tabula gaza

In Egypt "Democratic" Elections are undermining protests for change

2012-01-09T02:09:00.002+02:00

here an excerpt from my most recent article

...

There is more at stake than just these violations or the extent to which these elections have been free and fair. Permeating the 2011-2012 elections is a much broader and more significant matter that is not unique to Egypt, namely how these elections and the discourse of democracy that they have generated are being used to undermine the struggle for revolutionary change.

...

read on

Cairo Military Crackdown

2011-12-25T01:49:00.002+02:00

The Egyptian military want to maintain power, they want to snuff out the voice of protest on the streets of egypt

here is a visual summary of some of the bloodiest of those days

here are some of the latest accounts of the extents the army generals are willing to go

My new friend and hero

2011-12-20T01:50:00.000+02:00

Updated: Few images of military attack on Tahrir square december 17 despite media blackout

2011-12-17T12:58:00.015+02:00

First military attack on Tahrir square by @mostafasheshtawy

Army solider strip the shirt off a female protestor beat and abuse her

if you look closely you see the attack on her and what appears to be a young boy from another angle

One of the final livestreams of the military attack on Tahrir square

all live streams shut down in attempt for media blackout

Tents before

and after the attack

the field hospital in the middle of the square reportedly had the same plight

more raw footage of blatant military violence, live fire wounds on demonstrators

main road to Tahrir square closed off with a barricade and then later with a wall

Next military clear nearby squares

and chase protesters into the upper class nieghborhood of zamalek

later in the early afternoon

This report from aljazeera english was their last

soon thereafter

In his public address, the Ganzouri reiterates a promise he made when the military generals appointed him after the most recent massacre in Tahrir square end of November

"I said and I am still reiterating that we will never confront any peaceful demonstrations with any kind of violence, even the verbal kind," he said. "I am committed to this."

after seeing these images, judge for yourself

other reports of cameras confiscated, broken, journalists harassed and threatened by phone

thank you world for believing in our "democratic transition," this is why we don't go to vote. the generals overseeing this massacre oversee our elections

the reason we held the #occupycabinet sit-in at the parliament building was to protest the illegitimacy of the appointment of x-muburak era prime minister kamal ganzouri who justified all these attacks, calling to an end to military trials of civilians, calling for the trial of those carrying out these violent crimes

in an attempt to quash any resistance to the illegitimate military that is trying to snuff out a revolutionary spirit of a people suppressed and exploited for decades

around 6pm December 17th a massive march streams into Tahrir square in memory of Sheikh Effat, one of the demonstrators the military had murdered the day before.

and all this in light of yesterdays violent attacks, arrest, torture, murder of demonstrators

that all began with the kidnap and torture of one protester called Aboudi from the #occupycabinet sit-in

more videos here

Freedom Riders: Resisting apartheid

2011-12-03T19:15:00.001+02:00

On the 15th of November, Palestinian activists from the West Bank boarded a segregated Israeli bus used by Israeli settlers to Jerusalem in an attempt to highlight the regime of discrimination on freedom of movement in place in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the fact that Palestinians cannot access Jerusalem freely. After boarding the bus without incidents, the bus was stopped at the Hizme checkpoint, where all the activists were arrested and violently forcibly removed from the bus.

In Egypt: Preparing for elections, torturing 17 year old Sayed

2011-11-28T11:55:00.002+02:00

"The Law is outside itself" -Giorgio Agamben

2011-10-31T14:06:00.001+02:00

Sunday, October 30, 2011
Statement of Solidarity: Alaa Abd El Fattah Boycotts Military Trials

We, the Campaign to End the Military Trials of Civilians, condemn in the strongest possible terms the imprisonment of prominent Egyptian activist and blogger, Alaa Abd el Fattah and the unjust and illegal system of military tribunals implemented by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) since becoming rulers of Egypt on January the 28th, 2011.

Today Alaa Abd El Fattah was summoned to the Military Prosecutor's office, accused of assaulting military personnel, stealing and destroying military weaponry and inciting violence against the military in the events of 9 October at Maspero. On questioning, Abd El Fattah declined to answer the prosecutor’s questions, stating that it is illegal and a clear conflict of interest for the military, as a party accused of a crime in the same events, to hold proceedings or adjudicate fairly. He was sent to detention pending further military investigation.

As of today we refuse to co-operate with the military prosecution of civilians and we call on all Egyptian citizens to stand with us.

At least 12,000 Egyptian civilians have been subjected to summary, covert military trials. The accused are often denied counsel, the opportunity to review evidence or examine witnesses; there are limited avenues of appeal. Eighteen death sentences have been handed down so far.

Abd El Fattah's targeting is only the latest example of the systematic targeting of journalists, media figures, bloggers and activists by SCAF.

Abd El Fattah is being held responsible for violence on October 9th, the night when the Army killed at least 28 peaceful protesters and injured several hundred more. Several respected human rights organisation have attested to this.

Furthermore, it is perverse that Mina Daniel is listed as the first name on the Military Prosecutor's list of the accused. Mina Daniel was killed by military gunfire on October 9th.

Abd El Fattah is now being held for fifteen days in prison by a body which has no legal authority to do so. The fifteen days can be renewed indefinitely. Twenty eight more people are in jail against the background of the same event. Mina Daniel and others have already paid with their lives.

We demand that Alaa Abd El Fattah be freed immediately, that military trials of civilians be stopped and all those sentenced thus far be released or, at least, retried before civilian courts. We support all of those who similarly refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the military prosecution.

This is not the new Egypt we have fought and died for.

For more information please visit Tahrir Diaries or contact us at nomiltrials@gmail.com

and some moving images:

من مؤتمر صحفي لاحداث ماسبيرو

2011-10-13T12:36:00.000+02:00

Workers of the Ideal Factory go on Strike

2011-09-30T00:12:00.002+02:00

one of the best videos on Egyptian workers I have seen in a long time by Dina Abdalla @indtvblog

Remarking January 25- A Series of Six

2011-09-03T01:54:00.010+02:00

An event does not happen in a circle- more likely in a broken sphere.

The wave of protest that lead to the January 25 Revolution did not start in Tahrir.
It occurred in places, spaces, some of which were hidden, unspoken of, some darker than others. In every telling of histories there are silenced moments, yet every moment has its voice.
Detached and intertwined, these are six stories of the Egyptian "January 25 Revolution"- told by some of the silenced voices. Filmed violently. Collected and edited by Intifadat Intifadat.

Cairo Intifada (6:00)

On January 28th 2011 hundreds of thousands of Egyptians went to the streets all across the country with one aim: to oust a political regime void of legitimacy. Cairo Intifada follows protestors in the Cairene neighborhood of Imbaba.

The Downfall of Mubarak (6:23)

On February 10th Hosni Mubarak makes one last TV appearance before the Egyptians successfully oust him from power the following day. Experience the transition.

These people are not leaving- Mahalla workers in the January 25 Revolution (6:47)

Since 2006 the 21,000 workers of the Mahalla Textile Company have been striking and protesting against the suppressive economic policies of the Egyptian regime. Without these actions the January 25 revolution may never have come about. On February 17th 2011 the workers are back on strike.

We were imprisoned in our clothes- The workers of Turah in the January 25 Revolution (6:54)

"My son, my niece, my cousin, my father - they're all in Midan Tahrir too. I am no different. The whole country is demanding their rights. I demand my rights too." said Abdalla one of the workers carrying out a weeks long sit-in in the neighborhood of Turah. The revolution in the factory space.

We Want Freedom- The Story of Mohamed Zaghloul (2:59)

On his way home from work Mohamed Zaghloul experiences a citizen's arrest. Members of a popular committee stop him, beat him and hand him over to the military police. There he is tortured and faced with up to a five year prison sentence.

We will not return to the era of slavery- Fighting the Anti-Strike Law (4:57)

On April 12, two months after the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces secretly pass a new decree outlawing all strikes, protests and sit-ins. The street and the workers react.

The trial outside the court المحاكمة برة المحكمة

2011-08-12T20:01:00.006+02:00

ده مش الموضوع
this is not the issue

ده الموضوع
this is the issue

ام خالد- ام شهيد ثورة ٢٥ يناير
Om Khaled- the mother of a martyr of January 25 revolution

ام محمود- ام شهيد ٢٥ يناير
Om Mahmoud- the mother of a martyr of January 25 revolution

ابو محمد- اب شهيد ٢٥ يناير
Abu Mohamed- the father of a martyr of January 25 revolution

مصطفى مرسي، اب شهيد ثورة ٢٥ يناير
Mostafa Morsy- the father of a martyr of January 25 revolution

ابو موحاب، اب شهيد ثورة ٢٥ يناير
Abu Mohab- the father of a martyr of January 25 revolution

تارق، اخ شهيد ثورة ٢٥ يناير
Tariq- the brother of a martyr of January 25 revolution

Tahrir August 1st: Masquerading a Lost Legitimacy

2011-08-08T13:53:00.003+02:00

At 2:16 in this clip you hear a crowd chanting, “al-geish wal shae'b, eed wahda” or “the army and people are one hand, united.” This is the absurd anthem that has rung throughout Cairo since military forces were deployed on Egypt's streets on January 28th. There is certainly a fetish among wide portions of the Egyptian public with the male machismo of the military, hence the cheering on of green mannequins’ phallic clasp of the gun facing the “dirty” demonstrators.

Read On

هو صندوق النقد الدولي بيعمل ايه في مصر؟

2011-06-01T12:29:00.006+02:00

ايه هو صندوق النقد الدولي؟

حكومة أحمد نظيف و سياسات صندوق النقد الدولي

إيه علاقة سياسات صندوق النقد الدولي بثورة 25 يناير؟

ايه هدف صندوق النقد من تقديم القروض لمصر بعد ثورة ٢٥؟

هل يوجد بدائل لقرض صندوق النقد الدولي؟

pity the nation دولة تثير الشفقة

2011-05-28T14:19:00.004+02:00

p.s. watch it full screen in hd

"The food crisis is the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model”
-Hugo Chavez

Since the late 70s the Egyptian government has started the country on a course to economic liberalization. This entails the rolling back of the government's responsibilities across all public sectors, the lowering of import tariffs and an increased drive for exports. One of the sectors hardest hit by these policies is Egyptian agriculture. Due to liberalization of land laws that the government implemented in 1999, land rent prices have gone through the roof as they are now determined by the "market" rather than fixed agreements between landowners and small farmers working the land. Prior to the introduction of this new law, the state played a role in protecting small farmers from landlessness. For generations families inhabiting and working small land plots had a certain right to the land they worked. Up until 1999, if landowners wanted to move farmers from their land and use the land otherwise, they had to pay the families half the land's value. When the Egyptian authorities implemented this new land law nearly one million farmers became landless and largely left their farming practices completely. Furthermore, government subsidies with the aim of supporting agricultural production by small farmers has nearly disappeared forcing small farmers to compete with an increasing number of agri-businesses in Egypt. The government is keen on increasing exports to their northern trade partners to gain profits in foreign currency. This has meant that the government sells arable desert land to entrepreneurs at extremely low prices, while going so far as to provide subsidies per exported ton on certain produce. These policies are jeopardizing the very existence of small farmers in Egypt while tying Egyptian food prices to international markets and decreasing the possibility for Egypt to maintain food self-sufficiency.

In "Pity The Nation" we will meet traditional farmer, Hagg Desouki, in the village of Ghnama in Egypt's nile delta. We will hear from Hagg Desouki why he has changed the types of crops he once planted and how his farming practices have changed due to the Egyptian government's change in agricultural policies. We will follow Hagg Desouki as he picks his crop of green peppers and transports them to the local vegetable market for sale on local Egyptian markets. Certain vegetables are disappearing from these markets while prices according to government statistics have increased 45% in the past year. In contrast we will visit Dina Farms one of Egypt's foremost agri-businesses located on Egypt's intensely watered Western Sahara. At Dina Farms we will see the technology-intense and labor sparse ten thousand acre farm, which is a central player in the Egyptian authorities new agenda for export driven food industry. At Dina Farms Executive Tamer Hassan will explain the logic behind the farm's drive to export and its aim in industrializing farming. The water acquifers currently watering this agri-business will soon run out. A World Bank project intends to re-route water from the nile to the dry desert lands. Meanwhile, in the delta water for Egypt's small farmers is already insufficient. Guiding us through these drastic changes in Egypt's agricultural landscape will be Dr Habib Ayeb, an expert on sociological effects of changing agricultural policies in the region.

If the Egyptian authorities' agricultural policies continue on their current course, food prices will continue to skyrocket, making life increasingly difficult for millions of Egypt's poor. Meanwhile, the likes of Hagg Desouki will eventually disappear from their land like hundreds of thousands of farmers already have in Egypt. An uprising in the industrial town of Mahalla al-Kobra in the summer of 2008 and the most recent uprising in Egypt are direct consequences of the food policies we encounter in "Pity The Nation."

the military and the people

2011-04-10T14:06:00.000+02:00

forgive me for my silence.

I posted an article that ended like this 15 February:

"But as the Supreme Military Council seeks to re-impose "stability" by, for example, banning labour strikes, Egyptians must be alert to the alarm bells that are ringing. The military, which has played its hand with great care throughout the protests - winning the trust and respect of many of the demonstrators - receives an annual $1.3bn in aid from the US, the same country that has been pushing the implementation of the economic model that has been so damaging to Egyptians.

The demonstrators must not now be fooled into believing that overthrowing the face of a corrupt and repressive regime is sufficient. They must prevent the military from propping up an economic order that only benefits the few and can be maintained only through iron-fisted rule."

my position has not changed one bit since, this eye witness account of a military attack on demonstrators in tarhri square Friday night comfirms:

follow my links on the ongoing Egyptian intifada here

There is a strange silence in the air today...

2011-04-09T19:04:00.005+02:00

it has finally sunk in that the egyptian military are not on the side of the people. egyptians are up against a military apparatus that is maintaining the status quo "system," by doing so we are confronting a global neo-liberal regime whereby the egyptian government would follow the instructions of the powerful: protect Israel, obey IMF and World Bank economic policies, maintain the egyptian working class as a sweat shop to allow for the comfort of our richer neighbors here and elsewhere.

This battle is far from over.

