Despite an
international conspiracy of silence, as we have reported over the past year
Egypt has seen a major upturn in the class struggle. Workers have shown
fantastic bravery and made enormous sacrifices.
In 2007
there were nearly 600 industrial actions, at least 350 of them involving over
150,000 workers. 35 strikes were reported as late as November. The year ended
with a big victory for civil servants.
The textile
industry saw a series of strikes throughout the Nile Delta. The biggest was at
Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Al-Mahalla Al-Kobra. Unrest started in
late 2006 and escalated in 2007. The workers thought they had won increased pay
and a corruption investigation, but their demands were never met so in
September they walked out.
They set up
a tent-city of 27,000 people and won enormous national publicity. At the end of
November 2007 the government gave in to their demand for the sacking of the
chairman of the state owned company and on promises it had made in December 2006
over wage rises, bonus payments and working conditions.
In early
December, fifty railway safety technicians led a protest at Ramses station in
Cairo and won some gains in their struggle against low wages and poor working
conditions.
Most
recently the Real Estate Tax Collectors have won a major victory. Following a
series of civil service strikes that began in April, about 55,000 tax
collectors shut down their offices and went on strike. In December hundreds of
them from all over the country demonstrated for ten days outside the Cabinet
office – despite the riot police. After an eleven day sit-in the Finance
Minister agreed their main demands at the end of December; including wage
parity with general tax collectors, bonuses worth four months’ pay and no
victimizations. This is the first work stoppage for improved conditions by
civil servants since 1924 and has already inspired workers at the Ministry of
Health to threaten a walk-out.
The working
class, especially the massive Egyptian workers movement, is the key to the
future of the Middle East, not the so-called war on terror or the blind alley of
Islamism.
See also:
www.socialist.net/egypt-egyptian-workers-strike.htm
www.marxist.com/strike-wave-egyptian-workers-solidarity230407-8.htm
www.marxist.com/egypt-mahalla-workers041007.htm
