Where is Syria's revolution going?

Lee Sustar examines the latest phase of Syria's revolution, the politics of the opposition and the U.S.-led sanctions campaign against the Assad regime.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/08/30/where-is-syrias-revolution-going

Military council fails to defuse mounting tales of torture in Egypt

Army tried 12,000 civilians in military courts since Mubarak fell

With accusations that Egypt's army uses torture against prisoners gaining more attention in the media, the tireless work of campaigners to highlight an issue that has dogged the military rulers is starting to reap reward  

Mostafa Ali

Ahram Online

25 Aug 2011


http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/19748/Egypt/Politics-/Military-council-fails-to-defuse-mounting-tales-of.aspx

The US is not qualified to intervene on behalf of democracy in the region

Al-Jazeera interview with Jadaliyya co-editor:




http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2371/the-united-states-is-not-qualified-to-intervene-on

أسماء المتحدثين في ندوة: دروس اعتصام 8 يوليو وموقعة العباسية - 11 أغسطس, و فيديوهات عن التعذيب

 

سلسلة ندوات "كيف تنتصر الثورة؟"

.. دروس اعتصام 8 يوليو وموقعة العباسية

رغم فض المجلس العسكري والشرطة بالقوة الوحشية

لإعتصام أهالي الشهداء ومؤيديهم في 1 اغسطس,

إلا أن إعتصام ميدان التحرير قد حقق نجاحات مهمة

وأجبر المجلس العسكري على تغيير الحكومة والموافقة

على بعض مطالب أسر الشهداء وإحضار مبارك شخصيا للمحاكمة.

لن يكون هذا الإعتصام المعركة الأخيرة ولن تكون موقعة العباسية

المرة الاخيرة التي تشهد فيها مصر المواجهة بين

قوى الثورة وقوى الثورة المضادة.                                                                                  

يدعوكم الاشتراكيين الثوريين لحضور نقاش مع نشطاء و رفاق

لعبوا دورا مهما في تنظيم الاعتصام لنستخلص معا الدروس

التي نحتاجها بشدة للاعداد للمعارك القادمة حتي تنتصر الثورة.

يتحدث في الندوة:

*  ممثل عن: حزب التحالف الشعبي الأشتراكي
* عمرو عز -  حركة 6 ابريل
* علي ناجي -  حزب العمال الديمقراطي
* أحمد قناوي -  الجبهة الديمقراطية للعدالة
* هيثم محمدين -  الاشتراكيين الثوريين
* و الشيخ حسنين النجار: شاهد عيان علي موقعة العباسية

التاريخ : الخميس 11 أغسطس

الساعة : الثامنة ونصف مساءا

المكان : مقر مركز الدراسات الاشتراكية

7 شارع مراد بميدان الجيزة

ندوات تنظمها:

منظمة الأشتراكيين الثوريين

www.e-socialists.net

خبز              حرية             عدالة اجتماعية

هل حرض اللواء الرويني, عضو المجلس العسكري، علي قتل شهيد العباسية محمد محسن؟

فيديو مداخلة المحامي خالد علي مع يسري فوده علي قناة ON TV .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHZN7xeKLEA

الشرطة العسكرية و أمن الدولة : أيد واحدة للتعذيب؟

فيديو من تصوير/عبدالرحمن عز مذيع قناة 25 , بعد إعتقاله من قبل ظابط أمن دولة وأفراد مباحث أثناء تصويره لأحداث فض إعتصام التحرير في 1 رمضان.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgcpPQfYnKc&feature=player_embedded

Egypt's military ends three-week-old Tahrir sit-in by force but protesters come back

Mostafa Ali

Ahram Online

2 August 2011

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/1/64/17900/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-military-ends-threeweekold-Tahrir-sitin-by-.aspx

 Army destroyed protesters tents yesterday

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/17944/Egypt/Politics-/Down-but-not-out-revived-Tahrir-protests-rage-on.aspx

 Protesters came back at night

Account of the Islamists’ overtake of Friday demonstrations in Alexandria, Egypt

Islamists raise flags in Alexandria

Ahram Online

Mostafa Ali


31 July 2011

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/1/64/17711/Egypt/Politics-/Account-of-the-Islamists%E2%80%99-overtake-of-Friday-demon.aspx

Political groups denounce violation of unity agreement in Egypt

A photo of the press conference (Photo: May Shaheen)‎

Ahram Online


30 July 2011


http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/17654/Egypt/Politics-/Political-groups-denounce-violation-of-unity-agree.aspx

Bloody Saturday: The 2nd Battle of the Camel

Ahram Online

24 July 2011  

 

March from Tahrir to military council HQ attacked in Abbasiya

Clashes erupted again in Abbasiya, near the headquarters of the ruling military council, as political forces of the January 25 Revolution tried to reach the site to stage a protest

 

Salma El-Wardani and Mostafa Ali

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/1/64/17145/Egypt/Politics-/March-from-Tahrir-to-military-council-HQ-attacked-.aspx

When the army creates a front line in Egypt

 

Ayman Farag

Ahram Online's reporter account of the violent end to the peaceful march by protesters from Tahrir Square to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' headquarters on the anniversary of the 1952 revolution

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/1/64/17210/Egypt/Politics-/When-the-army-creates-a-front-line-in-Egypt.aspx

2 Days in Tahrir- who leads the sit-in?

Sit-in enters 13th day (Picture by Mai Shahin)

Mostafa Ali


Ahram Online


22 July 2011


http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/1/64/16944/Egypt/Politics-/In-Egypts-iconic-Tahrir-whos-running-the-show-and-.aspx

Government falls again: The new surge of protest in Egypt

Field Marshal Tantawi, the head of SCAF

Socialist Worker (USA)

18 July 2011

After months in which the Egyptian revolution faded from the headlines of Western newspapers, a wave of protests during July has brought renewed attention to the struggle--and the efforts to win further and lasting change over the wishes of the country's military rulers.  

