Research Briefing

Egypt’s strike wave: lessons in leadership

Strikers at the Tanta Flax and Oil Company, June 2009 Picture: Hossam el-Hamalawy
Egypt at a glance:
This briefing reports on some of the findings of the research project, Non-Governmental
Public Action in the Middle East: Historical Perspectives which is part of the
Population: 75 million
Non-Governmental Public Action programme funded by the Economic and Social Research
Council.
Total labour force: 25 million
Male workers: 19 million
For more information about the project contact Dr Anne Alexander, Research Associate, Female workers: 6 million
Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, Official rate of unemployment: 9.37%
London (aa107@soas.ac.uk). (5.19% males / 22.9% females)
(CAPMAS, 2009)
Summary
Since late 2006 Egypt has experienced a sharp rise in the number of strikes and other forms of workers’ protest, largely focussed on
improving pay and working conditions. Almost all of these strikes have been organised outside the Egyptian Trade Union Federation,
usually in the face of active hostility from ETUF officials. Nevertheless, many strikes have succeeded in winning concessions from
employers and the government. This is a dramatic change from the experience of previous decades, during which workers’ protests
were routinely crushed by the security forces. Workers endeavouring to exercise their right to organise independently of the govern-
ment have faced harassment by state and ETUF officials. And the Egyptian authorities have moved ruthlessly against attempts to link
up workers’ social and economic demands with political challenges to the current regime.

Despite this, activists have succeeded in forming new organisations, such as the property tax collectors’ union (RETAU) – the first trade
union to be formed outside the ETUF since the federation’s foundation in 1957. More than this, the practice of leadership and organis-
ing in RETAU points to a revival of a democratic, grassroots model of trade union organising not seen in Egypt on this scale since the
fall of the monarchy in 1952. This briefing argues that the opening of spaces for democratic debate and organising as a result of
workers’ collective action has profound political implications in the current climate of authoritarian repression.

Background
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Egyptian state took a central role in economic development: large parts of the economy were nationalised
and new state-run industries were created. Workers’ contribution to national development was celebrated by the military regime, and
the state provided subsidised housing, healthcare and other benefits. A process of infitah (economic liberalisation) began in the 1970s,
and accelerated under Hosni Mubarak, the current president. Today the Egyptian economy is dominated by the private sector, which
accounts for nearly 70% of employment. Economic reforms adopted since the 1990s have dramatically expanded the private sector
through the sale of state industries. Since the beginning of the 21st century Egypt has also enjoyed strong economic growth and
before the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008 saw huge rises in foreign investment.

These changes have in general had a negative impact on job security, income and working conditions for the majority Egyptian white
and blue collar workers. Although the size of the labour force has grown, new private-sector jobs usually lack formal contracts and the
workplace benefits attached to public sector employment, such as social insurance. Inflation, particularly the rising cost of food, has hit
the working poor hard in recent years. In 2007 overall annual inflation was estimated at 12 percent; in 2009 food prices rose by as much
in 3 months, despite a drop in the overall inflation rate to 9 percent. For millions of Egyptians rising food budgets mean a catastrophic
drop in living standards. According to the UN, the numbers of Egyptians living in absolute poverty had already grown from 16.7
percent of the population to 19.6 percent between 2000 and 2005, even before the recent rises in inflation.

The Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) was formed in 1957 with the blessing of the military regime which took power in 1952.
The ETUF’s foundation marked the end of a decade of intense trade union activity, during which the unions had played an increasingly
prominent role in protests against the monarchy and the presence of British troops in Egypt. In contrast to previous decades, when
most unions were led by middle-class nationalists, the idea that workers should lead and organize themselves gained widespread
support. Under military rule, however, the trade unions became institutions of the state – distributing benefits to workers on the one
hand, while containing their discontent on the other.
 Research Briefing
Egypt’s strike wave: lessons in leadership
Growing workers’ discontent
The ETUF’s membership is heavily concentrated in the public sector. The
federation has a membership of around 4 million, and is composed of 23
‘General Unions’ each representing workers from a different economic
sector or profession at a national level. Workplace-based branches or
geographical professional committees organise union members at a
local level. Elections in the ETUF affiliated unions are organised centrally
and take place in a five-yearly cycle; the most recent round being in
2006. Although Egypt has signed international conventions recognising
workers’ rights to strike and organise themselves independent of the
state, in practice there is almost no legal possibility of doing so. Legal
strikes have to be supported by two-thirds of the ETUF General Council,
composed of the presidents of the General Unions, all but one of whom
are currently senior members of the NDP. Laws relating to trade unions,
such as Law 35 of 1976 criminalise the formation of trade unions outside
the ETUF.
The Centre for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS), an Egyptian
NGO, reported that the 2006 elections were characterised by high levels
of fraud and intimidation of non-NDP candidates. During the recent
strike wave, tens of thousands of workers and civil servants have
attempted to resign from the ETUF General Unions, while strikers in a
wide range of economic sectors have demanded the resignation of
ETUF officials in the workplace. Most strikes have faced the active
hostility of ETUF officials, although in the private sector – which is very
poorly unionised – workers have taken action demanding the formation
of ETUF local branches.
The strike by textile workers in the government-owned Misr Spinning
mill in the Delta city of Al-Mahalla al-Kubra in December 2006 is widely
seen as the turning point which marked the beginning of the current
wave of workers’ protests. The Land Centre for Human Rights counted
614 episodes of workers’ collective action in 2007 (including strikes and
demonstrations), and 609 in 2008, compared to around 1,000 for the
six years between 1998 and 2004.
A report by the Egyptian Trade Union and Workers Watch group
(ETUWW) on episodes of industrial action for the first two weeks in
June 2009 gives a snapshot of developments after two and a half years
of the strike wave. There were 40 episodes of industrial action, affecting
33 workplaces and involving around six thousand workers, while a
further four thousand threatened strikes or sit-ins.
The biggest single dispute was the long-running strike at the Tanta Flax
and Oil Company, involving around 1,000 workers. Other notable
strikes included action by workers at the Fayyum Sugar Refinery, nurses
at Al-Hilal Hospital in Shibin al-Kawm and pharmacists in Suez, teachers
in Kafr al-Shaykh and Al-Beheira, postal workers and inspectors of
ancient monuments. Lack of job security was a crucial issue in many
disputes, with strikers frequently demanding permanent contracts for
temporary workers. Low pay and the failure of employers to pay
salaries and bonuses also figured prominently in strikers’ demands.
Case Study: Property Tax Collectors
Low-paid civil servants in the Property Tax Authority have become
the surprising leaders of a movement to build independent trade
unions. The Real Estate Tax Authority Union (RETAU) was founded in
December 2008 and by July 2009 its leading activists claimed the
new union had the support of around 40,000 of the 50,000 property
tax collectors in Egypt. RETAU has been accepted as a member of
Public Services International, the international federation of public
service unions, despite protests from the ETUF-affiliated banking and
finance union.
The roots of RETAU lie in the successful national strike by property tax
collectors in 2007-8. Thousands of strikers camped in central Cairo,
creating a colourful tent city hung with banners proclaiming their
demands. In January 2008, Finance Minister Yusuf Butrus Ghali agreed
to the strikers’ demands for the merger of the Property Tax Authority
with the General Tax Authority, and for parity in pay with GTA
employees leading to a 325% pay rise for property tax collectors.
RETAU’s founding conference in December 2008 was followed by the
submission of papers giving details of the new union to the Minister
of Labour and Migration, Ai’sha ‘Abd-al-Hadi on 21 April 2009. In
September 2009 RETAU president Kamal Abu-Eita was named in a
legal case brought by Faruq Shehata, president o the ETUF-affiliated
banking and finance union. Shehata argued that the formation of
RETAU violated Law 35 of 1976 on trade unions. This case was still
on-going at the time of writing.
Top: Striking public transport workers with a
petition demanding the resignation of their
ETUF union officials, August 2009
Bottom: Leading activists in the Property Tax
Agency, including Tareq Mustafa (in suit and
tie) and Kamal Abu-Eita (next to Mustafa in a
black shirt) Hossam el-Hamalawy
‘The leadership comes from below’
Tareq Mustafa, RETAU’s Treasurer, participated in a workshop at the
School of Oriental and African Studies in London organised by the
NGPA research programme on 7 July 2009. Here he describes the
interactions between the network of activists in the Property Tax
Authority who led the 2007 strike at a national level, and the
workplace-based leaders who mobilised tens of thousands of their
colleagues to strike and demonstrate as well as reflecting on how
the notion of ‘leadership’ itself among these activists has challenged
conventional expectations of who should be a leader.
“In our experience the process was clear. The leadership took a
clear method of trying to build from below. That gave us a good
chance of success, and we actually did succeed, we managed to
spread our resources effectively. So the leadership was able to
help the people below support the leadership above … The
proof is that in every governorate there is a leadership, and
below that workplace-based leaderships as well. So leadership
comes from below. People reacted favourably to this leadership
in the strike, it was very clear that the people would have this
positive reaction in the strike, because the leadership was
following the correct path, because it came from below, not from
above.
[Such a leader will] be someone, for example, who has the
approval of his colleagues and in the workplace. An activist.
Someone who is taking steps beyond his colleagues. He is the
one who can encourage them, he is the one who can convince
them, and who can organise them ... Someone who takes the
initiative … speaks his mind, gives positive suggestions, can
make himself understood. He has a degree of consciousness, and
is more conscious than his colleagues. This is all clarified, all put
to the test, on the day of the strike or the sit-in by how many
people he can bring with him.
Of course, in society things are arranged differently. But here,
people are all civil servants. Yes, there are different grades in the
same job. But here, the leadership might be a woman, or
someone Christian. How hard they work, how well they are
accepted by their colleagues, their conviction about what they
are doing, these are the crucial factors.
Therefore there are a lot of women who were much more
advanced than the others. Women played a very important role
in the Property Tax Authority strike at every stage. … Take me
personally, for example. I’m on the committee in my governo-
rate, but I’m only Grade 3 [in my job], and the people with me on
the committee are Grades 1 and 2, but they are under my
leadership. It isn’t about your grade in your job. It is about the
effort you put in, the work you do, how well you are accepted by
other people, your grasp of the issue, how effectively you can
mobilise others.”
 Research Briefing
Egypt’s strike wave: lessons in leadership
The impact of the strike wave
Media commentators, political activists and Egyptian state officials have frequently oscillated between two contrasting
perspectives on the post-2006 strikes, both of which misunderstand the relationship between the ‘political’ and
‘economic’ aspects of Egyptian workers’ collective action. The first position – adopted by some Egyptian government
officials – assumes that the strikes are a direct result of ‘incitement’ against the regime by opposition groups. A contrast-
ing tone has been heard more recently, as figures close to the regime have sought to play down the political implications
of workers’ discontent: “It's purely economic,” a senior NDP official told the Washington Post, “Once you give more money
to those people, it’s over.” (27 September 2009). Similarly polarised perspectives have been adopted by some opposition
activists.