Laila El-Haddad: the Impact of Egypt's Uprising on Palestinians

2011-03-01T18:53:00.002+02:00

The effects of Privatization أثر الخصخصة

2011-03-01T18:50:00.002+02:00

view the rest of the set

Mahalla workers strike for higher minimum wages and independent union

2011-02-27T13:36:00.002+02:00

More at The Real News

10 days later: Mubarak's Downfall رحيل مبارك

2011-02-21T12:57:00.002+02:00

via @benthanaa

Egypt: some links

2011-02-20T14:29:00.003+02:00

Though a couple weeks old, one of the best articles i have read on Egypt is by Nomi Prins: The Egyptian Uprising Is a Direct Response to Ruthless Global Capitalism

She writes,

"Citizens protesting in the streets from Greece to England, and more demonstrably, from Tunisia to Egypt, may be revolting for national reasons and against individual governments, but they share a common bond. They are revolting against a world that lines the pockets of rich deal-makers while sticking the tab to ordinary people. That bond is global."

Also worth reading are two articles focusing on the role of the military:

Nathan Brown's The Struggle to Define the Egyptian Revolution | The Middle East Channel

and Egypt’s army looks beyond Mubarak by Yezid Sayegh written before Mubarak's downfall but with good insight

Adam Hanieh, Egypt's Uprising

2011-02-18T02:18:00.001+02:00

always worth reading: Adam Hanieh on Egypt's Uprising

neoliberalism has produced rapid growth rates but, simultaneously, it has led to worsening living standards for the majority of the population and the increased concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny minority (literally just a handful of families).
...
The highest ranks of Egypt's military should properly be considered as part of the capitalist class with significant economic interests that overlap with the state and private sector. Precisely because of the military's central role in sustaining U.S. power regionally, and its own stake in the reproduction of Egyptian capitalism, any belief that the Egyptian military is 'part of the people' or 'neutral and above politics' is a very dangerous illusion"

Bahrein

2011-02-18T00:39:00.000+02:00

Egypt and the global economic order

2011-02-16T12:28:00.000+02:00

Whether or not it has been directly articulated, the recent demonstrations on Egypt's streets are in large part a protest against crony-capitalism driven by the agenda of neo-colonial economic institutions. The protests are a denunciation of capitalism and the political suppression required to impose it.

read the rest of my latest article

seeking donations for the national democratic party تبرعات للحزب الوطني

2011-02-04T01:37:00.002+02:00

seeking donations for the national democratic party تبرع للحزب الوطني from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

Cairo Intifada

2011-02-03T10:31:00.003+02:00

Days of Anger from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

what i expect to happen in egypt

2011-01-30T10:05:00.003+02:00

sorry this is rough. I will be back soon to edit. Heading out to tahrir now.

Friday night I witnessed the tanks roll into Tahrir square downtown Cairo on Friday night. To my amazement the crowds cheered. So for the most part the demonstrators are celebrating the military presence on the streets of Cairo. One demonstrator told me "the police protect us from our enemies, they won't do us any harm." Until last night demonstrators holding a permanent sit-in in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo were surrounded by a number of military tanks charing cigarettes and jokes with soldiers, while one soldier I saw joined the protestors for evening prayer.

This morning about 11am security officials stormed the Aljazeera office in downtown Cairo and closed the office. Two mobile phone carriers sent out messages that people should stay home to protect their homes from the looting. According to Aljazeera earlier today the protestors are no longer sitting on the tanks and there are reports that the military presence is spreading all over Cairo. Via @justimage the US embassy is calling on its citizens to leave Egypt, via Dutch journalist Dirk Wanrooj Heineken and Shell have evacuated their employees. @monasosh reports at 12:15 the military are tightening access for civilians to Tahrir Square. At 1pm the satellite carrier Nile Sat blocks Aljazeera Arabic from viewers in the Arab world. Choppers are increasingly flying over the skies of Cairo.

Despite the positive attitude of the people towards the army, there is no reason to believe that the military shares any interests with the common Egyptians on the street. The reason people are calling for change is that they are tired of economic policies of the Mubarak regime, they have had enough of police violence and a government that does not provide for its people. The faltering Egyptian regime's allies are interested only in what they term "stability" which means prosperity for a small class of Egyptian elites and upper middle class on the backs of the labor of the vast population. What this process entails is the selling off of Egyptian natural resources and enslaving of the Egyptian labor force working to next to nothing while food price go through the roof. The reason for this is the decisions made by the Egyptian policy makers in line with the logic of neo-liberal institutions like the World Bank and IMF, seated in the USA that primarily benefit the economies of the global North.

As we slowly approach sundown and the supposed recent daily curfew in Cairo I expect tonight will be different than the past few days. At some stage the military is going to stop acting as a mediating force and will try to take direct control. I have no illusions that they are acting as anything but a vessel for this sort of "stability" that the global North desires. In Egypt we are no longer in the age of military coups, it is not a question of who has the most influence within the military and what they can get away with, it is a matter of the interests of external forces are and these external forces are looking for the right partner within the current Egyptian regime. What does this mean on the ground? There will be harsh clashes between demonstrators against the military who will quickly switch sides. But the people will not let go easily. In the middle of all this there a lot of looting taking place especially in the suburbs. This has a mix of sources, many of the looters are police officers following orders to loot just like Fateh PA members did during Hamas' initial rule in the Gaza Strip. Other looters are petty criminals released from police stations, partly by the police themselves before they fled, also involved are opportunists who are simply hungry under the economic pressure of living under the circumstances existent in Egypt today.

All this to say, this mass mobilization of the Egyptian street is not without purpose. Rather, this is a powerful manifestation of the will of the people. As I walked the streets amongst protestors I was constantly amazed by the extreme attention protesters paid to parked cars and stores we passed by. The heart of this protest is a strong rejection of a tyrant, the rejection of classist economic policies and proof of the failure of neo-colonial capitalism everywhere.

January 29: Two Moments

2011-01-30T06:19:00.002+02:00

game over Mubarak طلب الشارع: يسقط حسني مبارك from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

Egyptians welcome the army المصريين يرحبون قوات الجيش from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

My Images from Today and Yesterday

2011-01-30T00:43:00.002+02:00

more

more soon

Egypt: What's Coming

2011-01-27T18:16:00.008+02:00

Considering this jittery position of the powers that be,

(they provide their friends with these,)

and the jittery position of him,

i think our "allies" will put in place this guy

@bencnn
ElBaradei at airport says the point of no return has been reached must be peaceful change govt must stop using violence #Jan25 #Egypt
8:12pm January 27

whom "the people"

didn't elect.

This is maybe a tip toe better than what we have lived under for the past 30 years... but it is a continuation of Egypt's neo-liberal "reforms" a la mr. fayyad

... just a guess

and i dont like it.

Around here we need to start thinking about alternatives to the nation-state, because after all the "post-colonial moment is still colonial"

Ustream shut down, live feed of Cairo Tahrir protest moved here and then protest ends suddenly

2011-01-26T01:23:00.003+02:00

latest from eye witnesses on the scene at 1am jan 26, state security move in to arrest thousands of protestors, phones are out, twitter, bambuser and ustream shut down.

Watch live video from cairowitness on Justin.tv

After police fire dozens of tear gas canisters into the crowds, all protestors disperse, arrests made

Live from Downtown January 25 Anti-government Protests

2011-01-25T17:46:00.001+02:00

La hora de los hornos

2011-01-20T20:25:00.001+02:00

something to watch

2011-01-05T11:56:00.000+02:00

when there is nothing left to say

Ahmed Sha'ban's Uncle Believed Kidnapped

2010-11-14T23:53:00.005+02:00

Mohamed Abdel Fattah has received a call one hour ago from Ahmed Sha'ban's cousin, his father- who spoke out in the video in my last post- has disappeared. The family believes the Ministry of Interior to have kidnapped him.

This is the consequence for those who speak out against police violence and government corruption in this country.

Here another report from John Jensen and Ian Lee from Daily News Egypt:

Once Again: Egyptian Police Torture To Death

2010-11-14T12:10:00.005+02:00

The information gathered from blogs and videos of interviews with Sha'ban's family members:

Ahmed Sha'ban was on his way to a wedding, when he got into an argument with a police officer he was taken into the infamous sidi gaber police station. I have carried out interviews with victims of that same station, where a rule of law seems to exist that is determined at will by the officers who run the station.

Ahmed's family members searched for him and asked for his whereabouts at the sidi gaber police station but were informed he was not there. After three days an anonymous called contacted Sha'ban's family and informed them that the 19 year old's body was found in a nearby stream and that they suspect suicide. In the morgue the family found his skull cracked open and his body bruised. The family and lawyer believe him to have been tortured in sidi gaber police station. The case very reminiscent of a similar case of Khaled Said earlier this year.

Here a video with Ahmed Sha'ban's relatives, partial translation in English follows:

@ 2:30 A friend of Ahmed's: we buried him but we are not at ease, his rights are lost.

@ 2:50 Ahmed's uncle: occupation is lighter, we want to know when will we be liberated from them, this police. What is the police's role? To stand with us and govern us with justice or to take us and kill us?

@3:00 Ahmed's uncle: President Mubarak you are sleeping and the world is turned upside down and you know how things are being run around here. It is impossible that you do now know what is going on... mercy you don't know what it is. You employ people to threaten us so that you can sit on your chairs, while we are being killed while you can rule us. We going to liberate our country, these are going to liberate it, we have an occupation, we are going to go run after the people, you just flee every time. When will you leave president Mubarak, when will you and your cronies leave us. What are you and all your ministers doing? You have been there for years and have done absolutely nothing. You carry out injustice, this boy you killed him.

@ 3:55 A friend of Ahmed's: when we went to ask about Ahmed at the police station we heard 70 other voices crying out, "enough," "enough, we haven't done anything, this is evil."

المركز المصرى للحقوق الاقتصادية والاجتماعية يلاحق المجلس القومى للأجور لزيادة الحد الأدنى

2010-10-31T14:00:00.001+02:00

أقام صباح اليوم المركز المصري للحقوق الاقتصادية والاجتماعية الدعوى رقم 4242 لسنة 65 قضائية أمام محكمة القضاء الادارى موكلا عن الصحفية أمنية شكر والطالبه هند محمود والعامل ناجى رشاد ضد رئيس الجمهورية، ورئيس الوزراء، ووزير التنمية الاقتصادية طعنا على قرار المجلس القومي للأجور بزيادة الحد الأدنى للأجر الشامل إلى 400 جنيه فقط.

وذكر المركز في طعنه أن القرار إلتف على أحكام القضاء، ونصوص الدستور والقانون لسببين:

السبب الأول: عندما أعلن هذا المبلغ باعتباره حدا للأجر الشامل حيث طالب المركز باعتبار هذا المبلغ حدا للأجر الأساسي، وذهب إلى أن الأجر الشامل لا يمكن تحديده بقرار لأنه يتضمن جزء متغير(العلاوات والبدلات والمكافآت) ومن الصعوبة قياسه أو ضبطه أو رقابه مدى التزام أصحاب الأعمال بتطبيقه لكونه يتغير من شهر لأخر حسب ظروف العمل، بالإضافة إلى أن أصحاب الأعمال - بما فيهم الدولة - يعمدوا دائما إلى تقليل الأجر الأساسي وزيادة الأجر المتغير ليكون بذلك أحد عوامل السيطرة على العمال، وأداة من أدوات تسهيل عقابهم. فتشير التقديرات الحكومية إلى أن الأجر الأساسي لا يزيد على 22% من الأجر الشامل0

السبب الثانى: أن غاية المشرع من وضع حد أدنى للأجور فى المجتمع تستهدف تحقيق التوازن بين الأجور والأسعار بما يضمن حياه كريمه للعامل وذهب المركز إلى أن إقرار مبلغ ال 400 جنيه كحدا للأجر سواء الاساسى أو الشامل لا يحقق هذه الغاية لأنه يجعل العامل المصري تحت خطى الفقر القومي والدولي معا، فخط الفقر القومي مقدر 656 جنيها فى الشهر طبقا لأسعار 2008، وطبقا لتقديرات وزارة التنمية الاقتصادية ذاتها حيث قدرت خط الفقر القومي بمبلغ 1968 جنيها للفرد سنويا وبذلك يكون الحد الأدنى للأجور للموظف باعتباره مسئولا عن أسرة مكونة من 4 أفراد (متوسط حجم الأسرة) =( 1968/12×4= 656 جنيه شهريا) حتى يصبح الموظف أو العامل على خط الفقر القومي، في حين تشير تقديرات البنك الدولي لتحديد خط الفقر الدولي إلى ما يفوق1200 جنيه، حيث قدر ب 2 دولار فى اليوم للفرد، لذا يحتاج العامل الذى يعول أربع أفراد إلى 8 دولار فى اليوم، ولو تم حساب سعر صرف الدولار على خمسة جنيها فقط يصبح الحد الأدنى 40 جنيها فى اليوم ×30 يوم= 1200 جنيه شهريا حتى يصبح العامل على خط الفقر الدولي.

واختتم المركز صحيفة دعواه بإلزما المطعون ضدهم بتقديم المستندات الدالة على الأسس والمعايير التي تم على أساسها وضع هذا المبلغ باعتباره حدا أدنى للأجر الشامل وليس حدا أدنى للأجر الاساسى، وكذلك تقديم المعايير والمؤشرات التي تم على أساسها حساب مبلغ ال 400 جنيها وخاصة بيان مفردات نفقات المعيشة التي تم استند إليها لحساب هذا المبلغ، وبيان المعايير التى جعلت المبلغ لا يتجاوز حتى خط الفقر القومي المحدد ب 656 جنيه شهريا. وطالب بوقف تنفيذ وإلغاء قرار المجلس القومي للأجور فيما ذهب إليه من حساب الحد الأدنى للأجر على الأجر الشامل وليس على الأجر الاساسى بما ترتب على ذلك من آثار أخصها اعتبار المبلغ المحدد من قبل المجلس القومي للأجور حدا للأجر الأساسي، ووقف تنفيذ وإلغاء قرار استبعاد خطى الفقر القومي والدولي طبقا لأسعار 2010 من حساب الحد الأدنى للأجر بما ترتب على ذلك من آثار أخصها إعادة حساب الحد الأدنى للأجر بمراعاة خطى الفقر القومى والدولي طبقا لأسعار 2010

وفى شرح صفة الطاعنين فى القضية ذكر المركز فى طعنه أنه إذا كان ناجى رشاد يعمل بقطاع الأعمال العام ومقيم الدعوى الأولى وصاحب مصلحة في تنفيذ الحكم تنفيذا حقيقيا، وأمنية شكر صحفيه تتضرر من عدم حساب الحد الأدنى للأجر على الأجر الاساسى، فإن هند محمود الطالبة الجامعية ستدخل إلى سوق العمل وترنوا للحصول على فرصة عمل بأجر عادل يضمن لها حياه كريمة.