Lottie Monson reports from Cairo on the latest mobilizations of the Egyptian revolution

http://socialistworker.org/2011/07/18/surge-of-protest-in-egypt

A new struggle at Tahrir Square

July 14, 2011

A day of protests on July 12 highlighted the rising anger at Egypt's military rulers for holding back popular demands for revolutionary change.
A series of protests challenging Egypt's military government has sharpened the struggle over the direction of the revolution five months after the fall of tyrant Hosni Mubarak.
Police attacked pro-democracy protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square June 28, waving swords and firing tear gas, while thugs in plain clothes attacked protesters by throwing rocks. Meanwhile, right-wing Islamist groups, known as Salafists, have carried out violent attacks on Christians.
But the revolutionary forces--angry at the military government for stalling on real change and keeping elements of the Mubarak regime in positions of power--were not intimidated. They organized a big protest in Tahrir Square on July 8, where left-wing activists launched a sit-in. Next came a nationwide day of protest on July 12 to demand the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of 1000 people during the revolution that began January 25.

Mostafa Omar reports from Cairo on the July 12 protests that called for the fulfillment of revolutionary promises made by Egypt's government.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/07/14/new-struggle-tahrir-square

Egypt: Revolution shakes Police force

 Central Security forces in action against protesters

Ahmed Eleiba

13 July 2011

Ahram Online


Edited and translated by Mostafa Ali


http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/16342/Egypt/Politics-/State-of-insecurity-at-Egypts-Ministry-of-Interior.aspx

Egypt: Revolution scores small but important victories

At least 50,000 people rallied in Cairo on 12 July  

(Photo by May Shahin)

Mostafa Omar

13 July 2001

Ahram Online

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/16273/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-second-revolution-welcomes-gains,-abhors-th.aspx

الاشتراكيون الثوريون: السلطة للثورة.. السلطة للشعب

بعد خمسة شهور من خلع رأس النظام الفاسد إنكشف للجميع خطة معسكر الثورة المضادة الذي يضم كل أصحاب المصالح في استمرار نفس سياسات نظام مبارك من رجال أعمال فاسدين وبلطجيتهم وقيادات وزارة الداخلية والنقابات والجامعات والمحافظين وأعضاء المجالس المحلية المنحلة وحتى في الحكومة الحالية والمجلس العسكري.


حيث يراهن أعداء الثورة والوطن على مرور الوقت دون تحقيق أهداف الثورة ومطالبها حتى ينقلب الشعب على ثورته بحجة ماذا قدمت الثورة للشعب؟ وتحدث الفرقة بين الثوار وينكسروا أو يستسلموا للأمر الواقع تحت شعار "مافيش فايده"، كما يدفعون بمحاكمات رموز النظام إلى متاهات الإجراءات القانونية ودهاليز المحامين والتباطؤ الملوث بالتواطؤ ليحصل بعض الوزراء الفاسدين مؤخرا على البراءة في قضايا إهدار للمال العام لعدم كفاية الأدلة وخلل الإجراءات مثلما يحدث مع تجار المخدرات الكبار.


إن صلابة الثوار وإصرارهم على استكمال أهداف الثورة أصبح هو الخيار الوحيد أمامنا فنحن لن نستسلم، ننتصر أو نموت. هذا الإصرار كان عامل الحسم لتردد بعض التيارات التي لحقت بالثورة والتي يضغط شبابها المخلص على قياداتها الانتهازية حتى يعودوا لصفوف الثوار.


والاشتراكيون الثوريون الذين خاضوا لأكثر من عشرين عاما كل نضالات الشعب المصري ضد النظام البائد وسياساته بدءا من الاحتجاجات العمالية التي ازدادت قوة منذ 2006 ومرورا برفض العدوان على الشعوب العربية والدفاع عن الحريات والذين شاركوا من اللحظة الأولى في ثوره الشعب المصري العظيمة مصرون على استكمال مهام وأهداف الثورة بجوار كل الشرفاء من أبناء الوطن من أجل التغيير والحرية والعدالة الاجتماعية التي سال من أجلها دماء الشهداء الغالي.


التغيير: الذي لن يحدث إلا بوصول قوى الثورة للسلطة وانسحاب الجيش إلى ثكناته ومهمته في حماية الوطن والمحاكمات العاجلة والعادلة والعلنية لمبارك ورجاله للقصاص للشهداء والمصابين وإيقاف كل الضباط المتهمين في قتل الشهداء عن العمل ووضعهم قيد الحبس الاحتياطي لحين الحكم في القضايا والتطهير الحقيقي لوزارة الداخلية والقوات المسلحة والجامعات والنقابات وإتحاد العمال والمحافظين والعزل السياسي لمدة خمس سنوات لقيادات الحزب الواطي وأعضائه في مجالس الشعب والشورى والمحليات.


والحرية: في إلغاء المحاكمات العسكرية للمدنيين وإعادة محاكمتهم أمام قاضيهم الطبيعي وإلغاء القانون الفضيحة الخاص بتجريم الاعتصام والإضراب الذي لم يجرؤ مبارك على إصداره وكذلك إلغاء حالة الطوارئ ووقف جرائم التعذيب التي لازالت مستمرة دون حساب أو عقاب.


والعدالة الاجتماعية: من أجل ملايين المصريين الذين يصارعون الفقر والمحرومين من أبسط حقوق التعليم والعلاج والسكن، وذلك عبر فرض حد أدنى للأجور 1200 جنيه يتم تمويله عبر وضع حد أقصى للأجور لا يتجاوز خمسة عشر ضعفا و فرض ضرائب تصاعدية على الأرباح يستخدم عائدها في تحسين خدمات الصحة والتعليم والإسكان للفقراء واسترداد الشركات التي تم بيعها بأبخس الأسعار ووقف برنامج الخصخصة سيئ السمعة واستعادة ومصادرة أموال رجال اﻷعمال الفاسدين لصالح الشعب واستعادة جميع الأراضي التي استولوا عليها.


فالشعب المصري لن يقبل بالإذلال والاستغلال والقهر مره أخرى ولن يستعبد أو يورث بعد 25 يناير وصلابة الثوار ووحدتهم خلف أهداف الثورة وإصرارهم عليها سيكون هو السبب في التفاف الشعب ثانيه حول ثورته وكسر دعاوى الإحباط والهزيمة.


فلنستعيد روح اعتصام يناير ليعود الشعب والشعب يدا واحده لنجبر كل الأعداء والانتهازيين على العودة لجحورهم كما نجحنا في إسقاط واحد من رموز أكثر النظم استبداديه في التاريخ خلال ثمانية عشر يوما.

المجد للشهداء والنصر للثورة والسلطة للشعب

الاشتراكيون الثوريون
8 يوليو

Egypt Revolution: Act 2

Millions took to the streets across Egypt to demand justice for the martyrs' families and social justice. It is by far the largest and angriest mobilization since Mubarak fell last February. Thousands started an open ended sit-in in Tahrir and Alexandria until demands are met.



