The policemen are now at army headquarters seeking protection. If people saw them, they would tear them apart," Ramez added.
Ali el-Ganadi, a father of one of the victims, said he received a promise from the prosecutor-general to enforce the annulment of the court's order and bring the officers back to jail.
Relatives of slain protesters, who were involved in the unrest, cut traffic for at least six hours on the highway from Cairo to the city of Suez, leaving hundreds of cars lined up. The court case involved protesters killed in Suez.
Ramez spoke to The Associated Press by phone from the Cairo-Suez road, about 100 kilometres outside of Cairo. He said that truck drivers and Suez residents poured in and joined the protesters. Military officers negotiated with the protesters.
Later, a couple hours after nightfall, El-Ganadi, the spokesman for Suez victims' families, said the protesters were opening the road to Suez.
After clearing the highway, protesters moved to inside Suez, according to one of the protesters Ahmed Khafagi. He said traffic has been halted inside two main squares in the city and thousands of people are holding protests and chanting slogans, including "Down with the military junta".
"People are boiling" activist Ahmed Abdel Gawad told AP from Suez.
The policemen were charged with killing 17 people and injuring more than 350 in the city of Suez during the 18-day uprising that ended on Feb. 11. The court released seven of them on bail and postponed their trials to Sept. 14. Three are tried in absentia.
Suez was a flashpoint of violence during the uprising, with many deadly confrontations between tens of thousands of protesters and security forces. Footage posted on YouTube showed policemen at the top of a police station in Suez main square opening fire on protesters during the uprising.
Ramez said that the court over the past four sessions has rejected demands by families' lawyers to add 41 other policemen to the case.
"We provided them with footage and visual evidence that show those policemen holding guns and automatic weapons and hunting down the protesters as if they were hunting birds," he said. "But the judge didn't summon them."
"The spark of the revolution came from Suez and the second revolution will also come out of Suez," Ramez said.
The release of the policemen looked likely to fuel plans for a one-million-man rally on July 8 to push for fair trials of former regime members including top security officials suspected of giving the orders to shoot protesters during the uprising.
Mahmoud Ibrahim of April 6 group, one of the youth groups that led the uprising in Suez, said that Suez residents are planning to turn out in force for the July 8 demonstration.
The cith of Suez is located at the northern tip of strategic Suez Canal which links the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. The canal is a vital source of foreign currency.
In Cairo, a security official said that anti-riot police fired tear gas to disperse dozens of people around a police station in the center of the city. The reason for the tensions there could not immediately be confirmed.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/5238899/Riots-in-Egypt-after-court-releases-police

