The Mediterranean House of Enlightenment is on strike as well, Ameera Fouad reports from Alexandria Cries of protest were heard echoing throughout Alexandria last week and that would include the more than 1,500 employees working in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina who also went on strike, demonstrating against the library as a whole. The protesters closed all entrances and exits, blocking the way of Bibliotheca head Ismail Serageldin and other officials as they tried to make their way to their offices. Demonstrations broke out across the library plaza last week Wednesday after 11 security personnel were fired followed by the laying off of another 14 belonging to various other departments. Bibliotheca Alexandrina officials explained the dismissals as being related to library administration policies. In turn, the protesters called for the ouster of Serageldin who has been chair since 2002. They also called for the sacking of all board of trustee members claiming they belonged to the former regime of Hosni Mubarak. A peaceful strike it was; the protesters simply blocked the way to Serageldin's office, and he, as a result called in the army to force them out and for his own protection. Protesters had a wide range of demands they want met. Top of the list was the dismissal of Serageldin and what they described as his corrupt squad: Yehia Mansour, finance and administration manager, Sherif Ammar and Nagui Ased, library security managers, and Said El-Dekak, an influential member in the defunct National Democratic Party (NDP). They appealed for an investigation into the alleged squandering of public funds and reported theft of artefacts from the library plus the questioning of officials related to the ousted regime. Moreover, the protesters demanded turning all temporary contracts into permanent ones pointing out what they called the injustice and disparity they witnessed in the library employee chart throughout the past years. "Injustice here prevails," protester Mohamed Nashaat told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We breathe corruption everywhere. Promotions are unfair. Bonuses and appraisals are granted to only favourites. Now, we cannot guarantee anything. Anyone can be kicked out at any time. No one is safe." Ayman El-Sherbini, a 25-year-old employee in the library who was among the protesters chanting, calling and sometimes shouting, "We adore the library and we can never harm it" pointed to all the army vehicles and armed troops surrounding the edifice. "Serageldin's biggest problem is that he's blind, he can't see all the corruption in the library, but at the end, it is under his command." El-Sherbini added, "corruption has reached the top brass. We can never stop it except by striking. We want a good system with fair regulations and fair resolutions. Nothing more." Later in the day, the protesters met a few top library officials who agreed to convene while Serageldin pledged to contract 2,500 workers on a permanent basis and to reappoint two of the most influential employees he dismissed earlier and whose axing led to a flare up: Omar Hazek and Mohamed Mansour. However, the protesters were not satisfied with pledges and promises. They continued holding their protests on Thursday and Friday, especially after Serageldin issued a diktat to all employees "to go on leave from Thursday until Monday" in an attempt to disperse the protesters and calm the situation down. "But the situation will not get calmer. Rather, it will reach a head," Kholoud Said, a 25- year-old employee working in the Publishing Department, said. "We want certain demands and rights and they have not yet been met. If financial and administrational dishonesty still persists, we shall never return home. Leave or no leave, we are staying here." Another protester, a 50-year-old security guard who declined to give his name, asked, "How can anyone in this world dismiss 14 security officers all at one time and without giving us a reasonable explanation? This is totally unjust and without prior notice. I have many obligations towards my family and my children. How could they do that to me?" The man burst into tears as he spoke. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is among numerous sites on strike that have sprung up around the country, as protesters rally against what they see as corporate greed and a wide range of other economic and political shortcomings. The protests have attracted people from all walks of life, including college students looking for work and a better future in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Tension between the library's officials and protesters has been on the rise since last week after the demonstrators complained about what they described as a deteriorating system and the "absolute power" of directors. "I've been in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina for 10 years yet my boss still threatens me every now and then to kick me out whenever she so wishes," Ghada Nabil, another protester, told the Weekly. "The problem is that she actually can with this inequitable system we are living in. Managers have all the rights and we have nothing." At a time when the country as whole is seeking change and wide ranging reforms, the 1,500 employees working in a massive institution and in one of the world's largest libraries like the Bibliotheca Alexandrina cannot be underestimated. "Should the protest end, the library administration will have its own blacklist from which it will fire all employees. That's why we must be many and united. "It is our library, no one else's!" shouted one of the protesters over a loudspeaker as he exhorted employees on Friday morning to start a third consecutive day of strikes. Even though army officers were there trying to persuade protesters that their demands would be met, and that Tantawi [Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] himself would study their demands and meet most of them, if warranted, none of the employees was ready to go home unless tangible changes were seen being made. Though some see that such protests and sit- ins will inevitably weaken the country economically and politically, others still believe that if they don't protest now, they will never gain their rights. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina employees have chosen the latter. "Either today or never" as they chanted and called for people to join them.
