Gamal Oweida, Daqahliya Tax Collector…
We have to build our new union structures on the ground, to be solid. They (govt) will fight us hard. The (state-backed General) Federation (of Trade Unions) will not like any new independent union entities in the country… Are there others thinking of (building) independent unions? Yes, in Mahalla and other [...]

The Committee for the Defense of the Citizens of Matar Imbaba is holding a meeting tomorrow Saturday 8pm…

Makram Labib, a left-wing Copt and Daqahliya Tax Collector, was one of the leading figures in the Hussein Hegazi occupation, December 2007. As the president of the Union Committee in Daqahliya, he was the only one among the remaining state-backed 10 union committee heads to side with the strike, representing Daqahliya in the Higher Committee [...]

Make sure you check out Mostafa Bassiouni’s article in the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, on the fight of the Egyptian civil servants for free unions… A booklet on the Egyptian labor movement, coauthored by Mostafa and Omar Said, is available in English here…

Salah Abdel Salam, Daqahliya Tax Collector…
All union presidents work for State Security. And all State Security (officers) serve only the regime… Egypt has turned from a welfare state to a savage capitalist state… Strikes are the only means to get our rights, as we saw in the Real Estate (Tax Collectors’ strike), Mahalla, Mansoura-España and [...]

Chris Harman, Revolution in the 21st Century, London: Bookmarks, 2007. Pages 73-74:
[A]ny genuine mass movement involves a wide array of people with differing views on what needs to be done. Many argue for the line of action they think correct. Someone suggests a demonstration or strike. Someone else thinks such action is premature and there [...]

I traveled to Mansoura on Wednesday to attend a meeting of some of the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike leaders, who came largely from Daqahliya and the Nile Delta provinces, to discuss the fight to build their independent trade union…

I’ll post some notes and impressions of the meeting later, but for now, I want [...]

Socialist Worker reports…

Tony Cliff…

Socialist journalist Mohamed Abdel Latif, in Mansoura, The Nile Delta Province of Daqahliya… The banners on the wall read: “Together against corruption and tyranny… Together against the Zionists and the Americans… Long live the struggle of the Egyptian Left… Long live the struggle of the working class.”

Sarah Carr reports…
The second edition of independent Egyptian daily Al-Badil’s Wednesday issue was not printed due to its tone in covering the Shoura Council fire, the paper’s editor claims.
State-run Al-Ahram Printing allegedly received orders not to print the second edition of the paper.
A huge fire which began on Tuesday evening gutted the Shoura Council.
The second [...]

El-Badeel reports…