Views: Public Sector Workers between Privatisation and State Repression in Egypt

Since its inception, the Egyptian labour movement has overcome many adversities to seize its rights while struggling against the state and political organisations to assert its independence and presence in the public sphere.In turn, it has influenced and been influenced by labour-capital relationships that have prevailed in Egypt for decades.For more than 125 years, these relationships and rivalries have shaped the public sphere in Egypt and influenced political and economic structures.This article analyses a turning point in the relationship between the state and labour: the privatisation programme of the 1990s, which had significant repercussions and ushered in changes that impacted the Egyptian labour movement, labour rights, and the movement's presence.The article will discuss the relationship between the labour movement and the state and its institutions, examining how the movement developed tactics to confront the political and economic pressures it faced in recent decades.It will also look at the distributional effects of privatisation on workers in general, and the impact of privatisation on development and the living conditions of workers.