Cached
This strange piece of news was published in Al-Shourouq yesterday: The Egyptian Trade Union Federation refused a proposal by the ILO at its 98th session in Geneva to "give the right to homosexuals to enter the organizations" as well as the "migration of workers with HIV/AIDS between member states" which could "threaten the health" of other workers. These practices is against Islam, a representative of the state-controlled federation explained. The article also states that representatives of Arab and Muslim states suspended their participation in the conference because they regarded the calls of ILO to protect human rights "regardless of sexual orientation" as a "call to spread homosexuality in the world and give it official recognition."
Group items tagged
Egypt and beyond: Egypt's struggling women - 0 views
-
As a simple tribute on International Women's Day, here's a few pics from some of the social and political struggles that took part in Egypt during the last couple of years, where women often played central roles and sometimes proved to be more militant than the men
Egypt and beyond: Free union refuse to join state-controlled federation - 0 views
-
el-Badeel reports: The head of the state-controlled trade union federation (EFTU), Hussein Megawer, has announced that he would agree to let the free union of the real estate tax collectors join the federation. Union leaders refused this offer, saying they will not enter the official union structure since it is controlled by the ruling party NDP, stressing that they have the right to organize independently according to the Egyptian constitution and international treaties signed by Egypt.
YouTube - Egyptian Revolution -- Nasser Nouri Photographs from Mahalla - 0 views
-
For Workers Power and International Socialism...
Egypt and beyond: Homophobic Unions? - 0 views
-
-
Besides being a completely ignorant standpoint to start with, it is not clear exactly what proposals the article referes to. One of the items on the agenda of the conference was "to adopt an international labour standard on HIV/AIDS in order to increase the attention devoted to the subject at the national and international level, to promote united action among the key actors on HIV/AIDS and to increase the impact of the ILO code of practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work, adopted in 2001." And just before the conference, the ILO released a report on discrimination and stigmatization of workers living with HIV and Aids, calling for the end of such practices.
-
It seems like the state-controlled unions are desperate to find any way to score cheap points - even by playing on and reinforcing prejudice, ignorance and homophobia - since they are unable and/or unwilling to take the fight for workers rights, even as they are challenged by growing calls for free unions in Egypt. Pathetic.
International Socialism: The Egyptian workers' movement and the 25 January Revolution - 1 views
-
The mass strikes of September 2011 paralysed the government and the military council and opened up the road to the crisis of November. The independent unions and strike committees which led these strikes are part of what is now probably the biggest social movement in Egypt (with the possible exception of the Muslim Brotherhood), and certainly the biggest organised movement with real roots in the everyday struggles of the poor
-
Will organised workers move into the leadership of the mass revolutionary movement? This article argues that two conditions for this happening have already been met: the workers’ movement has begun to gain enough mastery over its constituent parts to be able to use its social power in battle with the state, while the demands that are now being raised by this movement cannot be satisfied within the limits of neoliberal capitalism in the context of intensifying economic crisis at a local and global level.
-
While the numbers of participants were probably lower than February, the significance of September’s strikes lay in the qualitative shift towards coordinated national and sector-wide strikes.
- ...1 more annotation...
Egypt: Sweeping Reform Needed to Protect Workers' Rights | Human Rights Now - Amnesty... - 0 views
International Socialism: Interview: Egypt's strike wave - 0 views
-
Interview with Sameh Naguib مقابلة مع سامح نجيب