Vol. 77/No. 30      August 19, 2013

Working people in Egypt recently mobilized in their millions to oust the capitalist Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohammed Morsi, Martin said. “People in Egypt, like people in the U.S., are resisting the grinding economic effects of the capitalist crisis and attacks on democratic rights. We are going to Egypt in solidarity with workers and farmers, and I’m sure we will get a warm welcome when they hear we are on their side. They won’t have a problem seeing the connections.”

Dan Fein, SWP candidate for mayor of New York City, was also part of the delegation from the United States, United Kingdom and Greece, visiting Cairo for the second time since 2011 to learn about workers’ struggles here. Upon arriving July 28 Fein led the delegation to visit Tahrir Square, the site of a mobilization of several million two days before that dealt a giant political blow to the Muslim Brotherhood’s campaign to reverse the July 3 ouster of the Morsi regime.

Fein and Martin met Mahitab Elgilani, a protest organizer and head of security for the tent city at the square to prevent attacks from the Muslim Brotherhood.

After explaining her decade-long involvement in the fight against dictatorship in Egypt, and why the masses of Egyptian people turned against the Muslim Brotherhood after only one year in office, Elgilani asked Fein what he thought of the developments here. “Working people in the U.S. and Egypt have some common challenges,” Fein said. “Our election campaign fights along a course toward working people taking political power from the capitalist exploiters. Millions of workers are without jobs, work conditions and health care are deteriorating, and no solutions are being put forward by the capitalist class and their politicians. That’s true in the United States, and in Egypt.”

The candidates visited two cities along the Suez Canal, where many militant struggles have been fought in recent years, to learn about issues working farmers and fishermen face. In Fayid and Ismailia the delegation met construction workers, students, mango farmers and local leaders of a farmer’s union.

“We are not sure that workers in Egypt and the United States have all that much in common,” Mahmod Salama, a young construction worker initially told the socialist candidates. “We haven’t worked in three months, we have no health care, and no social security. Some things are worse now than they were under Hosni Mubarak.” His coworker Mahmoud Ali Mahmoud asked, “Don’t workers in the United States have unemployment insurance, health care, and a nice warm home if they lose their job? We have none of those things here.”

“Conditions are more difficult for workers in Egypt, but what the capitalists are doing in the United States is aimed at destroying our unions and lowering our standard of living to ensure their profits,” Martin said. “Every day, more and more workers are losing their health care, running out of unemployment benefits, and learn that the banks are the real owners of their homes. The capitalist economic crisis is driving workers from all countries together.

“That is why we are here,” Martin said, “to build solidarity and make contacts with workers and farmers in Egypt and elsewhere who are fighting to reverse the disastrous situation facing working people the world over.” One of the central demands of the labor movement in Egypt, to raise the wages of the lowest paid workers, Martin pointed out, is the same as what socialists campaign for in the United States, to raise the minimum wage. “This helps overcome the divisions in the working class and puts us in a stronger position to fight,” Martin said.

At the end of the conversation, the construction workers asked how to deepen the contacts that were being made with the socialists’ visit.

At an Aug. 2 meeting with Fatma Ramadan, a leader of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions, Fein asked how the overthrow of Mubarak and then Morsi affected strikes and labor struggles. “After Mubarak’s downfall, workers launched many struggles to assert their demands for better wages, putting an end to temporary work, and halting the privatization of factories,” Ramadan said. “Workers are still protesting and over more questions, like the imprisonment of militant workers.”

Ramadan was interested in the experiences of socialist workers who are running for political office in the United States. “What response are you getting? Will you get a lot of votes?” she asked.

“We talk to a very broad number of workers through our door-to-door campaigning in working-class neighborhoods with the Militant, the campaign newspaper,” Martin said. “Many like what we have to say and identify with the struggles that we talk about, including the example of workers here in Egypt using the new political space available to them to press for greater rights, jobs and a better life.”

“The Socialist Workers Party candidates are the only working-class voice in the elections, so most workers appreciate the discussion when we knock on their doors asking about what they are going through, why a socialist revolution is needed, and how we can fight for it,” Fein said. “Most workers will never have the experience of a Democrat or Republican party candidate knocking on their door asking what their views are. After many of our discussions, the conversation often ends with ‘I might vote for you.’”

On their last day in Cairo, the candidates were interviewed by a reporter from Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of the main daily newspapers in Egypt.
 
 
Related articles:
‘Workers in Egypt are more confident today’
‘Militant’ on-the-scene following Morsi ouster
Workers sign to put socialist candidates on ballot in NYC
 
 
 
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