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Is Egypt’s Labor Movement Being Co-opted by Globalists?
February 21, 2011
by K R Bolton
**Excerpted: read full article HERE***
“Herein lies the secret of why all radical (i.e. poor) parties necessarily become the tools of the money-powers, the Equites, theBourse. Theoretically their enemy is capital, but practically they attack, not the Bourse, but Tradition on behalf of the Bourse. This is as true today as it was for the Gracchuan age, and in all countries…” Oswald Spengler.[i]
The labor movement Solidarity is given credit for the toppling of a Soviet state that began a process of “color revolutions” which resulted in the epochal dismantling of the Soviet bloc. This was cheered by neocons, liberals and certain types of Marxist alike. Whether it was a positive step in global relations is a matter of one’s subjective viewpoint.
What the collapse of the Eastern bloc did achieve was a multiplicity of states that are undergoing globalisation, privatisation and cultural bastardisation, in a process of reconstructing these states to fit into an international economic order. The Middle East is now undergoing the same tumult of “color revolutions.” In Egypt a labor movement has emerged that looks suspiciously like a globalist creation.
There has been a lot of cheering among Western liberals and others at the overthrow of Islamic despots in Tunisia and Egypt, with an hurrah chorus going up as revolts break out in Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Iran and Libya. The champions of the “peoples’ revolts” seem to readily swallow in entirety the media descriptions of these revolts as “spontaneous uprisings.” Many also believe in their revolutionary zeal that these revolts are the harbingers for the overthrowing of capitalism. As one might expect, the adherents of Trotskyism are the most enthusiastic of the Left, but historically Trotskyites have not usually been much further than a gentle poke to see them fall into the embrace of US policy.[ii]
Amidst the jubilation in some well-meaning (and not-so-well-meaning) quarters at the formation of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Unions it should be kept in mind that a lot of time and money have been expended by globalist bodies such as NED to create labor movements that can co-opt legitimate demands for reform. Any organization that can be linked to such organizations as NED, and the American Center for International Labor Solidarity should become immediately suspect. What then is the situation in regard to the emergence of a new labor movement in Egypt?
Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services and the Real Estate Tax Authority
The Federation of Independent Egyptian Unions (FIEU) came apparently from nowhere at the crucial juncture of revolt to support the call for a national strike beginning February 1, 2011. However the foundations of the FIEU were long established via the Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services and the Real Estate Tax Authority. FIEU received accolades from the AFL-CIO in 2010 when it was given the AFL-CIO George Meany-Lane Kirkpatrick Human Rights Award. Sen. Robert P Casey Jr. (D. Penn.), Chair of the Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations addressed the award-giving.
Casey is a prominent player in the US push for a reconstructed Middle East in the American image, and was the key-note speaker at the conference of the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) in January 2010. POMED emphasized the remarks of Casey on Iran’s “green revolutionaries”:
“[W]e are inspired by the green movement, by people in the U.S. who remain demonstrably supportive of those in the Iranian streets. The further development of the Iranian opposition movement will change the country forever.”[iii]
Casey also alluded to the newtech strategies that are intrinsic to the “color revolutions” in every part of the world they have manifested:
“In discussing future prospects for democratic momentum, Casey acknowledged the role of new technologies – facebook, twitter, and blogging – in ‘opening up more space for a democratic discussion.’ He praised the recently passed ‘Voice Act,’ which he hopes will enable Iranians to more easily communicate amongst themselves by removing firewalls imposed by the Iranian regime.”[iv]
At this conference several key speakers were from the “civil society” milieu in the Middle East, and appealed for US assistance.
Mohammad Azraq of the 2010 Leaders for Democracy Fellowship in Jordan stated at the conference that so far from there being widespread suspicion of the USA as supportive of supposedly pro-American regimes (as the news media implies), the “civil society” activists were looking to the USA for support:
“Most strongly supported the expansion of MEPI programs and called for more aid directly channeled to civil society. In Lebanon, there was agreement that the U.S. should find ways to develop ‘Civil Society 2.0,’ a concept that incorporates many of the new social networking technologies to facilitate more meaningful discussions within Middle Eastern countries.”[v]
AFL-CIO/NED
The AFL-CIO has historically well served the American Establishment, “military-industrial complex” or whatever else one chooses to call the network of globalists who are generally guiding US policy whether under Republicans or Democrats. In particular the AFL-CIO works closely with the National Endowment for Democracy. NED was itself conceived by Tom Kahn, overseas liaison for the AFL-CIO who maintained contact with “civil society activists” such as Solidarity in Poland. He was a veteran Shachtmanite,[vi] this line of American Trotskyism having pursued a pro-US position during the Cold War and thereafter. NED’s President is Carl Gershman, another veteran Trotskyite.[vii]
[…]
The Solidarity Center’s stalwart labor activists don’t seem to regard sitting down in conclave with the International Republican Institute and the Center for International Private Enterprise as any conflict of interest. To the contrary, as will be shown at the “conclusion” of this article, privatisation is supported by the Solidarity Center. As Quiccas states, the purpose of NED is to derail the labor movement and ensure that the “right” type of economic system is inaugurated in the wake of the “color revolutions” they sponsor in tandem with OSI, IRI, and others.
