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Privatization in Egypt bucked the global trend
Egypt workers are the most miserable workers in the world

Recommendations of the CIA to the Egyptian Government secures the breakout of revolution of workers.
Land Center for Human Rights, at its headquarters in Cairo, on Thursday 18/2/2010, held a seminar entitled: "Egyptian workers .. victims of capitalism" in the presence of about 50 participants from the textile workers, syndicates members and representatives of non-governmental organizations concerned with the rights of workers, in addition to a group of media and journalists to cover meetings of the Symposium.
The proceedings of the symposium started with the speech of Mr. Osama Bedier, coordinator of the seminar, where he stressed that the deterioration of the rights of workers was the result of the application of economic reform programs and free market economy. The government did not take into its consideration the social and economic aspects of the situation of Egyptian workers, which led to the displacement and expulsion of thousands of workers to join the unemployment queue that is widespread in the community. This problem is getting worse on the time of a financial crisis exploited by businessmen in Egypt while workers bear the consequences, so these workers chose to do hundreds of strikes, protests and demonstrations to the extent that during the second half of the month of January 2010 the strikes have reached 59 strikes in 55 site.
Then the first meeting started, where it addressed the first axis of the symposium "The global economic crisis .. examination of the principles of a free market economy", and was chaired by Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Shukr, Vice President of Arab Research Center. Where he said that the Land Center for Human Rights, since its inception in 1996, is almost the only organization which holds the advocacy of the rights of workers and peasants, referring to the Center continuous effort in this area. Shukr also stressed on the importance of holding this seminar which discussed the subject matter that is important for 35% of the population of Egypt, who are the working class. Shukr also called all those who attended the seminar to discuss new ideas and access solutions to the problems of Egyptian Workers in a congested reality at all levels.
Then, Dr. Ahmed Al-Sayed al-Najjar, Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, spoke, where he stressed that the issues of workers in the field of technical development are similar, in a large extent, to the global level, and we should not depend on the traditional solutions for those issues. Najjar added that the worst thing that happened in Egypt and the whole world was capital domination over the government, because the capital is usually a control of the political class that constitutes an abandon to its social responsibility. In the United States of America- the root of capitalism- the President was a capitalist politician, so capitalism became neutral vis-a-vis social interests. The first golden rule of capitalism is dubbed "Science simultaneous to market conditions "This means that all the capitalists do know the circumstances change in the market at the same time and the real situation, in detail, on the market, but the absence of this rule in Egypt and the privatization have led to the bucking to the global trend. Najjar stressed that the key factor for triggering the financial crisis is the weakness of effective demand- demand accompanied with the ability to purchase– as a result of poor distribution of income and the absence of social justice. As for the working class in Egypt, El Naggar stressed that they have to struggle for the return of their rights and added that these classes must be supported by the human rights bodies, because workers are more miserable than others, despite the government promotion of the value of the support provided; support in Egypt has reached 6.2%, while in America 12.9 %, in Germany 25.9%, France 24.4%, Britain 24.4%, therefore Egypt is the most miserable country and the working class suffers from severe poverty due to the weak government support for basic services compared to other countries, in addition to the lack of support to the proletariat, but only to the upper class of capitalism.
This input of this meeting has focused on the global financial crisis on all countries of the world in general, and Egypt in particular, in light of regional and international changes that have contributed, to a large extent, in the slowdown of global growth, and poor rates of investment, and hence employment opportunities.
The second session, which was discussing the focus of workers and the global economic crisis in Egypt, was led by Osama Bedier, who affirmed that the working class in Egypt is the poorest class in the Egyptian society, suffering from the low level of wages, while doubling the prices of goods and basic services, as well as the environment which is not appropriate, whether from the health or the technical point of view, in which they work, which exposes them to considerable risks. Bedeir illustrated the results of scientific study by Swiss bank UBS on "prices and wages" in 73 cities in the world between March and April of 2009, revealed that the worker in Cairo - the poorest in the world - work more than in anywhere in the world, with an average working hours annually up to 2373 hours, at 600 hours per year than his counterpart in the European countries does, while the average in the regular work of the human person is 1902 hours per year.