Hundreds of Egyptian protesters lobbed rocks at the security headquarters and set fire to police cars for a second day in a flashpoint city as growing impatience over delays in trying former regime officials and police accused of killing protesters threatened to plunge the nation back into crisis.
In a bid to defuse rising anger, the Interior Ministry announced that hundreds of high-ranking police officers will be sacked for their role in the harsh crackdown on anti-government protests earlier this year that left nearly 850 people dead. Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawi said in a statement that it will be the largest shake up in the history of his ministry.
Justice for those who killed demonstrators has become a rallying point for the protest movement, nearly five months after Hosni Mubarak was ousted in an uprising after a nearly three-decade rule marred by complaints of widespread corruption and police abuse.
Many Egyptians believe that Mubarak and some of his rule's much-hated faces have been removed but the pillars of his regime are still in place, including the pivotal judiciary.
The two days of rioting in Suez - a city at the southern tip of the strategic Suez Canal that saw some of the most dramatic confrontations between police and protesters - was prompted by anger over a court order on Monday to release seven police officers charged with killing demonstrators.
Prosecutor-General Mahmoud Abdel-Meguid had promised to appeal the court order and return the police officers to jail in a bid to appease the protesters. But another court upheld the decision on Wednesday, prompting protesters to pour back into the streets.
Young men smashed the building's windows with stones and burned a number of police vehicles. Then they attacked the city's main court complex.
"The courts are corrupt. They are complicit in denying us justice," said Ahmed el-Ganadi, whose son had been killed in the earlier protests. "We will no longer wait for a court decision to get our retribution."
Protesters also are angry over Tuesday's decision to acquit three former government ministers over corruption allegations.
Many lawyers said the ruling was legally sound but cast doubt on the objectivity of the prosecutor-general, who was himself appointed under Mubarak's regime, saying he was rushing flimsy cases to court without a thorough investigation.
The rising frustration also was likely to fuel massive protests planned for Friday to demand justice for those killed as well as measures to purge former regime officials from political and economic life. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is Egypt's most organised political movement, said Wednesday that it will join the pro-democracy demonstrators set to return to Cairo's Tahrir Square for the so-called "Friday of Accountability".
Egypt's interim government issued a statement late Wednesday urging protesters to remain peaceful and warning of "anti-revolution elements" that might try to create chaos and harm the image of the demonstrators. It also promised "no reconciliation with those who shed the blood" of protesters and pledged to continue "purging" Egypt of those who Mubarak's regime remnants.
The youthful groups that launched the 18-day uprising that began on January 25 and led to Mubarak's ouster have been trying to ramp up the pressure on the military rulers to follow through with promises of democratic reforms. Critics see the establishment as an extension of Mubarak's rule and worry those responsible for brutality under the old regime will go without punishment.
Only one policeman has been convicted in more than a dozen court cases over the deaths of people killed in the government crackdown on protesters. He was tried in absentia. Mubarak and his two sons also face charges of killing protesters and amassing illegal wealth. Their trial is scheduled to begin August 3.
Protesters accuse court officials of generally being lax with police officers accused of shootings during the uprising, allowing many to stay on the job while facing murder charges or setting them free on bail. They say this leaves victims' families subject to intimidation.
For their part, human rights activists complain that minor offenders and protesters are referred to military tribunals - known for quick and harsh sentences.
Many in the judiciary, meanwhile, find themselves executing laws drafted under Mubarak's rule in deciding that police were acting in self-defence when they opened heavy gunfire at saboteurs attacking their stations.
Activists insist no police violence is justified and worry that authorities are again acting with excessive force in dealing with street protests. Some 1000 protesters were injured when anti-riot police rained tear gas and rocks while clashing with protesters in Tahrir square last week.
"No laws recognise the revolution; (Mubarak's) laws define revolution as riots," Amin Ramzi, a lawyer representing families of the slain protesters in Suez, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "But under any law, how come police sacrifice the souls for the sake of protecting a building. Which are more valuable: rocks or souls?"

from here.

Some more info I got from friends in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood will apparently turn out for the Friday protests (tomorrow). They've been thrown out of demos in Alexandria before, and (maybe I read it in this thread; can't remember where I get some of the news now) have tried to broker "peace" between the security forces and relatives of those that lost their lives during the February uprising. So it will be interesting to see how they're received in Tahrir.

I also heard rumours about the 6th April Youth Movement trying to control protests, stopping folks from marching at the HQ of Amn Dawla (state security). That movement are the liberal, affluent youth. I would expect that sort of behaviour from the Trots (who btw, have not operated at all like the SWP. See the libcom interview with Jano for some details).

Al Ahram Live blog

11:15 Workers and peasants are gathering in Abdel Moniem Ryad Square, at the northern edge of Tahrir, preparing to march into the square. The governmental trade union, the Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions, announced that they would not be participating in today's protests, but the Independent Trade Union Federation said that their presence would be felt across the country. Mahalla textile workers announced their participation on Wednesday, while the workers of Suez Arsenal, an affiliate of the Suez Canal Authority, announced their solidarity with the families of the martyrs in Suez and that they will join today's protest in the city.
[...]
10:00 [...] Yesterday, a spat broke out between members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other political groups over the huge makeshift stage the MB set up in the middle of the square. Activists griped that the MB should not have their own stage and there should be one unified stage for all movements and parties. However, the MB insisted the stage does not only belong to them, but also to the National Association for Change. Other smaller stages have been set up around the square.
[...]

Odd curio. Time magazine blogger evokes Marx and declares Tantawi regime 'Bonapartist'
Marx, Bonaparte and the Egyptian Revolution: Another Friday in Tahrir Square

"Our revolution continues," read one banner on the side of the square.
Holding a large sign, one man complained: "We haven't felt any change. We removed Mubarak and got a Field Marshall."
He was referring to Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which took power in February and has vowed to pave the way for a democratic system.
But the armed forces, hailed as heroes at the start of the uprising for not siding with Mubarak, have come under fire from local and international rights groups for alleged abuses.
Thousands also turned out in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and hundreds protested in the canal city of Suez.
Among the key demands at Friday's protests are the end to military trials of civilians, the sacking and trying of police officers accused of killing protesters, and the thorough and transparent trials of former regime officials.
Activists have repeatedly denounced the handling of legal proceedings against security forces who used deadly violence in the uprising that toppled Mubarak, killing 846 civilians................
Pro-democracy youth groups who called for the protest were in charge of security at the entrances to Tahrir, searching anyone heading into the square and demanding to see two forms of identity.
On Wednesday, the government urged all those taking part in the demonstration to "maintain the peaceful nature of the protest" warning against "plots aiming to incite chaos in order to tarnish the country's image."

