[fse-esf] Cairo Conference 27-30 March 2008

[Alex Callinicos]

The Cairo Conference 27-30 March 2008 
The Cairo Conference is organised by activists in Egypt who are opposed to
war and neo-liberal globalisation.
The conference brings together delegates from the international anti-war
movement, the trade unions, the left and radical parties and the national
liberation movements.

A special theme of the conference will be mobilising an international
campaign against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. After tens of
thousands of Palestinians broke through the Gazan border into Egypt on 23
January, hundreds of activists from the Muslim Brotherhood and other
opposition groups were rounded up by the Egyptian police for attempting to
organise a demonstration in central Cairo. Leading figures from the Muslim
Brotherhood and the Palestinian Hamas movement are set to address this
year's Conference.

The Cairo Liberation Forum
This year's forum will throw a spotlight on the social struggles in Egypt
today. The biggest strike wave for a generation has seen workers start to
challenge the neo-liberal agenda of the Egyptian government. Hundreds of
thousands of workers have been involved in strikes and protests over
attacks on wages and conditions. The backdrop to the strikes is the
spiralling cost of living, which is pushing millions to the margins of
survival. Meanwhile the Egyptian government is pushing through policies
which will mean more privatisation and cuts in wages and benefits.

The workers' sessions will bring together trade union activists from
across Egypt, including many who have played a lead role in the strike
wave. Other sessions will discuss student campaigns for freedom to
organise on campus, peasant resistance to the landlords in the countryside
and the struggle for women's liberation.

Stop the War Coalition in the UK is helping to coordinate an international
delegation to the conference. For practical information go to:
www.stopwar.org.uk  Or email: cairoconference at stopwar.org.uk 

Invitation from the Egyptian Workers for Change Movement to the Workers'
Forum at the 6th Cairo Conference 27-30 March

Workers for Change, an independent workers movement in Egypt extends a
warm invitation to colleagues in the workers' movements across the globe
to attend the Sixth Cairo Conference and the Cairo Liberation Forum which
will take place 27-30 March in the Egyptian Journalists' Union in Cairo.
The "Workers' Forum" at the event is organised with the aim of helping the
Egyptian workers' movement mobilise wider campaigns of solidarity with its
struggle against the employers, the government and the state-run official
trade union movement. The forum also aims to give leading working-class
activists an opportunity to analyse the workers' movement and compare
local and international experiences.

For this reason we believe that your participation is crucial to achieving
the aims of the conference, and is in the interests of the Egyptian
working class as a whole. We look forward to welcoming you to Cairo.