Megawer striking back with the 24th General Union, devoted solely to the tax collectors, so as to withdraw the carpet from beneath Abu Eita and the Free Union. The new state-backed union include at least two of the former strike leaders that Megawer managed to coopt: Makram Labib and Ezzat Shedid. The two had always demonstrated the most compromising attitude throughout the Hussein Hegazi sit-in and later.
On Thursday of last week the minister of labour was in marathon negotiations
with textile workers’ leaders representing 22,000 workers at the giant mill in
Mahalla al-Kubra.
The minister bargained desperately—narrowly avoiding a strike that would have
brought out most of the textile sector
the correction of the path of the revolution”.
Five feeder marches set off from the city’s working class districts to the
square after prayers.
At the same time, 40,000 teachers were gathering outside parliament. “Meet our
demands or no school this year” read their banners
The military council promised to implement existing laws against strikes and
demonstrations, with live bullets—and revive Mubarak’s hated emergency laws.
But the strike wave rolled on. Some 26,000 sugar refinery workers joined the
battle.
Hundreds of textile workers from the Indorama textile factory in Shibin
al-Kom occupied the provincial governor’s office the same day.
Collective action from below has again knitted together the fight for national
liberation with the struggle for social justice
The internal crisis generated by this clash is feeding a growing external
crisis.
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to send the Turkish
navy to protect future humanitarian convoys to Gaza and has expelled Israeli
diplomats.
The contrast between Erdogan’s stance and that of the Egyptian generals was
not lost on the Egyptian masses
The last month has seen a qualitative shift towards co-ordinated national or
sector-wide strikes in several key industries including the railways, post,
education and textiles.
Many are winning serious concessions from the state
without walking out, prompting new groups to raise demands.