Read more:

Ahram Online

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/1/15863/Egypt/Live-updates-A-blow-by-blow-account-of-Egypts-Revo.aspx

Hussein Salem: A businessman from the times of crony capitalism (Part Two)

Mubarak and Hussein Salem

حسين سالم:
قصة رجل أعمال من زمن رأسمالية المحاسيب

الجزء الثاني:
من أصدقاء بغداد إلي الهروب من أبوظبي 

الأهر ام

تحقيق إستقصائي‏:‏ 
  كارم يحيي

http://www.ahram.org.eg/571/2011/06/21/3/85202/219.aspx

Al-Ahram, in a five-part series, traces the hidden story of one of the richest men in Egypt, now wanted on charges of corruption

Part Two:

From Baghdad to Abu-Dhabi

Karem Yehia

Edited and Translated by Mostafa Ali

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/14830/Egypt/0/Hussein-Salem-A-businessman-from-the-times-of-cron.aspx

Hussein Salem: A businessman from the times of crony capitalism (Part One)

حسين سالم:
قصة رجل أعمال من زمن رأسمالية المحاسيب

الأهر ام

تحقيق إستقصائي‏:‏ 
 كارم يحيي
http://www.ahram.org.eg/570/2011/06/21/3/84958/219.aspx

Al-Ahram, in a four-part series, traces the hidden story of one of the richest men in Egypt, now wanted on charges of corruption

Karem Yehia

Edited and Translated by Mostafa Ali

Hussein Salem

All the king’s men: Who runs Mubarak's' money? 


Hussein Salem is one of the richest men in Egypt and one of the closest friends of the ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his family. Salem fled the country days before the ousting of Mubarak. He has been wanted in Egypt for months on multiple charges of financial corruption, some of which is attributed to the below-market-value sale of gas to Israel. No one knew his whereabouts for months. Finally, he turned up in Spain last week. We learned that because the Spanish government arrested him on charges of fraud and money laundering.

Minister of Justice, Mohammed El-Guindi, described Hussein Salem as the man who holds the keys to corruption in this country. Local Egyptian media called him the "black box" of the fortunes and activities of the deposed president Hosni Mubarak in the world of business. The American network ABC News called him the "front man" in a story that attempted to track where Mubarak and his family’s money went.
In a month-long trip of journalistic investigation, Ahram managed to dispel some of the myths and lies that surround this mysterious man. We managed to uncover certain important facts about the man. We also obtained some rare photographs of Salem, which tell us quite a bit about his persona and history.
However, the secrets that surround Hussein Salem remain, by and large, sealed in closed drawers - from the White House and Congress of the United States, to the Royal courts in Persian Gulf countries, passing through several cities in Europe and all the way back to Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt itself.
For example, nobody knows the size of the man's wealth. Nobody knows where his cash is. Does he actually pay taxes? How much does he pay?
Even Said Jameel, the man many sources informed us was Salem’s own personal lawyer, tried at first to deny having anything to do with Salem when we sat down to interview him for this story.
However, we did manage to learn enough about Hussein Salem Kamal El-Din Aboul-Einen, aka Hussein Salem, 77 years of age.
The first and most important fact worth mentioning is that Hussein Salem singlehandedly added new meaning and dimensions to the concept known as “crony capitalism,” or the unholy marriage between private capitalists, financiers and investors on the one hand and government officials on the other, which has become a defining feature of late capitalism, especially in a country like Egypt.

The mystery man

How could government information agencies and mainstream newspapers in a country as highly centralised as Mubarak’s Egypt fail to maintain even simple and basic data about a man like Hussein Salem?
Salem was actually born on 11 November 1933 and not 1928, the same year Mubarak was born, as some papers claimed. He has not served even a single day in the armed forces, let alone any time alongside Mubarak in the air force, as several sources made us believe for quite some time. In fact, for one, Hussein Salem sustained an eye injury during childhood, which prevented him from performing any military service.
Moreover, after the death of his father, who was a school teacher, Salem took on the responsibility of working and providing for his mother (Hosnia Tabozada who was of Turkish origins and Salem’s father’s second wife) and his two siblings - his older sister Thuraiya and his brother Rafiq, 10 years his junior.
As the real record shows, Salem was the oldest child and his family’s provider after the death of his father and therefore could not have served in the military.
Our own trusted sources revealed that Salem was actually born in the neighbourhood of Khalifa in the district of Muqattam, a suburb of Cairo, not in the village of El-Saf near the Helwan suburb of Cairo as Riqaba Idariya (the Egyptian Administrative Control Authority) records indicate.
In fact, Salem’s own father was the one born in El-Saf, Helwan. There, he married a country girl who gave birth to Salem’s five half siblings: Abdel Hamid, Salah, Qadriya, Fawziya, and Samiha - all now deceased.
Samiha actually married into the Arabian tribe of Abaydah which is concentrated in the vicinity of Ismailiya Governorate and extends into the Sinai peninsula. This fact might explain stories that were circulated about his “Bedouin roots”, a rumour that was used to explain his business dealings in Sinai since the late 1980s.
Interestingly, an informed source confirmed that Salem himself weaved this rumour of his kinship with Bedouins in order to firstly solidify his business deals with Bedouin tribes in Southern Sinai, who in turn would guarantee protection for his tourism investments and interests in the area, and secondly, obtain further land concessions from his friend Mubarak and officials in the latter’s administration - all part of the game of crony capitalism.