- http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=19713&title=Egypt+mass+demo+target+new+rulers

Jano Charbel

Around one million Egyptians are reported to have protested across the country on July 8, a day known as "Friday of Persistence," "Friday of Recompense" or "The Revolution First" amongst other names. Massive protests, sit-ins and occupations took place in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, amongst other cities.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters converged upon Tahrir Square demanding swift justice in the trials of Hosni Mubarak, his corrupt ministers and criminal policemen. Thousands chanted against General Prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Protesters chanted for the executions of Hosni Mubarak and Habib el-Adly (former Minister of Interior).

Political groupings, parties, and trade unions mobilized thousands of their members and sympathizers to protest for the (unmet) demands of the January 25th Revolution.

Unmet demands include - the just trials of Mubarak, his regime and police force; The release of all political prisoners, retrial of civilians sentenced to imprisonment by military tribunals; social justice, and a minimum wage of LE 1,200/month; amongst other demands.

Military courts have swiftly sentenced over 7,000 civilians to imprisonment since January; while Mubarak has not yet stood trial, and while his corrupt ministers and murdering policemen are acquitted of the crimes they committed.

Thousands remain encamped in Tahrir Square; protesting for the basic demands of the January 25th Revolution.

http://she2i2.blogspot.com/2011/07/photos-july-8-tahrir-sq-protests.html (with pics)

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Egypt yesterday to defend the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, directing their anger at the new military rulers over the slow pace of reform.
In the capital, flag-waving protesters packed Tahrir Square, epicentre of the protests that ousted Mr Mubarak in February, after a mass weekly Muslim prayer service.
An Egyptian man, who fired shots in the air and protesters said was a “hired thug” loyal to the former regime, was seen laying at the back of a military vehicle after he was beaten up and arrested by protesters in the canal city of Suez, yesterday.....

- here.

Egypt's military junta is facing its biggest crisis of legitimacy, as tens of thousands of protesters took control of central Cairo and demonstrations against army rule erupted across the country.
In scenes reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak earlier this year, civilian-run popular committees commanded all entrances and exits to Tahrir Square, while government security forces were nowhere to be seen.
In a massive show of public anger at the slow pace of reform under military rulers, demonstrators chanted repeatedly for the ousting of the country's de facto ruler, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. They called on Egyptians to "reclaim" their revolution. Activists declared the start of an open-ended sit-in, vowing not to leave until post-Mubarak transition was put back in the hands of ordinary people.
"This is not just another Friday protest – it's a message to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [Scaf] that their methods don't work and that we are immune to their tricks and lies," said Wael Eskandar, a 27 year old IT consultant who joined the protests in Cairo. "No matter how much they try spreading disinformation and claim the army is trying to implement the demands of the revolution, Egyptians know the real deal – and that is why you see so many here today."
In Egypt's second city, Alexandria, tens of thousands gathered and held up mock nooses alongside dummies of Mubarak and several of his former ministers, as well as dummies of other regime-era officials who have yet to be removed from their jobs. Large demonstrations took place in the industrial city of Suez, the scene of violent clashes earlier this week between protesters and riot police, while in Luxor thousands more gathered under the city's most famous Pharaonic temple to express their dissatisfaction with the interim authorities.
"It's the biggest show of force against the military thus far," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Centre and an expert on Egyptian politics. "Until recently, the army had very high favourability ratings, and Egyptians had been reticent to criticise it too openly, but now we're seeing the emergence of competing legitimacies.
"The generals claim to represent the revolution and the will of the people but today the protesters in Tahrir and beyond are saying no: we are the ones that represent the revolution, we are the legitimate representatives of the people. It's a growing divide between the two sides, and it can only lead to more confrontation."
In Cairo's Tahrir Square, street vendors sold home-made gas masks as crowds began to muster under the sweltering midday heat. But the security forces that had attacked protesters there only last week, firing multiple teargas canisters and injuring more than 1,000 people, remained out of sight........
Delegations from Egypt's nascent independent labour unions also joined the rally, despite a boycott from the official, state-controlled trade union congress. Camera crews from state television channels were forcibly ejected from the square because of their perceived obeisance.
"There are specific demands – such as the speeding up of trials, holding police to account, and so on – but none of them individually quite capture what this is about today," said Khalid Abdalla, an actor. "The fundamental issue is that there is no one in authority speaking to these people and making them feel secure in this transitional period. So, instead, people are speaking for themselves, and a broad consensus about the need for change is forming. That consensus is clearly pitted against the army."
Most experts believe there is little chance of the military drastically changing direction and pursuing vigorous reform. "SCAF is not a pro-democracy organisation: they don't care much about the revolution per se – what matters to them is security and stability, and there really is no ideological content in their actions," argued Hamid. "They can't all of a sudden embrace full democracy because that would go against their interests as an institution, so I don't even know if the military is capable of doing what the protesters want it to do."
Hamid said that Egypt's interim leader was now beginning to look vulnerable. "Tantawi is not quite on par with Mubarak in people's eyes, but he's getting there. If he ever had any chance to protect his legacy and go out as someone who helped facilitate Egypt's revolution, then I think he's losing that now, so there's a lot at stake for him."

