Egypt: What's Coming

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

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

La hora de los hornos

something to watch

when there is nothing left to say

Ahmed Sha'ban's Uncle Believed Kidnapped

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

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

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

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)

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.