Arab workers

I did not blog about my summoning to the military tribunal coz this issue was already covered extensively in the mainstream and social media circles, and I did not have more to say about that day.
But just few quick points, since there are new developments:
- I went to the military prosecutor initially as an “accused” person and Rime Maged was a “witness,” based on a complaint from General Hamdi Badeen, the head of the military police, about my “torture allegations” against his men. The tone completely changed after roughly 20 mins into the conversation with General Adel el-Morsi, the head of the military judicial branch, and the situation became different: Rime and I were invited for “coffee and chat,” and I was asked to hand in whatever information I had on abuses by the military police to the military prosecutors to investigate.

AAUMC express our unconditional support with Mahalla in Egypt. Mahalla workers have been struggling to feed their family and fight for a life with the dignity and respect workers deserve. Dear friends, There is a ongoing crackdown on labor activists in Mahalla, since they staged a demonstration last October against the management's corruption: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahcarr/sets/72157608515197459/ http://arabist.net/arabawy/2008/11/26/renewed-crackdown-on-ghazl-el-mahalla-workers/ http://delicious.com/elhamalawy/MahallaOctoberProtest Following the demo, the management decreed the transfer of four activists from their positions: 1- Blogger Kareem el-Beheiri was moved to the Cairo office 2-Mohamed el-Attar was moved to the Alexandria office 3-Amal Said was moved to the company's nursery 4-Wedad el-Demerdash was also transferred to the nursery http://arabist.net/arabawy/2008/11/09/crackdown-on-mahalla-labor-activists-continue/

AAUMC calls upon labor unions in the US to support labor organizers imprisoned by the Egyptian Government, the second largest recipient of US foreign aid [$2 billion]. Members of the independent Textile Workers League: Kamal el-Fayoumi, Tarek Amin and blogger Kareem el-Beheiry were detained on the 6th of April during a two-day uprising by the urban poor and textile workers in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla, protesting the price increases of basic commodities. A strike was scheduled on that day to take place at Ghazl el-Mahalla, the largest textile mill in the Middle East and home to 27,000 workers, but was aborted by police troops occupying the factory. Peaceful demonstrations erupted in the town after the failure of the strike, and soon turned bloody with police opening fire on the protestors, killing at least three. http://arabist.net/arabawy/2008/04/06/police-abort-mahalla-strike/

"Support this worldwide Divestment and Boycott Campaign Against Israel and Apartheid" appeals Palestinian Labor Leader in SF Speech. Boycott "We actually don't have any other way to exercise international pressure except calling our friends and supporters in the trade unions around the globe to call for this Boycott and Divestment." stated Manawel Issa Abdellal, member of the Executive Committee of the 250 thousand member Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) in a recent speech to union activists and labor movement supporters in San Francisco. "Factories actually exist inside the settlements and their products are going to the markets in Europe and in the United States. The whole world is saying these settlements are actually illegal settlements. So why would it be wrong to boycott them?", he continued. "My message to you as labor activists is to follow the lead of unions in Canada and Britain."

Twenty-nine years after his death at the hands of a local sheriff, labor organizer and farm worker Nagi Daifullah is being again memorialized by fellow Yemeni and Latino workers. Nagi was a farm worker who came from Yemen looking for a better life and arrived to the inhospitable grape fields in California's central valley where he rose to become a respected labor leader. Nagi overcame his own shyness to learn Spanish and English and served as a liaison between workers within the United Farm Workers Union. In the summer of 1973, thousands of grape workers struck for just wages and working conditions. In one protest, over 3,500 workers including men, women and children were beaten by local sheriffs. Nagi was among the strikers from El Rancho Farms, near Arvin, California. He marched the picket lines for many weeks along with other Arab workers. On the morning of August 15, 1973, Nagi, who was of slight build and barely 100 pounds, was among the picketers beaten by the sheriffs.