The RS were the first to warn against the SCAF taking power on the very day Hosni Mubarak was ousted and when the Military Council was still viewed as the “protector of the revolution” for remaining neutral. Today their publications openly blame the ruling SCAF for much of the post-revolutionary violence and repression.
The RS are also known for their passionate defense of the working class, particularly when unions were accused of stubbornly refusing to back down on their demands for the sake of economic stability.
Since their inception, the RS have engaged in one battle after another, many of which appeared too big for the group to handle. In the late 1980s, their supporters saw them as “brave” for their principled positions on many issues, while they were regarded as “fools lacking political intelligence,” among much of the elite...
The RS inaugurated themselves as an organized group during the 1991 labor union elections, supporting the striking workers. Back then, members of the RS snuck inside the Iron and Steel Company in al-Tebbin, and raised a picture of a worker who was killed during a previous security raid.
They were the first to stand in solidarity with the workers of the 1994 Kafr al-Dawwar company strike, including forming student support groups to expose the repression of that strike, which ended in gunfire and attempts to burn down the factory.
In 1997, they supported the rural movement that rose up against new laws that sought to deny farmers land tenure and imposed short-term leases at market rates. It was the same year that the first public call for Mubarak to step down was initiated by Kamal Khalil, the godfather of revolutionary socialism in Egypt...
Despite their small size, the RS was also at the forefront of the movement against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Tens of thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square on May 20 and 21 for the first time during Mubarak’s reign to protest the invasion.
The resurgence of a workers’ movement at the end of 2006 – which continues to this day – opened up the opportunity for the RS to extend their influence among members of the working class.
In 2007, they were the first to call for independent unions, after spending cold winter nights in front of the finance ministry in support of striking property tax collectors. When the strike ended, the first independent syndicate in Egypt was established, which later became the Independent General Federation of Workers.
True heroes.