freepalestine
2nd May 2013, 23:11
May Day in Egypt: The Struggle for Social Justice Continues
http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/5cols/leading_images/274273-01-08.jpg
An Egyptian shouts slogans during a demonstration of members of the Egyptian Communist party, alongside with workers and political activists to mark the International Labour Day on 1 May 2013 in Cairo, Egypt. (Photo: AFP - Gianluigi Guercia)
By: Mustafa Bassiouni
Published Thursday, May 2, 2013
Over two years after Egypt’s January 25 revolution, working class Egyptians find themselves fighting alone to achieve two of the revolution’s main goals: workers’ rights and social justice.
Cairo - The workers’ movement in Egypt has made significant strides in the past few years. In March 2013 alone, one study registered more than 300 labor strikes in the country – a significant increase over the previous month, in which 250 strikes were recorded.
The most important change to occur within the movement is the emergence of an independent union movement. But the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, especially if you factor in the scope of the strikes, which have spread to nearly all parts of the country and have targeted all sectors of the economy – public and private alike – even sensitive areas, such as the strategic transportation sector.
These developments in the labor struggle have been accompanied by an equally important shift in workers’ demands, which began with narrow demands addressing wage scales and working conditions in a particular workplace. Today, the unions have broadened their agenda to include demands that could radically change Egyptian society as a whole, such as calling for both a minimum and a maximum wage to address the wide gap that exists between the rich and poor.
The workers movement is also asking for more of a share for the poor in the national budget, the firing of managers hostile to labor, re-nationalizing companies lost to privatization, and an improved labor law, among others.
But perhaps the most important change to occur within the movement is the emergence of an independent union movement. Today, Egyptian labor boasts two independent federations that include hundreds of unions, despite the fact that such formations are not legally recognized due to the current government’s insistence on maintaining the Mubarak regime’s labor law.
both the Brotherhood and the Front agree on the need to continue in the path of neoliberal policies that focus on attracting foreign investment and getting IMF loans to develop the economy. All of these factors combined suggest that we are before a completely new labor movement, which has not only gone through a number of qualitative shifts, but has managed to sustain a rising tide of protest dating back to the historic 2006 textile workers strike in Mahalla.
Unfortunately, the fall of the Mubarak regime did not end the repression workers face at the hands of the state. One of the first laws passed after the revolution was to ban strikes and sit-ins, which resulted in military trials for workers who violated it. Under President Mohammed Mursi, police dogs were repeatedly used to break up strikes, in addition to resorting to the army to put down protesting workers, as was the case in last month’s railway strike.
The political situation in Egypt in the third year after the revolution remains as challenging for the labor movement as it was under Mubarak. Not only are the ruling Muslim Brotherhood focused primarily on reinforcing their hegemony over the state, but the opposition – united under the Salvation Front – has little to offer in terms of alternatives that can achieve the goals of the revolution.
Worse yet, both the Brotherhood and the Front agree on the need to continue in the path of neoliberal policies that focus on attracting foreign investment and getting IMF loans to develop the economy. The slogan of “completing the revolution” has become nothing but an empty promise repeated by both the government and opposition without any noticeable change on the ground.
The advances that the labor movement has achieved up to this point make it a likely – and perhaps, the only – candidate to lead those social classes that have an interest in continuing the struggle to achieve the main demands of the revolution, at the top of which stood social justice.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/may-day-egypt-struggle-social-justice-continues
http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/5cols/leading_images/274273-01-08.jpg
An Egyptian shouts slogans during a demonstration of members of the Egyptian Communist party, alongside with workers and political activists to mark the International Labour Day on 1 May 2013 in Cairo, Egypt. (Photo: AFP - Gianluigi Guercia)
By: Mustafa Bassiouni
Published Thursday, May 2, 2013
Over two years after Egypt’s January 25 revolution, working class Egyptians find themselves fighting alone to achieve two of the revolution’s main goals: workers’ rights and social justice.
Cairo - The workers’ movement in Egypt has made significant strides in the past few years. In March 2013 alone, one study registered more than 300 labor strikes in the country – a significant increase over the previous month, in which 250 strikes were recorded.
The most important change to occur within the movement is the emergence of an independent union movement. But the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, especially if you factor in the scope of the strikes, which have spread to nearly all parts of the country and have targeted all sectors of the economy – public and private alike – even sensitive areas, such as the strategic transportation sector.
These developments in the labor struggle have been accompanied by an equally important shift in workers’ demands, which began with narrow demands addressing wage scales and working conditions in a particular workplace. Today, the unions have broadened their agenda to include demands that could radically change Egyptian society as a whole, such as calling for both a minimum and a maximum wage to address the wide gap that exists between the rich and poor.
The workers movement is also asking for more of a share for the poor in the national budget, the firing of managers hostile to labor, re-nationalizing companies lost to privatization, and an improved labor law, among others.
But perhaps the most important change to occur within the movement is the emergence of an independent union movement. Today, Egyptian labor boasts two independent federations that include hundreds of unions, despite the fact that such formations are not legally recognized due to the current government’s insistence on maintaining the Mubarak regime’s labor law.
both the Brotherhood and the Front agree on the need to continue in the path of neoliberal policies that focus on attracting foreign investment and getting IMF loans to develop the economy. All of these factors combined suggest that we are before a completely new labor movement, which has not only gone through a number of qualitative shifts, but has managed to sustain a rising tide of protest dating back to the historic 2006 textile workers strike in Mahalla.
Unfortunately, the fall of the Mubarak regime did not end the repression workers face at the hands of the state. One of the first laws passed after the revolution was to ban strikes and sit-ins, which resulted in military trials for workers who violated it. Under President Mohammed Mursi, police dogs were repeatedly used to break up strikes, in addition to resorting to the army to put down protesting workers, as was the case in last month’s railway strike.
The political situation in Egypt in the third year after the revolution remains as challenging for the labor movement as it was under Mubarak. Not only are the ruling Muslim Brotherhood focused primarily on reinforcing their hegemony over the state, but the opposition – united under the Salvation Front – has little to offer in terms of alternatives that can achieve the goals of the revolution.
Worse yet, both the Brotherhood and the Front agree on the need to continue in the path of neoliberal policies that focus on attracting foreign investment and getting IMF loans to develop the economy. The slogan of “completing the revolution” has become nothing but an empty promise repeated by both the government and opposition without any noticeable change on the ground.
The advances that the labor movement has achieved up to this point make it a likely – and perhaps, the only – candidate to lead those social classes that have an interest in continuing the struggle to achieve the main demands of the revolution, at the top of which stood social justice.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/may-day-egypt-struggle-social-justice-continues