Striking workers and activists in Sudan and Britain have begun to exchange messages of solidarity as strikes rise in both countries. In Sudan workers’ struggles over pay and conditions take place in the context of the on-going revolution, as a mass movement led by the neighbourhood-based Resistance Committees continues the struggle for democracy against the…
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…
Over a thousand workers at Kenana Sugar Company in Sudan are starting their second month on strike to demand basic trade union rights, increased wages to offset the spiralling cost of living, the removal of figures associated with the old regime from the company and the reinstatement of 34 workers sacked for taking part…
Locked-out workers at the National Vegetable Oils Company in Egypt, which is owned by giant multinational agrobusiness Cargill, are appealing for solidarity. They have spent more than 120 on the picket line after being forced out of the factory and sacked for taking part in a peaceful protest against worsening working conditions and management bullying…
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…
One year ago in Tunisia workers were playing a vital role in the protests sweeping the country against the Ben Ali regime. “The trade unions’ role is one of the most striking aspects of the December protests”, wrote the Tunisia expert Christopher Alexander in the magazine Foreign Policy. On the 7th January thousands of lawyers…
Yesterday, the 5th January, marked a new stage in the month long ‘Dignity strike’ in Syria, which has spread to all of Syria’s major cities and involved thousands of workers. The latest phase involves disruption of traffic and the creation of ‘noise disturbances’, with people urged to occupy the streets, bang pots and drums, and…
A national strike by Social Security workers took place in Tunisia on December 8th, with workers from the National Medical Care, Retirement and Social Security funds taking part. The workers were demanding that the government covers their social security provision, a benefit they enjoyed prior to 1990. The striking workers held sit-ins at government offices…
Shops, markets, schools, transport services and factories were all closed in the first stages of a general strike against the Assad government in Syria. The ‘Dignity Strike’ began on December 12th and activists hope it will intensify up until the end of December, bringing in more groups of workers as well as university students. The…
A public transport strike last week in the Tunisian capital, brought the capital virtually to a halt, with 80% of all bus and metro workers on strike the city came to a standstill. The strike was called for by the new independent Union for Public Transport Workers, the assistant General Secretary of the union Hassan…
MENA Solidarity Network 