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the strongest wave of labor strike action since WWII.

the first free trade union in the history of Egypt was declared last December, by the property tax collectors who already went on a three month strike in 2007 bringing down tax collection by 90%. By the domino effect, a wave of free unions is brewing.

non-governmental actors like human rights NGOs, labor and trade unions, which we urge to extend their solidarity to their Egyptian brothers and sisters, and to pressure the US administration into severing all ties and funding to the Mubarak’s dictatorship, the second largest recipient of US foreign aid after Israel.

Although increased filtering is the rule and unblocking the exception, there are a few instances of the latter since our last report. Syria has restored access to Arabic-language Wikipedia, Morocco has lifted a ban on a number of pro-Western Sahara independence Web sites, and Libya has begun to allow access to previously banned political sites. Additionally, Sudanese filtering of sites containing LGBT, dating, and health-related content has lessened since the last round of ONI testing.

Iran is among the strictest filtering regimes in the world, pervasively filtering political and social content, as well as Internet tools and proxies, and substantially filtering content related to conflict and security.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the filtering of social media and social networking sites has become relatively commonplace. For example, YouTube and Facebook are currently filtered Syria and Tunisia, and Orkut and Flickr are blocked in Iran and the UAE. Iran also filters a local social networking site, Balatarin.com, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia filter certain YouTube videos, though not the entire site.

Blocking Web sites in a local language is approximately twice as likely as blocking sites only available in English or other international languages.

"In Iran for example, this problem is not only with Arabs but with Kurds ... and other ethnicities as well, and all these groups live in far rural areas, and their complaints are usually taken from [a] political point of view."

rumoured that Tehran wanted to disperse the Arab communities throughout Iran.

Amir al-Musawi, an Iranian political analyst and former consultant to the ministry of defence, says foreign governments have been fuelling dissent in Ahwaz. "The Ahwazi people are supporters of the Iranian revolution, but there are some mercenaries who have been funded by foreign powers to create a situation where it appears there is a falling out between Iranian Arabs and the government," he said. "We know the British in Basra are fuelling some Ahwazi mercenary acts but we are sure they will get nowhere."

a mixed Shia and Sunni community

Ahwazi Arabs have traditionally attempted to mark Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, in conjunction with Sunni Arab countries.

"Iran's history is characterised by rich debate over the meaning of Shia doctrine and the implications of theology, and much of this diversity has been suffocated in the Islamic Republic,"

"Iranians believe that Arabs led the Muslim nation for 1,000 years, and the Turks had that opportunity for several centuries until World War One. Tehran thinks the time has come for it to lead the Muslim world."

"In 1980 when the Iraqi army attacked Ahwazi cities, Ahwazi Arabs defended their cities despite the fact they had the chance to get annexed to an Arab country, Iraq. It is true the idea appealed to some Ahwazis but they were [a] minority," al-Musawi told Al Jazeera. Al-Seyed Nima denied that Ahwazis willingly fought with the Iranian army and said they had been hired as mercenaries or forced to enlist.

Zhaleh United States 11/02/2009 I was born and raised in Khouzestan and this is the first time I hear iranian arabs being refered to as Ahwazi. Ahwaz is a city with mix population. If you see less improvement in Khouzestan than rest of the country is because this area was worst hit by 8 years of Iran/Iraq war and not because half of the population are arabs. Amnesty International needs to define what they see as discrimination. In Iran arabs can dress in their traditional attire, free to speak their language. Pure nonsense....

Chris Sweden 11/02/2009 To Mike, Canada Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1% Simple facts is stupid to lie about

minorities are not able to have equal rights in any country

I am an Azeri (Turkish Iranian) and I do NOT feel culturaly repressed!

increase in the fees of court procedures, which means people will not afford any more filing legal suits..

How can we build a media network to monitor strikes? The best solidarity we can give the labor movement is spread its news, and alert activists and journalists to what’s going on minute by minute. Jaiku is a good service for that.. Why don’t we launch a jaiku channel for labor news. We have to train fellow journalists and activists on how to use Jaiku and the internet tools to disseminate information quickly.. The State TV directors and presenters, because they read about the workers strikes, got inspired into action. This means we have to put more effort into spreading the word about the workers actions.

Having the kind of debate in America that they have in Israel, let alone Europe, on the way ahead in the Middle East is simply forbidden.

What I find most mystifying is that Israel-centric fanatics actually think it is a good thing for Israel to impose these sorts of Israel-based loyalty tests and orthodoxies on American politics.  Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly want the U.S. Government to be "even-handed" in the Israel/Palestinian dispute and substantial portions of Americans do not favor American policies towards Israel.  Isn't it rather obvious that at some point, there will be a substantial and understandable backlash as Americans watch people like Chuck Schumer openly boast that anyone who makes "statements against Israel" that he deems "over the top" will be disqualified from serving in our Government, despite a long and distinguished record of public service and unchallenged expertise?

like his conservative counterparts, Mr. Moussavi also spoke of the need to deepen his movement with a “social approach, not only a political approach.” And he suggested that the opposition movement, despite its apparent weakness in the face of arrests, trials and intimidation, had won substantial moral victories.“Despite the regretful, bitter developments of recent days,” Mr. Moussavi wrote, “people now have timeless convictions that are miles more important than the election of one man.”