Archive talk

All these misrepresentations and half-truths which we obtained from reliable sources forced us to take another, closer, look at newspapers’ archival material on the man.
We found out, for example, that no data centres at any of our major newspapers had a file on Hussein Salem prior to the January 25 Revolution and before he fled the country in February 2011. Even the 1992 second  edition National Egyptian Encyclopaedia of prominent Egyptians, which is published by the governmental Information Agency and contains biographies of 64 contemporary figures among 4269 public ones, failed to mention Salem, a man at the peak of his financial and political prowess at the time.
With difficulty, one is able to find the man’s name or the name of his son Khaled on some sports pages under golf news and in some stories on oil and tourism, and only in a very limited number of newspapers. Miraculously, we were able to find one interview with Salem in an Egyptian paper, The Economic World Today, dated 17 March 2007.
 It was as if someone in a higher office has given strict orders to the media to keep Salem and his family out of newspaper pages during that period.
It was also very difficult to find copies of archived articles or coverage of Salem in the western press, despite the fact that Salem’s name started to be mentioned by western media in the early 1980s because of accusations levelled against him about financial tampering in arms deals. All we were able to find were two interviews with him by American Military Aid Journal and Forbes magazine, dated 31 May 1988 and 17 August 2000 respectively.
Mysteriously, both Forbes and its arch-rival Fortune 500 magazine have no mention of the size of Salem’s wealth or anything about his business partners.
All of these “secret clouds” confirm, as our reliable sources told us, that Salem did not talk much to the press about his life, preferred to stay out of the limelight, and did not even allow people to take his photos in weddings and social gatherings.
Given all that, it is quite significant that unlike men of lesser wealth and influence, Hussein Salem did not publish any public eulogies of the former president Anwar Sadat who was assassinated on 6 October 1981 in any newspaper.
His name, furthermore, would not reappear in the press until 8 September 2008, when Salem, uncharacteristically, published condolences to the family of former minister of defence, Field Marshal Abdel Halim Abou-Ghazala, on his death.
Characteristically, though, Salem used no label or business title for himself in the advertisement, and referred to the deceased Field Marshal simply as “a dear friend.”

A lucky clerk in the Nasser era

Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, despite this long trail of secrecy and mystery, told us that Hussein Salem graduated from the Faculty of Commerce in the summer of 1956 (weeks before Nasser made the decision to nationalise the Suez Canal and the trilateral attack on Egypt that followed).
Shortly after his father’s death, Salem’s family, now headed by his mother, moved from the Khalifa neighbourhood to an apartment on the top floor of a building located on a small street called Sphinx- near Baghdad Street- in the Korba area of Heliopolis.
Salem’s mother struggled to provide for him and his siblings solely on her late husband’s meagre pension (and even after she sold a five-acre plot of land the family owned and another similar sized plot she personally owned).
Sources say that Hussein Salem was not a talented or bright student. He graduated from Heliopolis Public High School only after having to repeat the final academic year twice. Nevertheless, Salem’s friendship with the younger sons of the wealthy businessman Zuhair Garanah, who was also a minister in Nasser’s first cabinet after the July 1952 Revolution, pushed him in the direction of pursuing a business career.
Unlike his younger brother, Salem did not show any interest in volunteering to join civil defence militias, which Egyptians formed to defend the Canal against the foreign invaders. Sources say that Salem grew up in constant fear of everything after his father’s death of typhoid, and was convinced that he would not himself live past the age of 40.  In fact, the story has it that during the entire period of trilateral bombings of eastern Cairo in the fall of 1956, Salem hid under his bed!
There are no indications that Salem opposed Nasser’s decision to nationalise the Suez Canal or any other foreign holdings in Egypt during that period. If anything, Salem expressed resentment among his close friends about Nasser’s decision in 1961 to nationalise the holdings of major Egyptian capitalists- otherwise known as the July Socialist Decrees.
At the time of the trilateral attack on Egypt, Salem had just begun working as a clerk at the Textile Support Fund, which was located in the famous Immobilia Building in midtown Cairo. In some ways, Hussein Salem was a lucky young man. Nasser provided many jobs to young people to combat high unemployment rates among them. Very shortly after graduating from the Faculty of Commerce, one of Salem’s relatives recommended him for work at the Textile Fund. He landed the position, which paid 18 pounds per month- a high amount for a government clerk at the time - and carried with it possibilities of travelling outside of a country that he considered too saddled by a closed economy and scarcity of consumer goods.
Salem definitely enjoyed the fine things in life at the time. He had a passion for watching Hollywood films in the theatre, for Frank Sinatra, as well as for English Victorian furniture. This explains why he furnished his five star hotel, Jolie Ville in Sharm el-Sheikh, in an extravagant Victorian style. Celebrities who attended the opening of Salem’s Jolie Ville in October 1991 are reported to have been impressed with his exquisite taste.
Hussein Salem married Nazimah Abdel-Magid Ismaiil in 1959. The new family moved into a nine-pound per month, three-bedroom apartment across the street from El-Mazah Phone Building in the Golf area of Heliopolis.
According to testimony from a neighbour, who preferred to remain anonymous, Salem owned no cars and showed no signs of wealth for most of the 1960s and 1970s.
It was only in 1977 that things began to shape up for Salem. After returning to Egypt from a short assignment in the United Arab Emirates, he moved with his family from his Golf area apartment into a new unit in an apartment building he constructed in Saba Emarat area of Heliopolis.
He had landed a new job with a salary of 43 pounds per month at the Arab Company for External Trade. However, the birth of his children, Khaled in 1961 and Magda in 1963, strained his finances. Close friends of Salem say that he constantly borrowed money to pay Khaled’s fees at the English private school Saint George in Heliopolis.
Other sources claim that the Arab Company for External Trade was nothing but a front operation for Nasser’s Intelligence Services. A former CEO of the company, who refused to give his name, recalled that Salem was a strangely private employee who travelled on dubious trips abroad on numerous occasions. This source added that, perhaps, Salem was supervising arms deals to support national liberation struggles in North Africa, as part of Nasser’s foreign policy at that time.
Salem’s short-trips, mini-adventures and arms’ deals of the 1960s and early 1970s are of course very small and very different to his extensive arms deals and bigger business partners in the latter part of the 1970s.
However, before we begin to travel along this part of his journey, we will have to make two more stops full of secrets along the way: Baghdad and Abu Dhabi.

