Strikes are our weapon in the face of repression

Statement by the Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists…

Workers of Egypt…the blood of the martyrs cries out to you. Strikes are the way to confront the gang of Mubarak and the military

While the counterrevolution prepares for complete control over political powers, with blatant disregard for the blood of the martyrs and the thousands of injured in the farce trials, the workers continue their struggle in every workplace, demanding a fair economic system that provides social justice to those with low income.

The workers fight to attain their rights for a law that guarantees union freedoms and its implementation; to tie wages to prices, and to purge the institutions of the corrupt symbols of the former regime who still head the administrations, institutions, ministries, and holding companies.

And today…after the acquittal of Mubarak’s mob, as a prelude to their return to the centers of power, there is no alternative before us but victory for the revolution and the blood of the martyrs. We must raise our voices with all of the revolutionaries occupying the squares of liberation to forbid the triumph of the counterrevolution.

It falls upon all of us together to strike and demonstrate, to sit in for a retrial of Mubarak and his cronies; for the implementation of the Political Exclusion Law; to forbid the military’s candidate from usurping the chair of the presidency in the runoffs. For the counterrevolution means nothing more than rising costs, displacement of workers, selling of companies, and rising rates of unemployment.

Yes… we have so far reaped from this revolution very little despite participating in the overthrow of Mubarak by way of our strikes and our sit-ins in the last days of the January revolution. The disconnection between our struggle in the factories throughout this past year and the struggle in the squares has permitted us to accomplish only limited results in most instances. For we have failed to achieve a law for freedom to organize unions, and were shocked when the Islamist parliament attempted to pass a law restricting trade union freedoms. From yet another angle, our lack of participation with the revolutionaries in their sit-ins in the squares has led to the inability of the revolutionary movement to extract our demands from the clutches of the military council.

Workers of Egypt…it is you who can paralyze the processes of production that generates millions for the generals and the big businessmen; it is you who can resolve this never-ending battle in all the squares of liberation, in which hundreds of thousands participate to organize protests in the work places. Your hesitation and restrain now means only a return to the destruction of your livelihoods and your interests if the ranks of the military succeed in returning the businessmen of Gamal Mubarak’s control over the country’s resources.

Glory to the martyrs…shame and disgrace to the military council and its collaborators. All power and wealth to the people

The Workers’ Office, The Revolutionary Socialists Movement June 6, 2012