Happy 195th Birthday Bakunin!

The historical Anarchist activist, philosopher, and writer - Mikhail Bakunin - remains a beacon for human freedom and justice worldwide.

Below is a time line of events corresponding to his life:

1814 – May 30, Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin born into a noble family at Pryamukhino, Russian Empire

1829 – Entered Artillery Academy in St. Petersburg

1835 – Junior officer Bakunin quits the Russian army; begins his study of philosophy in Moscow

1840 – Moves to Berlin, is attracted to socialism, the Hegelian-Left, and pan-Slavic ideas

1842 – Moves to Dresden, capital of the German Kingdom of Saxony; publishes his essay “Reaction in Germany”

1844 – Russian Emperor Nicholas strips Bakunin of his title to “nobility,” confiscates his family’s land, and sentences him to life-imprisonment in absentia

1844-47 – Travels through Europe often being deported, meets with (the primitive) French Anarchist PJ Proudhoun, and later Karl Marx

1848-49 – Partakes in the Czech Rebellion of 1848 and in the revolutionary uprisings of Saxony & France; Bakunin becomes a leading figure in the May Uprising in Dresden (1949)

1849 – Bakunin sentenced to death and is imprisoned in Konigstein Fortress in Dresden until 1850

1850 – Extradited to Austria and imprisoned until 1851

1851- Extradited back to Russian Empire for his participation in the Czech Rebellion; imprisoned in Peter-Paul Fortress at St. Petersburg. Languishes in this prison until 1857 when he is exiled to a labor camp in Siberia

1861 – Bakunin escapes from Siberia to Japan, then travels to USA and UK

1863 – Attempts to join Polish uprising, Prussian police prevent him from reaching his destination, ends up residing in Switzerland and Italy

1864 – Founds the Italian Journal “Liberta e Giustizia” (Liberty & Justice)

1866 – Co-founds the International Brotherhood, aka: the Alliance of Revolutionary Socialists

1868 – Joins the International Working Men’s Association (the First International) which is dominated by Karl Marx and his supporters

1869 – Translates Marx’s “Das Kapital” into Russian

1870 – Actively participates in the Lyon Insurrection, the precursor to the Paris Commune of 1871

1870-71 – Writes “the Knouto-Germanic Empire” – including his most well-known book, which would, after his death, be published as “God & the State”

1871 – In the aftermath of the Paris Commune, Bakunin and the other anarchists within the International begin to criticize Karl Marx’s view of socialism as being “authoritarian;” also criticize the concept of the “dictatorship of the proletariat”

1872 – Marx orders the expulsion of Bakunin and his fellow anarchists from the International; later this same year the anarchists established their own International in St. Imier, Switzerland

1873 – Bakunin publishes his work “Statism & Anarchy”

1875 – Health declines, is hospitalized in Switzerland

1876 – At the age of 62, the “Godfather of Modern Anarchism,” Mikhail Bakunin dies on July 1.


Bakunin's Collected Works

“Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice; socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality”

M. Bakunin

AFP - Egypt court overturns dissident's jail term

CAIRO (AFP) — An appeals court overturned a two-year prison sentence against exiled Egyptian dissident Saad Eddin Ibrahim on Monday, after he had been convicted of defaming Egypt.

The court's decision was welcomed by Ibrahim, who has been in exile in the United States for the past two years.

"I feel happy. I got the first call from my wife to tell me about the news. I hope this is the beginning of a period of reconciliation with the regime and the entire Egypt opposition," he said over the phone from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In August 2008, Ibrahim who also holds US citizenship, was sentenced in absentia to two years for "tarnishing Egypt's reputation" after a series of articles and speeches on citizenship and democracy in which he criticised the Egyptian regime.

Ibrahim, 71, told AFP he could still not return to the country, where his family lives, because of complaints filed against him to the prosecutor general by members of the ruling National Democratic Party.

"There are other cases that members of the NDP have filed against me. One of them is grand treason, which is being investigated by the attorney general," he said.

"I could be arrested on public appearance on return pending the investigation," said Ibrahim, a vocal critic of the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981.

His court victory came less than two weeks before US President Barack Obama is due to deliver a landmark speech in Cairo that is to be addressed to the Muslim world.

