As industrial unrest spreads, accusations of a Communist plot have bubbled to the surface. The problem, writes Karim El-Khashab, is that there is no evidence
<http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/840/_eg5.htm> Some 27,000 textile workers forced the government's hand last December triggering a spate of unrest in other factories
Veteran Marxist thinker Mahmoud Amin El-Alem shocked political circles last week when in an interview with the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom he appeared to suggest that the recent worker unrest in Egypt had been orchestrated by a secret Communist alliance.
El-Alem was quoted as saying that an alliance of seven leftist groups had been involved in helping workers settle grievances with their employers. The organisation, he was reported to have said, stretched from Alexandria to Aswan.
El-Alem quickly denied the spin given to his interview, insisting his words have been taken out of context. The alliance he was referring to, he said, was that established last August, publicly announced at the Press Syndicate and including, among others, the leftist Tagammu Party and members of the Nasserist Party. He went on to complain about "unprofessional reporting" saying the allegations were so incredible they "could not be believed by a child".
Al-Masry Al-Yom 's allegations apart, one thing is sure, workers have come increasingly to the conclusion that through sit-ins and strikes -- there were over 200 last year -- they can achieve what their elected unions have consistently failed to do.
Fathi Abu Mosalam, a worker at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company complex at Al-Mahala Al-Kubra who helped organise and took part in the 27,000 strong strike last December, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the workers themselves feel they have nothing left to lose.
"During the 22 years I have worked here I have seen the situation deteriorate to the point where workers are not even treated as human beings." Privileges once enjoyed have been slowly eroded as the gap between workers and managerial and technical staff widened. "We can tolerate a great many things," says Abu Mosalem, "but taking from our livelihoods and our income is a red line we will teach them not to cross."
It seems that the government is learning the lesson. During the Mahala strikes workers occupied not only the factory but adjacent streets. Thousands of riot police were deployed but they were unwilling to confront the workers who called off the sit-in only when their demands were met. It was a success that inspired textile workers elsewhere to adopt the same tactics.
"While it is true that we earn more than many other government employees," says Zeinab Khalifa, a worker in the Spinning Factory in Shebin Al-Kom, "they don't work 18 hours like we do, they don't come in on Friday and they are not subjected to the same treatment."
Since December, in almost every confrontation between workers and the state, the government has backed down and accepted the workers' demands.
Samia Montasser, professor of economics at Cairo University and an expert on Egyptian labour movements, told the Weekly that the situation today could not be further removed from the not so recent past when the Nasser regime opened fire on protesting workers, hung some union activists and imprisoned others.
The Mahala strikes have had an impact beyond the textile sector. Train drivers on the Alexandria-Cairo route were inspired to launch their own strike to demand better wages and conditions. They were joined by Metro drivers in Cairo who began their own go-slow in solidarity.
Abu Mosalam says that while textile workers have had no direct contact with the train drivers they supported their position and understood their grievances. More recently flourmill workers took industrial action, forcing the government to abandon plans to cut daily wheat quotas that would have reduced the workers' bonuses by up to 35 per cent.
While there is no evidence of union coordination being behind the sudden burst of worker protests, the Interior Ministry has been quick to accuse civil society organisations such as the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS) of fomenting industrial strife.
On 29 March, CTUWS offices in Upper Egypt were shut down and staff members charged with inciting the strikes in Mahala and failing to register with the Ministry of Social Solidarity. According to CTUWS officials they were summoned to a meeting with representatives of interior and manpower ministries and warned against undertaking any further campaigns to improve workers' conditions, something the organisation has been doing for two decades.
Staff at CTUWS say they could not even dream of organising a protest on the scale of the Mahala strikes, and would never be able to mobilise so many people. "The government isn't able to handle the workers' protests so they are using us as a scapegoat," says Kamal Abbas, director of CTWUS.
Government action against the centre prompted 37 civil society organisations to issue a joint denunciation. The government's actions, they said, "contradict statements on democracy and the need to protect Egyptian society".
The stakes, if anything, are getting higher. Mahala workers have now launched a campaign to impeach official union representatives, claiming they are too tied to the management and state. In one instance in Kafr Al-Dawar workers had to force their union representatives to join the strike.
Montasser believes such impeachments would constitute a major victory.
"The unions are agents of the state and have uses other than simply controlling the workers; they mobilise for elections on all levels and give the regime a platform when necessary." Should workers succeed in wresting control of the unions, or set up parallel organisations, it would be a huge blow to the state's ability to contain further unrest.
Abu Mosalam sees this as a long-term goal. Now, he says, the priority is to make sure the government keeps its word and pays the workers the benefits promised. He has no doubts about workers' potential power but insists their aims are not ideologically motivated. "As long as we are treated properly and can feed our families we will continue to protect the factories in which we have spent our working lives." -- Yoshie