The Solidarity Center cites its funding as coming from,
“…both public and private non-profit sources. Funding sources include the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Labor, the AFL-CIO, private foundations, and national and international labor organizations.”[xiv]
Such labor unions in the former Soviet bloc were criticized as nothing more than appendages of the State apparatus, so why should the Solidarity Center be regarded as anything different in regard to serving US policy?
Quaccio states that the Solidarity Center is active in backing anti-Chavez activities in Venezuela, particularly via the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers. Hence one of the few states left that opposes globalisation and has even formed a Bolivarian bloc is being subverted in the guise of defending workers’ rights. Watch Venezuela as a new hot spot for a “spontaneous revolt” (sic).
Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services, a “Solidarity Center Partner”
The much-lauded Federation of Independent Egyptian Unions sounds suspiciously like a globalist operation. The Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services (CTUWS) established in 1990 which, together with the Real Estate Tax Authority Union, has formed the basis of the Federation of Independent Egyptian Unions. CTUWS is a “Solidarity Center partner.” The Solidarity Center states:
“In a historic move for the Egyptian labor movement, the 27,000-member Real Estate Tax Authority Union will become Egypt’s first independent union, reports the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services, a Solidarity Center partner.”[xv]
Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the CTUWS. He has been groomed by attendance at globalist and US labor conferences which serve to co-opt the labor movements into the globalization process.
World Forum on Democracy: Where Capital and Socialism Meet
Ten years ago Kamal Abbas was a panellist at the founding conference of the World Forum on Democracy, held in Warsaw.
Other attendees included the omnipresent George Soros, who was one of four individuals to deliver opening remarks.
Along with sundry trades unions and politicians there were hardline workers’ advocates such as John Bolton, Senior Vice President, American Enterprise Institute; Aryeh Neier, President of Soros’ US-branch of the Open Society Institute; Thomas Melia, Vice President for Programs,National Democratic Institute (USA); Aleksander Smolar, President of the Stefan Batory Foundation (co-sponsor of the conference with Freedom House), and member of the board of the Open Society Institute, Poland; Paul Wolfowitz, Dean, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Kenneth Adelman, Secretary of the Board, Freedom House; Daniel Kaufman, Senior Manager of Governance, World Bank Group; Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy; Fareed Zakaria, Managing Editor, Foreign Affairs (The journal of the Council on Foreign Relations); Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State; Bette Bao Lord, Chairman of the Board, Freedom House and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations;[xvi] Egidijus Aleksandravicius, Chairman,Open Society Institute-Lithuania; John Bohn, Chairman of the Board, Center for International Private Enterprise, USA; John Brademas, Chairman, National Endowment for Democracy; Mikhail Chachkhunashvili, Executive Director, Open Society Georgia Foundation; Jose Conde Rodrigues, Socialist International, Portugal; Lynn Costa, Program Coordinator, Center for International Private Enterprise, USA; James Denton, Executive Director, Freedom House; Nadia Diuk, Senior Program Officer for Europe and New Independent States, National Endowment for Democracy, USA; Ivan Doherty, Director of Political Party Programs, National Democratic Institute, USA; John Fox, Director, Washington Office, Open Society Institute; Barbara Haig, Director of Programs, National Endowment for Democracy; Zuhra Halimova, Executive Director, Open Society Institute, Tajikistan; Adrian Karatnycky, President, Freedom House; Art Kaufman, Project Manager, National Endowment for Democracy; Annette Laborey, Executive Director, Open Society Institute – Paris; Irena Lasota, President, Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe; Elena Leontjeva, President, Lithuanian Free Market Institute; David Lowe, Director of External Relations, National Endowment for Democracy; Mark Palmer, Vice Chairman of the Board, Freedom House; Vitaly Portnikov, Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty, Russia; Rodger Potocki, Program Officer for East Central Europe, National Endowment for Democracy; Andrzej Sadowski, Vice-President, Adam Smith Research Center, Poland; John Sullivan, Executive Director, Center for International Private Enterprise; Marc Thiessen, Spokesman, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; Francis Fukuyama, RAND Corp.
