Work came to complete halt at Ghazl Shebeen el-Koum Textile Factory since yesterday 3pm, with around 3,000 workers staging a sit-in protesting their state management’s unfulfilled promises as the company goes into private ownership tomorrow.
I called one of the engineers currently on strike, and he told me the following:
-The work force of the factory is [...]

Photographer and friend Amr Abdallah, who’s been generously sharing his pictures with 3arabawy and The Arabist, will be taking part in a photo-exhibition tomorrow.

Here are the details…
Opening of Al-Nahda’s Cultural Program 2007
Cairo - City of Wonders
with
Mulid al-Mahrani
Thursday, 1st of February, starting at 3 p.m.
Location: El-Nahda Association/Cultural Center, 15 Mahrani St, Faggala, Cairo
Directions: get [...]

Still trying to confirm this, but I received news that textile workers at Ghazl Shebeen factory in the Nile Delta town of Monofiya started a sit-in last night.
I don’t have more details at the moment about the number of strikers, their demands, etc. I’ll update the posting later when I receive more details.
UPDATE: Today’s Al-Masry [...]

A delegation of Ghazl el-Mahalla Textile workers met Tuesday with the secretary-general of the General Federation of Trade Unions, Hussein Meghawer (who is the head of Mubarak’s NDP parliamentary block, and who did not dare showing up in Mahalla during the December strike).
The meeting lasted for four stormy hours, during which Meghawer, coming under heat, [...]

Around 800 miners in Zagazig staged a sit in on Sunday, accusing the Sharqiya province governor of not paying them their bonuses for three years. The miners threatened to descend on Cairo, and demonstrate in front of Mubarak’s house, if their demands are not met within 10 days…

Tens of residents of el-Doweiqa slum in Cairo demonstrated yesterday in front of the Ministry of Housing, after police demolished their homes without compensations or alternative housing.
Click on the photo below, taken by Al-Masry Al-Youm, to read the report in Arabic…

The General Union for Textile Workers should impeach its local branch at Ghazl el-Mahalla Textile company (which stood against the December strike) by 15 February or at least 13,000 workers will resign en masse from the government-dominated union body, a delegation from the factory told the General Union officials in Cairo on Monday.

[Above: Photo I [...]

Click on Fathi Abul Ezz’s cartoon below to read the report…

I’m expecting a crackdown on bloggers and anyone who speaks about torture in Egypt soon…
Case of Al-Jazeera journalist accused of endangering Egypt’s national interest to go to trial
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Egypt has launched trial proceedings against a journalist for the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera Television accused of harming the country’s national [...]

State Security arrested two publishers at Cairo’s Book Fair…

It is happening…
In what could be the biggest challenge to the state-controlled General Federation of Trade Unions since its foundation in 1957, a delegation of 100 workers from Ghazl el-Mahalla Textile factory will show up on the door step of the General Union of Textile Workers in Cairo (located 327 Shoubra - Mazzallat St.) on [...]

From AP…
Gunfire broke out Thursday between police and protesters opposed to construction of a cell phone tower south of Giza, and one man was killed and 20 people were wounded, authorities said.
Several thousand residents of Kafr Turk, a town about 19 miles south of Cairo’s twin city of Giza, had gathered to protest an attempt [...]

يمكنكم تتزيل العدد الأخير من جريدة “الإشـتـراكي” بالمجان بالضغط على الصورة أدناه

The new issue of Al-Ishtraki, The Socialist, is now available online. Click on the pic above to go and download it for free in a PDF format. Print copies are available at the Center for Socialist Studies: 7 Mourad Street, Giza.