Leo
20th May 2007, 09:22
In cement and poultry plants, in mines, on the buses and on the railways, in the sanitation sector, and above all in the textile industry, workers have been out on a series of illegal strikes against rapidly declining real wages and cuts in benefits in Egypt.
The strike in Egypt is old news but I think that it is quite interesting and positive.
Following the struggle which broke out at the big Mahalla al-Kubra’s Misr Spinning and Weaving complex north of Cairo, workers of Kafr el-Dawwar, a large textile factory declared that:
"We like to you know, we the workers of Kafr el-Dawwar and you the workers of Mahalla are walking on the same path, and have one enemy. We support your movement, because we have the same demands. Since the end of our strike in the first week of February, our Factory Union Committee has not moved to achieve our demands that instigated our strike. Our Factory Union Committee has harmed our interests … We express our support for your demand to reform the salaries. We, just like you, await the end of April to see if the Minister of Labour will implement our demands in that regards or not. We do not put much hope on the Minister, though, as we haven’t seen any move by her or the Factory Union Committee. We will depend only on our selves to achieve our demands.
Thus, we stress that:
1. We are sailing with you on the same boat, and will embark together on the same journey
2. We are declaring our full solidarity with your demands, and assert that we are ready to stage solidarity action, if you decide to take industrial action.
3. We will move to inform the workers of Artificial Silk, El-Beida Dyes, and Misr Chemicals of your struggle, and create bridges to expand the solidarity front. All workers are brothers during times of struggle.
4. We have to create a wide front to settle our battle with the government unions. We have to overthrow those unions now, not tomorrow."
http://en.internationalism.org/wr/304/egyp...-of-mass-strike (http://en.internationalism.org/wr/304/egypt-germs-of-mass-strike)
I think this is a perfect example of how class consciousness develops in class struggle. Thoughts?
The strike in Egypt is old news but I think that it is quite interesting and positive.
Following the struggle which broke out at the big Mahalla al-Kubra’s Misr Spinning and Weaving complex north of Cairo, workers of Kafr el-Dawwar, a large textile factory declared that:
"We like to you know, we the workers of Kafr el-Dawwar and you the workers of Mahalla are walking on the same path, and have one enemy. We support your movement, because we have the same demands. Since the end of our strike in the first week of February, our Factory Union Committee has not moved to achieve our demands that instigated our strike. Our Factory Union Committee has harmed our interests … We express our support for your demand to reform the salaries. We, just like you, await the end of April to see if the Minister of Labour will implement our demands in that regards or not. We do not put much hope on the Minister, though, as we haven’t seen any move by her or the Factory Union Committee. We will depend only on our selves to achieve our demands.
Thus, we stress that:
1. We are sailing with you on the same boat, and will embark together on the same journey
2. We are declaring our full solidarity with your demands, and assert that we are ready to stage solidarity action, if you decide to take industrial action.
3. We will move to inform the workers of Artificial Silk, El-Beida Dyes, and Misr Chemicals of your struggle, and create bridges to expand the solidarity front. All workers are brothers during times of struggle.
4. We have to create a wide front to settle our battle with the government unions. We have to overthrow those unions now, not tomorrow."
http://en.internationalism.org/wr/304/egyp...-of-mass-strike (http://en.internationalism.org/wr/304/egypt-germs-of-mass-strike)
I think this is a perfect example of how class consciousness develops in class struggle. Thoughts?