Egypt's 'noble poor' denied their role in the revolution

Photo by Mai Shahin: Labour and farmers protesting last week in front of the ministerial council

 

Egypt's revolution demanded social justice, and the popularity of a recent blog post highlighting the injustices endured by the poor before and since 25 January shows little has changed

 

Lina El-Wardani 

 

Ahram Online

 

21 Jun 2011

 

Activist Mohammed Abul Gheit’s blog shot up in popularity with his post The Poor First, You Bastards for highlighting the poor’s role in the revolution. For the first time readers saw martyr’s photos and stories (20) from the lower classes, ranging in age from 16 to 35.
Importantly, the article pushes the boundaries of Egypt’s classicism by posing the question: Why is the poor's role in the revolution ignored?
"Why don't we see those people's photos? Is it because they are poor and vulgar? Because their clothes are cheap? Why are the only popular photos of martyrs from middle- and upper-middle classes?" wonders Abul Gheit in his blog that has seen 10,000 likes on Facebook and 6,000 comments.
Indeed, the poor's role is ignored by most politicians, intellectuals and researchers, and somehow, Egypt’s Revolution was classified as a middle-class revolution.
In fact, all classes were seen in Tahrir Square. During the height of the revolt, from 25 - 28 January and mostly from Cairo's poorest districts: Imbaba, Boulak and Attaba, including the fights with police in the alleys that exhausted the police and played a major role in the success of the revolution. A case in point: on the pivotal date for the revolution, 28 January, the police attacked protesters and citizens the whole day and then disappeared. While the middle- and upper-classes took the beating, tear gas bombs and bullets peacefully, the lower classes fought back and defeated the police.
Activist Amr Ezzat, however, resists Abul Gheit’s minimisation of the middle-class’ role in the revolution: "The middle class was the brain and initiative of revolution, also I hate the word poor, you distance yourself from them and the concept returns us to charity rather than rights, I like the political terms of labourers, farmers, people who have rights, and this brings us to necessary political argument not social charity," added Ezzat.
Abul Gheit's blog post narrates tens of stories of how the residents of poor and disadvantaged areas were the ones who really fought back using stones, makeshift weapons, such as knives and sticks, Molotov cocktails and often with their bare hands.
Treatment by the judicial system
To add insult to injury, many believe that the trials of officers accused of killing civilians at the site of protests are at turtle speed. Last Monday the Alexandria Criminal Court adjourned - again - the case of six high-ranking officers charged with the murder and attempted murder of peaceful protesters to 17 October. The courtroom broke out into chaos. Today the officers were released on account of their occupation.
The families were outraged by what they called the “unjustified” postponement of the trial. The lawyers of the policemen reportedly raised fingers at the families, countering that their sons are "not martyrs: they are losers who happened to be near the police station," according to Al Badeel news website.
The lawyers aren’t the only ones judging Egypt’s poorer citizens. It’s a striking pattern to see the poorer citizens arrested by Egypt’s ruling military under the pretence that they are “thugs” and receive worse treatment than those who are obviously middle- or upper-class, including less protection from lawyers and more abuses occur against them because they won’t receive as much media limelight.
What’s important?
So why is the poor's role in the revolution brushed aside so? According to Ayman El Sayad, analyst and editor in chief of Weghat Nazar, this goes way back to the 70s, forty years before the 25 January Revolution, when Egyptian values changed and it no longer mattered how educated or respectful people are, but rather how much they have. Those who attend public schools and universities are not treated the same as those who attend private ones. "Your value lies in what you are wearing, etc. As the hierarchy of society changed; its criteria changed. I believe that the poor are the main fuel of the revolution. The people who have nothing to lose are the noblemen behind the revolution," concluded El Sayad.
Abul Gheit and El Sayad are on the same wavelength in this respect. Abul Gheit linked a video of the police station in Sayeda Zeinab (a poor district in central Cairo) as it was being burnt down. In the video a middle-class young man warns a poor man: “Careful; they are shooting live bullets,” to which the young, poor man replies "It doesn't matter any longer whether I live or die."
The analysis Abul Gheit gives for this exchange is "He [the poor man] didn't tell him, ‘I'd die for Egypt,’ or ‘I am a martyr of Islam:' his simple answer means his life as a poor and humiliated person is not better than dying. No one could imagine that the politicians would later say that if we don't establish the constitution first that we would be betraying the martyrs’ blood, and that group [that is pushing for] the elections first would counter: we know the martyrs better than you do and we have sacrificed more than you."
The whole argument of whether to establish the constitution first versus hold the elections first doesn't mean much to 40 per cent of Egyptians under the poverty line, unless this directly affects their living conditions. They believe that this is all media talk and no one really cares about them.
The result is that the poor are now blaming the revolution and revolutionaries for exacerbating their poverty post-revolution, explains Abul Gheit.
Amr Ezzat believes this argument is demeaning to the poor and politics at the same time: “I don't agree with the blog's main argument because it is against politics, while the most important thing the revolution did is politicise Egyptians.”
Since the revolution food prices have almost doubled. Unemployment for young people hovers around 30 per cent. Many of those who have jobs are under-employed and earn very little.
In a recent survey by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) 41 per cent of the youth in Egypt confirmed that the events post-revolution make them want to migrate.
The survey reveals that the first weeks of the revolution didn't seem to influence Egyptians’ decision to migrate. However, the decline in economic activity afterwards and the loss of jobs and incomes acted as a primary push factor for youth who reported intentions to migrate.
When asked what their top five most important issues are, they ranked jobs and employment as a primary issue; then corruption; security; constitutional reform and at the bottom of their list was education and the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Is it just a matter of a minimum wage?
The poor might also interpret the government’s answer to the recent minimum wage demands as biased against them. The government recently decided to raise the minimum wage to LE 700 (just over $100/month), promising to raise it to LE 1200 ($200) within five years. But why should the poor have to wait five more years after over thirty years of being marginalised and impoverished?
Senior employment expert, Dorothea Schmidt, with the International Labour Organization (ILO) is sceptical of this scheme. She argues that the government’s plans to implement a minimum wage in Egypt will have minimal impact on improving the poverty situation.
In fact, many economists caveat that a minimum wage without a maximum wage and a rearranging of salaries structure has little significance.
“The LE700 that the government wants to set as a minimum wage in both the public and the private sectors shouldn’t involve that much debate," said Schmidt to Ahram Online earlier this month, adding that large companies wouldn't be harmed by this step, as it implicates only a small increase in production costs.
Schmidt believes that informal workers are ignored by the new policies, as they do not tackle the wage conditions of those employed in the informal sector, a group with the lowest average wage rates in the country.
Statistics suggest that over 35 per cent of Egypt's labour is working in vulnerable jobs, lacking social insurance, health insurance, unionisation, etc. Informal employment in the private sector includes up to 75 per cent of total labourers.
Also, the law that criminalised strikes and protests passed only a month after the revolution ousted the president seems particularly biased against the poor and those who have long been suffering poor working conditions and salaries.
The financial budget announced by Financial Minister Samir Radwan earlier in June forecasts an expenditure of LE514.5 billion ($86.6 billion), with revenue increasing to LE350.3 billion from 285.8, according to a cabinet statement.
However, when comparing the increase in the vital section, such as education and health, the increase is less than 10 per cent from last year, which is much less than the revolutionaries hoped for. The same applies for the tax increase from 20 per cent to 25 per cent on those whose annual income exceeds LE10 milllion, according to many analysts, is much less than expected if you want to bridge the wide gap between the rich and the poor.
If this is the stance of the government, how about the politicians and intellectuals? They are mostly pre occupied with the issue of constitution first or elections first.
Many believe that the current government is biased against the poor and afraid of the businessmen.
Between being ignored and the decline in economy, which has left the poor even poorer, they seem to be simmering resentment against the revolution and the middle-class.
"The elite are separated from the street; they are centred in conference rooms, on TV channels; they only discuss what they want and not what the revolution wants. That's why we find two political figures with the same ideas forming two parties instead of one, because they both want to be stars" accuses El Sayad, adding that “...it’s a fake elite that, sadly, sabotages the revolution. This is common in history: the noble poor create the revolution and the politicians inhale its benefits," adds Sayad.
Abul Gheit ends his post by quoting Erdogan in the 90s in an Islamic organisations conference that his plan is to solve the sewage problem. He didn't say he would implement the sharia (Islamic law) and that's how he became prime minister: because he focused on daily problems of the Turks, but here in Egypt, we don't have an Erdogan. We only have boring and old politicians indulging in their meaningless discussions of secular or Islamic, constitution first or elections first, and to those he says "The poor first."

