Egyptian Union Leader: ‘Today Is the Day of the American Workers’
Kamal Abbas, general coordinator of the independent Egyptian Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS), has sent an amazing message of solidarity to U.S. workers under assault by CEO-backed governors and state legislators. From Michael Moore’s website:
I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, “Liberation Square,” which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place where many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights.
From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us.
I want you to know that no power can challenge the will of the people when they believe in their rights. When they raise their voices loud and clear and struggle against exploitation.
No one believed that our revolution could succeed against the strongest dictatorship in the region. But in 18 days the revolution achieved the victory of the people….
We want you to know that we stand on your side. Stand firm and don’t waiver. Don’t give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights.
We and all the people of the world stand on your side and give you our full support.
As our just struggle for freedom, democracy and justice succeeded, your struggle will succeed. Victory belongs to you when you stand firm and remain steadfast in demanding your just rights.
Check out the video and transcript.
The CTUWS was co-recipient of last year’s AFL-CIO George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award on behalf of the Egyptian workers. It also received the French Republic’s Human Rights Award.
AFL-CIO, Global Unions Applaud New Egyptian Labor Movement
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Representatives of the Egyptian union movement announced they are forming a new labor federation, the Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions, which will represent workers in more than a dozen industries and enterprises. The federation also plans to set a date for a nationwide general strike for democracy and fundamental rights. Many people believe the labor demonstrations in the past two years played a significant role in giving Egyptian citizens courage to stand up to the government.
In a letter today to Egyptian union leaders Kamal Abbas and Kamal Abu Eita, recipients of last year’s George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka praised the workers’ “extraordinary courage and defiance of a ban on free and independent unions.”
Yesterday we learned that your organizations joined with retirees, the technical health professionals and representatives of workers in the important industrial areas to announce the organization of a new labor federation to represent workers in a new era of democracy in Egypt. We salute you in this brave endeavor and join the international labor movement in standing with you.
Egypt’s Workers Struggle to Keep Unions Free
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The first recorded workers’ strike was more than 5,000 years ago by the builders of the Pyramids in Egypt. Today, despite substantial government repression and persecution of workers, thousands of Egyptian workers are carrying out that long tradition of protest across their country. The Solidarity Center reports that from 2004–2008, some 1.7 million workers in Egypt participated in 1,900 strikes and their voices have grown even louder in the last two years.
This week, the AFL-CIO honored the courageous men and women of the Egyptian workers’ movement with the prestigious George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, the first time the U.S. union movement has honored a workers’ organization from the Middle East.
Egyptian Workers To Receive Meany-Kirkland Award
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| Striking Egyptian property tax collectors demonstrate in downtown Cairo in 2007. |
Angered by severe economic pressures and frustrated by inadequate representation, Egyptian workers started to take to the streets in a wave of strikes and other public protests in the early 2000s. Despite strong government repression, more than 2 million Egyptian workers have been involved in 3,000 strikes, demonstrations and sit-ins since 2004.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council, meeting in Orlando, Fla., this week, awarded the Egyptian union movement for the 2009 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award. The award will be formally presented later this year. Click here to read the resolution in English and here for Arabic.
The Egyptian government has responded to the protests with a mixture of red tape and outright violence. Yet Egyptian workers haven’t backed down: As a result, the council said:
They are leading the most significant social movement in the Arab world since World War II, and the largest labor unrest in Egypt since the late 19th century. Egyptian workers are continuing to challenge their employers, their unions and their nation’s government.
