The Times finally wakes up and notices the Egyptian labor movement. Of course, more than 2 million workers have gone on strike in Egypt in the last few years. The 3 week effort to push Mubarak out of power was the cherry on the sundae of a very deep and long effort.

But big questions remain: how will labor organize itself? will it push beyond demands for union recognition and confront basic questions of economic and political organization?

In Germany in 1919 a revived labor movement at the heart of the German Revolution of 1981-19  led to the fall of the monarchy and then the creation of the Weimar Republic. While many on the left viewed it as a new form of progressive government it was hobbled by all sorts of political compromises that in fact left a door open for the restoration of authoritarian rule – in the form of the new Nazi party.

Egypt must avoid that outcome. It is not clear that there is an “Egyptian solution,” however, without a regional solution that encompasses the rest of the Arab world and Israel as well. None of the countries in the region can stand on their own. to be independent of big power influence they need to organize together, democratically.

Workers Press Demands After Aiding Egypt’s Revolt – NYTimes.com.

The British Guardian ran my letter responding to the contention that Egyptian events can be analogized to the Polish Solidarity movement.

After the fall of Mubarak, what next for Egypt?  The Guardian.

Here is some critical background information on key role of workers in recent Egyptian events. Stanford historian Joel Beinin confirms my view that the uprising has been in part a response to neo-liberalism and the authoritarian nature of politics that is associated with globalization. For more on labor and authoritarianism in the global economy see my book, From Che to China.

This makes the current international movement very different than what happened in Poland in 1980-81 or in eastern Europe more generally after 1989. In fact, Polish Solidarity was defeated by martial law and neo-liberalism unleashed in the 1980s and 90s.

But the Egyptian events come in response to two decades of neo-liberalism as Mubarak oversaw the dismantling of the state socialism of the Nasser era. As Beinin says about a minimum wage campaign by Egyptian textile workers:

“Raising the minimum wage is not simply an economic demand, it’s a political demand, because it is in opposition to the whole neoliberal economic restructuring project that has been proceeding very rapidly in Egypt, especially since the government that was recently deposed was installed in July 2004.”

A similar kind of neo-liberal reform process is underway in China as the authoritarian regime transitions from Maoist state socialism to property rights based capitalism. And workers there are also engaged in widespread job actions, so it is possible the events of Cairo could be echoed in Beijing and Shanghai. Indeed, there are reports the Chinese censored media and internet coverage of the Egyptian and Tunisian events.

Striking Egyptian Workers Fuel the Uprising After 10 Years of Labor Organizing.

This commentary in the UK Guardian tells an important aspect of the recent events in Tunisia and Egypt that is not getting near enough attention in the US, namely that the 18 day movement that ousted Mubarak came after years of struggle and conflict with workers organizing a key factor.

But the article comes up short in its analogy with Poland.

As is now well known, the Polish Solidarity movement that emerged in 1980-81 was killed off by the imposition of martial law. (I was there in Poland in the 80s meeting with underground activists and saw the impact). What re-emerged in 1989-1991 as Stalinism collapsed was a far weaker organization unable to withstand the neo-liberal regime being imposed on a global scale.

In other words, the Polish working class was defeated not victorious over a twenty year period and thus it is not really an “appealing model” as the authors suggest despite the undeniable heroism and inspiration that the 1980-81 period provided the entire eastern European democracy movement.

In Egypt and Tunisia, on the other hand, the strike wave has emerged in the wake of the attempt to impose neo-liberal reforms. Thus, these new unions face directly not just questions of union freedom but of economic and political structure in their society.

And certainly if they do not move beyond what might be called “ordinary bread and butter trade unionism” they will once again find themselves under the yoke of global economic forces, but with new bosses who happen to use Facebook and Google.

But if the Egyptians and Tunisian workers can find a new voice, they may in fact provide an inspiration to Polish workers and workers around the world that resistance to the neo-liberal model of globalization can succeed.

It may be that the reason the authors do not reach this fairly straightforward conclusion and try to steer the Guardian’s labor audience back in time is that there is a conservative edge to their thinking – Lee, although a web designer for trade unions and editor of a website on union events, is a strong defender of some of the worst of Israel’s politics and was a supporter of the US invasions of Yugoslavia and Iraq, while Weinthal is a fellow at a neo-con think tank and writes for National Review Online.

Trade unions: the revolutionary social network at play in Egypt and Tunisia | Eric Lee and Benjamin Weinthal

A strike wave in Egypt is adding weight to the democracy movement there, according to press reports. As in many authoritarian regimes there is an “official” Egyptian trade union movement set up to keep workers in line, but that has not stopped independent organizing efforts in the country. (For more on the phenomenon of authoritarianism and the global labor movement see my book on the topic here.)

Now there is a strike underway by workers on the Suez Canal, though details are sketchy. A BBC news crew was detained on its way to cover the strike and sent packing by the authorities.

A sign of the bravery of the movement was the willingness of some workers to protest outside the government controlled union federation itself (picture at left). While the strikes are focused on economic demands their timing indicates a clear tie to the broader social movement underway in the country.

Egypt protesters seek to spread beyond Tahrir Square – CSMonitor.com.

Today’s Times has more details here.

Today was a good day for the Egyptian revolution…the people are not backing down despite clear awareness that they are up against Mubarak, the Egyptian military that he controls and the US Government that is sticking with the regime in its call for an “orderly” transition, which is sounding almost fascistic in quality compared to the clear desires of the Egyptian majority.

BBC News – Analysis: Egypt’s unfinished revolution.

An excellent portrait of how authoritarian politics and neo-liberal economic reform went hand in hand in Mubarak’s Egypt.

Resentment Finds a Target In Ahmed Ezz – NYTimes.com.

As I have said several times, the Egyptian working class is a critical factor in the current events. Historian Joel Beinin at Stanford is an expert on the labor movement in Egypt and was interviewed recently about the current situation.

Historian Joel Beinin on the Egyptian Labor Crisis.

You can learn more by reading this report authored by Joel for the AFL-CIO. Joel also has a very useful chapter in this edited collection on the authoritarian character of neo-liberal reforms in Egypt.

Slate ran this piece in December deftly anticipating recent events in Egypt. As it makes clear, the removal of Mubarak is meaningless unless the democratic revolution underway in Egypt dismantles the military industrial complex atop of which Mubarak sat.

Yet, all signs point to the US backing that military in a transition to the post-Mubarak era. We are setting ourselves up here for a confrontation with the people in Egypt when they move beyond Mubarak and confront the true power structure of their country. Of course, the US government has no choice – the military and Mubarak have been key to overseeing the neo-liberal reforms of the last 20 years. In Egypt as elsewhere authoritarianism is the face of the globalization process in much of the world, from China to the mideast.

It is time for the United States to rethink its global policy – if the price of our place in the world is to get in bed with the brutal Egyptian military we are paying too high a price.

A WikiLeaks cable shows how Egypt’s regime has bought off the military – Slate Magazine.