Middle East Follow

It began in Egypt’s biggest factory in December with a strike of 27,000 textile workers. Then it spread to other textile mills across the Nile Delta.

George Bush and the US establishment are preparing for yet another war in the Middle East. As in the build up to war with Iraq, the justification for military action against Iran is the looming threat supposedly posed by the regime’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

In recent weeks, fighting between the two main Palestinian parties, Fatah and Hamas, has resulted in more than 100 deaths, raising once more the spectre of civil war.

The Lebanese opposition’s protest camp in downtown Beirut demanding the resignation of the country’s US-backed government is entering its second month. The protesters are drawn from opposition parties across the religious divide. Activists spoke to Guy Smallman about their campaign.

Rail workers in the Egyptian capital Cairo have struck for higher wages. Over 700 railway drivers went on strike at Cairo's Misr train station on Saturday of last week.

Hamas and Hizbollah will be sending delegates to the next anti-war conference in Cairo, Egypt, from 29 March to 1 April.

The 486 sacked workers at the British clothing manufacturer Dewhirst in Morocco were continuing their protest this week.

Lebanese workers shout anti-government slogans outside the telecommunications ministry in a protest against privatisation and tax increases.

Egyptian opposition activists are calling on anti-war groups and unions to send delegates to the 5th Cairo Conference, 29 March-1 April, 2007.

In late December over 20,000 Egyptian textile workers in Mahal el-Kubra went on strike against privatisation and won.

Workers at Dewhirst’s factory in Tangiers, Morocco, are staging a sit-in outside the factory gates after the company sacked 486 workers.