The outspoken liberal activist in 2001 served 10 months of a seven-year prison sentence for "defaming Egypt" and accepting foreign funding without authorisation for his Ibn Khaldun Centre for Social and Developmental Studies.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gXYAeOmgDkfsKY93rxH6UxhKFR8g

اعتصام مفتوح لعمال شركة النيل لحليج الأقطان

دار الخدمات النقابية والعمالية
اعتصام مفتوح لعمال شركة النيل لحليج الأقطان أمام مجلس الشعب

بدأ صباح اليوم الأحد 24 مايو 2009 ما يقرب من 200 عامل من عمال شركة النيل لحليج الأقطان اعتصاما مفتوحا أمام مقر مجلس الشعب بشارع القصر العينى ، طالب العمال الذين يمثلون فروع الشركة فى المنيا والمحلة وايتاى البارود بعودة صرف بدل الجهود الغير عادية والحوافز التى قامت إدارة الشركة بخصمها بواقع 20 يوما وانتظام صرف المرتبات.

كان عمال الشركة قد أضربوا عن العمل فى أفرع الشركة منذ يوم 29 أبريل الماضى وحتى الآن بعد صدور قرار التخفيض الذى خفض أجر العامل ما بين 200 إلى 500 جنيها دون أسباب واضحة .. حيث قام عمال فرع مدينة المحلة برفع الرايات السوداء على بوابة المحلج ولافتات مدون عليها "دى مش حكومة يا جاهل .. دى اسمها رجال أعمال " ، وصمموا نعشاً لرئيس مجلس الإدارة مكتوب عليه "لا اله إلا الله الصيفى عدو الله" ، فى حين تم الاعتداء على كلاً من محمد نصر مصطفى وشريف الحيص وعبد الهادى عبد التواب ومحمد الرومى من عمال فرع ايتاى البارود بعد أن اقتحمت القوات الأمنية المحلج لفض الاعتصام.

اتهم العمال إدارة الشركة بمحاولة تصفية الشركة والقيام بصفقات بيع يشوبها الفساد مؤكدين أنهم كشفوا عن بيع 3 جرارات لشخص يدعى قدرى عطية بتاريخ 16 مارس بمبلغ 96 ألف جنية ، بالاضافة إلى جرارين لنفس الشخص بتاريخ 21 مارس بمبلغ 64 ألف جنية ، وأربعة جرارات لأحد تجار الخردة بتاريخ 2 ابريل بمبلغ 128 ألف جنية ، و10 مقطورات بتاريخ 21 مارس بمبلغ 40 ألف جنية بمحلج المحلة فقط ، بالاضافة إلى بيع معدات فرعى كفر الشيخ والغنامية خردة وعدد من الأتوبيسات والسيارات بفرع الإسكندرية دون أى تحصيل ضرائب المبيعات!

الجدير بالذكر أن الإدارة كانت قد أصدرت منشور رسمى بتاريخ 30 ابريل الماضى يقرر خفض نسبة الجهود والحوافز المقررة لائحياً من 150% لكل عامل (حسب درجة التقرير الخاص به ) إلى 80% أى تخفيضه بنسبة 70% وهو ما يعادل أكثر من 20 يوما.

يذكر أن عمال شركة النيل قد نظموا العديد من الاحتجاجات خلال الشهور القلية الماضية مطالبين بانتظام صرف المرتبات فى موعد أقصاه 27 من كل شهر أسوة بالعاملين بالدولة وصرف مكافآت المناسبات بالاضافة إلى رفع التقرير العام إلى ما كان عليه قبل أكتوبر الماضى وصرف الحوافز على أساسه وزيادة العلاوة الاجتماعية بنسبة 30% بدلاً من 10% وصرفها بأثر رجعى من مايو الماضى ، وتعيين مراقب مالى من قبل الدولة لإدارة حصص العاملين فى قيمة الأسهم المقدرة بـ 10%.

