Teachers and the Arab Spring Eyewitness reports from Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain Monday 12 November, 7.30pm Committee Room 8, House of Commons, SW1A 2TT Speakers: Mohamed Sghaier Saihi: UGTT union federation, teachers’ spokesman in the Kasserine region Mary Compton: NUT activist and editor of Teachersolidarity website, recently returned from a delegation to Egypt Ali Alaswad:…
Mahdi Abu Deeb, president of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association was sentenced to 5 years in prison on 21 October, while BTA vice-president Jalila al-Salman faces a jail term of six months. They were arrested for supporting protests and strikes in February 2011 calling for democratic reform in Bahrain, and tortured into confessions. Amnesty International called…
Teachers from around the UK sent solidarity messages to Bahraini Teachers’ Association leaders, Jalila al-Salman and Mahdi Abu-Deeb who are facing years in jail for peaceful protests. The verdict in their trial will be announced on 21 October. NUT and NASUWT members were among the hundreds of thousands marching on the TUC’s protest against cuts…
Bahraini teachers’ leaders, Mahdi Abu Deeb and Jalila al-Salman will hear the final verdicts in their cases on 21 October. Abu Deeb, president of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association, and Al-Salman, the BTA vice-president, were tried before a military court after being arrested and charged with calling for a teachers’ strike in support of protests for…
Mahdi Abu Deeb, President of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association, and Jalila Al Salman, BTA are due in the appeal court on 9 September. Last year, the two union leaders were sentenced to 10 and 3 years in prison for taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011. Recent appeal verdicts have upheld harsh sentences against other…
A PDF version of the new MENA bulletin on Bahrain can be downloaded here: Bahrain Bulletin March2012 The bulletin features the latest news on the repression of trade unionists following the uprising last year, and shows how the UK government is continuing to sell arms to the Bahraini government. It also reveals how a member…
Hundreds of Bahraini workers protested outside the Ministry of Labour in Manama on 1 March, demanding their unconditional reinstatement. Around 2000 workers were sacked from their jobs in relation to the mass pro-democracy protests that began in February of last year. Some have been reinstated, but many of those have been forced to accept worse…
Held in Manchester on 17th December 2011, organised by the Bahrain Solidarity Campaign and the Human Rights Organistaion RAPAR ‘Those of us who are free to speak, we must raise our voices.’ We need to ‘show solidarity with the people of Bahrain’, said Tony Lloyd, MP, opening the Bahrain Revolution Conference, held in Manchester, in…
From the Bahraini Justice and Development Movement: Since the ludicrous sentencing of the 20 Bahrain medics we have been asking medical workers around the world to sign this petition to the Ministry of Health, demanding that the charges be dropped. With hundreds of signatures and their re-trial set for Monday 28th November we are now…
20 protestors organised by the Bahrain Solidarity group and supported by the Manchester Trades Council, human rights group RAPAR and MENA Solidarity Network, challenged Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa al-Khalifa, member of Bahrain’s ruling family at the “Doing Business in Bahrain” seminar in Manchester on 14 October. The demonstration highlighted the repression meted out by the Bahraini government in revenge for…
MENA Solidarity Network 