Monday, November 9, 2009

Socialist Days IV

The fourth annual "Socialist Days" Conference was held at the Journalists' Syndicate this year from November 5-7. Organized by the Center for Socialist Studies this conference gathered hundreds of leftists from different currents to discuss socialist prospects in Egypt, and worldwide, under the banner "Their Crisis & Our Alternative."

Lectures, panel presentations and group discussions focused on modern-day imperialism, the Palestinian cause, Egypt & global climate change, cinema & poverty, the Egyptian youth movement - past & present, mechanisms of coordination & solidarity with the Egyptian labor movement, and international socialism, amongst other topics.

The conference was overshadowed by the death of the English revolutionary socialist leader, Chris Harman, on the morning of November 7th. The 67 year-old Harman, a central committee member in the Socialist Workers' Party (UK) died of a massive heart attack in Cairo. He was a genuine internationalist who had spoken at previous "Socialist Days" in Egypt.


In memory of Chris Harman


Kamal Abu Eita - President of the Real Estate Tax Authority (RETA) Employees' Union, the first independent trade union in Egypt since 1957


In an unrelated event on the night of the November 7, a group of ten individuals demonstrated outside the Journalists' Syndicate in protest against the illegal confiscation of their land in the Munifiya Governorate.

Safaa' Shaaban said "the Munifiya Governorate has stolen my plot of land, a whole feddan (just over one acre) and has constructed a large building upon it. I received no compensation whatsoever. This is the only plot of land we owned." In protest these demonstrators slept-in on the stairs outside the syndicate until the evening of November 8 - when police threatened and forced them to depart.


Movie Star/Revolutionary Socialist, Khaled El-Sawy


Left-leaning Movie Director, Khaled Youssef


3arabawy speaks

Center for Socialist Studies - مركز الدراسات الاشتراكية

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