Suez Canal strike enters Day 8!

Ahram Online

21 June 2011

Strikes by workers at seven Suez Canal Authority companies are continuing for their eighth consecutive day as their demands remain unmet.

On Tuesday morning, protesters marched through the streets of Ismailiya holding an open casket, inside of which was an effigy inscribed with the words 'the late Fadel'. The crowd hung the effigy from a bridge at the end of their march.

Ahmed Fadel is the CEO of the Suez Canal Authority, facing a baptism of fire for not responding to protesters’ demands.

Workers began protesting on 3 April, demanding they receive wages equivalent to those who work for the Suez Canal Authority itself. Interim Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has already given orders to the head of the Authority to resolve the situation.

Employees are demanding a 40 per cent increase in basic salary, a 7 per cent hike in bonus payments and larger meal allowances.

Workers claim they were promised raises in pay and bonuses by Fadel on 19 April but he apparently hasn not lived up to his word.

On Monday, workers blocked road number 6 In Ismailiya in an expression of discontent with media reports which claimed the strike was disbanded on Sunday.

Main canal operations are still functioning despite disruptions to supporting services. The Suez Canal is one Egypt's main foreign currency earners, generating $4.5 billion in 2009-2010.

Strikers hold mock funeral for CEO Fadel

Minister of interior and Islamist: Love fest!

Ahram Online

June 19 2011

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/14614.aspx

Egypt: Army continues to attack striking workers!

A new wave of strikes and sit-ins is taking place across Egypt as the government continues to renege on promises it made last spring to raise wages. Below is a video and article on the ongoing strike of Suez Canal workers.

Workers began strike 15 June

17 June 2011

Ahram Online

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/1/64/14535/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-army-fires-in-the-air-to-disperse-protesting.aspx

Revolutionary dreams on a peasant’s budget

Gallery: Mai Shaheen

Ahram Online

Salma El-Wardani 

17 June 2011

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/14384/Business/Economy/Revolutionary-dreams-on-a-peasant%E2%80%99s-budget--.aspx

Egypt: Homeless poor occupy main road to demand housing!

 Hundreds of homeless families at Maspero

16 June 2011


Ahram Online

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/14358/Egypt/Politics-/Happy-endings-are-hard-to-find-for-Egypts-homeless.aspx

مريم عبدالغفار: شهيدة الفئوية

  وائل جمال

14 June 2011


http://www.shorouknews.com/Columns/column.aspx?id=478702

Drowning Syria into Blood!

Video of Syrian troops in Jisr al-Shughour abusing protesters as they lie bound on the street

Lee Sustar

Socialist Worker (USA)

13 June 2011 


http://socialistworker.org/2011/06/13/trying-to-crush-syrias-revolution

¿Nueva etapa en la revolución democrática?

Mostafa Omar

VIENTO SUR

7 Jun 2011

http://www.vientosur.info/articulosweb/noticia/?x=4033

Nouvelle étape de la «révolution démocratique» en Egypte?

 

 

Mostafa Omar

 

Publié par Alencontre 

 

le 6 - juin - 2011

http://alencontre.org/?p=2967

هويدا طه : الثورة القادمة ثورة عمال مصر

9 June 2011


البديل

المقالة
الثورة القادمة ثورة عمال مصر

http://thearabrevolutionary.blogspot.com/2011/06/egypt-new-wave-of-strikes-begins.html

The Egyptian Socialist Party Platform

 

The newly formed Egyptian Socialist Party brings together supporters of the country’s transition into a socialist society to work together to develop a coherent strategy to ‘guide the people in the right direction’. In the following paper, the party sets out its perspectives and goals. The Egyptian Socialist Party will be launched in Cairo on 18 June.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73565

Egypt: Police still corrupt and brutal!

On June 6th, thousands of Egyptians rallied around the country to commemorate the one year anniversary of the murder of Khaled Said, the 28 year old Alexandrian who was tortured and murdered by 2 undercover police officers.
The anniversary comes at a time when Police have been accused of 4 separate cases of torture and murder of innocent civilians in the last 2 weeks alone.
In mid-town Cairo, hundreds gathered at the headquarters of the notorious Ministry of Interior, chanted against police brutality and painted Said's pictures on its walls. In Alexandria, hundreds marched across the Corniche to demand an end to police brutality.
The government of Essam Sharaf which promised back in March to respect human rights have failed to overhaul the corrupt Police department. Instead, the minister of Interior has basically shuffled corrupt and brutal officers within the department for the most part.
Until this very day, not one police officer has been punished for the murder of more than 865 protesters during the revolutionary upheaval that lasted from January 25th till February 11th.

Below, activist Hossam Hamalay captured part of the lively protest in Cairo!



Video: www.arabawy.org

Lebanese Communist Party Supports Assad in Syria!

Jadaliyya

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/1786/the-lebanese-left-fails-in-syria

Yemen after Saleh?

7 June 2011


Alan Maass

Socialist Worker (USA)

http://socialistworker.org/2011/06/07/yemen-after-saleh

Egypt: A new wave of strikes begins! موجة جديدة من الاضرابات تبدأ في مصر

As the Egyptian Cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf fails to meet basic workers' demands in its new budget and as it breaks many promises it made to workers since March, a new wave of strikes and protests is beginning to rise after a period of relative calm.

