ARD Scholar Examines Labor Activism in Sisi's Egypt

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In a talk dated October 24, 2017, CDDRL Senior Research Scholar Amr Hamzawy shared his ongoing research on the challenges that labor activists confront in Egypt’s post-2013 authoritarian environment. Titled “Labor Activism under Egypt’s New Authoritarianism,” the talk examined the various administrative, security, legislative, and judicial tools that the regime of Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has employed to undermine labor activism. The event featured Stanford Professor of History Joel Beinin, who served as discussant.

Despite security surveillance, forced dismissals of labor activists, and referrals of labor activists and protesters to military trials, labor activism remains at the forefront of societal resistance to authoritarian policies and practices in today’s Egypt. Unionized workers in public and private industrial facilities, as well as civil servants inside the state bureaucracy, continue to demonstrate and organize strikes to articulate their economic and social demands and to defend workers’ rights to freedoms of expression and association. Protests by labor activists have even impacted key sectors, such as public transportation and healthcare.

A recording of the talk can be accessed through the link below.