General Strike in Support of the Egyptian Revolution
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS), 23rd November 2011: The Egyptian masses are engaged in heroic struggle against the insane machine of suppression which exceeded every limit using not only live bullets which killed tens of the revolting citizens but also the gas bombs which are used in chemical wars. It is a crime which was completed by a slender speech of the Military Council president containing some decisions which prove that our rulers are on one side and the masses calling for freedom and dignified life are on the other side. Immediately after that speech, security forces continued their barbaric attacks using weapons which experts assert that they are internationally banned.
His Excellency the Field Marshal did not forget to enumerate in his speech the obstacles they had met in the past period in managing the state. On the top if these obstacles he put the workers’ strikes which were described during the past months as “categorical demands” in order to put the Egyptian workers in one side and the other Egyptian masses in the opposite side. Thus they emphasize their trend – after surrounding the Egyptian revolution – to continue the same old economic policies against the poor and in particular the working class which received the first blow after the January revolution by issuing a law that criminalized sit-ins and strikes and turned the workers to stand before the military court because they call for their legal rights.
The bullets of the thugs of the owner of New Star Co. for Ready Made Clothes in the free zone of Port Said which were directed against the striking workers last week – similar to what other employers do to intimidate the workers – are the same as the bullets used by the security forces assassinators against those who are revolting in the Egyptian “freedom squares”.
The CTUWS emphasizes its adoption of the Egyptian revolution demands on the top of which are holding the perpetrators of these massive crimes responsible for their crimes which are still continuous in various squares, forming a national salvation government which undertakes all the competences of the Military Council and draws a clear economic policy for the coming period to secure honorable economic and political life for the Egyptian workers as partners in production not slaves for employers and issuing the law on trade union freedoms which the Government of Mr. Sharaf delayed its issuance.
The CTUWS reasserts that the only real legality which must be upheld by all the parties is the revolution legality and calls all the Egyptian workers to go in a general strike and join the open sit-in in all the squares of the Egyptian cities to achieve the demands of the revolution.