المركز المصري للحقوق الاقتصادية والاجتماعية

31 أكتوبر 2010

My letter to president Arnold on the AUC workers strike

2010-10-30T19:23:00.002+02:00

Dear president Arnold,

I would like to bring a recent concern of mine to your attention.

I am very grateful for the tools I received at AUC to think and assess critically the social and political processes that shape our daily lives. Since completing my graduate studies at AUC earlier this year I have been able to put some of these lessons and tools to use on behalf of the out of place and displaced. Thus, much of my journalistic and video work has focused on workers and farmers who are prime targets of cronyist and neo-liberal structural political processes in place in the Egyptian political regime. Since the late 1970s this group of people have become less and less of a priority to the Egyptian authorities and even more intensely so in the past decade.

It was with much concern that I read about the strike taking place on AUC's campus this week- the very campus where I learned to question these most draconian of measures.

In recent years living costs in Egypt have been going through the roof, working myself as a free-lancer I have struggled to cover my expenses. I realize I lead a very much privileged life style. Yet, even if I moved in with my parents where I would not pay for rent or food and were I to limit my life to the most basic expenditures I doubt I could manage spending only LE400 a month and that is only supporting myself. How a breadwinner supporting an entire family does so in Egypt I have no idea.

I would ask that AUC act as a beacon of difference in a country where workers are used and abused in a structural manner. Can AUC rise to the challenge and provide a moment of difference?

Earlier this year video I made a short documentary featuring a lawyer, economist and worker involved in raising court case 21606 against the Egyptian president, prime minister and minister of industry to provide a fair minimum living wage in accordance with market prices. The video will provide you with a very clear explanation for why the provision of a monthly salary of LE1200 is a very basic "human right"- the right to a fair wage and the right to lead an honorable life- that I believe AUC as an institution stands for. The call for a minimum salary of LE1200 a month is based on the UN's poverty line of $1 per day for an average household of five people.

A Little Justice Goes A Long Way from 2maystrike on Vimeo.

I would ask you to consider very seriously implementing what I consider the most basic demands of AUC's workers:

1. Receive a gross minimum monthly wage of 1,200 EGP (which means less than 1000EGP net) with equal pay for all workers who hold the same position.

2. Have Saturday as an official holiday for the AUC workers as it is for all those employed in the maintenance, service departments and the administration. If one is to work on Saturday they shall receive overtime pay for their work.

3. Receive 200 EGP as meal compensation (or an adequate meal) in addition to the salary.

4. Receive annual salary raise of no less than 10% on the original wage of each worker. This percentage is subject to be increased by the administration.

5. Receive Social Insurance coverage that includes all the years of service to the AUC.

thank you for taking the time to consider my concerns,

Philip Rizk

Update from the Future Pipes Workers from August 23 (in Ramadan things are always a bit of time, bas here it is for the record)

2010-08-31T18:14:00.002+02:00

Demonstration by the Future Company Workers
The workers of the Future Pipes Company presented a report today to the Attorney General demanding an investigation into the company's use of toxic materials, discontinuance of the use of these materials, and an investigation into the death of one of the company's workers resulting from his usage of the materials.
Mahmoud Mohsen al-Qiady works at the Future Pipes Company, which employs around 500 workers in 6 of October City. He stated: “Today, fourteen workers who were dismissed from the company three months ago on charges of inciting workers to strike faced the Attorney General, in the course of a chain of actions organized by the workers against the Lebanese investor and owner of the company. We met with the Attorney General, who promised us that he would open an investigation, and organized a protest in front of his headquarters.” Mahmoud continued: “We then met with the General Union for Egyptian Workers, which failed to stand by our side. The President of the General Syndicate merely encouraged us to accept the compensation offered by the company administrations, and refused to offer us a subsidy from the Union's fund on the basis that we are not members of the Syndicate.”
Mahmoud stated that the workers were determined to receive their rights, particularly after opening the lines of communication with workers in the company's Lebanon branches, whose owner liquidated and shut down the company, displacing 500 Lebanese workers. They issued a statement in solidarity with the workers as follows: “After the blatant abuse practiced by the Future Pipes Company administration, in both Egypt and Lebanon, represented by Fouad al-Makhzoumy, his family, legal advisors, and close affiliates within in the “National Discussion Party,” we find ourselves as workers forced to stand in the face of the exploitation and the violation of our rights and of our rightful earnings.”
In addition the fourteen workers who were fired and forced defend their rights, the Lebanese investor has displaced 200 workers over the course of the last two years, forcing them to resign. The company has twelve branches in countries throughout Europe and the Middle East.

في برلين 26 يوم إضراب عن الطعام ضد تطهير عرقي اسرائلي مستمر In Berlin a 28 day hunger strike against ongoing Israeli ethnic cleansing

2010-08-24T18:49:00.007+02:00

Meet Firas Al-Miraghi

قابل فيراس المراغي

listen

اسمع

Future Pipe Industries worker sit-in, Lebanon

2010-08-24T18:27:00.004+02:00

And here an August 21 Lebanese-Egyptian joint press statement:

Statement issued on behalf of the workers of Future Pipes‭, ‬Egypt and Lebanon branches‭. ‬

Fellow workers and noble activists‭:‬

After the blatant abuse exercised by the management of Future Pipes‭, ‬Inc‭, ‬represented by Fouad al Makhzoumi‭, ‬his family members‭, ‬legal advisers‭, ‬and close associates in his‭ "‬Party for National Dialogue‭", ‬whether in Egypt or Lebanon‭, ‬we find ourselves compelled to confront the face of exploitation and violation of our rights and earnings‭. ‬

Fouad Makhzoumi has made a point of closing down the factory in Akkar district in northern Lebanon‭, ‬displacing all of its workers‭ (‬in excess of 400‭) ‬with no compensation‭, ‬as we stand at the gates of the Holy Month of Ramadan‭. ‬Ironically‭, ‬he and his party members are arranging free iftars in various parts of Lebanon‭. ‬We do not hesitate to state openly that Al Makhzoumi employers have taken advantage of their financial wealth and political relations to buy the loyalty‭ ‬of employees in the Ministry of Labor‭. ‬The latter is entitled only to the name of a Ministry of Businessmen‭, ‬as our experiences attest to the extent of their bias‭. ‬

In Egypt‭, ‬Makhzoumi himself has taken it upon himself to deliberately transfer about 220‭ ‬workers‭. ‬This shameless transfer policy has recently resulted in fourteen workers on charges of incitement to strike‭. ‬And we say to Makhzoumi in this regard‭, ‬that‭ - ‬assuming evidence exists to the effect that these 14‭ ‬workers participated in strikes‭, ‬or incited to strike‭ - ‬indeed‭, ‬striking is not a crime to be charged with‭, ‬but rather‭, ‬a right that is sponsored by laws and international agreements‭. ‬We‭ ‬therefore stand against this blatant violation of our most basic rights‭. ‬Our colleagues in Egypt organized a strike in demand for wage proportionality in relation to risk exposure‭. ‬Several of them have been subject to the same diseases that have seized us owing to our continued dealing‭ -‬on production lines‭ - ‬with poisonous substances that have led to the development of cases of‭ asthma ‬and cancer‭, ‬in addition to aural and spinal complications‭. ‬

Today Al Makhzoumi ‬is betting on our despair from demanding our rights‭, ‬especially since most of us suffer under enormous pressure to survive after our wages have been terminated and under the pressure of long term loans which we owe banks‭. ‬As workers we are not accustomed to eating anything less than what we strive for‭, ‬and as such we declare that we will defend our rights and our livelihood with all our strength‭. ‬To this end we are prepared to sacrifice our lives in order to achieve our goal of re-opening the factory in Lebanon and re-employing our colleague workers who have been made redundant in Egypt‭.‬

We place the responsibility for any forthcoming actions squarely on Fouad Makhzoumi first and foremost‭, ‬in addition to those politicians associated with him‭, ‬particularly the Labor Minister Boutros Harb in Lebanon‭, ‬as the government is united in its silence from all ends and by all parties‭, ‬before the displacement of hundreds of workers‭. ‬We say to our elected officials‭, ‬chosen for representation and not pretense‭, ‬you will pay your dues when the time is ripe‭. ‬As for the general trade union‭, ‬we ask that they shoulder their responsibilities towards a defense of our rights as workers‭, ‬and not to be a bureaucratic organization in service of the establishment‭. ‬Thus we call on the trade union to return to its role in the democratic labor struggle‭.‬

‬Let us unite to return to workers their rights‭.‬

There is no other way to realize this goal but to persist in the struggle to preserve our violated rights and in defense of a better world free of exploitation‭. ‬

He who dies in defense of his homeland‭, ‬honor and wealth is a martyr‭, ‬and we are for it‭, ‬and may tomorrow come soon‭. ‬

Workers of Future Pipes‭, ‬Inc‭. ‬
Egypt and Lebanon

بيان صادر عن عمال المستقبل لصناعة الأنابيب فرعي مصر ولبنان
إخوتنا العمال، ايها المناضلون الشرفاء،
بعد التعسف الصارخ الذي مارسته ادارة شركة المستقبل لصناعة الأنابيب و الممثلة بفؤاد المخزومي و أفراد عائلته و مستشاريه القانونيين والمقربين في حزبه "حزب الحوار الوطني"، إن في مصر أو في لبنان، وجدنا أنفسنا كعمال مضطرين للوقوف بوجه الاستغلال وإنتهاك حقوقنا ومكتسباتنا.
فقد عمد فؤاد مخزومي الى إقفال المصنع في منطقة عكار شمال لبنان و تشريد جميع العاملين فيه الذين يفوق عددهم الأربعمائة و من دون أية تعويضات، ونحن على أبواب شهر رمضان المبارك بينما تنتشر، ويا للسخرية! موائد الرحمن التي ينظمها وحزبه في أنحاء مختلفة من لبنان. ونحن لا نتردد بالقول جهاراً بأن أصحاب العمل من آل مخزومي قد إستغلوا إمكاناتهم المادية وعلاقاتهم السياسية لشراء زمم موظفين في وزارة العمل. أما هذه الأخيرة فيستحق فيها إسم وزارة "أصحاب العمل" إذ برهنت تجربتنا عن مدى إنحيازها لهم.
أما في مصر، فقد عمد مخزومي نفسه الى صرف حوالي 220 عاملاً. وقد طالت سياسة الصرف التعسفي مؤخراً 14 عاملاً "بتهمة" التحريض على الإضراب. ونقول لمخزومي في هذا الصدد، أنه، وإن ثبت أن هؤلاء العمال الـ14 قد شاركوا أو حرضوا على الإضراب، فإن الإضراب، ليس بتهمة، فهو حق لنا كفلته القوانين والإتفاقات الدولية، وبالتالي نحن نقف ضد هذا الإنتهاك الصارخ لأبسط حقونا. وكان زملاؤنا في مصر قد نظموا إضراباً للمطالبة بتحسيب الأجور بما يوازي حجم المخاطر التي يتعرضون لها. وقد أصاب بعضهم ما أصابنا من أمراضٍ نتيجة تعاملنا المتواصل في الصناعة مع موادٍ سامة أدت الى ظهور حالات ربو وسرطان، بالإضافة الى مشاكل في السمع والعامود الفقري.
يراهن اليوم آل مخزومي على يأسنا من المطالبة بحقوقنا، خاصةً وأن أغلبنا يرزح تحت وطأة الضغط المعيشي بعد وقف مرتباتنا وتحت وطأة القروض الطويلة الأمد التي ندين لها للبنوك. إلاّ أننا كعمال لم نتعود أن نأكل إلا من عرق جبيننا، نعلن بأننا سندافع عن حقوقنا وأرزاقنا بكل ما أوتينا من قوة. و نحن لهذه الغاية، مستعدين للتضحية بحياتنا من أجل تحقيق مطالبنا المتمثلة بإعادة تشغيل المصنع في لبنان وإعادة رفاقنا العمال المصروفين في مصر.
و نحن نحمّل مسؤولية ما سيحصل من تحركات لفؤاد المخزومي بالمقام الأول ومن ينحاز إليه ويحميه من السياسيين، خاصة وزير العمل بطرس حرب في لبنان، كما الحكومة مجتمعة التي تلتزم الصمت بأطيافها وأحزابها مجتمعةً أمام تشريد مئات العمال. ونقول لنوابنا الذين أنتخبناهم ليمثلونا لا ليمثلوا علينا، فسوف يكون الحساب عند الإستحقاق. وبالنسبة للإتحاد العمالي العام، فنحن ندعوه الى تحمل مسؤولياته في الدفاع عن حقوقنا كعمال لا أن يكون منظمة بيروقراطية بخدمة النظام، وبالتالي ندعوه الى العودة الى موقعه النضالي العمالي الديموقراطي .
و ختاما الى اخواننا العمال نردد القول المأثور " أكلت يوم أكل الثور الأبيض". فلنتحد و نعلنها كلمة تعيد للعمال حقهم. وما من وسيلة لتحقيق ذللك سوى بالإستمرار في النضال حفاظاً على حقوقنا المنهوبة ودفاعاً عن عالم أفضل من دون إستغلال.
من مات دفاعاً عن وطنه وعرضه وماله فهو شهيد، ونحن لها، و ان الغد لناظره قريب.

