Posts Tagged ‘Students’

طلاب عين شمس: الشعب يريد إعدام المشير

Solidarity needed with AUC student activist

I received the message below from comrade Youssef…

My name is Youssef Mohamed, AUC junior. This is my testimony about the disciplinary action taken against me by the University.

In the beginning of this semester, I was one of the thousands who participated in the strike. A strike that was calling for the rights of the Desert Development Center workers, custodians, security guards and students. During the strike, and specifically on Monday September 12th, the administration attempted twice to close the only gate opened for students (they had closed all the other gates): Gate 4. The first attempt was at around 10 am. They came with a chain, trying to close the gate denying students access to their university. Knowing how that could disrupt the day and prevent students from attending classes they paid for, some students including myself, decided to prevent them from closing the gate by opening it. And then we agreed that the gate would stay opened for the rest of the day. Later that day, at around 12:30 PM the gate was closed again but this time using a truck. We tried to contact a responsible from the Transportation department, his answer was: “The car broke, we can’t move it.” As a result, and as a way to help the students who were stuck on the gate trying to access their university, we decided to push the truck to open the gate.

A couple of weeks later, I was called on for a hearing about the first incident. I was accused of being violent and of taking matters into my hands. They used a video of me pushing the gate open, and pushing a security guard (he was fighting with a fellow student and I was trying to prevent the fight) to prove their point.
After another couple of weeks, I was called on to a second hearing. In this hearing I was only accused of “taking matters into my own hands” by pushing the truck and of being a terrorist. Yes, I was accused of being a terrorist, but not only me others too. I was asked if I identified myself and my colleagues who were with me at the gate to the director of Safety and Security Dr. Mahmoud EL Zouk as a terrorist. And when I denied, I was asked if I thought if my behavior was a terrorist behavior. And if some of my colleagues had a terrorist behavior. When I started asking them if they were really accusing AUC students of being terrorists, they cut the discussion and started asking other questions. It is worth mentioning that more than a dozen of students pushed this truck.

Finally, I received a letter that says that I have to do 50 hours of community service and attend freedom of expression workshops before the (end) next semester. And now, I have 0 credits and I am unable to register for the next semester. Also I might be facing dismissal.

VIDEO – Cairo University students march in solidaity with Tahrir مسيرة طلاب القاهرة تضامنا مع التحرير

#GUCStrike Press Conference مؤتمر صحفي لطلبة الجامعة الألمانية بالقاهرة

The German University in Cairo student union leaders held a press conference today, at the AFTEE, to update the public on the latest crackdown by the administration on the students. A protest is planned on campus Monday…

Revolutionary Socialist Students الطلاب الاشتراكيون الثوريون

Revolutionary Socialist students taking part in the Maspero march, on Thursday night…

VIDEO – AUC on strike إضراب الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة

VIDEO – Students in Chile demand education reforms

Zionism and the Israeli working class

Israeli students can protest high prices of housing rent. Israeli doctors can go on strike over work conditions. But not a single sector in the Israeli labor and student movements would voice criticism of what their state is doing to the Palestinians few kilometers away from where they are. The Israeli working class is a hopeless case. It’s totally under the control of Zionism from the inception of the state of the Israel. Forget about a “revolution” in apartheid Israel. Yes, they are engaged in class struggle, but all Israelis are united at the end of the day in their material, economic, political interests versus the Palestinians.

This apartheid state must be dismantled. And the Egyptian working class holds the key to liberation…

Egypt’s 1968: The revival of street politics

Egypt – 1968

Above is Chapter IV of the MA Thesis I wrote 10 years ago, when studying at the American University in Cairo’s Political Science department. This chapter discusses the revival of the student movement following the 1967 defeat. Of course reading it today I wish if I would have edited some parts, changed the lingo here and there, and added more resources and info I’ve been learning over the past years… But in general I still think the thesis stands, and could help shed some light on this critical period in the history of the left in Egypt…

Detained farmers, workers, students released following protests

Farmers and activists held a rally outside the General Prosecutor’s Office at the High Court in Cairo, in protest at the detention of ten protesters – five farmers, three auto workers, two Azhar students – during a demonstration last Wednesday. Bail for the detainees had been set at LE10,000 per person, but after this rally lawyers announced that all ten would be released without bail.