إن دار الخدمات النقابية والعمالية إذ تعلن تضامنها الكامل مع مطالب عمال شركة النيل لحليج الأقطان
المشروعة تدعوا كافة القوى الديمقراطية فى المجتمع المصرى للتضامن مع عمال الشركة ، وتؤكد على أن ما يحدث مع عمال الشركة لهو نموذج فج لكيفية استغلال رجال الأعمال لحجة الأزمة المالية العالمية للانتقاص من حقوق العمال ، فعمال الشركة البالغ عددهم أكثر من 850 عاملا كانت أوضاعهم مستقرة منذ سنوات طويلة ودون أسباب معلنة ومنذ شهور قليلة بدأت الهجمة الشرسة من قبل إدارة الشركة على حقوقهم بدعوى أن هناك أزمة مالية على الرغم من تأكيدات العمال على أن الأزمة بعيدة كل البعد عن شركتهم.

دار الخدمات النقابية والعمالية
24 مايو 2009

200 Cotton Gin Workers Beaten & Forcibly Dispersed during Demonstration outside Egyptian Parliament

Some 200 workers employed at the Nile Co. for Cotton Ginning staged a protest today outside of Egypt’s Parliament in which they put forth their grievances and demands. They began congregating outside parliament at around 11am and conducted their peaceful demonstration until shortly after 6pm – at which time police forces beat and forcefully dispersed these workers.

Over the past three months, a total of around 850 workers from eight factories affiliated to the (state-owned) Nile Co. have been protesting against their administrations’ fiscal policies and failures. The Nile Co. with its factories in Cairo, El Minya, Alexandria, Zefta, Kafr El Sheikh, Mahalla, Kafr El Zayyat, and Kafr El Ghonnamiya - which produces cotton products, oil and soap - is reportedly incurring losses amounting to millions of pounds, due to neglect and poor administrative planning.

Workers have been complaining about their overdue bonuses, the cessation of production lines, and lockouts - ever since the appointment of the company’s new administrative president, Sayyed El Saifi, in September 2008. The workers raised nine demands:

1.) Resuming production in the factories
2.) Full payment of wages – without deductions
3.) Fulfillment of payments for overdue insurance policies
4.) The provision of workers’ profit-sharing payments – amounting to 10%
5.) Payment of overdue annual bonuses
6.) Payment of all overdue incremental wage bonuses
7.) Prohibiting the sale of the company’s machinery or land
8.) Prohibiting the punitive relocation of workers to other factories
9.) Payment of wages – for the months of April & May

One cotton gin worker said “our local union councils are on our side; Saeed El Gohary at the General Union (of Textile Workers) has expressed his support for our demands but has done nothing; as for (Labor Minister) Aisha Abdel Hadi she says she’s still studying the matter. We have lost our patience and that is why have come to voice our demands here outside the Parliament dome.”

At around 5pm police officers began to harass a handful of journalists who were covering and photographing this demonstration. The officers began to harass us under the pretext of “having taken photos of security forces.” The camera-phobic police officers shouted “you have no permits for such photography.” They confiscated the press card of the Al Dustour Journalist Sayyed Torki and demanded to examine the photographs on his camera. Torki was able to retrieve his press card about an hour later.

It was during this time that the Nile Company’s workers began to debate whether or not they should resort to conducting a sleep-in protest on the sidewalk. They had generally agreed to do so. A few minutes after we journalists had departed (shortly before 6pm,) police officers ordered rows of Central Security Forces to attack, beat, and disperse the peaceful cotton gin workers. They were said to be forcefully escorted away and shoved into public transport vehicles.

I eagerly await that beautiful day when it will be the turn of police officers to receive hefty beatings at the hands of all exploited workers across Egypt.

Remember the Extermination of Egypt's Pigs

The Animal Welfare Examiner:

Shocking slaughter video lands Egypt in hot water, again


The killing of all these pigs is far more tragic than M. Alaa Mubarak's death.

None of these 300,000 helpless animals was infected with swine-flu.
This is mass murder; and it is mass theft - since the owners of these pigs are either inadequately compensated, or are not compensated at all.

Moreover, the World Health Organization has declared that these actions are "entirely unnecessary because the illness is being spread through humans."

These unwarranted actions display the utter stupidity, inhumanity, and brutality of the Egyptian government.

JC

Over 1,200 Workers Strike at Globe Textile Co. in Sadat City

According to a press release issued by the Center for Trade Union & Workers' Services:

More than 1,200 workers at the private sector Globe Company - which operates in dyeing, spinning & weaving - launched an open-ended strike on Thursday (May 7) demanding that the Turkish investors & administration make good on its promises to increase their wages. Wages range from LE250-400 per month (only about US$45-73/month.)

