(DNE File Photo)
The Revolutionary Socialists and the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions, announced their participation in the upcoming 30 June protest against President Mohamed Morsi, in a joint statement released on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the situation for labour workers in Egypt had worsened after they played an integral role in removing ousted President Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011.
“Today, we live in the third year since the revolution and the thorns of the old system still affect us within the current one,” the statement read. They also criticised the current government for being put on a short-term blacklist by the International Labour Organisation.
“We are now on the eve of a new popular revolution and remind the world of the workers’ grievances,” the statement said, highlighting several questions that they felt had not been properly addressed by the state.
The statement asked why, after two years of discussions, the government had yet to pass a new trade law concerning union freedoms, and why government forces had escalated the crackdown on the sit-in at the Alexandria Portland Cement Company.
They groups also demanded to know why workers are given prison sentences for striking, accusing the government of staying silent while 4,000 factories had shut down causing thousands of job losses.
The signatories stated that the previous regime and the current one work against the interests of workers, and in favour of a small group of investors and wealthy businessmen.
Drawing parallels between the current situation in Egypt and the period immediately preceding the revolution, the statement declared that now is the time to take to the streets. “What is happening now brings to mind the days before the fall of Mubarak: striking unions everywhere, protests against the decisions made by the government, and our situation is going from bad to worse with the ongoing fuel and electricity crisis. What are we waiting for?”
“Egyptian labour workers are an organised productive force, and alone are capable of moderating the balance of power on 30 June and onwards,” the statement said, calling labour workers the engine that drives the revolution.