عمال المستقبل لصناعة ألأنابيب
في لبنان وفي جمهورية مصر العربية

وقفة احتجاجية لعمال المستقبل

2010-08-23T18:24:00.001+02:00

تقدم عمال شركة المستقبل للأنابيب اليوم ببلاغ إلى النائب العام للمطالبة بالتحقيق في المواد السامة التي تستخدمها الشركة والتحفظ عليها وكذلك فتح تحقيق في وفاة أحد العمال متأثرا بتعامله مع هذه المواد.
وقال محمود محسن القيادي بشركة المستقبل التي يعمل بها نحو 500 عاملا في محافظة السادس من أكتوبر ..توجه اليوم العمال الأربعة عشر الذين تم فصلهم من الشركة منذ 3 شهور بتهمة التحريض على الإضراب إلى النائب العام في إطار سلسلة الحركات التي ينظمها العمال ضد المستثمر اللبناني صاحب الشركة، حيث التقينا بالنائب العام المساعد الذي وعدنا بفتح تحقيق في البلاغ ..كما نظمنا وقفة احتجاجية أمام مقر النائب العام .
وأضاف محمود ..توجهنا بعد ذلك إلى الاتحاد العام لعمال مصر الذي لم يقف إلى جوارنا بل واكتفى رئيس النقابة العامة للكيماويات بحثنا على قبول التعويض من إدارة الشركة، ورفض منحنا إعانة من صندوق الاتحاد على أساس إننا لسنا أعضاء في النقابة العامة !!
ويشير محمود إلى إن العمال مصممون على انتزاع حقوقهم خاصة بعد أن فتحوا قنوات اتصال مع عمال الشركة في لبنان والذي قام صاحبها بتصفيتها وإغلاقها نهائيا مما أدى إلى تشريد 500 عاملا لبنانيا وأصدروا بيانا مشتركا جاء فيه : بعد التعسف الصارخ الذي مارسته إدارة شركة المستقبل لصناعة الأنابيب و الممثلة بفؤاد المخزومي و أفراد عائلته و مستشاريه القانونيين والمقربين في حزبه "حزب الحوار الوطني"، إن في مصر أو في لبنان، وجدنا أنفسنا كعمال مضطرين للوقوف بوجه الاستغلال وانتهاك حقوقنا ومكتسباتنا.
وإلى جانب فصل 14 عاملا لدفاعهم عن حقوق العمال التي تهدرها إلا دارة، قام المستثمر اللبناني بتشريد 220 عاملا ، وأجبرهم على تقديم استقالتهم على مدار العامين الماضيين، وللشركة فروع في 12 دولة عربية وأوروبية .

بيان تضامن مع عمال لبنان من عمال مصر

2010-08-09T13:37:00.002+02:00

بيان تضامن مع عمال لبنان

من عمال مصر

نعلن نحن عمال شركة المستقبل لصناعة الأنابيب –مصر – عن تضامنا الكامل مع زملائنا العمال اللبنانيين المعتصمين في مقر شركتهم منذ 12 يوليو الماضي، لمنع صاحب الشركة فؤاد المخزومي من إغلاقها وتشريدهم بحجة إنها تتعرض لخسائر كبيرة رغم المكاسب الكبيرة التي تحققها .

ونشدد على أن معركة عمال لبنان هي معركة كل عمال المجموعة وعمال مصر الذين يتعرضون بدورهم إلى اضطهاد وتعسف من صاحب الشركة، حيث قام مؤخرا بفصل 14 عاملا لدفاعهم عن حقوق العمال التي تهدرها إلا دارة، وتشريد 220 عاملا ، وإجبارهم على تقديم استقالتهم على مدار العامين الماضيين .

ويؤكد عمال مصر إنهم على أتم الاستعداد لاتخاذ كل الخطوات الكفاحية بالتنسيق مع عمال لبنان وكل عمال المجموعة من أجل وقف مسلسل الاضطهاد والتعسف الذي يقوم به المخزومي .

ويشددون على إن نجاح مخططات الإدارة تجاه العمال في كل من لبنان ومصر يفتح الباب على مصراعيه أمام اضطهاد العمال في باقي دول المجموعة، وبالتالي فلابد من أن نقف جميعا وقفة رجل واحد أمام رأس المال المتوحش .

عمال شركة المستقبل –مصر
عنهم
أعضاء اللجنة النقابية
محمود محسن
أسامة صابر

للاتصال تليفون رقم
0184843448
E mail:ragyelrahman@yahoo.com
esamfoud@maktoob.com
9-8-2010

Converging Multitudes: Duisburg- Alexandria

2010-08-05T19:03:00.001+02:00

Converging Multitudes: Duisburg-Alexandria from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

alexandria to duisburg: the convergance of mulitudes

2010-07-28T01:14:00.003+02:00

and

another day protesting a police state

2010-07-27T15:43:00.006+02:00

Tuesday morning witnessed a 200+ crowd of protesters outside the Alexandria court house where the trial of Khaled Said's murderers was taking place.

شهد صباح الثلاثاء حشد من اكثر من 200 متظاهر امام محكمة الاسكندرية القائمة علي محاكمة قتلة خالد السعيد
Long-time activist leads chants: "The Ministry of Interior is the official overseer of the drug trade in Egypt"
قاد الناشط السياسي المخضرم الهتافات : " وزارة الداخلية هي الراعي الرسمي لتجارة المخدرات في مصر

As protesters try to enter the cordoned off rally security agents follow orders and use force:

Government-hired hagglers hold up signs reading "the judges represent us, the police are honest," and calling protesters "traitors." They also chanted against the gathered protesters calling them "Jews."

اسأجرت الحكومة بعض الافراد رافعين رايات مكتوب عليها : " القضاة يمثلوننا ؛ و ضباط الشرطة صادقين" منادين المتظاهربن بالخونة اليهود.

The officer in charge stands by and oversees the comedy like a puppet master:
وقف الضابط المسئول يشرف علي هذه المسرحية الكوميدية و كأنه محرك العرائس.

As the court house lies on one of Alexandria's main roads, hordes of bystanders gathered, standing witness to the true trial taking place on the streets. The judge inside the court house postponed the hoax case to September 25.

Eventually all protesters were permitted to leave the security force cordon.
و حيث ان المحكمة تقع علي احد شوارع الاسكندرية الرئيسية ؛ تجمع حشد من المتفرجين يشهدون المحاكمة الحقيقية في الشارع.
اجل القاضي المحاكمة المزعومة الي 25 سبتمبر .

و اخيرا سمح للمتظاهرين بمغادرة كوردون قوات الامن.

banks that make us go hungry

2010-07-23T12:03:00.002+02:00

David Harvey- Crises of Capitalism

2010-07-06T13:44:00.002+02:00

Me, Issandr el-Imrani and the NDP stooge on Egypt and Gaza w Riz Khan on Aljazeera

2010-07-05T10:53:00.001+02:00

The Video Israel Doesn't Want You to See

2010-06-24T11:24:00.002+02:00

Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Iara's Testimony. from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo.

Fault Lines - In Deep Water: A Way of Life in Peril

2010-06-23T02:21:00.001+02:00

Egyptian Security caught off guard, use excessive force against anti-torture march

2010-06-20T18:13:00.011+02:00

مداهمة الأمن المصري ، واستخدام القوة المفرطة ضد المشاركين في مسيرة ضد التعذيب

Security agents were caught completely off guard when an anti-torture protest in downtown Cairo re-located from the completely police besieged Tahrir Square to a march that started at the nearby Bab el-Luq square. The march that started with approximately 50 protesters increased to 200-250 people. Security agents and plain clothes police started arriving at the scene and followed the march on either side of the road. Marchers were chanting "down with Husni Mubarak" and "look, here are the youth of Egypt."

فوجئ رجال الامن تماما عندما غيرت مظاهرة مناهضة للتعذيب موقعها من ميدان التحرير المحاصر تماما من قبل قوات الشرطة و تحولت إلى مسيرة بدأت من ميدان باب.اللوق. المسيرة التي بدأت بنحو 50 متظاهرا وصل عددهم إلى 200-250 شخص. بدأ ورجال الأمن وشرطة يرتدون ملابس مدنية الوصول الى مكان المظاهرة وتابعوا المسيرة من على جانبي الطريق. المتظاهرون كانوا يهتفون "فليسقط حسني مبارك" و "انظروا، ها هم شباب مصر"
توقفت السيارات للسماح للمشاركين في المسيرة بالمرور وهم يهتفون "حرية ، حرية". 

Cars stopped to let marchers chanting "freedom, freedom" pass by... drivers often clapped and chanted along.

صفق السائقين في كثير من الأحيان ورددوا الهتافات.

Egyptian security started arriving en mass @:22 (in final video), blocking the road ahead of the march with trucks and police. They started surrounding part of the group, then picking protesters out of the crowd one-by-one. The protesters replied with chants "we are not afraid, we are not afraid" @01:52

 بدأت قوات الأمن المصرية بالوصول في مجموعات كبيرة @ : 22 (في الفيديو الاخير) ، و سدت الطريق أمام المسيرة بشاحنات كبيرة ورجال الشرطة. وبدأوا يطوقون اجزاء من المجموعة ، ثم بدأوا في التقاط المتظاهرين من الحشد واحد تلو الاخر و رد المتظاهرون بهتافات "لسنا خائفين ، ونحن لسنا خائفين" @ 01:52 

Both police and plain clothes security agents started using excessive force. @04:25 you will see an unidentifiable protester or protesters getting crushed under severe blows of policemen. @02:42 security try to cordone off a large section of protesters. Security agents tried to get everyone to stop filming and taking pictures @4:00. @4:50 plain clothes security picked one person off the sidewalk next to me, @5:30 another is taken.

 بدأت كل من رجال الشرطة ورجال الأمن بملابس مدنية باستخدام القوة المفرطة. @ 04:25 سترون متظاهر او بعض المتظاهرين غيرمغروف هويتهم يسحقون تحت ضربات شديدة من قبل رجال الشرطة. @ 02:42 يحاول رجال الأمن تطويق جزء كبير من المتظاهرين. و حاولوا منع التصويروالتقاط الصور @ 04:00. @ 4:50 التقط رجال الأمن بالملابس المدنية شخص واحد من الرصيف المجاور لي ، @ 05:30 قبض علي آخر. 

Trying to film as much as possible without getting my phone or my self confiscated I was suddenly attacked by this massive policeman @6:35 who yelled "don't film boy" and hit me in the face, then kicked me as I picked up the phone and managed to escape.. the phone kept filming.

 احاول التصويرلاطول فترة ممكنة دون مصادرة هاتفي أو يقبضوا علي و فجأة تعرضت لهجوم من قبل شرطي ضخم @ 6:35 و الذي صاح "لا تصوير يا ولد" وضربني في وجهي ، ثم ركلني وأنا احاول التقاط هاتفي وتمكنت من الفرار.. ظل الهاتف يصور.

This is the violence of the decaying police state apparatus that Egyptians get to witness on our streets. What you don't see behind the closed doors of the torture chambers of police stations and ministry of interior holding stations, is much worse still.

The latest resports (via Ramy Raoof) are that 55 protesters were disappeared, by 21:00 most of these were released. Abdelqader is reporting that security agents are leaving protesters stranded on the road in the faraway new Cairo suburbs.

At sundown protesters continue their chants calling for the release of all fellow marchers

By 21:00 security agents release all kidnapped protesters (though money, ids stolen), for today the protests come to an end.

Egyptian police state apparatus down 0:1

هذا هو عنف الدولة البوليسية المتدهورة الذي يشهده المصريين في شوارعنا.و ما لا تراه خلف ألابواب المغلقة من غرف التعذيب في مراكز الشرطة ومراكزالاحتجازفي وزارة الداخلية ، مازال أسوأ بكثير   آخر التقارير (عن طريق رامي رؤوف) هي اختفتاء 55 المتظاهرين ، أفرج عن معظمهم في الساعة 21:00 .

قدم عبد القادر تقرير ان رجال الامن تركوا الماظاهرين على الطريق في ضواحي القاهرة الجديدة   عند غروب شمس واصل المتظاهرون الهتافات للأفراج عن جميع المحتجزين من المشاركين في المسيرة   و في الساعة 21:00 قام رجال الامن باطلاق سراح جميع المتظاهرين المختطفين (على الرغم من سرقة ما معهم من مال، وهوياتهم )

، لهذا اليوم وصلت المظاهرات نهايتها.  أجهزة شرطة الدولة المصرية 00:01

حكاية من قرية تمي الأمديد

2010-06-19T12:51:00.001+02:00

من موقع التعذيب عندهم... واحنا ضدهم

Witnesses Speak out on security agents cold-blooded murder of Khaled Said

2010-06-16T22:11:00.005+02:00

Translation provided by Z:

Statements and responses to what was publicized by the Governmental media about Khaled Saeed.
Released and authenticated by Mohamed Abd el Fattah
My Name is Shafik Galal Kamal from Sidi Gaber and was Khaleds friend
We were sitting in the cyber cafe and two police informants came in and wanted to frisk him
Khaled didn’t like the way they were conducting the search and asked them why they wanted to frisk us
They started beating on him and dragged him to the building entrance next door and they kept banging his head on the stair rod and continued beating him for another 20 minutes then they took him away and came back after 15min, we found Khaled dead.they called the ambulance which came and picked him up. And that’s all that happened.

The mother of one of khaleds friends:
A young man sitting in a cyber cafe and all he did was ask them “why are you frisking us” , “what did we do??”
They take him and beat him to death in the building next to the cyber cafe??!!! They take him away and when they found out he was dead they bring him back , dump his body in front of the cyber cafe then call the ambulance to pick him up??!!!!

Demonstrator:
And then they take him in a taxi all the way to the police station...when they find out he was dead they bring him back to the cyber cafe and dump his body in the street ..then they get out guns and threaten; anyone who comes close will be shot then they call the ambulance and leave....
How is this possible???!!
Then they are released...released!!!! how come???
Shafik khaleds friend:
They said he had a roll of weed ...and there wasn’t any..
They said he was a drug dealer...and he is not
He is a descent man, he has an import and export office and had lived in the united states.
That’s all what happened.
None of what they stated afterwards happened.
And if I would be requested to testify in court I will.

The mother of one of khaleds friends:
The one who died was my sons friend.
He neither took nor dealt in drugs.

Demonstrator:
They said he used drugs ...i swear its all lies...its all lies
He doesn’t use anything...he is a descent man

Abu el Ezz El Hariri – Former member of the parliament – Karmouz district
Someone who supposedly died of asphyxia, what broke his bones and his ribs??
shattered his face and skull???
It’s a bigger issue, no need for deception

Demonstrator:
Pick up anyone off the street and kill them.....the emergency law..
Accuse him of using and selling drugs...a convicted criminal....this is the emergency law..

The mother of one of khaleds friends:
Young man after the other are murdered and no one gets their rights in this country.....i swear
If this were the son of a government official...this would have never had happened
They are drug addicts and far worse and nothing ever happens to them
They only do this to the helpless...