The administration claims that it is unable to fulfill its promises - due to the international financial crisis. The striking workers argue that, on the contrary, the company is coping well with its sales and exports increasing. The owner is threatening to lay off all its workers (without meeting their demands) and liquidate the company.

The CTUWS expresses its solidarity with these striking workers and calls on company administration's to abide by their social responsibilities towards their employees; and not to use the "international financial crisis" as a pretext by which to lay off workers and/or deny them their rights and benefits.

JC

إضراب عمال شركة جلوب للغزل

وصاحب الشركة يهدد بتصفية المصنع نتيجة الأزمة المالية العالمية


دخل أكثر من 1200 عامل من عمال شركة جلوب للغزل والنسيج والصباغة بمدينة السادات فى إضراب مفتوح عن العمل يوم الخميس 7 مايو 2009، وذلك بعد رفض المستثمر التركى مالك الشركة زيادة مرتبات العاملين التى وعد بها العمال منذ ستة أشهر.. كان المستثمر التركى قد بدأ نشاطه فى مدينة السادات منذ عام وقام بتعيين أكثر من 1000 عامل بمرتبات تتراوح ما بين 250 إلى 400 جنيها مع وعد العمال بزيادة المرتبات بعد مرور ستة أشهر من التشغيل، إلا أنه عاد ورفض ذلك بحجة أن هناك أزمة مالية عالمية أثرت على الشركة وهو ما نفاه العمال مؤكدين أن إنتاج الشركة فى تزايد مستمر وان صفقات التصدير لا تتوقف للعديد من دول العالم.

بدأ الإضراب عمال الوردية الأولى الذين فوجئوا بمنشور من الإدارة يؤكد على رفض صرف أى زيادات وان مستوى المرتبات الموجود بالشركة هو المتاح، ومن لا يرضى بذلك فعليه ترك الشركة دون صرف أى مستحقات، ثم انضم إلى الإضراب عمال الوردية الثانية فى الرابعة عصرا.. وقبل انضمام عمال الوردية الثالثة فى الساعة الثانية عشر مساءا قامت إدارة الشركة بغلق أبواب المصنع وطرد العمال بالقوة مؤكدة أن صاحب المصنع ينوى تصفية النشاط بدعوى الأزمة المالية العالمية.

إن دار الخدمات النقابية والعمالية تؤكد على تضامنها الكامل مع مطالب عمال الشركة المشروعة وتدعوا كافة القوى الديمقراطية فى المجتمع المصرى إلى التضامن مع عمال شركة جلوب للغزل والنسيج والصباغة، وتحذر من تنامى ظاهرة استخدام أصحاب الأعمال للأزمة المالية العالمية لطرد العمال دون صرف أى حقوق مستحقة وهو ما رصدته الدار فى تقريرها الأخير حول تأثيرات الأزمة المالية العالمية على العمال فى مصر.. كما تعرب عن قلقها الشديد حيال هذا المنحى الذى شرع البعض من أصحاب العمل فى اتخاذه مؤخراً بالاتجاه نحو تقليص حقوق العمال والاعتداء عليها، أو اتخاذ بعض الإجراءات التعسفية المبيتة وكأنها قد حانت فرصتها..على خلفية الأزمة المالية العالمية وتداعياتها، وعلى سند من الزعم بحاجتهم إلى الدعم والمساندة الحكوميين، وعدم قدرتهم على احتمال المزيد من الضغوط، وترى الدار أن هذا المسلك الذى يتنصل من كل مسئولية اجتماعية، والذى أدى عملياً إلى تفجير أكثر من أزمة فى أكثر من موقع عمل خلال الأيام الماضية.. من شأنه أن يؤدى إلى توتير الساحة العمالية، وتداعى الأزمة إلى نتائج أكثر سلبية، ومنعطفات أشد خطورة.


دار الخدمات النقابية والعمالية

8 مايو 2009

Crappy Birthday to You Dicktator Mubarak!

