Democratic Palestine : 20 (ص 30)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 20 (ص 30)
- المحتوى
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Following the coup of Sadat in the interests of domestic and
foreign capital, the workers’ movement was subjected to
double hardship. There was vicious, direct suppreSsion and
confinement of the labor movement, and an attack on all of
the workers’ social and economic gains. This attack culminated
in the open door policy. For example, after adoption of the
laws to encourage «foreign and Arab capital», law 43 was
issued in 1974, prohibiting the formation of labor unions
among workers in Arab and foreign firms.
When the growth of the trade union movement is accompa-
nied by the escalation of the national struggle, and their reci-
procal influence, the workers’ movement can rise to lead the
national struggle. We are aware of this phenomenon in the
history of our struggle, during the nationalist revolution of
1919, and after the second world war when the Executive
Committee for Workers and Students led the movement for
national and social struggle. After the defeat of 1967, it again
occupied an effective position with the escalation of the social
and national struggle against Camp David and the open door
policy, which are the two basic components of Egypt’s political
and economic dependency.
Currently, the Labor Union Confederation includes 23
general unions and 2,350 labor committees. Its membership
reaches two million workers. The rules and regulations for
forming unions and electing the leadership were especially
formulated to prevent honorable workers from being repre-
sented. This makes the unions a plaything in the hands of the
authority. The labor minister is president of the general union.
A series of laws, especially no. 35 of 1979 and no. 1 of 1981,
eliminate most of the jurisdiction and rights of the labor
unions, and strengthen the central leadership of the general
unions. This leadership is composed of mercenaries and agents
of the regime - big administrators and technocrats, i.e., a
yellow leadership. The attorney general is entitled to object to
the workers’ nominations, which serves as a filter to eliminate
‘undesirable elements’.
The struggle is intensifying between the workers and the
yellow leadership of the confederation; the workers are gaining
strength and have made some accomplishments in the political
and trade union fields. In many instance, they have been able
to impose their will on the authority and its agents within the
unions. This reality has been confirmed in the escalation of the
struggle for economic and social demands, and in the political
arena as well. As an example, the head of the confederation
accompanied Sadat on his visit to Jerusalem and endorsed the
Camp David accords, whereas the working masses rejected the
accords. The authority failed to impose the visit of the former
Israeli president Navon as planned to a series of work places,
because the workers threatened to prevent his visit by force.
These are indications that the trade union movement has libe-
rated itself from the imposed yellow leadership. The movement
attained a tangible victory in the most recent elections, espe-
cially in the trade union committees. This advance is attribu-
table to the increased influence and persistent activity of the
leftist and revolutionary parties, particularly our party, in the
ranks of the workers’ movement.
The same phenomenon is apparent in the rural areas where
agricultural workers have been deprived of unions, even in
Nasser’s era. However, at that time, the cooperative movement
was activated and expanded with the land reform laws, even
though it remained under the control of the bureaucracy, agri-
cultural supervisors and the rich in the rural areas. Still, even in
the absence of unions, there was a revolutionary movement, as
was seen in the 1919 revolution, in the peasant uprisings prior
to the July 1952 revolution and during Nasser’s era. The revo-
lutionary peasant forces formed a union in 1983; it imposed its
existence and widened its field of activity, despite being
deprived of legitimate status. It functions independently of the
legal political parties. A violent struggle is going on now
against the authority’s efforts to apply the law for «organizing
relations between owners and tenants,» which was formulated
in the interests of rural capitalism. In March and April, the
peasants took up arms to confront the security forces that
came to evict them from their land. This happened in the
Bahout area, Talkha and Al Hamra mansion in Buheirah, and
the Qanayat Center and Akyad village in the eastern province.
The 1919 revolution, in the course of its battles, gave rise to
30
the slogan of «Long live the students and workers.» This
expressed the particularity of the Egyptian student movement
and its nationalist and socialist character in the liberation
struggle. Throughout the student movement’s history, the
Marxist and revolutionary organizations have had a significant
impact, especially since the mid-forties and the organization of
the Student Executive Committees. On February 17, 1946, the
Executive Committee for Students and Workers was formed; it
proved capable of leading an important stage in the national
struggle.
The July 1952 revolution led to the stagnation of the student
Struggle, but the 1967 defeat quickly reignited student
demonstrations in February and November 1968. This was the
beginning of the large student uprising in January 1972, and
led to the formation of the National Committee for Students
which included approximately 100,000 students. The left,
especially the Marxists, played a principal role in leading this
attie.
The regime used police repression, and consolidated the reli-
gious groups, as tools for confronting the revolutionary and
leftist groups at the universities. The movement fluctuated
until the February 1984 uprising which was also joined by the
university professors. The essence of this uprising was the
demand to cancell the student rules and regulations, and the
university guards; to liberate the student union from the
regime’s control; for freedom of political, social and cultural
activities, and restricting the union’s membership to students.
The current bylaws stipulate teachers’ membership and assigns
one of them veto power over the union’s decisions. This caused
the International Student Union to refuse to recognize the
union.
There was an upsurge in the student movement, concurrent
with the regression of the religious groups, the advance of the
leftists and the development of the national movement’s
struggle. There were a series of strikes, demonstrations and
marches of university, college and school students, protesting
the weakness of the authority in the face of US and Israeli
aggression which reached a climax in the bombing of the
PLO’s headquarters in Tunis, and the highjacking of an Egyp-
tian civil aircraft by the US Air Force, during and after the trial
and assassination of Suleiman Khater. The left made some
gains in the 1984-5 student union elections, despite all the
pressure, restrictions, diversions and fraudulence, and despite
the fact that hundreds of leftist leaders were prevented from
being nominated.
In the arena of youth work, all the parties have formed
youth organizations. These are limited in influence, functio-
ning as offices subordinate to the parties to which they are
connected. In contrast, the Egyptian Democratic Youth Union,
the first youth organization to be organizationally independent
of all the parties, has a comprehensive program for youth and
is led by progressives.
The professional unions have played a prominent role in
defending the interests of the various sectors and in the poli-
tical arena. The lawyers’ guild led major struggles, defending
their rights and resisting Sadat’s policy, Camp David and the
normalization of relations with ‘Israel’. The lawyers’ guild has
supported the nationalist and progressive movements through-
out the Arab world, especially the Palestinian revolution. In
this, they were joined by nationalist members and leaders of
other unions and clubs at educational institutions. These unions
and clubs are fields of continuous struggle between the autho-
rity’s desire to dominate, and the nationalist and democratic
forces.
Our party is present in all these fields. We play an influential
role in mobilizing for political, economic and social demands,
in coordination with other leftist and nationalist forces. We
took initiative to form defense committees for the causes of the
masses and the Arab nation, such as the Egyptian Committee
to Defend Freedom, the National Committee to Defend
Democracy, the Committees to Defend the Public Sector, the
Committee to Defend Nationalist Education, and the Support
Committee for the Palestinian and Lebanese People. However,
the ideological and political influence of the left generally is
much greater than its accomplishments in the mass organiza-
tions. r
To be continued in the next issue. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 20
- تاريخ
- نوفمبر ١٩٨٦
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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