by Carl Finamore
Tunisian and Egyptian girls unionists in California
A number of girls union leaders fresh from the frontlines in Tunisia and Egypt visited California at the invitation of the Sacramento Labor Council, AFL-CIO. They first appeared at the August 16 Ladies of Labor conference attended by 200 females union leaders throughout the state.
In the days following, there have been other fruitful exchanges amongst the overseas guests and their American audiences who had been very eager to discover and, perhaps, shed some Western misconceptions about the part of girls in the rebellions marking the region.
“Until now guys have often considered us 2nd class,” explained Nahed Ben Dakhla, a Women’s Committee member from Tunisia’s strong national trade union federation, UGTT.
But in the two Tunisia and Egypt, she emphasized to a August 18 meeting in San Francisco‘s Mission district, “men saw us in the front lines preventing the police from making make contact with. We stood in between them and police bullets.
“As a outcome of mass participation by the two guys and females struggling collectively, the revolution has altered every little thing. There has been an awakening of a communal spirit. We are not going back.”
Stepping closer to me with lots of emotion in her face, Nahed passionately conveyed a dramatic image from these early days of police violence in the area exactly where hundreds had been killed and thousands injured. These losses are deeply imbedded in the consciousness of millions.
Not Just an Empty Slogan of Bravado
“The revolution has transformed every thing, we are not going back” was a mantra I heard often repeated on the streets of Cairo when I arrived final February, only a couple of hours right after President Hosni Mubarak’s forced resignation. I heard it voiced once more by Nahed and other individuals on the podium in San Francisco now some six months later.
This need to not be misread as shallow enthusiasm. Enshrined in mass consciousness is the belief, and even the expectation, that possibilities for transform are endless.
This emotional spirit embodies the political conviction that “there is no going back” and is one main purpose the mass reform movements in both Tunisian and Egypt have not been sidelined or demobilized by still-entrenched remnants of the old regimes.
The momentum continues according to Marwa Khalil Farghali Khalil, Standard Secretary of the influential Public Tax Authority Union in Egypt. With some deserved pride, she announced to the San Francisco meeting that “there had been four independent unions prior to the January revolution. Now, we have 88 new unions with a membership of 250,000 in our Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU).”
“And our Tunisian national trade union federation (UGTT),” echoed Ayda Zerai, secretary general of a garment workers neighborhood union, “has grown 35% given that the uprising. We are now 700,000 as a outcome of the prominent part we played in challenging the regime major to the downfall of dictator Ben Ali.
“Without labor, there would have been no revolution in Tunisia!” Ayda proclaimed.
All speakers agreed, there are big opportunities, along with significant challenges, to actually change society. “When the Prime Minister told the UGTT to quit striking and protesting, we refused. The government does not have significantly power simply because they refuse to follow by way of on the hopes of the revolution.
“We in the UGTT persisted and lately won a five % wage improve, not just for our members but for all Tunisian employees,” Ayda told an enthusiastic audience that quickly erupted into cheers.
The girls unionists from Egypt told of a comparable concentrate by the EFITU to carry on strikes and protests as necessary in order to attain financial and social reforms. Their persistence also resulted many months ago in significant increases in wages and benefits.
The Revolution is Incomplete
“Our revolution is not finished” was another theme of the speakers. In Tunisia, for example, many democratic reforms have however to be accomplished. “Women have not been appointed to important positions of energy and we are hoping this modifications with the revolution,” Nahed stated.
Madga Mohamed Ibrahim, a leader of the extremely active Sales Tax Union in Egypt, followed her Tunisian sister by acknowledging that the “representation of women is nonetheless inadequate on all levels.”
Marwa was clearly speaking for the entire delegation from both countries when she commented that “the major obstacle is to rid us of all levels of the old regime, not just the top rated but mid-level as well. We require additional cleansing,” she stated to large applause.
One particular Last Factor
My interview ended late at evening as the speakers were rushing to their hotel to rest soon after ending their Ramadan Muslim religious Rapidly and just before an additional very early morning speaking engagement. But Marwa stopped me to make a point she wanted quite much to emphasize.
“Women now comprise fifty percent of the free of charge trade unions (EFITU) national membership. That becoming mentioned, we are not about to go back.” She plainly needed me to completely enjoy the determination of ladies to push forward.
I took the chance to sneak in an additional query and asked her what she learned about American people during her short stay. I observed that there was very good and undesirable in this nation with the negative including lots of discrimination against Muslims.
Marwa nodded in agreement and said that prior to leaving Egypt, her union hosted an American delegation that discerningly readied her for what to anticipate. But since arriving, she said approvingly, “I have changed my mind about America.”
The translator, a native Arabic-speaker now residing in this nation for sometime, rapidly, and knowingly, cautioned me that the women had only appeared just before extremely friendly audiences.
Our resident translator, it seems, picked up on the quandary we Americans know only as well properly – our far better side does not often represent the whole.
Carl Finamore is Machinist Local Lodge 1781 delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He wrote several dispatches that appeared on Speaking Union from Cairo in the days right away following President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation and can be reached at local1781@yahoo.com
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