Cyberunions Podcast – Episode 56 Things are rumbling in the Summer …. of Strikes from Egypt to Madrid?

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Rumbles in the sky

• Stephen is learning Drupal and working on Mailman to support the World Social Forum on Palestine with the US Social Forum community
• Also Stephen is working on a workshop for the WSF on the topic of web security for Journalist and Activists in Palestine

Labor activism on the rise in Egypt

• Walton describes the strikes occuring in Egypt from Textile factories to other industries
• The Islamic Brotherhood is about charity and not in support of workers coming together to improve their conditions
• The Arab Spring though popular from twitter, has a longer history than the last year and much originates with union strikes
• Tear gas (possibly Made in the USA) is being used on the strikes across the country
• There is a historical echo to the labor movement in South Africa reignited the movement against Apartheid
• The left in Egpt has not come forward with a political plan and the two major candidates are not supporters of the movement

Things are beginning to stir in Spain

• Though we have heard a lot about Greece the next place is Spain
• Spain has a much larger economy and it is likely that the banks will get bailed out
• Protests and marches are occuring across the country to fight the austerity measures
• Movements are afoot, but we are still closer to the beginning than the middle of the movements

**We try tech update but fail…this is in part cause Stephen was in a rush to get out and the thunderstorm disrrupted the connection (can you figure out where?)**

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