"Workers must form committees"

Tamer Fathy, International Relations Secretary of the Centre for Trade Union and Workers’ Services, has described Egypt's new union federation in an interview with the socialist newspaper Solidarity.

On 30 January, union leaders and worker activists met to form a new federation. It adopted the broader demands of the revolutionary movement, but its main focus is the creation of new independent unions that are responsive to the workers.

To give you a taste of the official unions - the leaders of these unions were quoted in the newspapers saying that no workers would go on these demos, but also calling for union officials to monitor workers and report if they did demonstrate! We also received reports that the official unions were trying to mobilise people to take part in the pro-Mubarak gangs that attacked demonstrators. They even offered people money… So the need for an alternative union federation was obvious.

The new federation involves tax collectors, health technicians and many others from the public sector, as well as the most important sections of private industry - textiles, metals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, auto workers… I’d say the main issues facing us, beyond the broader political demands of the revolutionary movement, are the minimum wage and unemployment benefits. But beyond specific demands, the key thing is for workers to form democratic committees in the factories and enterprises, to get organised, to get more power. They can cooperate with the neighbourhood committees which people have organised since the police withdrew. The most important thing is for workers to get organised.

What is CTUWS?

We are an NGO, established in 1990. Our aim is to defend the right of workers to strike and form independent unions. The official union federation [which is controlled by the state] was not representing workers, and the law stated that all unions must come under the umbrella of this federation. Plus, with changes in the labour market and moves towards a more neo-liberal economic model, workers had no rights. There was no right to strike; even when permitted, it was limited by all sorts of conditions. So we were responding to an obvious need.

The Centre was founded by workers leaders, mostly from a leftist background. One of them was our General Coordinator, Kamal Abbas, who led the famous strike of iron and steel workers in 1989. He was arrested and fined because of his activities, and formed this association as the next step.

What have been the most important struggles in recent years?

Strike movements at the end of the 80s were violently suppressed. A new wave of struggles began in 2006, when workers at the Mahalla textile company organised an uprising over working conditions. This was a huge strike, with huge protests, and inspired workers in many other sectors. Since then the movement has grown and grown. In the last four years, every day we’ve seen new struggles, strikes, all forms of protest.

In 2008, the struggle spread into the public sector, when real estate tax collectors went on strike. They protested in front of the cabinet, and stayed in the street for fifteen days. Their main demand was for parity with their colleagues in the income tax collection department.

In 1973 the real estate tax department came under the control of local councils, and since then they have lost out a lot. Their demand was therefore to rejoin the Ministry of Finance. In the end, they won all their demands. In addition, the general committee created to run their strike developed into an independent union - the first to be recognised by this regime. This inspired other, similar struggles, for instance by the health technicians, who won in December last year.

These struggles were the sparks that eventually lit the fire of a mass movement this year.

Now, people are getting more determined and their demands stronger every day. At first people just wanted Mubarak to go. Now they demand the dissolution of the current parliament, and the removal of the whole regime.

I honestly don’t know what will happen next. No one imagined before 25 January that the revolution would begin, or imagined after that we would succeed in continuing the protests against attacks by Mubarak’s thugs, or that the police would simply collapse. Victory against Mubarak is still possible. But, whatever happens, the most important thing is that ordinary people on the streets now feel they have the power to change their lives and their society. It’s quite amazing.

What international links do you have?

We have links with unions across the region - in Tunisia, yes, but also Algeria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq - and with unions in many European countries too. During the Mahallah struggle we had some support from your TUC, but otherwise our links in Britain are very limited. It would be great to change that.