Egypt: One year on, the labour revolution is stalling

On 30 January, only five days into the revolution, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions was born, the first such federation to be established since the union movement was monopolized by the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation in 1957. Since then, some 300 independent unions have been established nationwide, with a reported membership of nearly two million workers. Labour leaders met recently at a conference titled 'Workers and Revolution', to discuss how the declared objective of 'Bread, Freedom and Social Justice' has yet to be realised for much of Egypt’s working class. The conference, which was held at the Center for Socialist Studies in Giza, also focused on the campaign 'The Factories and the Square are One', with the aim of coordinating the struggles of protesters in the streets with those of labourers in their workplaces.