رامي- قصة من تمي الأماديد

2010-06-14T18:18:00.003+02:00

نزل ملخص الفلم و انشره بموبيلك

زور موقع التعذيب عندهم... واحنا ضدهم

UPDATE: Violent Crackdown at Ministry of Interior Protest

2010-06-13T16:53:00.016+02:00

it is 17:54 in cairo, protest started as planned at 17:00 in front of the ministry of interior to protest the brutal murder of Khaled Said at the hands of security force officers last week and ongoing usage of torture in Egypt

follow here and here for live video feed updates

Arabawy's last feed:

reports over twitter that many arrests have been made, the police force according to Arabawy is lead by officer Hisham el-Iraqi.

The approx 200 protestors are now encircled and the police force is closing in on them

Security forces arrested lawyer Malek Adly from Hisham Mubarak, Emad Mubarak (then released again by 18:12 according to RamyRaoof), Mohamed Waked, Ashraf Omar, Shadi and Hani el-hosseiny

and

Islam Al-Zanaty, Mohamed Nowar (according to ielsakka)

latest kidnapped activists reported by Emad Mubarak at 18:40:

Ahmed Badawy, Hosam Al-Sayad, Amr Ali, Nour Ayman Nour, Ali Hassan, Mostafa el-hosseiny, Samir Girgis and confirming Islam AL-Zenaty

According to RamyRaoof by 18:00 security forces had arrested 20 activists this number raised to estimates between 25 (RamyRaoof) and 60 by 18:25 (according hossam_karama)

Activists urgently calling for water supplies

Those leaving the protest are promised to go free and then arrested once outside of the cricle (Arabawy)

Ayman Nour reported to be in hospital according to btnafas7oria

Despite police brutality and kidnapping, protesters standing strong

We say NO to torture

At 19:30 demonstrators negotiations with security fail. Demonstrators won't leave till detainees are released via SarahCarr

urgent update 19:55:

security forces kidnap blogger-activist hossam el-hamalawy, ahmed kheir

update via ramyraoof:

new names:

rasha azb-ahmed kheir-malek mostafa-yehia sami-hassan hamdan-mohamed ansari-fouad fawaz-mohamed hosny-maikel nabil- mamdoh safwt

latest via SarahCarr:

security releasing people one by one, kidnapping those wanted

latest image from the scene

at 21:05 security forces are releasing the protesters two by two, only a small group left surrounded

at 21:10 blogger hossam el-hamalawy picked up at hospital and TravellweW taking him home.

Protest taking place at High Court for those kidnapped

Joining the protest now

Responding to the Lies of a Crumbling State

2010-06-13T13:12:00.003+02:00

A response from the Nadeem Center to the Ministry of Interior's statement on the Murder of Khaled Said:

We shall not back down as long as you don't

On the 12th of June 2010 the department of media and public relations of the Egyptian ministry of interior issued a statement denying the content of the testimonies of eyewitnesses as well as reports by human rights organizations regarding the killing of Khaled Said in Alexandria, accusing those statement of inaccuracy, flagrant falsification, and crossing the line in dissemination of lies etc. the following is our reply:

The statement by the MOI refers to "certain elements and circles": We are not "elements" or "certain circles". We are human rights organizations which will not stop to monitor and expose each and every violation committed by the MOI, as well as its violation of rights, the law, the constitution and international conventions ratified by the Egyptian government to boast the international community, while it exercises all forms of humiliation and oppression against Egyptians, men and women, every day in each police station, security office, and detention center. Our names are known, our addresses are known and our statements are public.

MOI refers to "two police staff from the investigation unit at sidi Gaber police station in Alexandria who, while observing the security situation on the 7th of the current month in one of the streets of Cleopatra district, saw the convict/ Khaled Mohamed Said Sobhi accompanied by one of his friends; and when they approached to arrest him…" Why did the police informers go to arrest Khaled. Did they have an arrest warrant. If it is true, as claimed by the MOI, that Khaled was wanted for two court sentences, why didn’t an official police force in uniform go to his house and arrest him from there, after showing the arrest warrant and the alleged court sentences?

Why couldn't Khaled swallow the wrapped narcotics found in his throat, which MOI claims has resulted in his death of asphyxia? Could it be that this pack of narcotics was forcefully stuffed down his throat after he was dead, so he failed to swallow it, since, as we all know, the dead can not swallow? Is that what the MOI did in those ten minutes during which Khaled was taken away in a police car and then returned to the spot where he was beaten to death? How could Khaled, with a throat stuffed with that alleged narcotic pack scream "I am dying" while the informers were hitting his head against the marble of the stairs?

More questions to pose:

What were the chief investigation officer of Sidi Gaber police station and the director of Alexandria investigation department doing at the office of the prosecution yesterday, moving around freely from one prosecutor's office to the other, while an important eye witness had to wait for four whole hours in front of that same office, uselessly waiting for his testimony to be taken by a prosecutor who said "he did not have the time"?

How can the prosecutor claim, as a law and not medical graduate, that the fractures and disfigurements of Khaled's face and head were the result of autopsy? What was the forensic department looking for that necessitated a fracture of the skull, a dislocation of the jaw and the excessive bleeding? Were they looking for the narcotics inside his skull although MOI claimed it was stuck in his trachea?

Why did the public prosecutor issue a circular banning the photocopying of Khaled's file by the lawyers who had to go through the file and take hurried notes?

How does MOI and the prosecution refer to a forensic report that has not yet been issued and was nowhere to be found inside the file?

The MOI statement says that "the police authorities are committed to the law and human rights principles within the framework of the state's policy".. and we are committed to change that state's police which at the UN human rights council rejected the ratification of the optional protocol of CAT as well as a mechanism which allows for indirect individual complaints to the UN, thereby securing its immunity and complacency of the prosecution which seeks to protect the perpetrators of torture.

The MOI statement then concluded that it will not "back down no matter how much the allegations". Nor shall we, no matter how much MOI spread their lies and terror. We shall continue to expose crimes of torture, reach out for the victims, provide legal, psychological and media support as well as all other forms of support until the torturers are brought to justice.. As long as there is no public apology.. as long as there is torture.. as long as the perpetrators are not brought to justice.. we shall not back down

Egypt: Torture as the Norm

2010-06-12T10:25:00.010+02:00

Over the past few months I have been working on a video project about torture, so when I heard about the public beating and murder of 28-year old Khaled Sayed Thursday night it came as no surprise. According to blogger Mfatta7, Khaled had either filmed or obtained a video that reveals a number of police officers involved in a drug deal. This is the video provided by his sister:

Once again to most Egyptians neither the police involvement in drug dealing, nor security forces' use of torture for a personal vendetta comes as a surprise. And yet, this time there is an outrage that started on the streets of Alexandria and has spread around the country because the act was done so blatantly... and the news and images have spread online. On Sunday June 6 security agents sought to carry out a random search of the internet cafe Khaled was in. Following Egypt's emergency law amendments such random searches are not legal and he refused. Consequently he was beaten to death, his body was taken to a nearby police station and according to the man's uncle, Khaled's body was later thrown in front of his home.

Meanwhile there is an Egyptian delegation at the UN Human Rights Council trying to whitewash the Egyptian governments image on torture and other rights violations. Reporting from Geneva, Hosam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights told Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm that, the government had pledged to "revisit the articles identifying torture in the penal code." The representatives furthermore promised to set up an "institutional mechanism" to follow up on the commitments made to the council. A similar mechanism the government set up to assess minimum wage needs in 2003 failed to ever meet, much less implement any changes. Aida Seif-Aldawla from the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence told AP, "we live in a country where there is absolutely no law. We want the sacking and trial of the head of the police."

So while government officials bullshit their way through UN apparatuses...

join us at a protest at the Ministry of Interior at 5pm Sunday

قصة من اعتصامات مجلس الشعب

2010-06-08T16:56:00.001+02:00

قصة من اعتصامات مجلس الشعب from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

for translation visit

عمال مصر تضامنا مع اسطول الحرية

2010-06-02T22:30:00.001+02:00

The Egyptian Shura Council Elections Masquerade

2010-06-01T16:21:00.006+02:00

I was rudely awoken this morning at 9:30... "are you following the news?" I heard... the only "news" I could think of, was that I was still reeling from the Israeli massacre on the Gaza flotilla yesterday and editing till 3:30am...

Shortly thereafter I found myself in a taxi heading to Nadeem Center to meet up with Haitham to follow the chaos of Egyptian elections for the Council of Ministers. Personally, I have no experience in life that has made me have any in faith in electoral processes.

My taxi driver- 62 years old- told me he didn't have an election ID, nor did he ever have one, nor has he ever known anyone who has an election ID- and he has many relatives, five brothers and over 50 nephews- except for one: a brother-in-law, but he died.

So I ended up in Helwan and this is what I saw:

These voters tried to storm the polling station because they were prevented from voting.

When people asked for the rules, it turns out security were in the wrong and everyone there is was permitted to vote using their nation ID:

But it didn't matter. They weren't allowed in anyway.

They made up a new rule that says unless you have the little red card, you don't get in to vote. So in this last station in a district with 12,000 registered voters, only five entered the polling station to cast their vote, all of them NDP members.

This man is saying (paraphrased)... we live in shitty conditions here, our children can't find jobs, if you would see the poverty we live in, we want change, so we came to vote for it...

And so like anybody would these people held a protest:

I am no fan of organized religion, but I would be in that crowd too, did I not believe in elections to begin with.

Change will come from below.

Irish Boat the MV Rachel Corrie proceeding to Gaza #flotilla

2010-06-01T00:40:00.002+02:00

via aliabunimah.posterous.com:

I received the following message from a member of the Belfast Palestine Solidarity Committee which has received word from the Free Gaza Movement that those aboard the Irish vessel "Rachel Corrie" have decided to proceed to Gaza. A full press release is expected shortly.

Niamh Moloughney of the Free Gaza Movement has just sent the following message :

>> Ok just got word from Derek,
>> they have all agreed to take the Rachel Corrie to Gaza as intended,
>> she's 2 days away, it's a Malaysian & Irish partnership
>> on board we have Denis Halliday, Mairead Maguire, Derek & Jenny Graham, Fiona Thompson (film)
>> and Mathias Chang human rights lawyer, Malaysian MP & media - bios attached
>> The Malaysians are serious contenders- they are very close to their government & have FULL support.
>> We have 2 days to turn this outrage into a victory & get the Rachel Corrie into Gaza with the support of the world
>> and open this sea route.
>> Will get press release together when I finish work - hopefully can stay awake!
>> all the best,
>> Niamh

It's vital that we now give full support to this ship reaching Gaza.

and here the "weapons" found aboard the Marmara where Israeli soldiers massacred 19 activists:

One more bloody Israeli massacre

2010-05-31T10:39:00.004+02:00

Israeli troops storm the Turkish aid boat:

Protests in Istanbul following the massacre:

Live from the Flotilla: Break the Siege on Gaza

2010-05-30T15:54:00.003+02:00

and by ipadio (in English) here

Amonsito Workers Will Return

2010-05-26T01:17:00.001+02:00

Amonsito & The Inner Workings of State Violence

2010-05-24T16:49:00.004+02:00

On 28 April Ahmad Ezz, appearing on Christiane Amanpour’s CNN show, spoke with pride of the demonstrations staged daily in front of parliament by “good Egyptians.” He went on to remark that the image of Egypt “stifling dissent… with no freedom of expression, is far from the mark.”

Sunday 23 May, proved claims of the Egyptian regime’s stifling dissent to be right on the mark.

The morning started with escalations by the workers of the Amonsito factory. Their union representatives were due to meet with Minister of Manpower and Immigration Aisha Abdel Hady and General Union head Hussein Megawer at 10am that morning.

What was to be discussed once more was the government’s backing out from a deal singed on 21 March between Bank Misr, the government’s Ministry of Manpower and Immigration and the worker’s union. Following the signed agreement the government-owned bank backed reduced the agreed upon amount of LE106 million to be paid out to the 1700 workers, to LE50 million.

Over the past week the workers have been progressively escalating their acts of protests in an attempt to get the government and the passers-by attention.

Sunday morning the workers were using whistles, chanting and beating the barricades the police uses to cage them onto the sidewalk. The deafening noise could be heard multiple streets away, drawing the attention of anyone in the vicinity. On Friday, some of the workers ripped their clothes and wrote message of dissent on their bodies.

Their calls of protest have reached a new level of urgency.

On Sunday the messages on their bodies and torn clothes included, “the thieving government,” “I want my rights.”

Around 1pm the union representatives returned from the parliament building with bad news. The head of the General Union and Manpower Minister had stood their ground and would not return to negotiate the original 21 March agreement.

After the announcement of this news, the workers tried to enter the gates of the parliament upon which security forces encircled them. When some of the workers managed to break through the barricade, the forces attacked them with wooden sticks, beating them severely and then arrested seven of the workers.

Minutes later many of the workers had dispersed all over town, Ragab Khidr was taken to a nearby hospital having loosing consciousness after security forces beat him over the head. Khidr later received stitches to his head.

Security forces did not spare Amonsito union head Khaled al-Shishawy, who also received multiple blows to his body. While showing me his wounds, he explained, “security forces faced us, the officers beat us up with their batons, we kept trying to hold back their blows.”

The representative of the 1700 workers went on, “we’re not leaving even if they shoot us. May they detain us all and put us behind bars.”

Four hours later security had forced all the workers away having threatened them with further use of violence and without having released the initial seven kidnapped workers.

The government-aligned Radio Misr station announced later that day that the workers had gone home, after having come to an agreement with the government.

Just a few minutes walk away from the Amonsito protest site, security forces forced similar sit-ins of the Nubariya and the Helwan Telephone Company from their sites of protest.

Al-Shishawy ended his statement saying, “I hope the world knows what democracy is like in Egypt, we are only asking for our rights.”

NDP parliamentarian Ahmad Ezz will have to drive to work tomorrow on streets cleared of protesters.

For the workers, the government spokesman’s words have never rung so hollow.

Security Forces Crack Down

2010-05-24T01:50:00.001+02:00

The days events

Amonsito workers face security crackdown

2010-05-23T15:52:00.004+02:00

After being kicked out of a parliament session in the early afternoon of March 23, Amonsito workers faced police brutality. Security forces kidnapped 6 workers and are now holding them at police stations. Security deny their presence at qasr alnil and sayeda Zeinab police stations despite witness accounts of their presence there

see witness accounts here

Visiting An Egyptian Worker Intifada

2010-05-19T16:49:00.004+02:00

On May 18 the sidewalks of the Egyptian Parliament is packed with workers.

