After two days of demonstrations calm has returned to the industrial town of Mahala Al-Kubra, reports Faiza Rady Following a surprise visit by a high-powered delegation of ministers and officials to Mahala Al-Kubra on Tuesday the demonstrations that erupted in the town since the general strike on 6 April have subsided, though riot police remain on the scene. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Minister of Labour and Immigration Aisha Abdel-Hadi, Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali and head of the Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions Hussein Mugawer visited the state- owned Misr Spinning and Weaving Company to ask the workers about their living conditions. During the visit El-Gabali pledged to supply the town's general hospital with modern medical equipment, in addition to staffing it with specialists and competent health workers. Nazif promised to pay Misr workers a special bonus equal to one month's pay in July, and to grant all Egyptian textile workers a 15-day bonus. Mohieddin promised his department would establish new train lines to improve the area's infrastructure and provide better transportation and also said that special bakeries would be established for the plant's workers while the cooperative store system would be resurrected to provide subsidised food items including rice, oil, sugar and flour. Sayed Habib, a veteran labour leader from the Misr plant, told Al-Ahram Weekly he was elated. "I just hope that the government uses us as a model and responds to all workers' demands in Egypt like they did today." On Monday the scene was very different. "Mahala Al-Kubra is burning. Thousands of demonstrators are out on the street, throwing stones, chanting anti- government slogans and defying the riot police's batons, tear gas and bullets," Mohamed El-Attar, from the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, told the Weekly. The plant, which has a reputation for militancy, employs 27,000 workers and is the largest textile enterprise in Egypt. It was the Misr workers' strike over unpaid bonuses in December 2006 which initiated and set the tone for the unprecedented wave of strikes that have erupted in the country since. The 6 April general strike over price increases and low wages differed from earlier, more conventional industrial action. Sponsored by a coalition of political parties and tendencies -- including the frozen Islamist Labour Party, the Kifaya Movement for Change, the unlicensed Karama Party, the Lawyers' Syndicate -- the 6 April strike addressed a broad range of national grievances, going beyond specific worker demands. "We want decent wages, education for our kids, a humane system of transportation, a functional system of health, medicine for our children, a functional and independent judiciary, safety and security. We want freedom and dignity, and housing for newly-weds. We don't want price increases, we don't want to be tortured in police stations, we don't want corruption, bribery, [arbitrary] detentions and manipulation of the judiciary," reads the 6 April manifesto. Though the Misr workers initiated the 6 April strike, and the 6 April coalition was formed in solidarity with their action, the workers pulled out when the holding company announced on Saturday 5 April that they would comply with unfulfilled pledges to increase salaries. "We decided not to go on strike because, at the end of the day, we got what we wanted," says Habib. The workers, whose basic pay is supplemented by a complex system of monthly and annual bonuses, will receive an increase of LE350 for unskilled workers earning bottom-scale monthly salaries of LE300; LE375 for secondary and trade school graduates; and LE400 for college and university graduates. The workers also received an increase in monthly food allowances from LE43 to LE90 and free transportation to and from the job. Though the workers' demands have been met the pay increases aren't enough to pull them above the poverty line. An increase of LE375 on current average pay of between LE500 to LE600 leaves workers at the higher end of the pay scale taking home LE975. The UN-defined poverty level is set at $2 per person, meaning Egyptian heads of households, who support an average of 3.7 persons, have to make LE1,200 just to reach the poverty line, points out Egyptian Workers for Change (EWFC), a labour coalition launched by the Misr workers in 2007. UN figures do not, however, take into account the dramatic recent price increases in basic foodstuffs, let alone rent increases and more expensive transport charges. "The price of basic foodstuffs rose at rates of at least 33 per cent [for meat], and as much as 146 per cent [for chicken], from 2005 to 2008. The official annual rate of inflation for January 2008 was over 11 per cent, and over 12 per cent for February," says Egyptian labour historian Joel Beinin. The demonstrations at Mahala Al-Kubra erupted against this backdrop of deteriorating living conditions for the working class and Egyptian poor. "This is a popular Intifada, a scene of street battles for subsistence," said El-Attar on Monday. Hence the demonstrators' chant: "Ye pasha, Ye bey, a loaf of bread now costs a quarter of a pound." According to unconfirmed eyewitness accounts, at least two people -- possibly more -- have died since Sunday's clashes with security personnel. "We don't know the victims' names," says Habib. "Nobody knows yet what really happened." According to official reports, a 15-year-old middle school student, Ahmed Ali Mubarak, died at a private clinic on Tuesday. Ahmed was standing on his balcony when he was shot with two bullets. "He was just a kid," said his father, "why should he die like that?" Witnesses report that hundreds of demonstrators were wounded, nine of whom are reportedly in critical condition. "It's difficult to tally the exact numbers because they moved them from the town's hospital to the general hospital in Tanta," says Habib. Kifaya claims the police fired live ammunition in response to children throwing stones. "The Ministry of Interior has to answer why it fired at children inside their own school grounds," reads a Kifaya statement. "The damage done to the Abdel-Hay Khalil Middle School's walls, which are pockmarked with bullets, is sufficient evidence of what happened." Venting their rage against police brutality, on Monday angry crowds burnt the banners of NDP candidates standing in Tuesday's municipal elections. Meanwhile, the authorities agreed to grant opposition political parties and independent candidates in Mahala a total of 23 municipal seats. While mourning the tragic death of young Ahmed and grieving over the high price the Mahala people had to pay, the workers know that the government will address their demands. "We achieved our goals," says Habib, "and that's a victory."
