14 March, 2011
On 11 February – day 18 of mass revolution by the Egyptian people – Hosni Mubarek was toppled as dictator of Egypt. Newly-minted Vice President Omar Suleiman, who the people reject as well, issued a brief statement on national television that evening saying Mubarek resigned as president, and power is transferred to the Armed Forces Supreme Council, a grouping of top Egyptian generals.
Only speculation exists at this early writing on what steps the military might first take to reduce 30 years of repressive rule, human rights violations, and a lessening of social inequality. One Sunday, 13 February, a military decree restricted trade union freedoms.
One thing is certain: the extraordinary events of the past fortnight must stand as a turning point for Egypt to embark on a road of participatory democracy.
Mubarek’s departure came after the biggest yet demonstration in Cairo’s al-Tahrir Square on 11 February, and cities such as Alexandria, Aswan, Suez, Port Said, Asyut, and El Kharga saw huge protests as mass calls were heeded by Egyptians to take to the streets and reclaim their country.
Days 16 and 17 will become known as the days when workers shut down factories and businesses, bringing the country to an economic standstill. The workers' movment was vast and perhaps serving as prime example was the call “People’s Revolution for the People” by the 4,000-strong Helwan Iron and Steel Workers at the Coking Coal and Basic Chemical Co. They issued an invitation to workers to join the 11 February mobilisation in al-Tahrir Square and called for creation of an independent trade union movement.
The fledgling Iron and Steel Workers’ Union proclaimed the revolution to be the end of government corruption, and called for higher wages and permanent contracts for temporary workers. Tens of thousands of other Egyptian workers at state companies, and in textile, chemicals, transport, postal services, and other sectors stopped work in the middle of last week, leading surely to Mubarek’s departure at week’s end.
In Helwan, 6,000 silk and textile workers at Misr Helwan Spinning and Weaving Co. stopped work, as did 400 workers at the Misr National Steel Co. in Suez. Some 2,000 workers of Sigma Pharmaceutical in Quesna protested. And thousands of workers of the Egyptian Petroleum Trading Service Co. (Petrotrade) joined the national demonstrations at six branches of the company, including at the Ministry of Petroleum in Nasr City.
In industrial Kafr al-Dawwar, thousands of textile workers took to the streets last week, and 6,000 staff of the Suez Canal Authority began sit-ins at workplaces in Suez, Port Said, and Ismailia on the evening of 8 February that lasted through the next day.
This growing wave of working-class militancy was not unexpected; in the past six years, there have been nearly 3,000 strikes and workers’ protests affecting two million wage earners who have been cheated by the Egyptian regime’s corrupt practices.
Globally, countless demonstrations were held last week in cities and countries demanding an end to Mubarek’s rule and justice for the Egyptian people. On 8 February, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) held a day of protest in a number of cities including Geneva.
Several ICEM staff joined a large delegation from the Global Union Federation (GUF) UNI and other GUFs to protest at the Egyptian mission to the UN’s European headquarters. There, trade unionists led by the Workers’ Chair of by ILO Governing Body, Leroy Trotman of the Barbados Workers’ Union, presented a letter by the ITUC and four Geneva-area GUFs to Mission Counsellor Yasser Hassan.
It read, in part: “We express our solidarity with our Egyptian brothers and sisters in this difficult situation. We urge you to remind the Egyptian Government that it must fulfil its obligations under international law and respect trade union rights and fundamental liberties such as freedom of expression.”
As significant as Mubarek’s resignation is, it is only the beginning of the struggle. On Sunday, 13 February, the military’s Supreme Council issued an edict banning all union meetings, forbidding strikes, and ordering all Egyptian workers back to work. In the coming weeks and months in Egypt, the world will witness that the struggle for democracy is inseparable from the struggle for workers’ power and the struggle for workers’ rights.