Leading the crowd is the 14-year-old daughter of the union leader.

In the heat of the day, about 30 workers from the Amonsito textile factory huddled under the shade of a tree.

“We are not workers, we are rejects,” the factory union leader Khaled el-Shishawy, who is known simply as sheikh Khaled said.

Read on

The workers returned after government officials and the crediting bank shirked responsibility on an agreement signed 55 days earlier.

Before returning 12 days ago, sheikh Khaled told me, “If we return to our sit-in, it won’t be the same as last time. Things will be different.”

More pictures of the workers' sit-in here.

The Shattering of the Egyptian State- Labor Uprising in Review

2010-05-19T15:53:00.005+02:00

Kareem el-Beheiry was 20 years old when he first took part in a labor strike in December 2006.

"I didn't know what a strike was," said el-Beheiry, the Mahalla Textile Factory's first blogger.

The next day he saw a scene that changed his life. "I saw a woman crying in front of a TV camera, saying she could not feed her kids."

The blogger, shocked by the scene, thought to himself, "Does this really exist in Egypt?"

It does, according to Esam Shaban, a researcher at the Afaq Ishtiraqeyya Center. Over 80 percent of Egyptians are poor, Shaban says, and conditions have worsened over the past five years.

While the Egyptian government often claims that increasing poverty is a result of global market fluctuations, others suggest that Egypt's problems are the direct result of growing gentrification and the government's economic policies.

In the late 1990s the government began privatizing industry, which had been under state control since the 1950s. The education and health sectors were then privatized in the early 2000s. Many factories that had previously been nationalized were bought by foreign investors seeking quick profits. They were attracted by Egypt's lax labor laws, accentuated by a new law in 2003.

In the mid-1990s, farmers were stripped of the protective laws as the government stepped in to protect large landowners and cut subsidies to small farmers.

"Today even working two jobs is not sufficient to provide for a family," Shaban says. "It has caused an economic crisis and people can't remain quiet about this." Many Egyptians have taken to the streets to protest their economic plight.

"On the Egyptian street," says Shaban, "the individual act of discontent became a collective act of protest."

A turning point came in December 2006 when over 24,000 workers at a state-owned textile factory in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla launched a massive strike. On the third day of the strike, labor leader Jihad Taman noticed el-Beheiry filming and thought he was a security agent. When el-Beheiry showed him his factory ID card, Tamam took el-Beheiry under his wing.

The December 2006 strike broke down a barrier of fear among Egyptian labor activists. By the time of the next strike, in September of 2007, the blogger and his fellow strikers were chanting against the World Bank's role in the "colonization" of Egypt and calling for the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak.

News and images of the 2006 and 2007 uprisings spread across Egypt like a virus. Soon, strikes, sit-ins and protests were springing up all around the country.

On 6 April, 2008 food prices hit a new high, and once again Mahalla was the site of dissent.

With the aim of preventing another major strike, security forces closed the textile factory compound. State security trucks from around Egypt surrounded the Delta city. Workers subsequently called off the strike as security made it impossible for them to congregate.

Mahalla, however, was not easily pacified. When security forces beat a woman and her daughter, they ignited the people's anger. For days the clashes continued, with scenes reminiscent of the Palestinian Intifada becoming a reality on Egypt's streets.

Infrastructure, like police cars and train tracks, were set ablaze with the intention of sending a message: Under this regime, life has become unbearable.

In the 6 April uprising, the demands of the workers and the general population overlapped. People called for lower food prices as workers called for a minimum wage.

During the 6 April strike, state security agents arrested and tortured el-Beheiry along with many other labor activists. He was released 73 days later. In 2009, the government transferred el-Beheiry to Cairo and in 2010 he was fired.

In May 2008 a 10,000 person sit-in of real-estate tax collectors caused the government to give in to demands for a 300 percent wage increase. On 21 April 2009, thousands of tax collectors gathered at the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration, forcing Minister Aisha Abdel Hady to recognize their independent union, the first in Egypt since 1957.

At the end of 2009 more and more sit-ins moved to the sidewalks of downtown Cairo. When workers' calls for government interference--particularly in recently privatized factories--went unheeded, they moved to the gates of parliament.

On 8 February workers of the Tanta Flax and Oils Factory started a sit-in on the doorstep of the Council of Ministers in downtown Cairo. In January, the factory's union head, Salah Mosallam, along with nine others were fired in retribution for launching a number of strikes in Tanta. After the Saudi factory owner locked the factory, workers moved their protest to downtown Cairo, calling for their re-instatement or severance payments in accordance with Egyptian law.

"The example of the Tanta Flax Company has proved that the policy of privatization is a failure," said independent MP Gamal Zahran.

After more than two weeks of sitting-in, the roughly 400 protestors rolled up their blankets and went home after the union head came to an verbal agreement with Minister of Manpower and Labor Aisha Abdel Hady and the factory representatives.

But while the Tanta workers may have been temporarily placated, their action brought about a new tactic for Egypt's labor movement. Their 16-day sit-in started a new wave of sit-ins on the sidewalks of the Egyptian parliament.

Workers from the Salemco and Amonsito companies repeated the Tanta Flax scenario almost as if they were following the same script. It seems as though workers have discovered that in order to have their voices heard, they must take their protests to the streets of Cairo.

So far, even this kind of pressure has only brought limited results as factory owners have repeatedly neglected to uphold the promises they make to force the workers off the street. A few weeks after their settlement, the Tanta Flax and Oil Company workers were back on the streets of downtown Cairo.

While the ongoing strikes have empowered Egyptian labor activists, conditions are still not ideal.

"We say the street is ours, but when security forces beat Bahaa Saber in public and then tortured him behind closed doors, this remains only a slogan," says Mahalla blogger el-Beheiry, referring to the 6 April 2010 protest at which an activist was violently beaten in front of masses of onlookers and rolling video cameras.

"Protests don't show the democracy of the government, they prove the failure of the government, they show there is no government," el-Beheiry says.

The Egyptian government's inequitable economic policies are working to shatter the concept of the state as a paternal figure, according to Shaban. "Confidence in the state that controls everything, that turns the water on and off, has been lost."

El-Beheiry thinks that protests need to be combined with direct action. "I like the idea of workers in Argentina. Let us privatize the factories for ourselves. This must be tried in Egypt," he says, referring to events during Argentina's 2001 economic crisis where factory owners fled the country with their savings and workers took over factory administrations and ran the shop floors themselves.

On 19 February MP Nasha't el-Qassass from President Mubarak's National Democratic Party called for protestors to be shot. The parliament responded by recommending to him to the Values Committee.

The following day protesters held placards reading, "Shoot us."

"The media has been central in spreading the news of protests," Shaban says. Today protesters are benefiting from the coverage of local and international media outlets as well as citizen journalism tools, like blogs, twitter, and live video feeds.

Last month, lawyer Khaled Ali from the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights handed in the papers for a case calling on the Egyptian government to set a fair minimum wage. Hundreds gathered at the Minister's Council lead by Independent Tax Collector Union head Kamal Abu Eita chanting, "For those living in castles, a maximum wage, for those living in graves, a minimum living wage."

On 1 May, sugar factories in the Qena Governorate went on strike due to unbearably low wages. At the end of April, 9000 workers at an aluminum factory in Naga Hamadi called for the implementation of a LE1200 a minimum wage.

Meanwhile, the five different groups of protesters on the sidewalk of the parliament buildings united to raise their voice in protest on May Day.

"On Labor Day, workers are supposed to be given benefits, year after year we are being given crises," says el-Beheiry.

Later today, workers and activists from all around the country will protest before the Council of Ministers. They will call for the implementation of a court case that was raised and won by worker Nagy Rashad against the Egyptian government. According to the court ruling, the prime minister is required to introduce a minimum living wage in accordance with market prices by 1 May. The current minimum wage, set in the mid-1980s, is LE35.

Meters from where many of the sit-ins have been taking place, an old mural reads, "Democracy ascertains the rule of the people." But for the people sleeping on the sidewalk, this sounds like a hollow platitude.

Workers of Egypt in Solidarity with the People of Greece on the 20 May Strike

2010-05-18T20:50:00.003+02:00

From across the Mediterranean we have been witnessing the economic crisis and its effects on the people of Greece. For many in Egypt, Europe seems a far distance away, yet the financial realities of our globalized world mean that what happens to our brothers and sisters in Greece does not leave us unaffected.

The intolerable conditions of people in both Greece and Egypt is a direct consequence of the failures of capitalism and policies of neo-liberalism. Both in Greece and Egypt the governing authorities are reducing public sector funding in various spheres, like education, health and services, with the stated aim of "reform."

For the people of Greece the economic decisions taken by their government representatives has translated into a "financial crisis" that is causing widespread suffering of the population. In response the government is again punishing the people of Greece by imposing large-scale public spending cuts.

For the people of Egypt, though there is no report of a "financial crisis," consistent government spending cuts and privatization has also translated into suffering and thus a crisis in every sense of the word. All across the country workers have been holding sit-ins and strikes to protest miniscule government salaries and the illegal actions of privatized factory owners. In Egypt investment is on the rise, but the profits are not "trickling down" to the working class as promised.

We call for the governments of Greece and Egypt to re-shaped their economic agenda to prioritize the needs of people over the profits of investors.

Today, on the streets of Egypt we stand in solidarity with Greek protestors and affirm your stance against capitalism and the tyranny of governments that impose it.

In solidarity,

The workers of Al-Mahalla
The workers of Tanta Flax and Oil Company
The Real Estate Tax Collectors' Independent Union
The Socialist Studies Center
The Workers Preparatory Committee

تابعنا الازمة الاقتصادية التي وقعت في اليونان و الاثر الذي خلفته على الشعب اليوناني. الكثيرون في مصر يرون مسافة كبيرة بيننا و بين اوروبا، الا ان الحقائق المالية لعصر العولمة الذي نعيشه تفيد بان ما يعانيه اخواننا و اخواتنا في اليونان لا يتركنا دون تاثير.

ان الظروف العسيرة التي يمر بها شعبا اليونان و مصر لهي نتاج فشل سياسات الراسمالية و الليبرالية الجديدة. ففي كلا البلدين تقلص السلطات من التمويلات المخصصة لعدة اقسام من القطاع العام، كالتعليم، و الصحة، و الخدمات. و يجري كل ذلك تحت شعار "الاصلاح

يرى اليونانيون ان الخطوات التي اتخذها نوابهم تسببت في ازمة مالية نتج عنها معاناة للشعب على نطاق واسع. فيما ردت الحكومة باقتطاع جزء ضخم من النفقات العامة و كانها تعاقب شعبها.

اما فيما يخص الشعب المصري، فلا تقارير عن "ازمة مالية"، الا ان الاقتطاعات الدائمة للانفاق، الى جانب سياسة الخصخصة، اسهموا في خلق معاناة و ازمات بكل ما تحمله الكلمة من معنى. لقد نظم العمال في انحاء الجمهورية اعتصامات و اضرابات اعتراضا على تدني الاجور و الممارسات غير القانونية من جانب ملاك الشركات المخصخصة. و برغم ان حركة الاستثمارات في مصر في تصاعد، الا ان الطبقات العاملة لم تلمس فوائدها حسبما وعدت.

اننا نطالب حكومتي كلا من مصر و اليونان ان تعيدا ترتيب اجندتيهما بوضع احتياجات الشعب فوق مصالح المستثمرين.

ونحن اليوم متضامنون في شوارع مصر مع المتظاهرين اليونانيين ضد الراسمالية و الحكومات المستبدة التي تفرضها علينا.

رابتة عمال المحلة

عمال طنطا للكتان والزيوت

النقابة المستقلة للضرائب العقارية

مركز الدراسات الاشتراكية

اللجنة التحضيرية للعمال

Live Video-Feed: 2 May Protest

2010-05-02T10:10:00.004+02:00

Follow today's protest calling for a minimum wage live here

the times have changed/ 2 may protest: cairo streets

2010-04-30T04:02:00.004+02:00

I am writing you today because of an emergency.

Like in so many places, the dispersion of a neo-liberal economic agenda is threatening to drown many Egyptians alive.

Since 2004, the Egyptian government has applied economic policies that have translated into reduced support- of any kind- for workers and farmers and increased benefits for agro-business owners and entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, the Egyptian economic agenda has entailed fast-track (if selective) economic liberalization, partly to blame for steady inflation in Egypt. Again, this is good for businesses, not workers.

With an unsatiable desire for high FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) quotas, Egyptian authorities are making it easier for foreign businesses to invest in Egypt, including by means of subsidies on gas and electricity and minimal labor regulations. Essentially, this is enabling a double exploitation of Egyptian resources, natural and human, for the benefit of the local business elite and foreign investors.

I want to visit just one of the very particular effects of these kinds of economic regulations: the effect on a minimum living wage.

In Egypt we have an official minimum wage of 35EGP ($6)/ month that has remained unchanged since 1984. A vast number of Egyptian wage earners are making between $50-$100 a month. With severe inflation over the past four years I have no idea how families survive even when breadwinners are working multiple jobs at such rates.

One month ago, on 1 April, Egyptian workers won a court ruling forcing the Egyptian government to set a living wage for both private and public sector workers.The decision requires the Prime Minister to implement a miniumum living wage in accordance with Egyptian market prices by 1 May 2010 or be sent to prison for failing to conform with the court ruling.

A delegation of workers calls on all working Egyptians to join them in their protest in front of the Cabinet of Ministers in downtown Cairo at 13:00GMT on 2 May 2010 to demand that the government enforce the court ruling.

The 2 May protest does not concern merely a single segment of Egyptian society or a specific government policy. It is an action to obtain a living wage to guarantee dignity for all Egyptians; an action to curb the exploitation and oppression Egyptians experience as working people. Furthermore, I don't think such an event concerns only Egyptians, it concerns people at the bottom the world over, who are being trampled for the excess of comfort and luxury of those at the top.

Watch a video about the court case and history of the coming protest on Egypt's streets

Watch videos of Egyptian workers, celebrities and politicians calling for wide participation of the protest on 2 May (in Arabic)

Pass on the information for the press to cover.

