Egypt’s workers played a major role in the surge of protests that swept across the country in the 2000s leading to the undermining and eventual fall of the regime of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Despite subsequent regime crackdowns on domestic dissent, the independent labour movement continued its struggle to transform the Egyptian system. Since October 21, as many as 17,000 workers at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla, north of Cairo, have been on strike. They stopped production due to unfulfilled promises by president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to provide a 10 percent salary increase in the form of a social bonus. The bonus was to be retroactively granted to all public sector workers starting in July, according to a presidential decree issued by Sisi in September. The Misr Spinning and Weaving Company is Egypt’s largest and oldest state-owned textile factory employing some 25,000 workers. First established in 1927 by Egyptian businessmen in collaboration with the Misr Bank, the factory has experienced sustained working-class militancy throughout its 88-year long history. Kamal Fayoumi, a labour activist and independent union organizer said in reference to the current strike: “Other than the…
