I was invited last night to the wedding party of Mervat’s daughter, Omniya Ibrahim and Waleed Sami, in Imbaba’s Madinet el-’Oummal (Workers’ City)…

Alf Mabrouk…

The Free Union leaders were having their weekly meeting near where I work in Downtown. The anniversary of the Hussein Hegazi St occupation is coming up soon, and the civil servants are planning celebrations across the Real Estate Tax Authorities offices and directorates all over the country on 3 December. Decorations will be put up [...]

A group of textile workers from Tanta’s Cotton Co are staging a sit-in now at the General Federation of Trade Unions’ HQ in el-Galaa St, demanding the revoking of sacking degrees against them.

I’m receiving news that the postal service workers will stage a sit-in today at their Postal Service HQ in Ataba, demanding job security… No more details are available yet…

The crackdown on Ghazl el-Mahalla activists continues… The govt-appointed CEO Fouad Hassan ordered today the transfer of five more women workers away from their departments…
As I’m writing, a Mahalla delegation has arrived at the General Federation of Trade Unions HQ in el-Galaa St, to protest the crackdown and is trying to see Hussein Megawer the [...]

The number of Real Estate Tax Collectors, who have endorsed the call for establishing Egypt’s first independent trade union in half a century, has exceeded 25,000…

I received the following message from Jim Barbour, the Executive Council Member of the Fire Brigade Union…
We in Northern Ireland were very disturbed, and indeed angered, at news of this most recent round of attacks on workers in Egypt.
It is a tribute to workers in Egypt and especially those at Mahalla, that they continue to [...]

From the Daily News Egypt…
Police officer Adel Al-Shahed of the Giza police station is being held pending investigation for fatally shooting a man while off-duty.
Al-Shahed was involved in an altercation near the Shooting Club in Mohandiseen last Friday, where shots fired from his gun resulted in the death of one man and the injury of [...]

Via Let’s Reclaim Our Streets…
“An uprising can only succeed if the masses feel they have chance of success. They are not drilled military formations, trained to maintain their ranks in retreat as in advance. They are men and women who will give their all if they are going to achieve liberation, but who will quickly [...]

Sarah Carr reports…
Five workers involved in labor activity in Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning factory were subjected to unofficial disciplinary measures by the company’s management, one of them told Daily News Egypt.
The measures follow a protest held on Oct. 31 during which some 800 workers protested alleged plans to privatize and sell off the factory and called [...]

After doing some photography work for the paper, I’m joining the Egyptian left-leaning daily el-Badeel as a managing editor.. I’m honored I’ll be working with a team of friends, comrades and acquaintances who have been playing a heroic role in covering the industrial action, social resistance as well as exposing police torture and government corruption…
I’m [...]

El-Badeel has a special file on the recent spate of police torture and killings scandals…

The Egyptian Workers and Trade Unions Watch has issued its report on the engineers’ protests in the electric power stations of Abu Sultan and Etaqa…
There are two more reports by the EWTUW: One on the plight of Egyptian Drilling Co. workers, who were sacked by the management, and the other on the Egypt-Hijaz Plastic Co [...]

From The Arabist…
On Tuesday 25 November at 11am, the authorities, without warning, cut off electricity to the inhabitants of the hills of Gurna and removed supply cables. The families - men, women, CHILDREN - who were unable to come to an agreement for their relocation are therefore forced to use candles for lighting (as petrol [...]

The Arab American Union Members Council expressed its unconditional support with the five victimized Ghazl el-Mahalla workers…