Today - May 4, 2009 - marks Dictator Mubarak's 81st birthday!
Yes, the spineless old stooge is now 81 years old - that's even older than Ronald Reagan, who was some 78 years old at the conclusion of his two-term presidency. Unlike Reagan, however, Mubarak doesn't have any white or gray hair; although Hosni's face does now resemble that of Michael Jackson.

In Egypt the retirement age for any worker/civil servant is 60, or 65 years at most.With privatization in effect workers and civil servants are often laid off (on early-retirement packages)in their 30s. Yet our senile never-ending president lives on to reach the very ripe and very old age of 81! He has sat on Egypt's throne for nearly 28 years - and will have ruled Egypt for 30 years when his fifth term expires in 2011.

Mubarak is the only one of Egypt's three presidents/dictators to have ruled without any vice-president (both Nasser & Sadat had at least one vice-president, sometimes two.) Mubarak is also the only president to have ruled Egypt without ever lifting the emergency law, not even for one day! Aiming for 30 years of dictatorship, Mubarak has already ruled Egypt longer than Nasser & Sadat combined: 1954-70(Nasser's 16 years)and 1970-81(Sadat's 11 year reign.)

Mubarak has moved to crush all opposition parties and movements - left, right and center -from the socialists to the liberals to the Islamists. Using the emergency law as his tool of rule - Mubarak's interior ministry operates on the systematic use of abductions, incommunicado detentions, and torture against political opponents. His regime has also attempted to crush independent civil society organizations - from political parties, to NGOs, to professional syndicates, to free trade unions, and independent student unions.

The old dictator has faithfully served the interests of US & British Imperialism in the region; and is now Israel's butt-buddy as he exports Egypt's (subsidized) natural gas via a direct pipeline to the Zionist-Apartheid State. Simultaneously, Mubarak is imposing an Egyptian-Israeli siege on the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza - by keeping the Rafah border crossing closed and ordering the destruction of all tunnels into Gaza.

Further flinging himself into the arms of Zionism - he has launched a vicious media and police campaign against the Hezbollah resistance elements in Egypt - not because they are threatening Egypt's national security, but because they are threatening Apartheid Israel's national security.

The old dictator is going to be meeting with the Zionist hawk Benjamin Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, on Egyptian soil, over the next few days in order to further assist Israel in any way possible.

If I could make a birthday wish on behalf of the big old birthday boy/dictator, it would be this:

I wish that Mubarak Senior & Junior, along with all the other NDP businessmen,would board their special presidential airplane for a one-way (non-return) joy-flight directly into the depths of eternal hell.

AFP: Egypt pig farmers clash with police over cull

May 3, 2009

CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian riot police clashed on Sunday with stone-throwing pig farmers trying to prevent their animals from being taken away for slaughter as part of a nationwide cull.

Between 300 and 400 residents of the hilly Moqattam slum district of Cairo, where mostly Coptic Christian scrap merchants raise pigs, hurled stones and bottles at police.

Anti-riot police replied by firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, most of them youths. An AFP correspondent said protesters ransacked a police post and an officer fired warning shots in the air.

A security official and pig farmers said in the evening that government workers will return on Monday to begin confiscating the pigs, the government having promised the farmers compensation.

Seven policemen were slightly injured in the Moqattam clashes, a security official said, while at least eight demonstrators were hurt, according to the correspondent and a medic.

One injured protester lay sedated in a neighbourhood hospital bed, with birdshot wounds to his thighs and stomach.

At least five protesters were dragged away by police, two of them bloodied. A community leader later told pig farmers and rubbish collectors gathered at a church in the slum that the arrested men had been released.

"They want to steal our livelihood," protested one of the farmers, Adel Izhak, in the Moqattam area of Manshiyet Nasr, home to about 35,000 scrap and recycling merchants known as the "zabaleen."

Local pig farmers and rubbish collectors, who own an estimated 60,000 pigs, later gathered at the neighbourhood's church, where a priest tried to persuade them to surrender the livestock.

"What have you accomplished? Violence begets violence. The government has agreed to compensate all of you," Father Samaan, flanked by government representatives, said in a speech often interrupted by angry farmers.

Similar troubles broke out on Sunday in Khanka, north of the capital, security officials said.