Attendees representing labor movements included: Harry Kamberis, Executive Director, Solidarity Center;[xvii] Bronislaw Geremek,Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland, who was an advisor to the Inter-Factory Strike Committee of Solidarity, a delegate to the Gdansk-Oliwa National Convention of Solidarity, and from 1983 to 1990 continued to work with Solidarity as an advisor to Lech Walesa; Solidarityveteran and Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Karol Buzek; Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a Member of the Polish Sejm, who served as head of theInter-factory Strike Committee in Gdansk;[xviii] Thomas Melia of the National Democratic Institute and an associate director of the AFL-CIO;[xix] Fred van Leeuwen, Executive Board, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; Bengt Save-Soderbergh,International Centre of the Swedish Labour Movement. Carl Gershman, as befits an old-timer from the Trotskyite milieu, president of NED, has also been a resident scholar at Freedom House, and Executive Director of the Social Democrats USA,[xx] a home for other ex-Trots who support American globalism.
While the list of the WDF attendees seems tedious, a close look will show representation primarily from the Soros network, NED, and Freedom House, together with White House neocons such as Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolton, teamed up with workers’ activists such as Harry Kamberis of the Solidarity Center, and representatives from the Socialist International sitting about with reps from the Free Market Institute, Center for International Private Enterprise, and the Adam Smith Research Center.
The co-sponsors of the Conference were Freedom House, and the Stefan Batory Foundation, “which was founded by George Soros, a Hungarian-American financier and philanthropist, in 1988 in Warsaw, Poland.”[xxi]
National Endowment for Democracy Funded Egyptian Unions
NED funding for labor dissidents has been channelled via the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center. Its latest published report (2009), states that the American Center for International Labor Solidarity was given $318,757 for work in Egypt. The same year, among sundry other organizations involved in Egypt, NED also gave $187,569 to the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). While support for workers rights is of course laudable, what is questionable is why the same organization that funds and trains labor movement personnel throughout the world, also funds and trains those who are engaged in the process of privatisation and globalization. As will be shown below, the Solidarity Center ideologically supports privatisation and globalization, and the question that remains is whether such organizations, especially when they are close to the US Government and big business think tanks, are actually working as adjuncts for world capital, and are using workers as cannon fodder, just as the masses have been used in prior revolts.[xxii]
The co-sponsors of the Conference were Freedom House, and the Stefan Batory Foundation, “which was founded by George Soros, a Hungarian-American financier and philanthropist, in 1988 in Warsaw, Poland.”[xxi]
Since the WFD does not appear to have met subsequent to the first conference, the assumption is that the purpose to the 2000 conference was to sound out and establish contacts with future leaders.
Conclusion
The world has not yet reached the stage where the lion shall sit down with the lamb. However, the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center waxes lyrical on the problems of privatisation as dictated by the World Bank and IMF in regard to Egypt, and alludes to the genuinely Egyptian course that was undertaken by Nasser, but does not advocate a real revolt against privatisation and globalization.
Rather, as one would expect from a labor body that sits down with Freedom House, neocons, Soros, IRI, et al, and receives funding from NED, the Center advocates collusion with the forces of globalization whilst talking of “worker rights.”
Therefore the AFL-CIO-Solidarity Center-NED axis, in conjunction with sundry necons, free marketeers, and Soros networks, recommends an ideological foundation for Egyptian labor based on incorporation into the global market rather than rejection in favor of economic sovereignty. Why do these supposed workers’ advocates recommend an Egyptian workers’ compact with US corporations, the US government, and NGOs which are for the most part creations of Freedom House, IRI, NED, etc.? The same game was played behind the facade of “human rights” in South Africa which ended up not with improved conditions for Black workers but with globalization and privatisation; likewise with the “liberation” of Kosovo which has opened up to international capital the immense mineral wealth of the region.
The globalists see the old Islamic regimes as passé; anomalies in a global market, and if change is inexorable, then it has to be co-opted.
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SHOCKING LEVEL OF INFLUENCE EXPOSED: UNION BOSS TRUMKA TALKS TO WHITE HOUSE EVERY DAY AND VISITS A COUPLE TIMES A WEEK
February 22, 2011
By 
Naked Emperor News
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ADD THIS:
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
From Cairo to Madison With Revolutionary Love
Message from the Egyptian revolution to socialist agitators and revolutionaries currently occupying Madison, Wisconsin – from Kamal Abbas, General Coordinator of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services.
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TRANSLATION Provided by Michael Moore’s site: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/statement-kamal-abbas
(The sign in the background shows faces of some of the recent young victims of the Mubarak government. The writing says they are among the martyrs of the 25 January Revolution.)
KAMAL ABBAS: I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, “Liberation Square”, which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place were many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights.
From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us.
I want you to know that no power can challenge the will of the people when they believe in their rights. When they raise their voices loud and clear and struggle against exploitation.