The events of 6 April 2008 illustrate that the relationship between workers’ protest and political challenge to the Mubarak
regime is much more complex than either of these perspectives acknowledges. A planned strike by workers in the Misr
Spinning plant in Al-Mahalla al-Kubra on 6 April 2008 was the catalyst for the first major attempt to organise protests on
a national scale in coordination with a group of workers taking strike action. Networks of opposition activists including
the Nasserist Karama Party, democracy campaign Kifaya, some Islamist groups, and opposition bloggers were among
those who attempted to mobilise in support of one of the Misr Spinning workers’ demands: the raising of the national
minimum wage. There were large protests by students on the day, shops closed early in some areas and many people
stayed away from work. Virtual networks proclaiming support for a general strike on 6 April included a Facebook group
which reportedly attracted over 70,000 members. However, the strike at Misr Spinning was aborted through a combina-
tion of security operations inside the factory and concessions from the government. Following this, attacks by the
security forces on protestors in al-Mahalla city triggered two days of riots: police used live ammunition against demon-
strators, killing a fifteen-year old bystander, and hundreds of local people were arrested. A year later, similar networks of
opposition activists again called for a ‘Day of Anger’ against the government, but only small numbers of protestors took
part, largely on the Ain Shams university campus while others attended a symbolic rally outside the Journalists’ Union
building in central Cairo.

Yet it would be a mistake to underestimate the profound challenge that the on-going strike wave represents to the
established political order in Egypt. Firstly, the strikes are a symptom of the deep crisis within the ruling party, as it
attempts to manage workers’ discontent over the costs of market reforms through the corporatist institutions of the
Egyptian Trade Union Federation, while these same economic reforms have significantly undermined the ETUF’s role as a
distributor of state benefits in return for workers’ support for the regime. Secondly, in a minority of cases – which are
important because of the large numbers of workers involved, such as the Misr Spinning strikes of 2006-8 – strikers’
demands have evolved from specific local issues, such as overdue bonuses, to more general questions of economic
policy, such as the level of the national minimum wage.

Thirdly, the foundation of the Real Estate Tax Authority Union marks the emergence of the first sustained organisational
challenge to the ETUF. Together with the embryonic networks of independent union activists in other sectors including
the textile industry, postal service and among teachers, RETAU’s development may point the way to the future fragmenta-
tion of the ETUF’s monopoly. The practice of leadership ‘from below’ by leading RETAU activists – with its implications of
accountability of leaders to their colleagues in the workplace, its expectations of an organic connection between work-
place activism and leadership, and its capacity to confound conventional notions of who leaders should be – is very
different to the dominant model of bureaucratic, state-sponsored trade union leadership in the ETUF. In other words,
employees of the Real Estate Tax Authority have created a space for democratic debate and grassroots organisation in
their own workplaces, despite the prevailing conditions of authoritarianism and political repression. While such develop-
ments are fragile, and are only at an embryonic stage in other economic sectors, they have the potential to alter Egypt’s
political landscape in ways not seen since the fall of the monarchy.

Sources and further information:

This briefing draws primarily on research carried out by Anne Alexander during a postdoctoral research fellowship on the
Non-Governmental Public Action programme 2007-2009, using interviews with Egyptian trade union activists from
Al-Mahalla and the Property Tax Agency in 2008-9, strike leaflets, workers’ newsletters, photographs, films and Egyptian
media reports. Other important sources include the work of Mustafa Bassiuny, Joel Beinin, Hossam el-Hamalawy, Nora
Younis, Hassanein Kishk and Marie DuBoc.

For more information about this research project go to: www.harakat.org

For more information about the NGPA programme go to http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/NGPA/
This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License (text : Anne Alexander,
photographs, Hossam el-Hamalawy).