In the Cairo neighbourhood of Basateen hundreds of farmers clashed with police, injuring a senior officer and four other policemen, according to state news agency MENA.

Egypt began the cull of the nation's 250,000 pigs in earnest on Saturday, despite the World Health Organisation saying there was no evidence the animals were transmitting swine flu to humans.

The authorities are calling the slaughter a general health measure. No cases of swine flu, or influenza A(H1N1), have been reported in Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world.

Egypt's pigs mostly belong to and are eaten by members of Egypt's Coptic minority and are reared by rubbish collectors in Cairo's shantytowns. Islam bans the consumption of pork for the country's majority Muslims.

Egyptian animal rights activist Amina Abaza deplored the slaughter of pigs and said the decision to cull them was probably taken only because they belong to the Copts.

The rubbish collectors, who used the pigs to dispose of organic waste and sell off some animals from their herds once a year, say the cull will affect their business and wipe out a crucial source of income.

Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali, meanwhile, ordered that a psychiatric hospital close to Cairo airport be converted into a quarantine centre to check travellers, MENA reported.

The authorities have said it will take six months to complete the cull of Egyptian pigs and announced plans to import three machines to raise the culling capacity to 3,000 beasts a day.

According to the government newspaper Al-Ahram, the authorities plan to pay out 100 pounds (14 dollars) for each boar slaughtered and 250 pounds (35 dollars) for each pregnant sow.

Egypt has been battling an outbreak of bird flu for three years.

Twenty-six people have died in Egypt from the H5N1 strain of bird flu since it was first identified in early 2006 and the country has seen an increase in cases over the past two months.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hYolUUv3mSkHkS3537SkR9RYOmZA

Calling Cops "Pigs" is an Insult to Pigs

Why are the police called "pigs?"

World Press Freedom Day, 2009

Israel Loses Prized 'Free' Press Status; Kuwait Tops Arab World
The Media Line
Written by The Media Line Staff
Published Sunday, May 03, 2009

Israel's media freedom ranking has been downgraded from "free" to "partly free," the first time the Jewish State has lost its status as the only Middle Eastern nation with a "free" press.

In a report released over the weekend to coincide with World Press Freedom Day today, Washington-based non-profit Freedom House lowered Israel's rank from 59 to 72 out of 195 countries surveyed, citing restrictions on journalists' freedom of movement, increased self-censorship during wartime and "biased reporting."

The report found the Middle East to have the lowest level of press freedom in the world, with three in every four Middle Easterners living in one of 15 "not free" Middle Eastern nations.

Only four Middle Eastern countries – Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt – were deemed "partly free" by the organization, receiving rankings of 72, 115, 118 and 128 respectively, out of the 195 countries surveyed.

The Palestinian Authority and Libya received the least favorable ratings among the many Middle Eastern nations, to receive the "not free" rank, coming in respectively at 184 and 190.

“Although transnational broadcast media and Internet-based forms of information dissemination have had a positive impact," the report read, "media environments in the region are generally constrained by extremely restrictive laws concerning libel and defamation, the insult of monarchs and public figures, and emergency rule."

The report expressed particular concern for media freedom in Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tunisia, "where journalists and bloggers faced harsh repercussions for expressing independent views."

While Israel easily retained its rank as the most open media environment in the Middle East, the country lost its place among the "free" press nations of the world, a status it had held for over 25 years.

The demotion comes after Israel received extensive criticism for severely limiting journalists' access to the Gaza Strip during the heightened military conflict in the coastal strip in December and January.

“ The Israeli political system guarantees the fundamental conditions essential to the operation of a free press," Yizhar Be'er, executive director of Keshev, the Center for the Protection of Democracy in Israel, told the Media Line.

"Journalists enjoy complete freedom of expression, freedom of movement and freedom of information and these rights are rarely violated."

Still, Be'er continued, "we have called on the Israeli government to lift the ongoing closure to foreign journalists of passageways between Israel and the Gaza Strip. We view this as a serious and sustained blow to the freedom of the press and to the international statutes that protect it."

Beyond the restrictions on access, the Freedom House report further stated that the Gaza conflict triggered "official attempts to influence media coverage" and "greater self-censorship and biased reporting."