- here.

Nothing new, but , speaking for myself, I missed this from Sunday:

Protests have brought Egypt's administrative and commercial nerve centres to a standstill , as government attempts to stem a growing wave of opposition to military rule succeeded only in galvanising demonstrators further.
The interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf, took to the airwaves late on Saturday pledging to "meet the people's demands", following mass rallies across the country in which Egyptians accused the ruling council of army generals of betraying the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak this year.
In a short and strained address to the nation, Sharaf said all police officers accused of killing protesters would be stopped from working, and promised that the trials of former Mubarak ministers and other regime officials would proceed "as soon as possible". He insisted that social and economic problems would be reviewed by the army-appointed transitional cabinet.
But activists dismissed the announcement as empty rhetoric and claimed it contained nothing substantive. "His speech sounded like one of these tricks of the old government," Sherif, an engineer in his late 20s, told local news website Ahram Online. "If this government is unable to take serious steps, it should resign."
Several thousand people flocked to Cairo's Tahrir Square after Sharaf's speech. Anti-government activists have taken control of the roads there and an open-ended sit-in began on Friday. By Sunday morning, access to the Mugamma – a giant concrete building on one side of the square that serves as the bureaucratic heart of the Egyptian state – had been blocked off, with some employees reportedly joining the protests.
In Suez, another focal point for political unrest, the families of some of those killed in the anti-Mubarak uprising helped protesters cut off the main highway between Cairo and Sokhna port, the main transit point for goods entering and leaving the Suez canal. The canal has also been targeted by strikes and protests in recent days, although officials insisted that international maritime traffic remained unaffected.
Sharaf – a popular choice among revolutionaries when he was first appointed interim prime minister in March – has repeatedly claimed that he draws his legitimacy from Tahrir, and said again on Saturday that "the people" were the only sovereign power in Egypt. But analysts believe that the army generals have given him little control over policy and personnel decisions, and in recent weeks the 59-year-old has cut an increasingly frustrated figure in public.
Egyptian newspapers used their Sunday editions to highlight the widening gap between the supreme council of the armed forces, which assumed power in the aftermath of Mubarak's overthrow and has promised democratic elections before the end of the year, and large sections of the general public who believe that the pace of reform is too slow. "Protesters: Sharaf's decisions are not enough — Calls for hunger strikes and civil disobedience," stated the front-page headline in state-owned al-Ahram, the country's biggest-selling daily. Al-Tahrir, a new Egyptian paper that emerged out of the revolution, splashed with a smiling photo of the country's de facto leader, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, under the words "The Marshall doesn't respond."
Activists have called for another round of mass demonstrations on Tuesday.

- here. (bolded emphases mine)

Apart from continuing mass demonstrations (Tahrir Square continues to be massively occupied), the following is NOT good news from Egypt this morning:

masked terrorists attacked and blew up a gas terminal in North Sinai on Tuesday morning. The terminal, which is located some 50 kilometres from the Israeli border, provides both Israel and Jordan with gas.
The group forced the guards to flee before blowing up the terminal, with the blaze visible from 20 kilometres away. The MENA news agency has reported that Egyptian security services are searching for the group, adding that no deaths have been as yet reported from the attack.
This is the fourth attack on gas installations on Sinai this year. After ambushes on 5 February and 27 April the pipeline was disabled for a number of weeks.
Egyptian gas is vital for its neighbours – Jordan is 80 percent dependent on Egyptian supplies, while Israel’s gas needs are 40 percent covered by deliveries from Egypt.

