The following article appeared Feb. 27 on pslweb.org.
A wave of strikes and workers’ demonstrations, involving thousands of workers, has swept Egypt. Over the last few weeks, over 35,000 industrial workers from over 12 textile, cement and poultry factories have gone on strike, demanding better wages, working conditions and other rights. Train engineers, miners and riot police have also walked off the job or demonstrated for workers’ rights.
Gamal Eid, a lawyer with the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, said, “It’s very unusual. There’s been nothing like this in at least five years. It’s not just the number of strikes, it’s the number of people involved.”
In December 2006, over 20,000 textile workers at Egypt’s largest state-owned factory in Mahalla walked off the job after learning that their annual two-month bonus wages had been cut. The workers organized a massive rally in the town center. After five days, the bosses backed down and offered the workers a 45-day bonus.
The workers’ victory inspired confidence in other workers facing similar conditions.
On Jan. 30, almost 12,000 textile workers at the Kafr-el Dawwar factory walked out. Less than a week later, the strike became an occupation with 8,000 workers in the factory and 2,000 workers—mostly women—holding rallies outside the factory for five days.
The Kafr-el Dawwar workers won a cost-of-living allowance, increased promotions and improved health care facilities, in addition to other guarantees from the government.
While the Kafr-el Dawwar workers occupied the factory, workers walked off the job in two other factories in the same town.
Strikes spread to factories in Cairo, Zefta, Ghazl Shebben el-Kom, el-Saff and other cities. The strikes went beyond the textile industry to include public and private sector workers in poultry, fodder and trucking companies, and the agricultural sector.
Most of the strikes have been relatively short but victorious with the workers winning some degree of concessions from the bosses.
The workers are not only facing difficult conditions and measly pay, but are confronting a government plan to fully privatize the Egyptian economy.
Late last month, Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin announced that 100 state-owned companies would be sold to private owners in 2007.
State-owned companies employ 10 percent of Egypt’s 22-million-strong workforce. These state-owned companies are remnants of the national struggle of the Egyptian people in the 1950s and 60s.
Since the 1970s, Egypt’s capitalist ruling class turned toward U.S. imperialism. It recognized the colonialist state of Israel in 1978. Later, it became the second largest recipient of U.S. military aid. This coincided with its efforts to privatize completely the Egyptian economy.
In 1993, the Kafr el-Dawwar plant, for example, had 28,000 workers; today it has 11,700. (San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 20)
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak seeks to finish the process and fully privatize Egypt’s economy and increase foreign investment.
On Dec. 26, 2006, Mubarak announced that he was recommending 34 changes to the constitution that would bury the Egyptian workers’ gains won in the 1950s and 60s. He said the changes would “not only aim to rid Egypt of socialist principles launched in the 1960s, but also seek to create a more favourable atmosphere for foreign investment.” (Al-Ahram Weekly, Feb. 1)
The Egyptian working class poses a serious threat to the ruling class’ plans. The workers are putting up a fight to keep the rights they have won.
Mubarak and his repressive, anti-worker regime are widely and correctly viewed in Egypt and the greater Arab world as a client regime of U.S. imperialism. His unpopular rule is tenuous. As the Egyptian working class faces additional neoliberal reforms, resistance will continue and likely spread—an unappealing prospect for Mubarak and his imperialist backers.
The textile workers in Mahalla have already indicated a willingness to go on strike again because of delays in fulfilling the earlier agreement. The workers have also targeted the government-appointed union leadership, which has sided with management against the workers.
A strike leader, Said Mohamed el-Attar, along with 200 workers, presented union officials in Cairo with a petition demanding an impeachment of the factory committee. The petition was signed by 13,000 workers.
Egyptian factory workers strike in Mahala Kobra, north of Cairo, on Dec. 9, 2006.
Photo: Reuters/Nasser Nuri
