Egypt: The Class War Intensifies.

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With the re-introduction of the emergency law, the military junta is desperately trying to strangle the revolution and return to the “normality” of the Mubarak era. But the workers are on the move. The recent upsurge in strikes and protests could spell the end for the SCAF regime.



A new wave of worker militancy is sweeping across Egypt. While the world mainstream media is focusing on the diplomatic intrigues following the attack on the Israeli embassy, the real events in Egypt are being kept out of the public domain. The fact of the matter is that the working class of Egypt is now threatening the very survival of the military junta’s regime.

Since the beginning of September, a massive wave of strikes and protests has flared up. Without doubt, the scope of the strikes is by far the biggest since the great victory that ousted Mubarak in February. These are taking place despite the law – issued in April – criminalizing strikes which “harm the national economy”, and despite regulations issued by the ruling military junta making negotiations during the course of strikes unacceptable.

Right now, the doctors’ strike is making headlines in Egypt. Doctors are demanding the improvement of health services, raising the health sector share in the budget from 3.5 percent to 15 percent and restructuring the sectors’ salaries and wages system.

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http://www.marxist.com/egypt-the-class-war-intesifies.htm

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3. Egypt's Revolution Could Hinge on Labor Groups

Egypt's Revolution Could Hinge on Labor Groups



CAIRO, Egypt -- Strikes and protests are against the law in revolutionary Egypt, thanks to a March decree from the generals who run the country by fiat. Egypt's electrified workers, however, seem to have gotten the opposite message. A cascade of strikes has gripped almost every major labor sector this month. And unlike political activists, who were driven out of Tahrir Square this summer and since have had trouble mustering quorum at Friday rallies, the workers are encountering some surprisingly unqualified success.

Organizers and political activists say that Labor's momentum could finally curtail the former regime; they point out that paralyzing strikes in February of this year put the Tahrir Square uprising over the top and spurred President Hosni Mubarak's resignation. Now, they say, months spent organizing independent trade unions beyond the control of the corrupt old state-run labor federation have yielded millions of active, politicized Egyptian workers.

"The heart of the revolution is the workers," says Kamal Khalil, a leader of the Workers Democratic Party. Since January, he has agitated for more independent labor unions; hundreds have been formed, while members of established unions like the doctors and engineers syndicate have pushed to replace mistrusted leaders and eliminate government control.

"The workers aren't afraid of being dragged before military courts," Khalil says. "If the strikes are strong, the military won't be able to stop them."

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http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/egypts-revolution-could-hinge-on-labor-groups/245674/

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