(here)Any further information about/interpretation of this or of its potential consequence?

Likely bedouins stepping up their campaign against the state from what I've heard. There's been violence between the bedouns and the police for years. Post-february it seems like they've ratcheted up their anti-govt actions. Still, it might be a completely different group. Still, I don't think anyone in Egypt apart from the usual suspect thinking this is an issue. Both gas deals have been very unpopular among the shaab.

Khawaga - thanks for the clarification.

More about today:

The revolution that swept Egypt last winter remains messy and unfinished in the swelter of summer. Protesters are again camping in Cairo's Tahrir Square, hunger strikes are reported across the country and the ruling military council is not moving quickly enough for demonstrators in bringing former President Hosni Mubarak and his regime to justice.
Leading young activists, worried that the revolution is veering away from them, called Tuesday for the resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and his Cabinet. They want him replaced by one of several candidates, including Mohamed Elbaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former head of the United Nations' nuclear regulatory agency.
Sharaf does not have the "revolutionary character to fulfill the ambitions of many Egyptians aiming for freedom and social justice," the Jan. 25 Revolution Youth Coalition said in a statement. "Sharaf has become an obstacle in the revolution's path."
The political turmoil came as demonstrations entered their fifth day and protesters again blocked the entrance of the one of the government's key administrative buildings. The Special Council of the Armed Forces, exasperated by repeated calls for deeper reforms and swifter trials for police officers and former officials, warned protesters against "harming public interests."
The split among Egyptians over the protests has also turned acrimonious. Many believe the dissidents should pack up their banners and tents and go home. But activists argue that the military council and the interim government only respond to pressure. Thirty men with sticks and knives attacked the protester camp in Tahrir, wounding six people before they were chased off by demonstrators.......
The military indicated Tuesday, however, that it may be less tolerant in coming days. It called on "honorable citizens" to "confront" challenges to national stability and said it "fully backed the prime minister."

- here

And this:

Thousands hold open sit-ins in Suez, Alexandria
CAIRO: Thousands protested on Tuesday in Suez and Alexandria parallel to a sit-in in Cairo's Tahrir Square, denouncing the two speeches of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and the ruling army council.
In Suez, thousands gathered in the main El-Arbaein Square, dubbed by citizens the Martyrs Square, and began marching to the Suez Canal Authority Office in Port Tawfik to reiterate their earlier demands.
Protesters chanted "The people want to overthrow the field marshal," referring to head of the ruling army council and Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawy.
"Today's demonstration is a continuation of the series of protests and sit-ins held since Monday July 4 as well as to declare that the statements of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and Sharaf are both unsatisfactory," official spokesman of the Suez Revolution Coalition Medhat Eissa told Daily News Egypt.
"We called on all revolutionaries in Egypt to join their fellows in Suez. Groups from Ismalia and Cairo had already joined us on Monday evening," he added.
The protesters said they will hold a symbolic sit-in outside the Suez Canal office.
"We want to send a message to the whole world saying we will never jeopardize the waterway. Our legitimate demands are being announced peacefully," Eissa said.
Following the protest, hundreds are planning to resume their sit-ins overnight outside the Suez Canal’s movement control office, El-Arbaein and the local municipality building.
The protesters called for sacking both the Suez’s attorney general and the prosecutor general, accusing the SCAF of violating the rights of the martyrs and their families as well as those injured during the first days of the January 25 uprising.
Eissa said that several complaints filed over two months ago before the attorney general, accusing 41 officers and low-ranking policemen of similar charges, have not yet been investigated.
The protesters also requested faster trials of former corrupt officials, policemen accused of using live ammunition against protesters, as well as ex-president Hosni Mubarak, his two sons and wife and former interior minister Habib El-Adly......................
Earlier on Sunday, hundreds blocked the Suez-Ain Sokhna desert road, preventing cars from passing through. The military police dispersed the sit-in a few hours later.
Military police forces also broke up a protest outside the Suez Canal office in Port Tawfik, using electric shock prods.
One day later, the commander of the third field army in Suez held a meeting with about 20 protesters and activists, promising to discuss their demands with Tantawy.
Tuesday's protesters also called for the arrest of the seven police officers released last week on bail. Seven others are being tried in absentia. The trial was adjourned until September.
The release of the officers triggered a spate of protests that have persisted for the past eight days.
Rumors that the accused officers recently released on bail, had already escaped the city could not be confirmed.
In Alexandria, hundreds resumed an open sit-in inside Saad Zaghloul Square Garden in El-Raml Station in downtown since Friday upholding the same demands by other protesters across Egypt..............
Press reports had earlier said the Alexandria stock exchange closed its doors after protesters prevented brokers and employees from entering the building.
However, in a statement Tuesday morning, the Egyptian stock exchange confirmed that operations in Alexandria were normal.

