International Workers’ Day: Repression, Assaults, and a Light at the End of the Tunnel

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

This year’s International Workers’ Day arrives while Egyptian workers continue to face relentless attacks on their livelihoods by the regime and businessmen. This attack intensified amidst the COVID-19 crisis, in which workers were born almost entirely alone, coupled with the collapse of trade unions meant to defend their interests.

Over the past year, Egypt’s working class has faced enormous challenges, accompanied by systematic repression and brutal authoritarianism that crushes all forms of protest, opposition, and even attempts by workers to self-organize. The regime uses its arsenal of repressive tools, from threatening workers to pursuing, arresting, and prosecuting them for defending their rights.
The COVID-19 crisis has opened the door for businessmen to attack their workers mercilessly, laying them off and cutting wages, all while receiving government support. This support includes reduced natural gas and electricity prices, deferred property tax payments on industrial and tourism establishments, and reduced taxes on capital gains distributions, among other measures. Moreover, investors have been given a blank check to do as they please with workers under the guise of the crisis.

The assault on workers has not been limited to these measures but has taken other forms, which can be categorized as follows:
Firstly, over the past year, we have witnessed harsher laws and decisions than any seen in many years. The most notable of these is the amendment to Law 203 related to public sector companies, which allows for the dismissal of employees and the reduction of their incentives and profits. Dozens of trade union committees rejected this law, and numerous sit-ins were faced by workers at their company headquarters.

The most alarming decisions involve the liquidation of companies, some of which are long-standing bastions of the working class. The most prominent is the liquidation of the Helwan Iron and Steel Company, following the liquidation of the Kafr El-Dawar Spinning Company and the Talkha Fertilizer Company. Economically, these decisions reveal a governmental approach that favors real estate development for quick profit over industrial development. Politically, they aim to dismantle significant chunks of the working class and erase their trade union and political legacy.
Secondly, many workers have paid the price for their struggle over the past year through arbitrary dismissal or arrest, as happened with the workers of Shebin El-Kom Spinning in September for demanding overdue payments and with insurance company employees during their sit-ins against the amendment of Law 203 in October. National Iron and Steel Company workers also faced harsh judicial sentences for their activism.

Thirdly, workers have been the target of media attacks supporting the regime’s agenda. Television programs and newspapers have attacked iron and steel workers to sway public opinion against them and justify the liquidations. They accused workers of laziness and causing company losses, while the real cause was the government’s long-term neglect and deliberate mismanagement. The workers’ sit-in in January was a practical response to these accusations, demonstrating their commitment to this industrial bastion against liquidation despite the security risks involved.

The media has also targeted railway workers, blaming them for repeated train accidents to cover up decades of government neglect of industrial safety and reduced spending on public services. Meanwhile, the regime announced a project for an electric train (costing 360 billion EGP) connecting Ain Sokhna, the new administrative capital, and New Alamein City, linking its investment cities. Additionally, the regime’s media launched fierce attacks against doctors and medical staff, blaming them for the failures in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, covering up years of neglect in healthcare.

Although labor protests have decreased over the years since the establishment of the military dictatorship, dropping from 2,239 in 2013 to 1,609 in 2014, they have not entirely vanished. According to reports by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, the first quarter of this year saw 31 labor and professional protests, including strikes, sit-ins, and protest stands. Last year’s last quarter saw 33 protests, the third quarter 45 protests, and workers organized 40 more protests in March, April, and May 2020. The demands focused on financial entitlements, opposition to liquidation, and layoffs, among other issues.

Workers from different companies have shown solidarity with their colleagues’ struggles, such as the solidarity between Talkha Fertilizer workers and Kafr El-Dawar workers against liquidation. Iron and steel workers also received solidarity and support from their peers in Iraq and Libya as well as other trade unionists and activists from different countries.

The most important aspect is that some labor protests have achieved their demands. For example, workers at the Aluminum Complex in Nag Hammadi secured annual bonuses after a sit-in, Talkha Fertilizer workers had the liquidation decision of their company canceled after weeks of sit-ins, and workers at the Workers’ University secured overdue wages after a 10-day sit-in. Workers at Alexandria Container Handling Company also achieved a significant victory, forcing the administration to distribute profits through their sit-in.

These small victories may seem insignificant, but in the context of political stagnation, the absence of trade unions, and continuous security intimidation since the military tightened its grip on the country, these victories hold much greater significance. They represent a light at the end of the tunnel.