Join editors and contributors to Middle East Solidarity magazine to help us launch issue number 7 (pdf below) with reports on workers’ struggles in Egypt including the mass strikes by textile workers over the summer and an eyewitness update from Morocco on building solidarity with the popular movement for social justice, the Hirak, which has been shaking the north-eastern Rif region and far beyond for more than a year. Hundreds have been arrested and the leaders of the movement are facing serious charges, but an international campaign of solidarity is gathering momentum.
Whether you’d like to get involved in our campaigns and activities, or are interested in writing for future issues of the magazine, or simply want to find out more about a side of the Middle East you won’t hear about from the mainstream media, come and join us at the meeting!
Speakers include:
Mohamed Boutayeb – Moroccan trade unionist
Tom Kay – co-editor, Middle East Solidarity magazine
Read more on the Egyptian workers’ movement at www.egyptsolidarityinitative.org and go to freehirakspoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com for update on the international campaign in solidarity with political prisoners in Morocco
When?
Thu 23 November 2017, 19:30 – 21:00 GMT
Where?
Room 4426, SOAS, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, View Map
Register on our eventbrite page
Middle East Solidarity magazine issue 7
Issue 7 available from October 2017
Print copies £3 each or £20 for 10 (plus postage). Order direct from Bookmarks Bookshop
A pdf version is available to download here: Middle_East_Solidarity_issue 7
On the cover:
Striking back: Egyptian and Algerian working between repression and revolt
Despite harsh repression, the organised working class remain a key driver of social protest across the Middle East
Features
Libya: from revolution to civil car
Richard Donnelly explores how a popular revolution turned into a bloody civil war stoked by regional and global powers
Mahalla defies Egypt’s generals to demand a pay rise
Anne Alexander and Tom Kay analyse the roots of a mass strike by textile workers in the Misr Spinning company in Egypt
Does Rouïba’s revolt herald Algeria’s coming storm?
Gianni Del Panta argues that a major walkout in October 2016 by workers in Algeria’s state-owned heavy industries has to be understood in the context of a much wider social rebellion
First Person
Bil’in’s creative resistance to injustice
Saeb Kasm speaks to Emad and Iyad about their struggle for justice
Analysis
Women at work
Trade unionist Souad Jellal analyses the role of working women in Morocco in the struggle for liberation from oppression
News and campaign reports
Rif prisoners launch hunger strike; Mass arrests target LGBT Egyptians; Bahraini activist’s family charged after five minutes in court; Cairo Islanders defend their homes; Solidarity with Egyptian workers; Arms Fair arrests; Trade unionists back Rif petition
Egypt Solidarity 