- here.

another comment by j. beinin on suez:
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2116/revolution-and-repression-on-the-banks-of-the-suez

Interesting informative link, subprole - especially these bits (I'm putting it here partly because on my computer the print on your link is painfully small and I caqn't enlarge it):

Seven subsidiary companies of the Suez Canal Authority in Suez, Isma‘iliyya, and Port Said employ about 9,000 workers in ship repairs and other maritime services. They went on strike on June 12 demanding parity with the wages and benefits of workers directly employed by the canal authority. This would amount to a salary salary increase of 40 percent. Workers raised this demand long before January 25, 2011.
In April the interim government promised to meet their demand. The effective rulers of Egypt, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, has not authorized the wage increase on the technically correct grounds that as workers in the public service sector, their wages and working conditions are established by parliamentary legislation. Since there is no parliament, their conditions of employment cannot be changed by the proper legal procedures. The strike expresses workers’ rejection of this logic...............
A large and carefully painted banner commanding the square listed their demands, more-or-less the same as those who have occupied Tahrir Square and downtown Alexandria since the very large demonstrations of July 8. Speedier public trials for Hosni Mubarak and the high officials of his regime accused of corruption and purifying the Ministry of Interior, which commands the police, are high on the list. The banner also demands a jobs program for youth – unemployment is especially high in Suez – and a national minimum and maximum wage. The revolutionary youth groups do not speak so specifically about economic issues. More commonly, they call for “social justice” and, recently, “the poor first.” Liberals, like the business magnate Naguib Sawiris and his Free Egyptians Party, avoid these issues altogether.
An intense debate erupted about whether or not anyone should speak to foreigners. Most of those in the square were quite willing. Because there is a disproportionately high number of “martyrs of the revolution” in Suez, several people spoke with particular vehemence about demanding compensation for their families and prosecution of the police officers and commanders responsible for their death, a demand also prominent in Tahrir Square.
Some people mentioned the water problem in Suez. The pipeline supplying fresh water begins in Cairo and passes through Isma‘iliyya before it reaches Suez. Consequently, the drinking water is foul-tasting and has many impurities resulting in intestinal and kidney diseases and cancers.......
When we arrived at the arsenal, one worker (no names are used in this article for obvious reasons) immediately suggested that he give us a copy of his video clip of a violent clash between the army and protesters who had blocked the road to ‘Ayn Sukhna, a popular beach resort sixty kilometers south of Suez, the previous evening. The clash is evidence that in provincial cities like Suez, not only in Cairo and Alexandria, distrust of the SCAF is growing. Even many who insist that they “support the army” go on to say that it has failed to fulfill the aspirations of the revolution.
Soon we were surrounded by a swarm of plainclothes security officials. The worker’s laptop, his personal property, not the company’s, was seized by one of the security men before he could complete the file transfer to our flash drive, and he was whisked away. Even though our main worker-contact had come out to greet us, we decided to leave before more workers were endangered. We drove to Port Tawfiq, where we bought snacks and a newspaper which reported that six workers at the arsenal had been dismissed the day before for participating in the strike.
As we had agreed, we spoke with our worker-contact on the phone after things calmed down. He and another worker agreed to come to meet us. We began the interview in a park in Port Tawfiq on the bank of the Suez Canal.
The park was occupied by about fifty youths who told us they had moved there from the ‘Arba‘in Square sit-in to “escalate their pressure on the army.” They insisted that they had no intention of disrupting the Suez Canal and that their presence was only symbolic. Nonetheless, there was an intimidating military unit stationed between the protesters and the canal. The park had been cordoned off with extensive rolls of barbed wire, leaving only one narrow entry.
The “revolutionary youth” came over to us and told us that we could not interview and photograph the workers in the park. They claimed that the workers had “sectoral demands,” whereas they had “national demands” and they did not want any confusion between the two. We mildly objected that we were about 100 meters away from the sit-in and weren’t photographing it or the Suez Canal. But we left the park.
The better dressed and more articulate worker introduced himself as “HM,” a “ship repairing engineer.” In Egypt many people who do not have university engineering degrees (such graduates would definitely not consider themselves workers) are called “engineer.” So this did not immediately arouse my suspicion. I did begin to have doubts when he said that the workers would accept a compromise of less than the full 40 percent wage increase, that the army was “trying to solve the problem,” and that their trade union committee affiliated with the Egyptian Trade Union Federation fully supported the strike. ETUF was an important instrument of the Mubarak regime and very rarely supported worker initiatives of any sort and only two strikes in recent decades. Independent trade unionists are demanding its dissolution.
The “ship repairing engineer” eventually admitted that he was part of management. So it was no surprise that the actual worker was unwilling to say much in his presence, even though he had agreed to speak with us only twenty minutes earlier. But this effort to control workers’ voice was only part of the story – the part that HM was willing, if reluctantly, to concede.
We had already attached his lapel microphone in the park and the recorder was running as we left. As we were crossing the street to conduct the interview, a military intelligence officer approached us. MH was recorded telling him, “I spoke to Colonel “A” from your office…. We coordinated with them regarding the things we are going to stay in this interview. We will finish and call you.”
MH also gave a brief report to the military intelligence officer about the political situation in Suez: “…last Friday, during the sit-in in ‘Arba‘in Square, some people from the April 6 group said they want the independence of Suez and the management of the waterway, and that is ridiculous. So we interfered, in cooperation with other political forces, and made them take back their statement. This is just stupidity. Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just go talk to them for five minutes and then I’ll get back to you.”
It is, in fact, unlikely that the April 6 Youth Movement, a mainly upper-middle class group with a fundamentally liberal, albeit increasingly radical, outlook would make such demands.
More importantly, the collaboration of the company management with security and intelligence authorities, which was well-known and assumed during the Mubarak regime, remains just as it was. The novelty is that suppressing the voices of workers and other “stupid” people is not only a prerogative of their managers at work. Now even “revolutionary youth” feel empowered to determine who can speak to whom, where, and what should be said.