Below are videos and articles of some of the struggles that broke out after the May 27 Friday of Anger protest.

1- Egypt Air Flight Attendants protest corruption, work conditions and squandering of company resources by company officials.





The Second Day!
اليوم الثاني بالشعر!



2- Teachers threaten to strike to protest unsatisfactory new minimum wage law


3-مؤقتو جامعة المنصورة يقطعون طريق منطقة الجامعة
Temp Workers in Mansoura University block Street to demand full-time jobs.





4-اعتصام عمال بتروتريد
Appointed PetroTrade workers protest outside of cabinet to demand jobs after waiting 3 years!




5-وقفة احتجاجية لعمال مجلس الشعب
Parliament workers demand full-time jobs. Some workers have worked as per-diems for as long as 15 years.



6-اعتصام عمال المترو
Subway workers protest to demand dismissal of CEO and their return as employees under the Railway Administration.

http://www.shorouknews.com/contentdata.aspx?id=472300

Young Moroccans protest, defying government ban

Kamal Omari: Murdered by Police

5 June 2011

Ahram Online

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/13707/World/Region/Young-Moroccans-protest,-defying-government-ban.aspx

Palestine: A turning point in the struggle?

Protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo on the day of international 

demonstrations commemorating the Nakba (Mai Shaheen)

With the protests on the anniversary of the Nakba--or catastrophe, as Palestinians refer to the 1948 ethnic cleansing campaign that established Israel on their land--plus plans for solidarity action in June, the Arab Spring has clearly spread to Palestine. Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian activist and author of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, talked with Eric Ruder about what the future holds.

3 June 2011

Socialist Worker (USA)

http://socialistworker.org/2011/05/26/turning-point-in-the-struggle

Egypt: The new shape of the struggle

May 27 Rally in Tahrir

Photo by: Mai Shaheen

May 31 2011

Mostafa Omar


Socialist Worker (USA)

http://socialistworker.org/2011/05/31/new-shape-of-the-struggle

Yemen: Background to the impasse!

3 May  2011

MERIP REPORT

http://www.merip.org/mero/mero050311-1

Egyptian army denies 'virginity tests' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

3 June 2011

Hundreds of Egyptians have held a demonstration in central Cairo against the army's treatment of female protesters.

According to Amnesty International at least 17 women arrested in Tahrir Square were forced to have "virginity tests". A military official has denied the allegations.

Al Jazeera spoke to one of those girls who have accused the army. This is her story.

لماذا يتم الكشف على "عذرية" نساء شاركوا في ثورة ضد نظام انتهاك "عذرية" شعب؟

المتحف المصري

2 June 2011

رحاب الشاذلي

الدستور


من قال أن من حق المجلس العسكرى أو أى جهة أخرى سواء كانت مسئولة أو غير مسئولة أن تقوم بالكشف عن عذرية الفتيات..من قال أن جسدى كإمرأة أصبح جزء من الخطوات الاحترازية التى يتخذها رجال الامن..من قال أن عذريتى أو غير عذريتى حق أصبح مملوك للجميع ، كل من أرتأى نفسه صاحب سلطه يمد يده للكشف عنها ..من قال هذا وفى أى دستور أو قانون يقره العالم؟
تساؤلات عديدة لابد من أن يقدم المجلس العسكرى الإجابة عليها ..يقدم إجابة دون إحالتنا للنيابة العسكرية للتحقيق، فما صرح به المسئول العسكرى البارز لـ"سي إن إن" يستحق التحقيق فيه ومع من قاموا بممارسه هذا الفعل الذى لا يقره أى قانون أو دستور بل هو انتهاك لحق من حقوق الانسان وهو ما يحاسب عليه القانون –إن أرادوا تطبيقه – حسب تصريح اللواء ممدوح شاهين الذى قال بكل حسم  "المجلس العسكري أحرص من أي حد علي تطبيق القانون" تعليقا على المحاكم العسكرية".
الشرطة كانت تنتهك عذرية الناشطات السياسات بنفس الطريقة والأسلوب –بالمناسبة كانت بتقول نفس المبرر أنه خطوة احترازية- كيف يمكن للمجلس العسكرى حامى حمى الديار إن يحاسب جهاز الشرطة على تلك الانتهاكات التى قام بها هو نفسه.
نتفهم أن هناك أخطاء ومن الممكن أيضا أن نقبل  تسميتها بالأخطاء الفردية كما حدث أثناء فض اعتصام 9 مارس الماضى ، لكن المجلس العسكرى حين ذاك خرج وقدم اعتذاره بمقولته الشهيرة "رصيدنا لديكم يسمح" فلماذا لم  يعتذر عن هذا أليس الامر يستحق؟! فكلاهما انتهاك لحق من حقوق الانسان ، أم أن من قاموا بذلك يصرون على أن  هذا الإجراء احترازى حتى لا تزعم المحتجات في وقت لاحق تعرضهن للاغتصاب من قبل السلطات المصرية- حسب تصريح لـ"سي إن إن" على لسان القيادى العسكرى قائلا "لا نريد أن يدعين في وقت لاحق بأنهن تعرضن لتحرشات جنسية أو الاغتصاب.. لذلك أردنا إثبات أنهن لم يكن عذراوات من البداية."
ما تم من ممارسات كشف العذرية على الناشطات السياسات ايا كان المبرر أمر غير مقبول خاصة بعد ثورة الخامس والعشرين من يناير التى شاركت فيها المرأة المصرية بدور عظيم دور جسدته سالى زهران شهيده الحرية وغيرها من المشاركات الآتى واجهن رصاص الأمن والأسلحة البيضاء التى أشهرها البلطجية دون أن يميزوا بين رجل وإمرأة فالجميع حمى الميدان يوم موقعة الجمل والجميع حمى المتحف المصرى.. ذلك المكان الذى تحول إلى مقر تعذيب غير شرعى.
سيادة المجلس العسكرى نحن نساء مصر ثرنا ضد نظام انتهك عذريتنا جميعا رجالا ونساء ثرنا ضد انتهاكات الشرطة، ثرنا ضد الافكار البالية التى رسخها النظام البائد ضد المرأة والأقباط، ثرنا حتى نصبح الكل سواء أمام القانون ، ثرنا من أجل العدل والمساواة والحرية ودفعنا ثمن هذا، لذا لم نعد نقبل بالعوده للوراء لسنوات التخلف والاضطهاد ..الاضطهاد لكونى إمرأه عذريتها هى المعادل الموضوعى لعذرية وشرف المجتمع ..تلك المعادلة البالية سقطت مع سقوط نظام أنتهك عذريتنا جميعا.