No one believed that our revolution could succeed against the strongest dictatorship in the region. But in 18 days the revolution achieved the victory of the people. When the working class of Egypt joined the revolution on 9 and 10 February, the dictatorship was doomed and the victory of the people became inevitable.
We want you to know that we stand on your side. Stand firm and don’t waiver. Don’t give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights.
We and all the people of the world stand on your side and give you our full support.
As our just struggle for freedom, democracy and justice succeeded, your struggle will succeed. Victory belongs to you when you stand firm and remain steadfast in demanding your just rights.
We support you. we support the struggle of the peoples of Libya, Bahrain and Algeria, who are fighting for their just rights and falling martyrs in the face of the autocratic regimes. The peoples are determined to succeed no matter the sacrifices and they will be victorious.
Today is the day of the American workers. We salute you American workers! You will be victorious. Victory belongs to all the people of the world, who are fighting against exploitation, and for their just rights.
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Interestingly Abbas attended the World Forum on Democracy conference in Warsaw, Poland 25-27 June 2000, with an whole bunch of Open Society Institute luminaries including Aryeh Neier and the great “light bearer” George Soros himself.
Link
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AND THIS: Courtesy of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center
History Made as Egyptian Public Workers Form First Independent UnionHistory Made as Egyptian Public Workers Form First Independent Union
In a historic move for the Egyptian labor movement, the 27,000-member Real Estate Tax Authority Union will become Egypt’s first independent union, reports the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services, a Solidarity Center partner.
Thousands of RETA members celebrate the birth of their new union. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy
On April 21, 2009, more than 300 representatives of RETA’s General Assembly gathered at the Ministry of Manpower in Cairo to submit their application for the first independent union in Egypt. After a five-hour protest followed by intense negotiations, the Minister of the Labor Force agreed to accept the petition, a precedent-setting move that establishes Egypt’s first independent union.
The new union also has affiliated with Public Services International, the Global Union that represents public sector workers worldwide. PSI’s 620 affiliated unions represent 20 million members in 160 countries.
RETA employees voted to form a union in December 2008 following a nationwide strike and a 12-day sit-in by 10,000 workers in front of the prime minister’s office in Cairo, where they demanded equality for their brothers and sisters in outlying governorates. By December 13, they had collected more than 15,000 signatures.
Although the government agreed to negotiate with the workers, it retaliated against union organizers, harassing and interrogating those who had collected signatures, according to a December 2008 appeal for solidarity from CTUWS on the anniversary of RETA’s conception. In January 2009, RETA held its first constituent conference, drawing more than 3,000 participants. Government approval of the application is the final step.
The new union aims to express RETA employees’ interests, embody their demands, and organize advocacy and mobilization activities to improve their labor conditions. A related objective is to democratize the labor movement in Egypt by stimulating and encouraging member participation and by building and developing RETA’s democratic mechanisms and structures.
CTUWS called on international unions and labor organizations to support RETA employees’ effort to establish their independent union, “a basic granted right as stated in international treaties ratified by the Egyptian government.”
http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=923
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ABOUT the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center
Chair
John J. Sweeney
President Emeritus, AFL-CIO
Vice-Chair
William Lucy
Secretary-Treasurer (retired), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Secretary-Treasurer
Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO
Members
R. Thomas Buffenbarger
President, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Linda Chavez-Thompson
Executive Vice President Emerita, AFL-CIO
Larry Cohen
President, Communications Workers of America
Mark Gaffney
President, Michigan State AFL-CIO
Leo W. Gerard
President, United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial & Service Workers International Union
Arlene Holt Baker
Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO
Joslyn N. Williams
President, Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO
MISSION of AFL-CIO Solidarity Center
The Solidarity Center’s mission is to help build a global labor movement by strengthening the economic and political power of workers around the world through effective, independent, and democratic unions.
We envision a world . . .
- Where working families have a voice in the future through the development of strong, independent free trade unions
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Where workers band together as part of an international movement for democracy and social justice
- Where all who work and contribute to the global economy are rewarded fairly and equitably
- Where governments enforce, and employers respect, the rights of workers
http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?pl=409&sl=409&contentid=431
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The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress.[1] Although administered as a private organization, its funding comes almost entirely from a governmental appropriation by Congress and it was created by an act of Congress. In addition to its grants program, NED also supports and houses the Journal of Democracy, the World Movement for Democracy, the International Forum for Democratic Studies, the Reagan-Fascell Fellowship Program, the Network of Democracy Research Institutes, and the Center for International Media Assistance. It has been accused by both right-wing and left-wing personalities of interference in foreign regimes, and of being set up to legally continue the Central Intelligence Agency‘s prohibited activities of support to selected political parties abroad.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_Democracy
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