That was a really interesting piece, thanks subprole. Beinin really knows his stuff on Egypt.

Egypt purges security forces as new Tahrir Square occupation gains momentum
Egypt’s ruling military council announced the early retirement of more than 600 senior police officers on July 13, in a bid to appease demonstrators who have for the past six days held a new thousands-strong protest encampment in Cairo's Tahrir Square. The Interior Ministry said 18 police generals and 9 other senior officers were forced into early retirement because they were accused of killing protesters during the 18-day uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February. Additionally, 54 lower-ranking officers implicated in repression during the uprising were shifted to jobs where they would no longer interact with civilians, officials said. Mansour el-Essawy, the interior minister appointed after Mubarak’s ouster, called the moves "the biggest shake-up in the history of the police," citing popular demands "to get rid of all of the leadership that is accused of killing protesters." The new Tahrir Square occupation, led by families that lost loved ones in the repression, has adopted the slogan, "The revolution goes on!"........
In addition to occupying Cairo's Tahrir Square, protesters have also repeatedly held human blockades to prevent employees from entering the Mugamma, the huge government complex housing Egypt's bureaucracy. Hundreds of protesters are also holding public encampments in Alexandria's Qayed Ibrahim Square and al-Arbaeen Square in Suez. Among their demands are an end to military trials of civilians, the dismissal and prosecution of police officers accused of murder and torture , and open trials of former regime officials.

http://ww4report.com/node/10125

Early retirement! - that'll show 'em.......!

Protesters end sit-in near Suez Canal, gather at El-Arbaein
July 14, 2011
CAIRO: Suez protesters on Thursday ended their open sit-in near the Suez Canal waterway and control office in Port Tawfik, continuing the ones in El-Arbaein Square and in front of the local municipality building for the 11th consecutive day.
Protesters, meanwhile, vowed to escalate the situation after four demonstrators who had earlier started a hunger strike outside the local municipality building were allegedly tortured inside a Suez police station.
"The situation first erupted early Thursday when a low-ranking policeman provoked the four after they had been admitted to the hospital in a bad condition," local journalist Sayed Abdellah told Daily News Egypt.
"Afterwards, the four had an argument with the policemen before a police truck carried them away from the hospital to the police station where they were violently beaten up," he added.
After hearing this news, dozens gathered outside the station, demanding their release. The four were carried again to the hospital.................
Demonstrators distributed leaflets in and around Suez calling on residents to take part in Friday’s mass protests dubbed "The Final Warning," to be held in parallel to a major demonstration in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
They are expected to gather following Friday prayers from mosques all over the city and head to El-Arbaein, named by citizens the Martyrs’ Square........
On Wednesday evening, dozens of members of national forces and political parties reportedly held a protest in downtown, about 3 kilometers from El-Arbaein, denouncing any acts that would hinder the Egyptian economy.
Earlier on Sunday, hundreds blocked the Suez-Ain Sokhna desert road, preventing cars from passing through. Factories in the area couldn't resume their operations. A few hours later, the military police dispersed the sit-in by force and another one held later during the day near the Suez Canal.

