Kamal Abu Eita, president of the independent union of Real Estate Tax Authority employees, in Talaat Harb Square, as trade unionists and labor activists gathered to march on Tahrir.
Tens of thousands of protesters flocked to Tahrir Square on Friday, staging a sit in, calling for the continuation of the revolution…
Press release
London 2 July 2011
Representative of the Egyptian Independent Union Federation: “We call on the global trade union movement to cut links with the Histadrut and to support the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS”.
Kamal Abu Aita, representative of the Egyptian Independent Union Federation (EIUF) which was recently formed in Tahrir Square during the revolution, confirmed yesterday that the EIUF rejects any attempt to ‘normalise’ relations with Israel. In a speech in London to hundreds of activists from the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, Abu Aita also welcomed the formation of the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) and called on the international trade union movement to join the coalition.
Abu Aita said: “The Egyptian Independent Union Federation has a very clear position and that is one of solidarity with the Palestinian Arab people, support for their right to a state in the whole of their land and support for their right to use all forms of resistance against the Zionist state. The EIUF announces its rejection of all forms of normal relations with the racist, settler Zionist state and we will not co-operate with any of its official or trade union bodies because they are all connected to the Zionist occupation of our land. It is impossible for us to work with this racist regime, and it is vital to build a movement of humanity which aims to get rid of racist regimes against the world, just as we got rid of the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
The Egyptian revolution opened the door wide for our people to express their rejection of the Zionist state. From the beginning, the revolution has worked in the interests of the Palestinians, by stopping the export of Egyptian gas to the Zionists, and opening the border crossings. Egyptian youth besieged the embassy of our enemy and demanded the expulsion of the ambassador.
We reject any relationship with the Histadrut because it is part of this racist regime. We call on all friendly unions to boycott the Histadrut as part of the campaign to get rid of racist regimes all over the world.”
Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), said:
“The support of the Egyptian independent unions, represented by their federation, for the Palestinian Boycott Campaign is a source of pride for us, just as we are proud of Egypt’s leadership in the march of freedom from imperialism both old and new. We look forward to the return of the spirit to the all the Arab peoples struggling for freedom and social justice, and to break away of dependency on imperialist domination.”
Kamal Abu Eita, president of the independent Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees, leading the chants.
Around 100 independent trade unionists today held a protest in front of the headquarters of the state-backed Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions, denouncing its corrupt president Hussein Megawer, an NDP businessman close to the Mubarak’s clique. The protesters tried to enter the lobby of the building peacefully, only to be met with glass bottles, rocks, sticks and fire extinguishers from the EFTU thugs.
The military police arrived in the scene following half an hour of the ongoing clashes, and took away one of the EFTU thugs.
Rare historical video of MP Hamdeen Sabbahi and Kamal Abu Eita, president of the Free Union, with Hamas resistance leaders Rantissi and Zahhar in Marj el-Zohour, Lebanon, 1991…
Hundreds of Egyptian workers and activists demonstrated on 3 April, calling for raising the national minimum wage from LE35 a month to LE1,200.
Kamal Abu Eita, president of the independent General Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees, denouncing Hussein Megawer and his corrupt state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions, during a Workers’ Preparatory Committee meeting, Thursday evening, Cairo’s Press Syndicate…
President of the Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees, Kamal Abu Eita, leading the chants…
Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist from Cairo
hossam [at] arabawy [dot] org
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