By Mohammad Baali
Albawaba.com – Damascus
The Cairo-based Land Center for Human Rights (LCHR) has released a report blasting the Egyptian government’s social and economic policies.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by Albawaba.com, rakes the government over the coals for its privatization policies, which it claims have lowered the standard of living of the country’s working class.
The report, which was released by the center this month, criticizes the Egyptian government for what it calls an inability to offer an integrated project to solve the country’s problems.
The document says this impotence is developing in the shadow of market policies, and what the report describes as the “World Bank prescription.”
The report examines the economic crisis, as well as workers’ increasing protests against the security authorities for terrorizing and pressuring them when they express their demands.
The recommendations contained in the report are that the Egyptian government should provide suitable economic options for thousands of workers who have been laid off due to privatization.
The government is also urged to give workers the opportunity to own shares of the companies they work for, and to pass amendments that will allow employees to participate in the management of these firms.
Finally, the report demands the abolition of restrictions imposed on trade unions, and calls on the Egyptian government to allow the establishment of various workers’ associations.
