Click on the poster below to download the Workers’ Coordination Committee’s statement no. 6 that was issued on Wednesday night, reporting on the fourth day of the Ghazl el-Mahalla Strike…

UPDATE: Here’s an English translation… (Thanks Aida)…

Coordinating Committee for Trade Union and Workers Rights and Liberties
Statement No. 6
Workers Anger escalates in Mahalla; trade union chair changed; wide international solidarity with Mahalla workers, security forces mobilized around factory and surrounding streets; Gamila Ismail, Amir Salem and Bothaina Kamel prevented from entering the company and attempts at their arrest; for the first time closure of factory gates and concern regarding possible police attack tonight.
While the prosecution had ordered the release of the 8 trade union activists since yesterday at 2 p.m., yet they were not released until 12 midnight and after they were summoned t the state security intelligence, which asked them to “calm” the workers and try to convince them to accept the 50 days bonus in exchange for the resignation of El Gebali from the company management. Next Saturday, the prosecution will continue to listen to the officers who carried out the investigations.
On the fourth day of the strike, the workers’ anger continues to escalate. They continue to chant their slogans and beat their drums, refusing to compromise their demands under any pretext, insisting on the 150 days bonus, the incentives and the execution of their plan. Local and Arab media channels have been continuously visiting the company to monitor the strike and take the testimonies of the strikers. International solidarity messages have started reaching the workers, among which is a message from the General Federation for Public Sector Workers of South Africa representing 170 thousand workers. The Brazilian caricaturist Carlos Latuff also sent the Mahalla striking workers a caricature displaying “the strike challenging neo-imperialism represented by Mubarak”. Those acts of solidarity and the release of the trade union leaders have positively inspired the workers. Also news reached the factory of a change in the bureau of the trade union committee and change of its chair.
On the other hand security forces have started to move from the peripheries of the city to the city center and the streets surrounding the company. Also, Bothaina Kamel, Gamila Ismail and human rights activist and lawyer Amir Salem and a delegation from El Ghad party have been prevented from entering the company and taken to Mahalla police station where Gamila, wife of Ayman Nour, was accused of breaking through a police check point, although she was not driving the car. Furthermore, for the first time, the gates to the company have been closed in an attempt to control entry of supporters . The gate is at present surrounded by anti riot police and there is concern regarding a possible police raid of the company tonight.