This is a brief summary of articles in English and German newspapers over the past months.

Egypt - Ghazl El-Mahalla textile factory

When in December 2006 workers went out on strike at Ghazl El-Mahalla textile factory, they probably did not expect what they would cause in the following months.

The factory is one of the oldest and biggest in Africa. In its beginning years, it was the symbol of Egypt's industrial drive and with strikes in its 20th and 30th years. The factory complex is state owned and the industrial union leaders are appointed by the state, but this is common with all 13 industrial unions in Egypt.

Most of the workers have been working there for over 35 years. Working conditions are humiliating and difficult; the last pay raise was in 1984, to keep state-employed workers wages in line with inflation. In recent interviews workers said that they worked for 14 years at the company and earned only £E 400 per month (31 E, 40 US$), but their rent was £E 300. For others, the rent takes half off their wage, those tiny apartments have no sewage system and electricity and phone lines were brought in by the people themselves.

In the last year, prices for basic food have risen by 48 percent according to the government statistic bureau, and fuel prices, which are subsidized by the state, rose 30 percent (Economist news magazine). While the Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin announced that 100 state-owned companies are going to be privatized in 2007, the World Bank deemed Egypt the best prepared economy for foreign investors.

About 14,000 textile workers of Ghazl El-Mahalla textile factory went out in December. Their demands were pay raises, health care and opportunity for promotion and the impeachment of the factory union committee, which is dominated by union bureaucrats.

In the following weeks and months a number of other workers followed and went on strike:

- 700 train drivers in Cairo, because of non-payment of bonuses

- Workers at Cairo Poultry Company went on a two-day strike and got a promise for bonus pay

- Workers at Mansoura-Spain started a hunger strike (unpaid wages and ill-treatments)

- 1,000 workers of the textile company in Kafr El-Dawwar squatted the plant

- garbage collectors demonstrated in front of Cairo's cleaning authorities

- 500 hospital workers went on strike at El-Haram hospital in Gizy (unpaid wages)

This is just mentioning a few, who tooled down and protested, more than 35,000 workers were protesting in a country where open protest is illegal.

In February, about 4,200 workers of the Misr Shebin Al-Kom spinning and weaving company (SSWC) went out to demand the pay of the bonuses which the workers of Ghazl El-Mahalla had been promised by the Minister of Investment after the strike in December. After several strikes, the government gave promises to raise bonuses. But the strike wave went on.

In September, when promises weren't kept by the government, the workers of Ghazl El-Mahalla textile factory occupied the plant. Around 27,000 workers with their families lived in a tent village on the plant ground surrounded by security and police. Everybody in the plant participated, the workers, the office workers, the engineers, and even those from the management building. The action took only a few days and high level negotiations started. The main topic was the payment of bonuses, which were promised last december. The point was, the agreement that the company was supposed to pay 10 percent as bonuses to the workers if the profit was more than £E 60 million. actually, the profit was about £E 245 million, but the company paid only a little of it to the workers. That led to the complaint of corrupt management and their impeachment. The situation changed as management, government and official unions feared a new protest and strike wave. It also shifted from economic demands to political issues. the attempt to declare bonuses and benefits are only for state-employees (ministers and so on) failed completely and might have pushed the political dimension of the strikes. In interviews workers declared that the strike was no longer about wages, but about dignity. Workers at Mahalla are well aware of their power of inspiring others in similar conditions.

After a week of occupying and negotiating, the workers had almost all of their demands met: the bonus payments are going to be on the level they demanded. The system to pay the bonuses is going to be changed in a way that management doesn't control. They received increased wages and housing and food allowances. The strike days will be payed as holidays. The transportation problems will be solved with a cooperative transportation service. No striker will be victimized. The company's board chairman and also the factory union committee officials are going to face impeachment. A committee of the strike leaders is going to be formed to continue negotiations.

After this successful action, new strikes have popped up already. At two factories the government has already met the workers demands, at a textile plant in Damietta and a linseed oil factory in Tanta. Both in the same region of the Mahalla textile factory.

The demands are still around payments, benefits and working conditions, but there are also those about the union system and the overthrow of president Mubarak. There were discussions about an independent union organization for quite some years, but now it is becoming obvious for so many people. Activists expect the government to fight this demand very strictly, but discussions and also actions are on going.