Uma revolução cada vez menos Revolucionária

Manifestantes exigem "pão, liberdade e justiça social" no aniversário da revolução egípcia.

A evolução da situação no Egipto constitui um exemplo típico dum processo potencialmente revolucionário das estruturas políticas e sócio-económicas existentes, que progressivamente vai-se reduzindo a uma mera troca de personagens no seio duma oligarquia que mantém intactos os instrumentos que utiliza para oprimir.

Morsi Slams New Lid on Labour Rights

"Workers played a pivotal role in the mass uprising that led to former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s downfall. Now, two years on, the same labour movement that helped topple the Arab dictator is locked in a stalemate with the government and employers over long-denied labour rights and untenable working conditions.(…)
 
(…) President Mohamed Morsi, a former Brotherhood leader, has faced a number of tests since taking office last June. There were over 2,000 labour protests in 2012, with the rate of protests more than doubling during the second half of the year, according to a new study by the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR). (…)

(…) While the government has generally tried to avoid confrontations with striking workers, it has taken a tough stand on those who “obstruct the wheels of production.” In the months following Morsi’s appointment, riot police broke up labour protests and arrested local strike organisers, while public sector employees found engaging in collective actions were fired, transferred or referred to disciplinary hearings. (…)

(…) Meanwhile, the government is formulating new legislation that labour activists fear will restrict freedom of association and re-establish the state’s dominance over syndical activities. An early draft of the Trade Union Liberties Law, intended to replace antiquated and restrictive legislation on union organisation, would have enshrined the right to strike and legally recognised the hundreds of independent unions that have sprung up since Mubarak’s fall.

The draft law was scrapped, however, in favour of a new bill drawn up by labour minister Khaled El-Azhary and other prominent Brotherhood figures. Their version proposes stiff penalties for striking workers who disrupt production. It also curtails union pluralism by requiring each enterprise to select just one trade union to represent its workers.

The bill would complement “anti-union” articles in Egypt’s new constitution, which was passed last month in a highly divisive referendum. Article 52 affirms the right of workers to form syndicates, but another article stipulates that each profession can have only one trade union.

The new legal framework threatens to eliminate many of the more than 1,000 independent trade unions that exist alongside their larger and more established state-controlled counterparts.

That’s the point, says Hassan. “The Muslim Brotherhood only wants unions it can control.”

Quantas vezes é que já vimos o mesmo acontecer um pouco por todo o mundo? O que é necessário fazer para evitar tal desfecho? Ideias não faltam. Mas, na prática, infelizmente, não têm tido grande impacto no desfecho dos processos revolucionários...