Then Mr. Saber Barakat, Member of the Coordinating Committee of the rights and freedoms of syndicates and labor unions, spoke about reasons and motives that drived for more saffocation of the Egyptian labor market, where the global financial crisis, and its consequences on the national economy, has hit the basis of social security, and devastated many of the rights of workers, primarily the right of work itself, by the liquidation and the closure of many factories, leading to increased rates of poverty and unemployment, which may last for years to come. Barakat noted that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency made a recommendation to the Egyptian government about an urgent need to develop a fair minimum wage for workers to avoid an explosion of workers at the moment. Barakat mentioned that the minimum amount of wage is determined according to the average national wealth - at 900 pounds per month for a family of 4 people according to official data - which must be distributed fairly to cover the basic needs for the continuation of human life, dignity, stressing that the minimum should be more than to meet the basic needs of citizens.
This meeting concluded with a number of inputs, which confirmed that Egypt's workers are facing a significant challenge with the harsh realities around them, especially the intransigence of the Ministry of Manpower to stand by them against investors, in addition to the repressive and inhuman actions exerted by the Ministry of the Interior via all its organs as a result of frequent labor protests who demanded for their economic and social rights that were lost with premeditated, collusion and corruption in government.
There was the third meeting under the chairmanship of Karam Saber - executive director of the Center of the Earth, entitled textile workers, a model of the struggling union movements. He pointed out that the textile sector employs about one million workers and more labor sectors affected by its policies of privatization, as the sector has been characterized in recent years that the workers were at the forefront of scenery resistance unions.
The Dr. Fatma Ramadan – Researcher at the Center of Socialist Studies, emphasizing that the protest movement of textile workers in Egypt had broken borders and barriers in the expression of their rights before political forces, after it had witnessed a decline in severity since the nineties. And while applying the policy of economic reform - economic ruin - and the privatization and sale of companies to businessmen, the movement has intensified protests of textile workers at the beginning of the new millennium after the attack on the rights of workers. Fatma, then, drew the attention to worker protests who had spread to political matters such as solidarity with the Palestinian People and other protests against hereditary and tarnish the image of the judiciary in Egypt. Fatima explained that, according to reports of the Land Center for Human Rights, the number of protests in 2002 alone amounted to about 96, then rose to 226 in 2004, and reached to about 222 protest in 2006 and has been increasing until it reached 756 in 2007 to become 742 in 2009. Fatima explained the specificity of the textile sector in the history of protests in Egypt, that sector is the leader of all the moves of other unions, added that the workers of the age ranging between 50 - 55 years they have often lived through many political changes which have gained experience since 1978.
Most of the inputs of this meeting has focused on the cruelty of the circumstances surrounding the Mahalla workers on the grounds that they form strong protest and demonstration on the deteriorating situation that they suffer from, like slump in wages and lack of all elements of industrial and social safety, in particular, caused the loss of investments in the textile sector, the equivalent of about 40 billion pounds.
The fourth meeting discussed a national work program to defend the rights of workers in the hope of rescue workers from Egypt deteriorating conditions of the textile industry in Egypt, and Egypt's economy from the devastation. Wafaa El-Masry, a lawyer and human rights activist, have spoken, where she has illustrated the escalation of workers crisis in Egypt, on the same time of the implementation of the privatization program. Therefore, labor movement had many new and various forms, where it has claimed some demands pertaining to the workers groups, like fair wages, which correspond to the level of prices and a fair share in the profits. Wafaa stressed on the need to support the fulfillment of political forces, movements of these workers in their demands and stand with them against all who assassinated their legitimate rights according to laws, legislation and international conventions attributed to the rights of workers, which was signed by the Egyptian government in advance, so government should respect and activate all its provisions. She warned that because of the absence of the role of unions support for workers in their cases, and just to avoid breaking the unity and the ability to unify efforts, work should create pressure and force that enable them to negotiate with the government and businessmen. She also affirmed that workers have to organize themselves from the inside and the search for tools of power that can be used against the government, as well as identifying points of negotiation with the government and businessmen. For example, workers can ask the help of syndicates committees, and if these committees do not succeed to support workers, submit their demands before authorities, and put pressure on them, a public committee is to be formed to achieve their demands, where human rights centers can train workers and arm them with the methods of negotiation and pressure on investors and the government, so as to accept and implement their legitimate demands. In addition, there are main tools to negotiate, like the composition of a defense committee, of lawyers and media, for the Egyptian Workers to support labor issues in Egypt and advocating the right of workers in syndicates, independently from government, in line with the Law 71 and Article 56, which speaks about the rights to establish syndicates on a democratic basis without any restrictions.
Inputs of this meeting has focused on the fact that there should be multiple images and forms of resistance and peaceful struggle by all workers of Egypt to ensure their economic and social rights from which they are deprived, and to ensure safe, fair job opportunities and dignified life for all Egyptian workers.
To obtain a copy of the workshop, please contact the Center or on our website