Mahalla’s April 6th Uprising…

They scored a victory…

I received some pix, taken by Ad-Dustour’s Rehab el-Sayyed, of the sit in staged by 200 textile workers in Suez protesting the sacking of 12 workers…

Here’s also a previous posting on the factory…

From the Daily News Egypt…
Local press reports allege that Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has twice disqualified journalist and poet Farouk Goweida from nomination for membership of the Supreme Council for Culture over the past three months in retaliation for a series of articles critical of the government.
The article series titled “The Land Mafia,” which were [...]

Mohamed Maree and Mosa’ad Abul Fagr suspended their hungerstrike yesterday in Bourg el-Arab Prison, coming under pressures from State Security police…

Click below to download the latest issue from L’Ishtraki (The Socialist), the voice of Egypt’s revolutionary left…

Demoralized by the failure of the 1977 Bread Intifada, and faced with an escalating witch-hunt campaign and purges by Sadat’s regime against leftists in the universities and civil service, thousands of Egyptian communists and radical nationalists left the country and sought refuge in Libya, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait (yeah, believe it or not, Kuwait received tons [...]

Another pic from the Family Album…

My dad, standing to the left, with his youngest brother Mostafa, in Port Said, August 1965. Mostafa was to take photography professionally from the beginning of the 1980s, and opened with the help of my dad “Studio el-Hamalawy” in Tanta. Mostafa passed away in 2006…

The Winter 2007 issue of Awraq Ishtrakiya is available online in a PDF format, divided into four files, here, here, here and there…
The Spring 2008 issue is also available in a PDF format… Click below to download it…

Michaela Singer reports…
It was a victory that was a long time coming. The shrill cries of ecstatic women filled the air as farmers made their way to the Journalists Syndicate Monday evening to celebrate the final verdict of a four-year-long battle.
Before an audience of press, lawyers, activists and farmers, Nadir Fargani chaired a whistle stop [...]

From the Daily News Egypt…
Mustafa Mahmoud Ibrahim, aged 11, was found hanged at the door of his own home in the Al-Marg area by his mother 10 days ago.
A stranger had come knocking one night to tell the boy’s family that he was on the front porch, and the mother found him hanged from the [...]

Here’s a translation, thanks to Sarah, of the Tanta Public Prosecutor’s court referral orders, in the case of the Mahalla detainees…

Another pic from the Family Album…

My dad, standing first to the right, wrote on the back of the photo, “Fayoum” but no date is mentioned. I’d suggest it was taken sometime in 1966 or 1967 before the June War. One of the persons I recognize in that pic is his best friend, whom I won’t [...]

From Ynet…
Prime Minister Olmert meets with Egyptian President Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh, receives guarantee Cairo won’t open Rafah border crossing until kidnapped Israeli soldier released.
Click on the poster below to continue reading the report…

Mohamed Maree is still on a hungerstrike in Bourg el-Arab Prison. He’s been moved to Section 15, while his fellow hungerstriker Sinai blogger Moss’ad Abu Fagr has been moved to Section 19. Both are locked up with “criminals.”

I received the following update from the Gaza Solidarity Campaign, regarding their 27 June Rafah protest…
Due to hopeful developments for the people of Gaza, we have decided to wait another week before holding the previously planned demonstration. We hope that the current cease-fire will provide some immediate relief for the besieged people of Gaza, though [...]

250 workers from the Mansoura-España Garments Company went on strike an hour ago, after the security banned Adel Hassaballah, the deputy head of the Factory Union Committee from entering the compound. The trade unionist had been fired earlier by the United Bank, charged with allowing journalists into the factory to speak to the workers…
UPDATE 9:30am: [...]

7 Mourad Street, Giza…

The following documents are the Tanta Prosecutor’s orders to refer 49 Mahalla citizens to the Criminal High State Security Emergency Court, facing a variety of accusations including: illegal assembly, disturbing public order, blocking railway lines, refusing to obey the police orders to disperse, destruction of private and public property, possession of unlicensed firearms…

Here’s also a [...]