Egypt

Textile workers strike in Egypt

The 3,700 female workers in the Mahalla textile factories were furious. The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, had earlier in the month raised the minimum wage to 6,000 Egyptian pounds — the equivalent of just £100. That’s £100 per month . But workers in the state-owned companies, including Mahalla, were exempted from the pay increase. The decision by the El-Sisi government to raise wages was due to the increasingly severe cost-of-living crisis in the country. In January 2024, the government raised prices of electricity, metro tickets and telecommunications services in an attempt to get...

Citizens spurned by the UK

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (on right) and her husband join protest to demand freedom for Alaa Abd el-Fattah Jailed Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, whose profile rose during COP27 because the summit was in Egypt and he is a UK citizen, is still alive. His family has finally been allowed to see him , and reports his hunger strike was broken by the regime, which forced him to take intravenous fluids. They revealed many harrowing new details of the most recent period of his decade behind bars. There are over 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt’s jails. The UK labour movement should...

Free Alaa Abd el-Fattah! Help Egypt's workers against Sisi

Jailed Egyptian democracy activist (and UK citizen) Alaa Abd el-Fattah has started drinking water again. He is still on hunger strike and still denied contact with British officials. Abd el-Fattah should be seen as emblematic of the vast numbers of political prisoners held by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s military regime — and its long-running suppression of Egypt’s working-class and democratic movements. In the last week, with the COP27 summit meeting in Egypt, Abd el-Fattah’s case has gained profile. Joe Biden’s call for his release puts the Egyptian government under serious pressure. Despite the...

Free Alaa Abd el-Fattah!

As the COP27 summit meets in Egypt, a UK citizen, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, is on the verge of death in one of the Egyptian regime’s prisons. About to turn 41, if he makes it that far, Abd el-Fattah is an Egyptian democracy activist who has been in and out of prison under every Egyptian president in his lifetime — first decades-long ruler Hosni Mubarak, then Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, and now Mubarak mark 2 Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. There are over 65,000 political prisoners in Sisi’s jails. On hunger strike for more than six months in protest at his brutal treatment, Abd el-Fattah has now...

Free Alaa Abd el-Fattah! Free all jailed democracy activists in Egypt!

On 2 April Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British citizen being held, tortured and denied medical care in a maximum security prison in Egypt, launched an open ended hunger-strike to demand the right to a visit from the British consul. There is obviously a serious risk he will die. Though Abd el-Fattah is a UK citizen, the right-wing press here has studiously ignored his hunger strike, presumably in deference to the UK government’s extensive economic and “security” ties with Egypt. You can read a detailed report of what is happening to him in the Independent . A secular democracy activist aged 40, Abd...

1919 - Throwing off the shackles of Empire

After Britain and its Allies had won the war, proclaiming themselves champions of freedom and democracy, the people of its imperial possessions stepped up their democratic demand for some of that freedom for themselves. India In its largest colony, India, Britain imposed the Rowlatt Act, extending wartime powers of indefinite imprisonment without trial. It prompted anger and rebellion, against both the Act and continuing British rule. The British left supported self-determination for India and other colonies, and in April, held a large public meeting in London, demanding ‘India for the Indians...

Daesh Sinai attack linked to growth of Islamism across the region

On 24 November, in the Egyptian province of Sinai, Daesh carried out one of their most sickening attacks. Killing 305 and injuring hundreds more, Daesh attacked the Rawdah mosque. Gunmen waited to shoot down fleeing worshippers after their bombing. Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis pledged allegiance to Daesh in 2014 and has since been known as the Sinai Province of ISIS. It was founded out of a number of competing factions previously linked to Al Qaeda. It could now be the most capable and dangerous section of Daesh in Egypt. The declaration of a “state of emergency” in Sinai since 2014 has not slowed...

Egypt tortures LGBT people

The Egyptian government has conducted an intense campaign of arrests, torture and intimidation against LGBT people over the past month. Dozens of LGBT people have been arrested, and many subjected to torture in custody in the form of so-called “anal examinations”, since 22 September, when the wave of repression was launched following a gig by left-wing Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila in a suburb of Cairo. The band’s lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay and a vocal advocate of LGBT freedoms. Conservative and pro-government media outlets orchestrated a campaign of moral panic and homophobic...

Saudi Arabia tries to push Qatar into line

A simmering conflict between the Gulf State of Qatar and its larger neighbour, Saudi Arabia, has abruptly flared into an open, serious stand-off. Beginning on 5 June, a Saudi-led grouping of states including Egypt, Bahrain and UAE broke off diplomatic relations, and implemented travel and trade bans against Qatar. Qatar has said it will not retaliate.Saudi Arabia has closed Qatar’s only land border and ordered its citizens to leave Qatar. UAE, Egyptian and Saudi ports have refused to allow Qatari ships to dock.80% of Qatar’s food comes from its Gulf neighbours and 40% comes across the land...

Daesh resurgence in Libya

The fact that the perpetrator of the Manchester bombing, Salman Abedi, may have been part of a Daesh network in Libya has focused attention on the group outside of its main territories in Iraq and Syria. Daesh is known to have groups allied to it across the Middle East, Africa and Asia but in recent years their strength has grown in Libya. The fall of Gaddafi lead to a series of fractured and splintered militias and rival governments fighting for control. The roots of Daesh in Libya lie with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, formed in the 1990s from remnants of the mujahideen who fought the...

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