One person I had no doubt that he would be among the first to arrive in Mahalla to report on the strike is leftist journalist, longtime friend and neighbor Jano Charbel, whose passion for music can only be matched by his devotion to working class issues...

Here are exceprts from Jano’s message…

I went to the Mahalla Strike on Sunday.
7aga Gamda Gamda! (This is solid solid!) 25,000 men and women on strike.. very uplifting!
The company’s security guards wouldn’t let me in, they then took me and photographer Ahmad Ismail to the security chief - some brigadier general - who told me that we couldn’t enter. He said “da beiti wenta deif, wana ka sa7eb el beit men 7a2i en amna3ak men dukhoul beiti (This is my house, and you are my guest. It’s my right to ban you from entering my house).”
He told us to do our work outside the company’s walls.
Workers whom I don’t know saw that we couldn’t get in, so they brought us inside by force.
Around 10 workers intertwined their arms in mine and cannon-balled me through three lines of security guards.
The mood inside was one of total defiance. People are sick of the ultra low wages, company corruption, and financial fraud.
The security is totally pissed off, and will crackdown and arrest the heroes.
This (Mahalla strike) looks likes it could very well spread further and beyond - to Kafr El Dawwar to elsewhere across the country.

And here’s a slide-show of some of the pix taken by Jano…

I hope other bloggers and reporters are making their way up to the north by now… The Mahalla strike needs more reporting and solidarity ya shabab…