Be'er added, "Due to the inability of the press to cover events from the field independently, one of the main problems we have found in the coverage of the recent conflict is the absolute reliance on information from the IDF spokesperson."

Media freedom in the Israeli Occupied Territories, already ranked as one of the most restrictive media environments in the world, showed further negative decline due to what the report called "worsening intimidation by both major political factions that restricts critical and independent coverage."

The report found journalists in the West Bank and Gaza have to face "pressure and threats from all sides, including from Israeli forces present in some parts of the territories."

Kuwait, receiving the highest ranking among Arab nations in the Middle East, has experienced a boom in media competition in recent years.

"Kuwait has opened itself to two new kinds of media outlets over the past few years," Dr. Shafeeq Ghabra, a professor of political science at Kuwait University and founding president of the American University of Kuwait, told The Media Line.

"In the past we only had Kuwait TV and a few newspapers controlled by elite families since the 1960s. Today, we have over a dozen daily newspapers and seven, eight or nine different satellite channels with political programming and open debate. All this has brought a higher level of freedom of expression."

Ghabra warns, however, against assuming that positive steps are permanent steps.

"There have been episodes of freedom and episodes of no freedom throughout Middle Eastern history," he said. "I suppose my only concern is whether or not we can institutionalize these positive changes. It is always a challenge to keep and nourish such freedoms, and my fear is 'How long will this last?'

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=25020

Celebrate Labor Day by Starting a Revolution!

Dick-tator Mubarak's Labor Day Speech

Your days left on the throne are running out fast old pharaoh.
May Egypt's next Labor Day be Mubarak-Free!


Egypt's president concerned about economy

By MAGGIE MICHAEL
Associated Press

Egypt's president on Wednesday said he was "struggling" with the government to provide anticipated salary bonuses for public sector workers, offering some of the strongest indications yet about how the global recession was affecting the Arab world's most populous nation.
In an annual labor day speech, Hosni Mubarak said the country would be able to weather the global downturn. But he also indicated the annual bonuses would be considerably less than previous years and that his pledge to provide about half a million jobs per year would probably not be met this year.

The somber tone voiced by Mubarak, who has been president since 1981, was a surprisingly candid assessment of the country's difficulties even as other top officials have repeatedly stressed Egypt's ability to weather the current downturn.

Mubarak said he is "struggling" with the government to provide the roughly 6 million public sector employees with the so-called "social allowance" - essentially a salary bonus.

Last year, faced with protests over surging prices, the government provided public sector workers with a 30 percent pay hike. Earlier raises had ranged between 10 to 15percent.

Mubarak stopped short of providing an exact figure, but indicated it would be at least 5 or 6 percent this year.

Egypt had enjoyed an average economic growth rate of about 7 percent for the past three years. But officials, who months ago said they were hoping for growth of 5 to 6 percent, are now projecting a further contraction to 4 percent as the country's key revenues sources - tourism, the Suez Canal, foreign investment and worker remittances take a pounding.

Mubarak described the world economic crisis as "tornado," and added that he follows, "day by day, the decline of our exports of goods and services, the decline of the local and foreign investment, tourism revenues, the Suez canal and remittances of Egyptians living abroad."

He indicated that pledges to provide half a million jobs per year - seen as key for growth in a country with an expanding population - would fall short this year, noting that the declining revenues would "temporarily hurt our economy's capacity to provide the job opportunities."

"Yes, we will be affected by the current crisis. Yes, our growth rate will fall to 4 percent," he said.

In an apparent bid to stave off protests similar to the unrest last year, Mubarak appealed to workers to resort to dialogue instead of walkouts.

Last April, thousands of people in the northern city of Mahalla rioted over high food prices and low wages. Since then, there have been other strikes and clashes - incidents that stoke fears of political unrest in a key U.S. ally where the World Bank estimates about 20 percent live below the poverty line of $2 per day.

Kamal Abbas, head of the (independent) Center for Trade Union & Workers'Services, said that Mubarak's speech was a surprise.

"Everybody was waiting for the president to give them the bonus, but what happened is a big surprise to all of us and it shows the huge difficulties the government is facing," said Abbas. He warned that the coming months could witness more strikes.

"The crisis will tighten and have grave repercussions, in Egypt," he said.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=934694&lang=eng_news