Carl Bildts krig

Wikileaks nya jättläcka ger en liten glimt av det goda kriget för att befria Irak som vår käre utrikesminister (ja, han som gjorde skumma oljeaffärer med mördarregimen i Sudan) lobbade för... Att USA:s militär blundat för tortyren i irakiska fängelser (liksom de gör i Afghanistan) är knappast förvånande, men bra att ha det svart på vitt.

Polisvåld mot fackliga protester

Egyptiska fackföreningar, socialistgrupper och människorättsorganisationer skickade nyligen ut det här pressmeddelandet angående ett polisingripande mot en grupp demonstranter som försökte samlas utanför parlamentet. Rapporterna om strejker och andra fackliga protester fortsätter att dugga tätt i Egypten, trots skärpt repression mot alla former av organiserade aktioner inför presidentvalet i november.

Police brutality: Government's solution for workers problems

The government of the ruling NDP could not tolerate the sit-in of information centers employees in front of parliament for fear of a new wave of workers strikes and protests, which over the past months have exposed the government's failure in responding to their problems as well as it is flagrant alliance with business ministers and ruling party leadership. The 11^th of October 2010 witnessed police harassment of more than 600 information employees as they arrived in Cairo from several governorates and tried to gather in front of parliament. Towards the end of the day the gathering, which managed to reach the Kasr El Aini Street, was brutally dispersed.

This police brutality does not only expose the lies of the government and the electoral program of the party and the president, but provides evidence for the persistence of oppression and corruption policies. While the ruling party has nominated General Abdel Salam Mahgoub, minister of local development and responsible for the information employees, as its representative in Alexandria for the next parliamentary elections, promising his constituency prosperity and welfare, the same minister refuses to respond to the demands of his own employees, 5000 of which reside in the governorate of Alexandria.

Employees and workers who managed to break the state of emergency and challenged the unjust labor laws as well as enforced their protests and demonstrations for months in front of parliament, will not be terrorized by the police brutality and will not go into hiding. The rates of poverty, low wages and increasing prices, all products of the ruling party policy, will continue to drive the workers to take action in defense of their livelihood and for a dignified standard of living.

Groups and organizations signatory to this statement express their firm solidarity with the information employees against corruption and the dictatorship of the government and the party as well as security assaults against them; signatories also support the right of employees to strike to realize their legitimate demands, foremost their right to

• Equality with government employees

• A rise in their monthly wages from 99 LE (17 $) to 320 LE (56 $) for medium qualification and 381 LE (67 $) for high qualification

• Social and health insurance

Long live the struggle of employees

Signatories

Independent union of real estate tax collectors

Center for socialist studies

Preparatory workers committee

Popular democratic movement for change (Hashd)

Socialist Horizons Center

Revolutionary Socialists

Egyptian Communist Party

Socialist innovation tendency

Center for trade union and workers services

Al Karama party

Workers' coordination committee

Tadamon (solidarity) group

El Helali foundation for liberties

Justice and Freedom youth

El Nadim Center

Association for freedom of thought and expression

Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights

Hisham Mubarak Law Center

Arabic Center for Human Rights Information

Sons of the land foundation for human rights

Land Center for human rights

Egyptian Initiative for personal rights

Egyptiska studenter protesterar mot polisvåld

Många egyptiska studentaktivister vittnar nu om att förtrycket trappas upp inför parlamentsvalet som ska hållas den 28 november. I måndags demonstrerade ett par hundra studenter från Muslimska brödraskapet och flera andra oppositionsgrupper utanför det egyptiska utbildningsministeriet mot säkerhetspolisens ständiga närvaro och återkommande polisbrutalitet på landets universitet. Liknande demonstrationer äger rum då och då, men till skillnad från denna gång äger de oftast rum inne på campus, bakom stängda grindar. De senaste protesterna kommer efter att en vakt på Al Azhar-universitetet i Zagazig attackerat en kvinnlig student som vägrat låta honom genomsöka hennes väska. Både demonstrationen och den händelsen finns i klippet från Al Jazeera nedan.

Mängder med medlemmar av Muslimska brödraskapet såväl som andra oppositionsgrupper – även anhängare av Mubarak-utmanaren Mohammed elBaradei – har uteslutits från de kårval som just nu äger rum, i många fall utan opposition på grund av säkerhetsapparatens utrensning av kandidater. Samtidigt rapporteras nu om en arresteringskampanj mot studenter och "ungdomar med skägg" (!) i den sydliga staden Assiut efter en explosion utanför ett växlingskontor tidigare i veckan...