EGYPTIAN WORKERS FIGHT BACK AGAINST MUBARAK POLICIES
(The following article is from the December 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.
Special to PV
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak faces mounting discontent from workers who have broken away from government-controlled unions and staged sporadic strikes across the nation. A recent report in the Los Angeles Times says that "ragged and often disorganized picket lines present a widening crisis for a president viewed as detached from the working class and unable to lift wages and stem double-digit inflation."
During a strike in October at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Factory in the Nile Delta city of El Mahalla El Kubra, thousands of male and female workers hanged their company president in effigy and took over the textile mill's courtyard, banging drums and giving speeches. Riot police and undercover security officers made a passive show of force, not wanting to provoke the bloody unrest that characterized strikes in Egypt decades ago.
The weeklong strike ended when the government-owned company made concessions on wages and profit-sharing bonuses. But the mill and its 27,000 employees have become a focal point of the labour unrest. Nearly a year ago, the same workers struck for several days, igniting solidarity across Egypt as work stoppages spread to railway, flour and other industries whose salaries and benefits have not kept pace with sharp rises in the cost of living.
"This is the largest, most militant strike wave since the 1940s," said Sameh Naguib, a labour expert and sociology professor at the American University in Cairo. "Hundreds of thousands of workers are involved and it's spreading quite rapidly... The question is how this labour movement may play into a larger democratic movement against the government."
Mubarak's program of privatization and lower corporate tax rates have boosted economic growth rates, without benefitting workers whose salaries have been slashed by inflation rates as high as 15% monthly.
The strikes come as Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party, or NDP, has cracked down on political opposition, jailing journalists and members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The government claims the Brotherhood is trying to influence the unions, a tactic which it hopes will divide the country's opposition along secular and religious lines. But the textile workers say they are taking action over falling living standards and corrupt union leaders who have failed to defend them against Mubarak's neoliberal policies.
The aging Mubarak has ruled Egypt for the last 26 years. His government has moved quickly to resolve recent strikes, fearing that an alliance of labour and opposition groups could jeopardize its grip. But a country-wide labour movement, including up to 300,000 textile employees, may undermine the government's divide and rule strategy.
Found at: https://peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint08/13__EGYPTIAN_WORKERS_FIGHT_BACK_AGAINST.html
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