Egyptian activists protest 'virginity tests' on female protesters

Al Masry Al Youm

2 June 2011

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/461439

Military holds a 'Discussion' with Hamalawy and Maged about 'Abuses'

Tens of supporters of Blogger Hossam El-Hmalawy and Anchor Reem Maged rallied on June 1st outside the headquarters of Military Courts in Cairo to protest the Supreme Council's decision to call in both journalists for an investigation over what El-Hamalawy assertions on Maged's ON TV program that the army tortures and abuses civilian detainees.

Army officers later informed El-Hamalawy and Maged that the session was intended to be a discussion not a questioning.

El-Hamalawy told reporters that an agreement was reached with the 'Discussion' officers that he and other Human Rights lawyers will submit files documenting those abuses to the Military authorities within days.

Close to 10,000 civilians have been detained by the army since Mubarak's ouster on 11 February 2011. Many have received military trials and harsh sentences for criminal and political reasons without proper legal representation.

الحملاوي: اتفقنا مع القضاء العسكري على تقديم ملف كامل بـ«الانتهاكات» خلال أيام

 

 المصري اليوم

قال الصحفي والمدون حسام الحملاوي إن اتفاقا جرى مع هيئة القضاء العسكري على تقديم ملف كامل بالشهادات والتقارير الحقوقية حول انتهاكات الشرطة العسكرية خلال الأيام المقبلة، أثناء الجلسة التي جمعته والإعلامية ريم ماجد بالنيابة العسكرية، الثلاثاء.

كان مصدر بالقضاء العسكري قال في تصريحات لـ«المصري اليوم»، الخميس، إن الحملاوي «لم يكن لديه أي دليل على ما يدعيه».

وأوضح الحملاوي أنه وعدداً من المحامين الحقوقيين الذي حضروا الجلسة مع النيابة العسكرية اصطحبوا معهم بالفعل بعض التقارير والشهادات عن انتهاكات الشرطة العسكرية واعتداءاتها على المتظاهرين والمعتقلين، لكن هيئة القضاء العسكري لم تتسلمها، انتظاراً لإعداد ملف آخر مفصل بجميع تلك الوقائع.

وأضاف أن المحامين أوضحوا للقضاء العسكري أن معظم تلك الوقائع قدم الناشطون بلاغات بشأنها للنائب العام، أو للنيابة العسكرية كما هو الحال مع البلاغ الذي قدمته الناشطة رشا عزب.

كان الحملاوي طالب في حلقة الخميس الماضي من برنامج «بلدنا بالمصري» الذي تقدمه المذيعة ريم ماجد، بالتحقيق في انتهاكات الشرطة العسكرية للمعتقلين، وحمل اللواء حمدي بدين المسؤولية عن هذه الانتهاكات باعتباره قائد الشرطة العسكرية 

.

وأخلت النيابة العسكرية سبيل الحملاوي وريم ماجد بعد جلسة قال مصدر بالقضاء العسكري إنها «لم تتعدَّ كونها حواراً واستيضاحاً ودياً حول ما تثيره وسائل الإعلام خلال الفترة الأخيرة دون الاستناد إلى حقائق»، على حد تعبيره.

Egypt: Solidarity Statement with Hamalawy, Maged and Sharaf!

Hossam el-Hamalawy, Reem Maged and Nabil Sharaf
called before military judges

30 May 2011 

Background: Journalists Hossam el-Hamalawy, Reem Maged and Nabil Sharaf al-Din have been summoned to appear before military judges on 31 May. Mostafa Sheshtawy has a useful post here which provides a translation of Hossam’s comments which have upset the military so much (he called for an end to the practice of military trials for civilians and said he held the head of the Military Police, Hamdy Badeen, responsible for the torture and mistreatment of detainees).
According to Al-Ahram, Nabil Sharaf al-Din was summoned the same day in relation to his criticisms of the Supreme Military Council’s handling of the transition period.
Egyptian activists have called protests in Cairo and Alexandria, details here.

Add your name to this statement: email menasolidarity@gmail.com
Please note this is an updated version which adds Nabil Sharaf al-Din’s name (30/05/11 9pm)

Hossam on Reem Maged's Show

Please circulate widely

We condemn the decision to refer journalists Hossam el-Hamalawy and Reem Maged for questioning by military judges on Tuesday 31 May in relation to their discussion of violations of human rights by the Egyptian military police and the ruling Supreme Military Council on Reem’s political talk show which aired on ON TV on 26 May 2011. We likewise condemn the decision to refer journalist Nabil Sharaf al-Din for questioning by military judges in relation to comments he also made on ON TV.
We will not stand by and see courageous journalists silenced, and we stand in solidarity with all Egyptians who are fighting to defend their rights to protest, strike and express themselves freely. These are precious gains of the revolution of 25 January, during which nearly 1000 Egyptians sacrificed their lives.
We call on the Supreme Military Council to cease its harassment of journalists, activists and citizens who exercise their basic human rights to question their rulers.
We affirm our support for the statement below on the right to strike and protest in Egypt which was first issued in March following the Egyptian cabinet’s decision to criminalize protests and strikes, but which is now more urgent than ever.
“The Egyptian people showed immense courage in overthrowing the dictator Mubarak. They braved armored cars and bullets in order to win freedom and social justice. We call on Egypt’s current military and civilian rulers to respect the Egyptian people’s democratic rights, including the right to protest and strike. We call on the Egyptian cabinet to reverse its decision of 23 March 2011 to criminalize protests and strike action and to threaten those ‘inciting’ such action with imprisonment or huge fines. We demand that the British government cease to provide assistance, arms or equipment to the Egyptian army and security forces which could be used to repress strikes and protests.
We send our greetings to our brothers and sisters in Egypt’s independent trade unions, and pledge that we will not stand by while their rights are under threat. We will mobilize whatever solidarity we can to support their struggle for political freedom and social justice.”

To add your signature please email menasolidarity@gmail.com

بيان حزب العمال الشيوعي التونسي حول الأنتخابات

27 May 2011


البديل


http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=260727