In the context of the Military Council’s continued counter-revolutionary campaign, and in particular its insistence that Al-Ganzoury must form a government, despite the demand by the revolutionaries of Tahrir Square for a national salvation government with full powers which we can hold to account, and in the light of rumours that Al-Ganzoury has been holding meetings with potential candidates for the post of Minister of Labour and Immigration such as Ahmad Abd-al-Zahir or Isma’il Fahmy, who are enemies of every Egyptian worker and opposed to any genuine workers’ organisations and therefore are fighting with all their strength against the fledgling independent trade unions, we have begun to show the way to build genuine workers’ organisations and are leading workers’ protests to demand their rights.
We see our success in forcing the state to recognise us as independent trade unions as an integral part of the Egyptian Revolution, which was achieved when the Revolution triumphed in the first stage of the removal of the Mubarak regime. When there is any attempt to stop the revolution they also try to stop our right to organise and mobilise all their forces against us. This is why our fate, and the fate of Egyptian workers, is linked to the fate of the revolution. This is why we will continue the revolution until the realisation of its goals which are expressed in its slogans of “Change — Freedom — Social Justice”, and we are participating today to call for:
1. The formation of a civilian presidential council
2. The enactment of the long overdue law on trade union freedoms to meet workers’ expectations
3. The abolition of military trials for civilians and the prosecution of the criminal killers of the martyrs whether from 25 January or the Maspero massacre or the events of Mohammed Mahmoud Street
4. Abolition of the law criminalising protests and strikes
5. The swift adoption of minimum and maximum wages linked to prices
Cf. Tony Karon, “Why Egypt’s Election is a Game-Changer — At the Expense of Tahrir Square” (28 November 2011); “Al Masry Al Youm says turnout was 48%, not 62% as the high election commission claims almasryalyoum.com/node/531266” (Blake Hounshell, 2 December 2011); Abdul Ilah Albayaty, “Notes on the Egyptian Elections” (Ahram Online, 3 December 2011).
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