Happy New Year…

Turab: Sha’rek Dahab…

Portrait from Kafr Elw…

By Suheir Hammad…

HRINFO issued a statement demanding the release of Sinai blogger and activist Musa’ad Suleiman Hassan, who was taken from his Ismailia on the morning of Wednesday December 26, 2007, then ordered by the Prosecutor to remain in police custody for for 15 days. Click on Latuff’s cartoon below to read the statement…

Al-Masry Al-Youm published a good feature on the garbage collectors’ strikes in 2007…

The Center for Socialist Studies issued a statement in solidarity with the Suez Food Industries workers’ strike. Click on the poster below to read it…

By Alexandra Sandels…
While the past year has witnessed several rare convictions in cases of torture and police abuse, leading analysts and international media argue a potential heightened government intolerance of police brutality. Rights groups urge the authorities to take “more systematic steps” to rid the country of its alleged torture practices.
Once considered a taboo [...]

From the Daily News Egypt…
In 2007 Egypt witnessed an unprecedented level of labor unrest as workers from textile factories to public transport to tax collectors went on strike, mainly over low wages and poor working conditions.
According to the Egyptian Workers and Trade Union Watch (EWTUW) there were over 580 industrial actions this year alone.
The [...]

Around 300 workers from the Suez Food Industries Company started a strike at 3pm, escalating their industrial action which began by a sit-in six days ago. Negotiations are currently taking place between the strikers and the management…

Members of the Higher Committee for the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ Strike are set to meet up with the Finance Minister tomorrow Monday, to continue negotiations over the unfulfilled demands of the strikers.

Kamal Abu Eita, one of the strike leaders, was also interrogated today by the Administrative Prosecutor, over charges of inciting the strike.

[Savatage]

The public prosecutor has ordered technical experts to investigate the authenticity of the latest police abuse video clip, leaked by blogger Wael Abbas, who posted audio of the film and photos of the police agents involved in the incident…