We Call for Forming a Broad Front to Confront Privatization: No to Liquidating “National Cement”… No to Displacing Workers

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

We are just days away from the general assembly meeting of the National Cement Company, which is scheduled for October 2nd. This meeting is expected to decide on the company’s liquidation, granting only meager compensation to the workers after a series of corruption and mismanagement that has resulted in the company’s debt inflation, according to Minister of Public Enterprises Hisham Tawfik.
No one has been held accountable for the company’s deterioration despite it being the only state-owned company in the cement sector. Instead, the head of the regime personally defended the company’s liquidation, saying, “The company is losing, and workers’ salaries reach 15,000 pounds per month, a situation that cannot be tolerated.”

Sisi’s statements coincided with his inauguration of a new military-owned cement company in Beni Suef, which seems to have been prepared to replace the National Cement Company. Evidence of this is Sisi’s intervention to liquidate a company established in 1960 that employed about two thousand workers. This decision followed a series of protests by the company’s workers, who successfully raised public awareness, debunked claims of the company’s losses, and, most importantly, presented studies to restart the company while demanding accountability for those responsible for the corruption.

Another sign of the authority’s intention to liquidate the company, even if it could succeed, is the state’s deliberate concealment of the company’s technical report, which recommended the liquidation from the workers to prevent them from challenging it. This is despite repeated requests from the elected board members to see the report.

The liquidation is happening alongside a new wave of privatization announced by Sisi’s government after agreements with international institutions like the World Bank. This includes offering company shares on the stock exchange, selling assets of some companies, and liquidating loss-making companies. The liquidation of the National Cement Company is likely to be followed by the liquidation of several other loss-making companies, especially those in milling, iron, and steel.

The coming days are crucial for the future of the company’s workers, as these days will determine their future and impact the entire privatization process, affecting the rest of Egypt’s workers. This requires the workers to set aside their differences and unite, as the intention to eliminate the company and their living conditions is apparent.

Even now, despite the explicit announcement of the intention to liquidate the company, the workers are delaying their actions and waiting for an official liquidation decision. However, this delay and postponement will not help them achieve their declared demands for continued operation. Moreover, continuing to trust the leadership of the General Syndicate of Woodworkers, which has previously contained the workers’ protests and wasted opportunities for developing their protests, calls for the cement workers to abandon this legacy and distance themselves from the bureaucracy of the general syndicate, which ultimately aligns with the regime’s policies. Otherwise, why hasn’t the syndicate called for a solidarity strike with the National Cement workers or at least a one-hour stand or other actions to show the state their seriousness?

The Revolutionary Socialists Movement calls on the workers of companies threatened with liquidation to unite their efforts in a labor coordination committee and urges all political forces supporting the workers to form a social-political front to support the struggle of cement workers for continued operation and against liquidation and to confront the upcoming wave of privatization.