Emergency rally

Friday, April 11

5:00pm to 6:30pm (join us when you can)

Outside the offices of EgyptAir

151 Bloor Street West, downtown Toronto

(east of Avenue Road, south side of Bloor)

TTC: St. George or Bay

 For more information, please phone 416-795-5863 or e-mail stopthewar@sympatico.ca.

 Organized by the Toronto Egyptian Solidarity Campaign.

- - - - - - - - - -

Send a protest message to the Egyptian Embassy

Please take a few moments to send the message below to the Egyptian Embassy in Ottawa, the Egyptian Cosulate in Montreal and senior government officials in Egypt (Prime Minister, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs): 

Step 1:

Cut and paste the following e-mail addresses into your address line:

egyptemb@sympatico.ca, egyptian.embassy@rogers.com, primemin@idsc.gov.eg, center@iscmi.gov.eg, minexter@idsc1.gov.eg, questions@cabinet.gov.eg

Step 2 (optional):

Personalize your message - explain, in your own words, why you support Egyptian workers and oppose the repression by the Egyptian government. 

Step 3:

Cut and paste the sample message below into your e-mail, and send:

Ambassador Dr. Mahmoud El-Saeed

Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Canada

454 Laurier Avenue East

Ottawa, Ontario

K1N 6R3 

Dear Dr. Mahmoud El-Saeed:

I am writing to you today to condemn in the strongest terms possible the violent acts of the Egyptian state in its attacks on Egyptian workers at the El-Mahalla factory in the Nile Delta. I want you to know that the Canadian public is both alarmed and outraged at the behaviour of the Egyptian state and its flagrant violations of human rights, labour standards and international law. 

So far, thousands of striking workers have been attacked, hundreds of protesters have been arrested and two people have been killed. Many more have been injured. These are shameful acts.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that your government has attacked the Egyptian people. I am aware that hundreds of pro-democracy and pro-reform campaigners have suffered repression at the hands of the Egyptian state, including forty men who are currently being tried by military tribunals in Egypt, despite the fact that many of them have been acquitted by civilian courts on numerous occasions. 

I call on you to pressure your own government to stop immediately all attacks on workers at the El-Mahalla factory and on all Egyptian citizens, and to release immediately all political prisoners who have been detained for their labour and political activism.

Please be advised that the illegal and undemocratic actions of the Egyptian state will not go unnoticed in the rest of the world. The people of Canada are watching, and are expecting you to do the right thing: end the repression, and release the detainees now! 

Sincerely,

Your name

Your address (optional)

Date

Step 4 (optional):

Cut and paste the same message above into the online feedback box on the websites of the Egyptian Embassy in Ottawa and the Egyptian Consulate in Montreal: 

Egyptian Embassy in Ottawa

http://www.mfa.gov.eg/Missions/canada/OTTAWA/Embassy/en-GB/Feedback/

Egyptian Consulate in Montreal

http://www.mfa.gov.eg/Missions/canada/montreal/Consulate/en-GB/Feedback/

- - - - - - - - - -

Send a solidarity message to Egyptian workers 

It is vitally important that Egyptian activists know about your solidarity and support. Please send a message of support to the address below to let Egyptian workers know about what you're doing to support their struggle.

Messages from trade union activists in Canada are especially important. If possible, please ask your union leadership to send an official letter of support. 

6apri08@gmail.com

- - - - - - - - - -

Call for support from Egyptian activists

Please circulate this message to solidarity campaigners and trade union activists:

Call For Class Solidarity From Egyptian El Mahalla Workers

6th April will be a very significant day for the laborers in both southern and northern coasts of the Mediteranean sea. That day, the labourers in Turkey will take another important step in their struggle against the neo-liberal social security reform law. 

And in Egypt, El Mahalla textile workers, the pioneers of the two years of the strike wave in this country, declared a new wildcat strike for 6th of April and a general strike atmosphere is constituted against the neo-liberal, opressive, corrupted Husni Mubarak regime. 25 thousand workers of Mahalla factory, which is one of the largest textile factories in all Middle East, declared a strike action on 6th April, which is a work day in Egypt, demanding their wages at the level of an average 350 Egpytian pounds (60 dollars) to be increased with the high inflation rate and the conditions in the factory clinic to be improved.

However, the strike of the Mahalla workers has a meaning beyond their mere demands for the Egpytian working class and people. If Mahalla workers can really do the strike and be succesful, the broader struggle against the Mubarak regime will be gaining a very important new achievement by the hands of the Egpytian working class. 

Hence the strike action of the Mahalla workers who are pioneering the wave of independent and de facto trade union organisations and strikes of the last two years is declared illegal today by the Ministry of Interior. The state security forces, hand in hand with the official trade union organisation General Federation of Trade Unions and Ministery of Labour announced that they will use all measures in order the prevent 6th April strike.

Mahalla, which is a worker town in two hours distance to the capital city Cairo is surrounded by 35 thousand security police and entrance to the town is prevented. And in the capital city at least 5 people distributing solidarity leaflets are arrested today. The worker leaders of the factory are not staying in their houses in order to prevent the arrestments to halt the strike action. 

On the other hand, the tax collectors movement who share the leadership of the strike wave with Mahalla workers and various other independent worker organisations in different cities in the whole country decided to make solidarity strikes and demonstrations the same day. Solidarity Commission in Support of Mahalla Workers called all Egyptian workers and people to support the strike action of the Mahalla workers. It seems that neo-liberal, pro-market and corrupted Husni Mubarak regime will use all kinds of oppression to prevent the 6th April action.

Militant workers of Mahalla are calling all workers and laboring people of the world to support their fair cause and to show  their solidarity. 

Contact for solidarity: Solidarity Commission in Support of Mahalla Workers 6apri08@gmail.com, 6april.blogspot.com

- - - - - - - - - -

5) Latest news updates

 "It's this kind of revolt that can turn into a revolution"

France 24

http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080408-Egypt-revolt-protests-riots-elections

 Two die after clashes in Egypt industrial town

Reuters Africa

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL08810639.html

 Police clash, fire tear gas at protesters in second day of riots in northern Egyptian town

International Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/07/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Strike.php

Egypt scrambles to defuse tensions over rising prices

Winston-Salem Journal

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173355232435&path=!nationworld&s=1037645509161

Egypt dispatches high-level team to ease strike calls

Daily Star

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=90769

- - - - - - - - - -

The Toronto Egyptian Solidarity Campaign is a local support network in Toronto of Egyptian Canadians and their allies who support the struggle for genuine, grassroots democratic reform in Egypt. For more information, please e-mail stopthewar@sympatico.ca.