Get unions and syndicates you are connected with, to send letters or videos (similar to those linked to earlier) of solidarity and support. These can be filmed on a webcam and uploaded to youtube or other video hosting sites and the links forwarded to me.

Help spread the word on this uprising of a multitude.

Jonathan Cook: Israeli Press Censorship

2010-04-19T17:45:00.002+02:00

A Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament is demanding that a newspaper be allowed to publish an investigative report that was suppressed days before Israel attacked Gaza in winter 2008.

The investigation by Uri Blau, who has been in hiding since December to avoid arrest, concerned Israeli preparations for the impending assault on Gaza, known as Operation Cast Lead.

In a highly unusual move, according to reports in the Israeli media, the army ordered the Haaretz newspaper to destroy all copies of an edition that included Blau’s investigation after it had already gone to press and been passed by the military censor. The article was never republished.

Read On

Richard Falk: The Palestinian solidarity movement has become the successor to the anti-apartheid movement as the primary legitimacy war of...

2010-04-15T01:55:00.002+02:00

April 13, 2010

To the Senate of the Associated Students of the University of

California, Berkeley (ASUC):

I am writing to encourage renewed support for Senate Bill 118A (“A

Bill in Support of ASUC Divestment from War Crimes”), including the

override of ASUC President Will Smelko’s veto on March 24, 2010. The

earlier passage of the bill by a 16-4 vote in the Senate has been

widely hailed as a major step forward in the growing global campaign

of divestment and boycott as a means of holding Israeli accountable

for flagrant and persistent patterns of violating fundamental rules of

international criminal law, as well as those portions of international

humanitarian law applicable to military occupation. We have reached a

stage in world history where citizens of conscience have a crucial

role to play in the implementation of a global rule of law, and this

initiative by Berkeley students, if implemented, will be both a

memorable instance of global citizenship and an inspiration to others

in this country and throughout the world.

I would agree that recourse to divestment and boycott tactics should

be reserved for exceptional and appropriate circumstances. Such

initiatives by their very nature deliberately interfere with the

freedom of the global marketplace and the normally desirable free

interplay of cultures, nations, persons, and ideas. There are several

reasons why the circumstances of prolonged Israeli criminality

resulting in acute suffering for several million Palestinians living

under occupation since 1967 present such a strong case for reliance on

the tactics of divestment and boycott.

First of all, it has become painfully clear that neither the United

Nations, the United States, the actions of other governments, nor

world public opinion are willing or able to persuade or pressure

Israel to terminate policies that are both violations of Geneva

Convention IV, governing occupation, and international criminal law,

relating to both war crimes and crimes against humanity. At the same

time, there is reason to believe that efforts by Palestinians to wage

what might be called the Legitimacy War, are having a strong impact on

Israel and elsewhere. It should be remembered that many of the

conflicts of the last 75 years have been resolved by reliance on soft

power superiority, which has more than compensated for hard power

inferiority. In this respect the anti-apartheid movement, waged on a

symbolic global battlefield, created a political climate that achieved

victory in the legitimacy war that was translated, nonviolently, into

a totally unexpected political outcome—the peaceful transformation of

South Africa into a multi-racial constitutional democracy. The

Palestinian solidarity movement has become the successor to the

anti-apartheid movement as the primary legitimacy war of this

historical moment. Berkeley’s participation by way of this divestment

initiative thus takes account of the failure of governments and the

international community to protect Palestinian victims of ongoing

criminality, but also joins in a movement of solidarity that contains

some hope of an eventual peaceful and just resolution of the

underlying conflict allowing both peoples to resume a secure and

normal life.

Secondly, we in the United States face a special challenge as our tax

dollars, economic and military assistance, and unconditionally

supportive diplomacy have shielded Israel from mechanisms of

accountability for criminal behavior. Most recently, the U.S.

Government repudiated the Goldstone Report, a highly respected

fact-finding mission conducted under UN auspices, that had carried out

a scrupulously fair and comprehensive investigation of allegations of

war crimes attributable to Israel and Hamas during the Israeli

offensive in Gaza that started on December 27, 2008, and lasted for 22

days. The Goldstone Report’s main findings confirmed earlier respected

investigations, concluding that the evidence supported overall

allegations of criminal tactics, including intentional efforts to

target in Gaza civilians and the civilian infrastructure in flagrant

violation of the provisions of the law of war, which should have been

particularly upheld in a situation of such one-sided military

operations conducted against an essentially defenseless Gaza, an

unprecedented situation In which the entire civilian population of 1.5

million were locked into the combat zone, and denied even the option

to become refugees.

It should be also noted that the people of Gaza have been subjected to

an unlawful Israeli blockade that has for more than 32 months limited

the entry of food, medicine, and fuel to subsistence levels, with

widely reported drastic harm to physical and mental health of the

entire population. There are two related points here: the allegations

of criminality are abundantly documented, including by a range of

respected human rights organization in Israel and occupied Palestine;

and the U.S. Government has done its best to ensure the continuation

of Israeli impunity and it has been complicit as arms supplier and as

a country deferential to the blockade despite its gross and clear

violation of the prohibition against collective punishment contained

in Article 33 of Geneva IV. In this respect, as Americans we have an

extra duty beyond that of those living elsewhere to support the global

divestment campaign, thereby showing that our government does not

speak for the whole society when it comes to the application of the

rule of law to Israel and its political leadership.

Thirdly, by targeting General Electric and United Technologies for

divestment, the Senate shows that it is not acting arbitrarily or

punitively, but seeking to take action against corporations that are

supplying precisely the weaponry used by Israel to impose its unlawful

will on occupied Palestinian territories. Israel in legally dubious

ways has relied on Apache and Sikorsky Helicopters and F-16 fighter

bombers to mount periodic attacks against a variety of Palestinian

targets, thereby abandoning its primary duty as an occupying power to

protect the civilian population of an occupied territory.

Although most emphasis on criminality has been placed on Israeli

policies toward the Gaza Strip, it is also relevant to note that

Israeli policies on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem have

consistently ignored the obligations imposed on an occupying power by

Geneva IV, and have done so in a manner that has consistently

undermined hopes for peace. Israel has continued to build and expand

settlements, unlawful by Article 49(6) of Geneva IV prohibiting

transfers of population of the occupying power to an occupied

territory; the scale of these unlawful settlements, with some 121

settlements established on the West Bank alone and over 200,000 Israel

settlers now living in East Jerusalem, has produced an aggregate

settler population of about 450,000. Such a massive violation of

international humanitarian law is serious on its own, but also creates

a situation on the ground that has greatly diminished prospects for a

viable Palestinian state or for the sort of withdrawal from occupied

Palestine that had been unanimously decreed by the UN Scecurity

Council in its famous Resolution 242 way back in 1967.

A final expression of Israeli lawlessness can be noted in its

continued construction of a separation wall on occupied Palestine land

despite a 14-1 judgment by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

that the wall was unlawful, should be dismantled, and Palestinians

compensated for the harm done. It is notable that the ICJ is a diverse

and respected international institution that rarely reaches such a

level of unanimity on controversial issues. Unfortunately, less

notable is the fact that the sole dissenting judge was the American

judge, and that the U.S. rejected the judicial authority of the ICJ in

relation to the wall without even bothering to refute its legal

reasoning. Although the judgment was in the form of an ‘Advisory

Opinion’ it represented a detailed and authoritative assessment of

applicable international law that was endorsed by an overwhelming vote

of the UN General Assembly. Consistent with its attitude toward

international law, Israel immediately expressed its unwillingness to

abide by this ICJ ruling, and has continued to build segments of the

wall, using excessive force to quell nonviolent weekly demonstrations

by Palestinians, Israelis, and international activists at construction

sites. To give perspective, if the Soviet Union had constructed the

Berlin Wall in such a way as to encroach on West Berlin by even a

yard, it would have almost certainly have caused the outbreak of World

War III.

I hope that I have demonstrated that divestment is justified in light

of these realities. Israel has consistently defied international law.

The United States Government has been unrelenting in reinforcing this

defiance, and is a major facilitator through its overall diplomatic,

economic, and military support. The international community, via the

UN or otherwise, has been unable to induce Israel to respect

international humanitarian law and international criminal law. With

such a background, and in light of an increasingly robust worldwide

movement supportive of divestment, it seems both symbolically and

substantively appropriate for Berkeley to divest from corporations

supplying weaponry used in conjunction with Israeli criminality. Such

a decision taken at the behest of students at one of the world’s

leading universities would send a message around the world that needs

to be heard, not only in Israel but in this country as well. It also

shows that when our government cynically refuses to uphold the most

fundamental norms of international law there is an opportunity and

responsibility for citizens to do so. I salute the members of the

Senate (and their supporters in the Berkeley community) who vote to

override this ill-considered veto of Senate Bill 118A.

Sincerely,

Richard Falk

Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law & Practice Emeritus,

Princeton University

(since 2002) Visiting and Research Professor, Global Studies, UCSB

Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestinian Territories, UN Human Rights Council

Protesting Egyptian Normalization

2010-03-29T11:27:00.004+02:00

On Saturday Egyptians protested on the 31st anniversary of the Egyptian "peace" agreement with Israel at Camp David. The accord has translated into the selling out of the Palestinian people.

In recent days meanwhile Egyptian state security forces have maintained a detention craze by arresting students all over Egypt speaking out against Israeli acts of aggression at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem:

Cairo, March 27, 2010
The Arabic Network for Human Rights strongly condemned the escalation of the systematic crackdown on students waged by state security. The crackdown reached its climax when SSI arrested Ibrahim Megahed, 18 years, because of a wall journal he posted at the Poly Technique Institute of Quaisna, Menoufia. SSI also kidnapped three other students :Ibrahim Ali Farag, Mohamed Samir and Mohamed Nasr Ahmed in front of the Faculty of Engineering Zagazig University on Tuesday, March 23, 2010.

The student, Ibrahim Megahed, had posted a wall journal reporting on the risks threatening Al Aqsa Mosque due to the violations committed by the Israeli occupation forces. He was arrested on campus and physically abused. Instead of releasing him as per prosecution order, SSI detained him in Damanhur prison, where he was denied contact with lawyers or family.

At Zagazig University in Sharkia , security services disregarded the sanctity of campus and kidnapped three students at the Faculty of Engineering in a proactive step lest they would stage or take part in a protest march against the continued arresting of students who would express anger over the Israeli aggression against Al Aqsa Mosque. The three students Ibrahim Ali Farag, Mohamed Samir and Mohammed Nasr Ahmed disappeared four days ago and could not be traced so far.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said, “Law is no longer of any value to SSI. No student was ever arrested because of a wall journal but in Egypt. This is a bare faced, unashamed violation of freedom of expression, of the law and of all international treaties ratified by Egypt.”

LSE: Ben White Speaks on Israeli Apartheid

2010-03-07T02:34:00.000+02:00

Israeli Apartheid Week event

Democracy or Apartheid? Israel’s regime of control and the Palestinians

Organised by Palestine Societies in SOAS, UCL and LSE

Tuesday 9 March, 6pm

Venue: LSE, U8 (Tower 1, access from Clements Inn)

Australian Jews Against the Right of Return

2010-03-04T10:11:00.001+02:00

Read On

Mubarak: My Wall Kills Palestinians

2010-02-28T14:57:00.001+02:00

Victory for BDS Campaign

2010-02-28T12:28:00.004+02:00

A German court in Hamburg ruled Thursday February 25th that the EU would not include Israeli settlement products in an EU-Israeli duty free agreement. The ruling is based on the fact that "products originating in the West Bank do not fall within the territorial scope of the EC-Israel Agreement and do not therefore quality for preferential treatment under that agreement."

Read On

On Zionist Nuclear Weapons

2010-02-27T01:56:00.002+02:00

On 7^th February 2010, 8 peace activists entered the Brussels Holiday Fair and impersonated flight attendants of the Israeli airline company El Al. They handed out fake free plane tickets to Israel, which referred to the fact that El Al contributes to the transport of arms to the country.

Read on

Beirut-Cairo: Protesting Egypt's Wall of Shame

2010-02-14T01:25:00.006+02:00

A protest organized in Cairo in coordination with activists in Beirut, called for an end to the construction of the Wall of Shame. The steel barrier being built between northern Sinai and the Gaza Strip will aid the Zionist strategy of increasing the siege on the population of the Gaza Strip. The wall is also trying to force Hamas into concessions with the Israeli policies that are not in the interest of the Palestinian public.

Over a hundred protesters from various parties and movements gathered at the Journalist Syndicate in downtown Cairo under the usual state security clampdown.

Ashraf from Arish, the bordering town to the Gaza Strip, explained the dangerous effects of the wall on regional politics. Never before has an Egyptian regime coordinated so closely with Zionist state policies. Never before have Egyptian politics reached so low a level that the Egyptian government allows for natural gas to be exported to Israel at subsidized prices while a crisis rages on Egyptian streets due to gas shortages.

Also briefly attending the protest was Gamal, a worker from the Tanta Flax Company. On their 36th day of strike and their 6th day (day and night) protest in front of the Prime Minister's Office the workers are demanding their rights. The representative stated his support for the protest against the Wall of Shame. A group of participants from the Gaza protest joined the Tanta Flax workers the same night.

The protest started a full week of actions protesting the Wall of Shame.

One Year On

2010-02-12T20:25:00.003+02:00

On the third night of my abduction by Egyptian authorities last year, after intermittent interrogation and being handcuffed and blindfolded in a two by two meter cell, a state security officer asked me why I had so many "international relationships." The following night my kidnappers drove me home. I was never given a reason for why state security agents kidnapped me from a march protesting the ongoing siege on Gaza. Though, judging from the focus of the interrogation, the reason had something to do with the two years I lived and worked in Gaza and solidarity efforts I have been involved in since then.

Upon being reunited with my family I started realizing the explanation of what "Nour" -- my main interrogator -- must have meant by "international relations." During my abduction by the Egyptian state security apparatus, protests were staged around the world, letters were sent to embassies, some friends initiated a widespread Internet campaign and the press covered the story extensively.

During Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip the Egyptian authorities kidnapped or arrested many Egyptian activists that protested or expressed criticism of the Egyptian government's role in the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave. Most of these activists were beaten, deprived of sleep and tortured. Likely due to my second (German) citizenship I was only threatened with torture during my abduction. From the start I was treated with a different standard than Egyptians without a second passport.

