By Fareid Atta On Friday 28 January 2011, a flash mob, equipped with lightning green aerosol cans and donning make-shift gas masks, stormed the headquarters of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP). The graffiti artists showered the walls of the building with messages of defiance. Ten years on, and perhaps the two most enduring slogans on…
A powerful wave of workers’ struggles has rocked Algeria in recent weeks. Shelagh Smith investigates how battles in the workplaces have evolved alongside the Hirak protest movement. More than two years since the Hirak protest movement erupted in Algeria against a fifth mandate for President Bouteflika and the regime which has ruled Algeria since independence…
By Gianni Del Panta Over the last years, the Italian ports have seen the development of a long series of protests and strikes against the passage and loading of ships carrying military equipment. In Genoa the CALP (Collettivo Autonomo Lavoratori Portuali – Dockworkers’ Autonomous Collective) has repeatedly struggled against Saudi ships filled with weapons and…
As his personal exhibition, ‘Tears that taste of the sea’ opens at the October Gallery in London, Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi tells Almaas Yahye and Julie Henri about his project in Zarsis, Tunisia, a memorial garden commemorating the lives of people who drowned trying to cross the sea to Europe and how his work reflects…
Issue 16 – The art of resistance from the river to the sea available from June 2021 Middle East Solidarity magazine is now available to download. During the Covid-19 crisis we are suspending our print publications temporarily, but you can help support our work by making a donation for your copy below. Click to take…
The Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) reported on 25 May a serious escalation in the repression and violence facing the opposition to the Algerian regime. A few days before the parliamentary elections on 12 June which are supposed to bring about a ‘New Algeria’, the regime is resorting to all-out repression…
Two massive demonstrations brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets of London in solidarity with Palestine on 15 and 22 May, and up and down the country thousands more joined protests and rallies demanding and end to Israeli military attacks, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Meanwhile on 18 May, a general strike showed the power of…
By Miriam Scharf Under pressure from pro-Israeli organisations, a major educational publisher carried out an extensive revision of two GCSE History textbooks which inserted “major distortions” on questions such as the illegality of settlements under international law, according to a leading academic. Professor John Chalcraft co-authored a detailed report comparing the content of the two…
Francesco De Lellis, Gianni Del Panta, and Mattia Giampaolo report on the battle by workers in Egypt to save the Helwan Iron and Steel Company from liquidation Workers at the Iron and Steel Company of Helwan, on the southern fringes of Greater Cairo, spent the tenth anniversary of Egypt’s January 25 Revolution staging a massive…
Sudanese police forced a sit-in by refugees outside UN buildings in Khartoum to disperse on 15 December. Activists from Sudan Labour Bulletin explain why solidarity with refugees is a crucial task for Sudanese revolutionaries. Late on 15 December, a two-month long sit-in by refugees in front of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner…
Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the Prime Minister of Bahrain, died on 11 November after half a century in power. He took office one year before Bahrain gained independence from the British, in 1971, and was one of the longest serving Prime Ministers in the world. Uncle of the current King, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, he…
by Shelagh Smith During 2020 and the start of the coronavirus pandemic, repression of Hirak activists, human rights activists and especially journalists has increased. Over 90 people are currently in prison in Algeria for acts related to the Hirak. On 15 September an appeal court in Algiers sentenced journalist Khaled Drareni to a two-year prison…
The Algerian regime hoped that a referendum on constitutional changes would draw a line under two years of mass mobilisations from below, writes Shelagh Smith, but the low turnout and continuing strikes tells a different story. November 1 is the celebration of the start of the Algerian war for independence from the French in 1954.…
The revolution in Sudan got rid of dictator Omar El Bashir, but workers are still fighting for basic rights to organise. Activists from Sudan Labour Bulletin are on the frontline of mobilising solidarity with their struggles for dignity. How did the labour movement in Sudan begin? The workers’ movement came into existence in Sudan as…
by Ameen Nemr Morocco’s recognition of Israel is the latest in a flurry of deals ending the diplomatic boycott of Israel by Arab states. This trend has deep roots, argues Ameen Nemr despite its recent promotion by Trump and Netanyahu. The announcement on 11 December that Morocco will open diplomatic relations with Israel brings the…