http://thedailynewsegypt.com/egypt/protesters-end-sit-in-near-suez-canal-gather-at-el-arbaein.html

Cairo- Protesters heckled a military junta official in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo today as he tried to address them. Staff brigadier general Tareq El-Mahdi was then forced to leave, as the protesters shouted out anti-military chants, a sign of mounting tensions between activists and the military. . .

http://www.agi.it/english-version/world/elenco-notizie/201107161759-cro-ren1060-tensions_between_crowd_and_ruling_military_mount_in_egypt

....Samah Eissa, 28 talks with bandages on her head and hand at the family house in Qafr el-Genena, Mansoura, Egypt. Mariam Hawas lost her life trying to collect her monthly salary. Egyptians have long complained that the cheapest thing in this country is their lives. Under the former regime, wages in the public sector , the single largest employer , were miserably low and the already vast gap between rich and poor only widened.....
The sun was already searing the pavement on the early June morning when Mariam Hawas and her co-workers from the garment factory descended on the bank.
The bank employees knew why they'd come and rushed to bolt the doors.
The roughly 100 workers, most of them women, were looking for unpaid back wages from the United Bank in the city of Mansoura, until recently the largest shareholder in their factory. Labor protests like this are sweeping across Egypt after the uprising in January, as workers scramble to right decades of economic injustice.
Hawas, a 44-year-old mother of three, was hoping to collect her monthly salary from April — 300 pounds ($50). But as the workers pounded on the doors, the bank employees responded with taunts from inside their air-conditioned offices.
"You can knock from now until next year," one jeered. "Go and block traffic in the streets if you want your rights," said another.
And so they did.
Traffic was snarled, temperatures and tempers were rising.
A truck driver climbed out to see what the commotion was about, and a frustrated policeman directing traffic goaded him on.
"Run them over. The blood money for each one is 50 pounds ($8)," the policeman said, according to several factory workers who witnessed the scene.
The driver climbed back into the cab of his truck. The engine revved, once, then a second time. On the third time, the truck lurched forward.
Egyptians have long complained that the cheapest thing in this country is their lives.
Under the former regime, wages in the public sector — the single largest employer — were miserably low and the already vast gap between rich and poor only widened. The public sector minimum wage stood at about 300 pounds ($50) per month, including standard bonuses.
While the cost of living soared, unemployment spread like an incurable disease. The hundreds of thousands of new entrants into the job market far eclipsed the number of jobs created in this nation of 80 million.
Poverty was a key catalyst for the 18-day uprising earlier this year, which forced President Hosni Mubarak out and raised hopes for improved working conditions. The success of the protesters emboldened millions of workers to seek better pay, and fast — perhaps faster than the country's embattled economy can accommodate, say some officials and businessmen.
For workers, the changes since Mubarak's ouster on Feb. 11 are coming far too slowly.
"A worker who earns 189 pounds ($31) a month is not going to go home and tell his children: 'Wait six months for elections,'" said prominent Egyptian labor activist Hossam el-Hamalawy. "There is a feeling that if we don't get it now, we may never have a chance."
Sporadic strikes became daily events. They spread to the banking, public transportation, textile, construction and medical industries. Workers for the vital Suez Canal, one of Egypt's main foreign currency earners, joined in the strikes.
Employees confronted their bosses, sometimes violently, challenging large inequalities of pay, poor working conditions, a lack of job security and benefits, and even managers' ties to the ousted ruling party and the old regime.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-ml-egypt-an-8-life,0,6707998.story

A few critical bits and pieces about April 6th Youth here, and implicitly some aspects of its reformism and political mentality:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/egypt-social-media-activist/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

the organization he helped start is showing signs of internal strain — especially as an American PR firm promotes Maher’s efforts, prompting questions online about his authenticity. Maher says it’s all a misunderstanding............
The Atlantic reported last week that there’s a split wracking the organization, with some of Maher’s old comrades seeing him as a bit of a dictator himself. “There was no internal democracy,” Tarek El-Khouly, the leader of another faction — reportedly larger than Maher’s — told the magazine. “There was no transparency. [Ahmed Maher] wouldn’t tell us if he was getting foreign funds.”

etc.etc.etc.