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 threat to a UK citizen’s life, the Tories have been more reticent. When a reporter at COP27 asked about Abd el-Fattah, Rishi Sunak literally ran away.

UK Labour has not been vocal, though Starmer did push Sunak in the House of Commons. 60 MPs and members of the House of Lords have signed a statement. John Moloney, Assistant General Secretary of civil service union PCS, has released a statement.

With COP27, Sisi’s human rights record has come under increased scrutiny. There was a very visible contingent of Egyptians on the COP27 climate protest in London on 12 November. But the world’s most powerful governments do not want to criticise too much. Just before the summit, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken laughably praised Egypt’s “tangible progress on human rights”.

There are over 60,000 political prisoners in the regime’s jails. In the last weeks Egyptian security forces have brutally crushed attempts to organise pro-democracy protests, arresting hundreds.

Egypt has a powerful recent history of working-class struggle. In 2011 a great upsurge of workers’ action was central to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. For the story of that surge and how it was eventually defeated, see here.

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