Statement from the Workers’ Office – Revolutionary Socialists Movement: No Military Trials for Workers

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

The decision to refer workers from the Alexandria Shipyard Company to the military prosecutor represents a dangerous escalation targeting those who struggle for livelihood and social justice. The workers are accused of inciting a strike simply because they work in a company owned by the Ministry of Defense, despite being civilian workers—just like the workers in military production factories, who are treated within labor unions as employees in the civilian sector.

Repression and tyranny spare no one. The Sisi regime proves daily that everyone has a share of oppression and persecution. It demonstrates its hostility to the working class and people experiencing poverty and its commitment to policies of impoverishment and exploitation that suffocate everyone. Repression extends to anyone who dares to object or attempt to improve their living conditions. Young people who defend Egypt’s sovereignty over its islands and oppose their sale are thrown into prisons and subjected to the most brutal forms of torture. Journalists face raids on their syndicate and arrests. Doctors are humiliated and attacked in their hospitals. State institutions ignore Independent labor unions. There is persecution of Copts, public humiliation of women, and, most recently, the trial of civilians in military courts, as is the case with workers from the Alexandria Shipyard Company.

The Alexandria Shipyard workers raised legitimate and reasonable demands, such as improving their financial conditions, enhancing the quality of healthcare services, increasing safety measures within the company, and restarting workshops that had stopped due to a lack of production materials. These demands were presented starting on May 24. However, the company’s management responded by closing its gates, preventing workers from protesting, and surrounding the facility with armored vehicles and riot police. Fifty-two workers were referred to the military prosecutor, accused of protesting, assembling, and inciting a strike. Following the military prosecution’s investigation, lawyers and families were initially informed that the workers would be released on bail, pending their places of residence. Yet, to everyone’s shock, the actual decision was four days of detention pending further investigation, alongside orders to arrest 13 additional workers. This demonstrates the state’s persistence in oppressing workers, persecuting them, and politicizing judicial decisions.

The only path forward for workers is solidarity and collective pressure to secure their rights. Therefore, we, the Revolutionary Socialists Movement, declare our full solidarity with the Alexandria Shipyard workers in all their demands. We call for an immediate cessation of their trials in military courts and urge all workers, labor unions, professional syndicates, and political forces to stand in solidarity with the shipyard workers. We also demand the recognition of workers’ right to organize themselves into unions and their right to peaceful protest to voice their legitimate demands.

Revolutionary Socialists Workers’ Office