In Egypt strikes are illegal, and when they occur they are usually met with ferocious repression from the state. Notwithstanding this, tens of thousands of striking workers are now part of the growing strike movement called by the workers as the "revolution of the hungry".
In the past three months workers from state owned cement, textile and poultry factories have all engaged in militant occupations and strikes. Demonstrations in other sectors have seen rail workers, miners and even Egypt’s riot police walking off the job.
In January Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin announced that 100 state owned companies would be sold to private owners this year. In the Karf el-Dawwar Spinning and Weaving Company, 100 miles north of Cairo, the workforce has dwindled from 28,000 in 1993 to 11,700 today. No doubt this was in the mind of the thousands who occupied the plant in February. The demands they raised were for better wages, which at this factory have been stagnant for over a decade, and improved health care.
In February also workers at Misr Shebin al Kom Spinning Company shut down machines for the first time in 47 years. The factory is to be handed over to an Indian company IndoRama International who purchased a 70% stake in the company for 122 million Egyptian pounds (LE). Independent valuations put the company’s worth at LE 3 billion. Those who have worked at the factory for more than 35 years are angry that their labour has built up this wealth and it is now being given away. The factory’s 4,200 workers staged a ten day occupation, sleeping on work benches through freezing cold nights to ensure that they received their due entitlement of 12% of the company’s shares prior to any handover.
In another occupation, 3,000 cement workers used lorries to barricade the doors to the headquarters of Helwan and Tora cement companies. Helwan was privatised in 2001 and Tora was recently sold to an Italian company. Workers occupied these factories and wouldn’t budge until they were paid overdue money.
This anger and militancy has spread like wild fire and is fuelled by the success of the workers in Egypt’s largest public sector factory in Mahalla, who won a bonus worth 45 days wages as a result of militant action in December. According to Karem Sabr of the Land Centre for Human Rights, "… at this point, the workers felt that if one company can do it they all can, and having a dormant labor union they were forced to fight for themselves".
A "dormant labour union" is an understatement as the trade union federation, the leaders of which are elected with the support of state security agents, effectively acts as an arm of the state. The head of the Egyptian Workers’ Union, Hussein Megawer, has called the workers at the Misr Shebin al Kom "terrorists, who want to sabotage the company" and he has hinted at the presence of "interest groups within worker ranks". This is a thinly veiled reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist movement, which employers and the state are implying are behind some of the strikes. Workers vehemently deny this and say that no one is behind the strike. Many of the leaders of the Brotherhood hail from business and the middle class and would certainly have conflicted interests as to who they would support. To date they have said little about the strikes.
The real motivation behind this strike is poverty. Abdel Hamid Saleh a striking worker said of his workplace "I have spent 14 years with the company, and I only make LE 400 a month, …rent costs LE 300, so how can I feed my family?" Another textile worker complained, "All the prices have increased – from bread to electricity, …living a very simple life is almost impossible with the wages we get."
This movement, which has already threatened to establish new independent trade unions, and the speed at which it is developing can have far reaching conclusions. The Egyptian working class is the biggest in the Middle East. A blow against neo-liberialism and a step in the direction of an independent movement of the working class in Egypt can act as an inspiration and a desperately needed alternative for the working class right throughout the region.