And yet, my quick release I attribute to the multitude that stepped into action around the world. These included friends, family members but also a mass of people I don't know and who, one year later, can't thank enough. My final days of interrogation were extremely sped up -- though under intense mental pressure of heightened interrogation and accusations. Suddenly "Nour" and his compatriots simply wanted to get rid of me and get this "story" off their backs.

Fast-forward to December 2009. Members of various civil society and human rights groups from around the world organized the Gaza Freedom March (GFM) in response to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in December 2008/January 2009 and the ongoing siege. The marchers from over 42 countries had set out with a similar message to the 15 person strong march that I had been abducted from earlier that year -- an end to the siege of the Gaza Strip. The reason it had been that small is that we knew how the Egyptian state apparatuses work. They follow online organizing and tap phone calls, so we had to organize clandestinely if we were to get anywhere.

The organizers and participants of the GFM who I know are committed activists, and collectively they had an incredible capacity for networking with activists around the globe. Prominent Palestinian activists in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine provided vital backing to the march and a steering committee was formed to lead the events. Yet, some curious decisions were made early on that should be questioned in retrospect.

For many months, activists in Cairo remained in the dark as to who was organizing the Gaza Freedom March and what its intentions were. Although the idea of a march garnered much excitement, it left many in Egypt asking why they knew nothing more than the few details available on the GFM's public website. This was all the more confusing considering that the march was going to be launched from Cairo where numerous Palestine solidarity groups are based.

Many Egyptian activists who I know were excited to be involved in an event that would increase global awareness about the siege on Gaza. I called some of the organizers of CODEPINK during a trip to the US in October. They informed me that they had decided to follow the instructions of the Egyptian regime, which included no contact with Egyptian activists and meant they were providing the Egyptian authorities with a list of names of all the participants. Once the marchers arrived in Cairo I repeatedly heard justification that GFM organizers did not want to put Egyptian protesters at risk. Yet, Egyptians regularly protest in Egypt despite the risks. For a group of outsiders to justify the exclusion of our involvement without asking our opinion -- in spite of the good intentions of "protecting" us -- felt paternalistic and demeaning.

I believe from the start a political miscalculation was made: the colonization of Palestine and the siege on Gaza do not take place in isolation. The network of neo-liberal hegemony in the region includes Egypt as a key player and thus the regime acts as a partner with Israel when shared interests are at stake. Despite my reservations about the organizational dimensions of the march, I believe some very critical sporadic protests were staged all over Cairo that made an impact and caught Egyptian security completely off guard.

One week after most of the GFM participants had left Egypt, the site of a planned protest to commemorate the end of the Israeli assault on Gaza was completely overrun with Egyptian state security. Passersby were barely permitted to pass the square and the march had to be relocated to a less public place. The Gaza Freedom March was an important effort that reminded me of what I had learned upon my release from prison: our best weapon is numbers.

Fast-forward again to Saturday, 23 January 2010. In Beirut various factions including a movement called "The Campaign to Stop the Wall of Shame" staged a significant protest at the Egyptian embassy protesting the regime's construction of an underground steel barrier on the border with Gaza. This was powerful. When activists of a nearby country move to the street to protest the Egyptian government -- and an Egyptian multinational corporation's role in aiding the Israelis in besieging the Palestinians.

My question is, how do we take it a step further? Can we coordinate actions between Cairo, Beirut, Gaza and other cities against this wall of shame? On 13 February a joint protest against the wall is planned to happen in Beirut and Cairo. The Arab Contractors company that is constructing the wall along Egypt's border with Gaza operates in 29 countries. Let us move 29 countries to the streets and call for an end to complicity in the siege.

One year on from my abduction I have the liberty to move, act freely and live. The population of the Gaza Strip does not have that luxury. What we have on our side are numbers determined to end the siege on Gaza and call for justice in Palestine. Let us move together.

Steel Barrier's Effects Solidifying?

2010-02-08T15:45:00.006+02:00

Sources from the Egyptian town of Arish bordering Rafah, claim that the Egyptian contractors are not quite near completion of the wall. After finishing the Eastern section of the steel barrier they have now moved to installing a barrier inside the water and West of the Egyptian town of Rafah. The final stage will entail installing the metal sheets between the Egyptian and Palestinian towns of Rafah, where most of the tunnels are located.

Recently, clashes have increased between the Bedouins and authorities who have a weak presence in the region. The same source claimed that three trucks had been stopped by the Egyptian authorities with diving gear. Are Hamas preparing for access to Egypt via sea?

A Reuters report a few hours ago seems to confirm allegations of a tunnel crisis. Hamas has not paid its employees on time this month, which is spreading fear of a cash crisis in the enclave.

The Egyptian authorities for their part yesterday once again claimed that they would not meet with Hamas until they have agreed to the conditions of reconciliation talks.

Stop this barrier or else we will have more of this American-inspired shit.

Steel Barrier Forces "Reconciliation?"

2010-02-04T14:24:00.004+02:00

In June 12th 2007 I watched smoke rise from the home Nabil Shaath-"chief negotiator in Palestinian-Israeli peace talks"- after Hamas operatives has set it ablaze. Now he's back for "reconciliation talks." A truly unusual sight.

The Egyptian newspaper Almasry Alyoum reported February 1st that the Egyptian steel barrier with the Gaza Strip is "has entered the final stage of construction."

ّHamas PM Ismael Haniyeh did not meet with Shaath though, he preferred seeing Muneeb Al-Masry, a West Bank businessman. At a press conference he said, "we are talking about working procedures and agreeable views in order to meet the procedures that we agreed upon in the Egyptian agreement in order to reach true reconciliation and the unity of the Palestinian people."

With the potential for Egypt's steel barrier to have significant consequences on the Gaza Strip's tunnel trade- which provides 35% of the Strip's trade- economic pressure is likely to make the difference in forcing Hamas' hand.

It makes one wonder what is hiding behind the smiles.

Israeli commander: "We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza"

2010-02-03T17:17:00.001+02:00

The Independent gives reports of Israeli soldiers speaking of Operation Cast Lead..

"any movement must entail gunfire. No one's supposed to be there." He added that at a meeting with his brigade commander and others it was made clear that "if you see any signs of movement at all you shoot. This is essentially the rules of engagement."

Read On

Blair: Gaza's great betrayer

2010-02-03T12:25:00.001+02:00

It's more than a year since Israel launched its immoral attack on Gaza and Palestinians are still living on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. So what has Tony Blair done to further peace in the region? Virtually nothing, argues the historian Avi Shlaim

Read On

Egypt's Two-Faced Gaza Policy

2010-02-02T13:22:00.004+02:00

Egypt’s actions in Gaza have been a source of confusion for some time. Far from bureaucracy or misinformation this is part of a purposeful campaign of a two-faced regime.

Four factors uphold the Egypt authorities’ central role in the Gaza Strip.

First, the Egyptian regime aims to present Hamas as an example of the ineptitude of the Muslim Brotherhood to govern. Second, the regime’s acquiescence to American policies in the region entails a central emphasis on Israel’s “security.” Third, the importance of portraying Egypt as a principle mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and thus a significant political player in the region. And finally, an attempt to maintain Egypt’s image of supporting the Palestinian cause.

Two days following the one-year anniversary of the beginning of Operation Cast Lead- the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Cairo for a closed meeting with Egyptian president Husni Mubarak. The visit acted as a confirmation of Egypt’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and especially in the siege of the Gaza Strip.

Egypt’s 80 million strong population is a force to be reckoned with and the Mubarak regime has no interest in having the masses up in arms about turmoil in the neighboring Gaza Strip. The timing of the Israeli premier’s visit means the regime is confident in where it stands vis-à-vis the Egyptian public. Revealing the methods of Egypt’s actions in the Palestinian enclave and its ensuing propaganda machine will help shed some light on its position in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In January 2006, the Egyptian regime was one of many governments not to recognize Hamas’s parliamentary election victory. While the supplanted Fateh government did accede to Hamas forming a new cabinet, president Mahmoud Abbas and his ring of confidants held on to their control over all PA security forces. Due to this condition of undefined authority, widespread violence prevailed in the following months between Palestinian factions and clans. In the Gaza Strip lawlessness started spiraling out of control.

During this period of internal struggle the Mubarak regime opened Egypt’s borders to weapon shipments from the USA intended for Muhammed Dahlan, the Palestinian president’s National Security Advisor. The controversial Fateh strongman was the mastermind behind much of the unrest on Gaza’s streets, funding and supplying with weapons dissidents willing to oppose the new Hamas authorities.

When the Gaza-based cabinet sensed an impending Dahlan-lead coup it reacted with force, taking control of PA police stations, intelligence and security forces headquarters. Though all these security apparatuses by Palestinian law fall under the jurisdiction of the PA Ministry of Interior, up until that moment Fateh had denied its rival authority over them. On the final day of Hamas’s four-day sweep of the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian military sent a ship off the coast of Gaza City for select Fateh escapees. The Egyptian authorities sheltered the Fateh members in Egypt while providing others safe passage to the West Bank.

Since that time the Egyptian regime has treated the Gaza Strip as a hostile entity. Following Hamas’s “takeover,” Israel intensified an already existent siege on the Palestinian enclave. What is often obscured is the fact that Egypt has full legal sovereignty over Gaza’s southern border and thus plays a part in the Israeli-lead blockade. All exports are prohibited via both Israeli and Egyptian controlled border crossings. Moreover, Israel has slowed the inflow of goods into Gaza to- Israeli- determined essentials- largely entailing limited international aid and select Israeli goods dumped onto Gaza’s captive market. The Mubarak regime, for its part, has opened its border to Gaza for international aid only under extreme external- never internal- pressure. During Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, with aid convoys amassing on its border, goods entered at a trickle.

Eventually, Egyptian authorities re-routed aid through the Karem Abu Salim crossing, where Israeli “inspection” implied the Israeli military determined every item that would and would not enter. Counter to Egyptian government claims, the regime has complete sovereignty over its border crossing with the Gaza Strip, yet coordinates closely with Israeli authorities.

Thus, the Mubarak regime allowed for the opening of the Rafah border crossing when it sent arms shipments to Fateh- with Israeli approval. Furthermore, the Egyptian authorities opened the border under particular international pressure created by the likes of the Viva Palestina convoys, which provided the Egyptian government with fodder to claim their professed pro-Palestinian stance. During Operation Cast Lead, the Egyptian regime likewise opened its border crossing with the primary purpose of portraying itself in line with a claimed historic tradition of standing by the Palestinians in times of crisis.

The recent construction of a steel wall 30 meters under the ground along the Egypt-Gaza border is a further stage of the Egyptian authorities conceding to collective punishment on Gaza’s population. Initially Egyptian government sources responded to reports of the wall’s existence as “baseless,” claiming that the regime “is dealing with smuggling seriously and is capable of stopping it without this wall.” Eventually the Egyptian president conceded to the barrier’s construction as a prevention of "threats to national security." The wall, built by the Egyptian firm Arab Contractors with foreign funding, includes pipes that delve deep into the earth with the assumed purpose of flooding existent tunnels.

The steel wall is likely to have devastating environmental effects on agricultural land on either side of the barrier. If successful at preventing tunnels, the wall could cut Gaza’s final economic lifeline. The tunnels are used primarily to import everything from clothes, household items like tea glasses, coffee and spices to car spare parts, gas and medicine.

If the Egyptian government succeeds in preventing such vital inflows, the wall will be a case in point of the Egyptian regime’s political efforts. By joining the Israeli authorities in collectively punishing the Gaza Strip’s entire population the Egyptian authorities reveal themselves to be a key component of an Israeli undertaking to choke Hamas’s opposition to Israeli colonial expansion. The Egyptian regime is complying with its American ally’s demands, as well as trying to position itself as a political heavyweight in a region. With growing opposition- not from Israel- but from the likes of Syria, Iran and Qatar, Egypt’s regime wants to hold on to its historic regional hegemony.

Cynically, Egypt’s Foreign Minister reported that in Netanyahu and Mubarak’s meeting on January 29th, the Egyptians had requested Israel, to “take many internal steps to lift the pressure off of Palestinians.”

The Egyptians for their part have no interest in doing so.

Gazans Cheer On Egyptians; Egypt Locks Up Gazans

2010-01-30T19:48:00.002+02:00

Friday night Egypt beat Algeria 4:0.

Walking past Talat Harb square in downtown Cairo I saw a circle of policemen standing idly by as the masses took over the streets.

In Le Comte bar later that night, Waheed the bartender tells me, all is well in Egypt.. never mind the excessive economic gap between rich and poor, never mind that the only time the Egyptian public can let out any emotions is over football, any other form outcry or uprising results in police brutality and torture.

Meanwhile in Gaza, despite the Egyptian regime further caging in its neighbors and selling subsidized natural gas to the Zionist occupation, Gazans cheer on their neighbors.

This from a friend in Gaza City..

enjoyed watching the football game between Algeria vs Egypt ,GAZANs WAY: that's mean all gaza were watching the game -suppurating the Egyptian team- using generators bcz they DON'T HAVE ELECTRICITY,but the funny thing the generator-at the coffee shop where i was watching-was over from the fuel 3 minutes before the end o...f the game:(yes its sad,but despite that gazans went in the dark celebrating the Egyptian victory!

Shame on the criminal Egyptian regime.

Israeli Female Soldiers..

2010-01-30T19:22:00.009+02:00

Breaking the Silence.

Joseph Massad: Oslo: Imploding the Palestinian State

2010-01-27T19:06:00.003+02:00

Despite its surface appearance as a political compromise, this formula [Oslo] is in fact a reflection of the racial views characterizing (European Jewish) Israelis and Palestinian and other Arabs.

...

A resumption of steady funding continued after Arafat's death conditional upon Mahmoud Abbas's "seriousness" in pointing Palestinian guns at the Palestinians themselves, which he and the PA's thuggish security apparatuses have done. However, they have not been as effective as the US and Israel had wished, which is why US General Keith Dayton is assuming full control of the military situation on the ground in order to "assist" the Palestinians to deliver their peace part of the bargain to Israel.

Read on at Electronic Intifada

Egypt's Police Day

2010-01-26T16:07:00.004+02:00

Last night I asked a policeman on my street why he was working, wasn't it national police day?

"This is not a celebration for us, its for the people at the top," he said.

There are two versions to the story, you choose which to believe:

You can either celebrate with torture or with candy.

You pick your illusions.