H17193
Headlines : InternationalEgyptian Workers Riot Over Rising Prices
The U.S.-backed government strongly warned citizens against participating in the strikes and demonstrations. Strikes and protests are illegal in Egypt, and protesters are often detained by Egyptian security forces.
Nearly 40 percent Egypt’s 76 million people live below or near the poverty line of $2 a day. The prices of staples such as cooking oil and rice have nearly doubled in recent months, amid widespread shortages of government-subsidized bread.
No wonder people are rioting. Mahalla, the epicenter of these events, has become a hotbed of labor organizing in contravention to official unions and the odious dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. Recent weeks have seen doctors out on strike, as well as the mass arrest of opposition politicians, but Egyptian society continues to simmer.
[Posted By Szamko]Republished from Associated Press
Thousands of demonstrators angry about rising prices and stagnant salaries torched buildings, looted shops and hurled bricks at police who responded with tear gas Sunday in a northern industrial town as Egyptians staged a nationwide strike.
About 150 people were arrested and 80 were wounded in the gritty Nile Delta town of Mahalla el-Kobra, where riots broke out among residents and disgruntled workers at the largest textile factory in Egypt.
Protesters stormed city hall, burned tires in the streets, smashed chairs through shop windows and ran off with computers. At least two schools were set ablaze and facades of banks were vandalized, police said.
Nearly 100 others were arrested elsewhere across Egypt, officials said, as thousands skipped work and school and hundreds protested over the rising cost of food and deteriorating working conditions.
Posted by Szamko
Just tries to tell the truth.
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Posted by ShiftShapers on Monday, October 1st 2007 - Workers protest in Egypt
Posted by Szamko on Wednesday, February 20th 2008
Egypt’s workers defy repression in Mahalla Tens of thousands of Egyptians faced down murderous repression in a historic show of defiance…On Sunday and Monday, one of the US’s key allies in the Middle East, has been severely shaken by a movement the like of which has not been seen in the country in decades. (Socialist Worker)
The movement began with a call for a protest strike against inflation and low wages by textile workers in the industrial city of Mahalla el-Kubra. Mahalla’s strike was due to start at the change of shifts at 7.30am. Sunday is a normal working day in Egypt.
Mobile phone messages circulated around the country calling on people to stay at home, wear black and hang Egyptian flags from their homes.
The regime panicked and flooded the Nile Delta city with riot police, state security forces and thugs from the ruling party.
Armed with shotguns, tear gas, rubber bullets and electric cattle prods, they surrounded the mill on Saturday and began welding shut the factory gates.
...At 3am on Sunday the police stormed into the factory and seized 150 workers ahead of the shift change. Security agents dispersed any group of workers who gathered inside the plant.
The intimidation stifled the attempted walkout, and a tense stand off began to develop at the factory gates. But sometime after 3pm a demonstration broke out in the town square. Up to 7,000 workers and supporters began chanting against price increases.
Mubarak’s police opened fire killing four, including a 20 year old man and a nine year boy. Over 90 people were wounded.
The crowd responded by attacking police trucks. The police then fired on a bus full of workers setting it ablaze.
...Another mass demonstration took place in Mahalla on Monday. A socialist activist in the city reported that at 4pm 2,000 people began chanting against the government, price increases and police brutality.
The crowds grew to 50,000 and chanted, “Gamal, tell your father we will fuck him.”
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