Sudan... Local and global solidarity for Sami al-Baqers release
News Report - moatinoon
The Sudanese Teachers Committee said in a press release; Last Friday, a force of military intelligence; In Port Sudan, eastern Sudan, Sami al-Baqer, spokesman for the Sudanese Teachers Committee, was arrested and taken to an unidentified location. The Sudanese Teachers Committee, the Red Sea military intelligence, carried its safety and security.
Amar al-Baqer, secretary of the Sudan Trade Union Front, said that Sami al-Baqers arrest was an absence of reason and conscience, and that his arrest by a force of military intelligence was an explicit violation of trade union freedoms, and a desperate attempt to silence the union and civil voice, which reflected the pulse of the street and the simple citizen.
The Teachers Committee had called on the Government of the Sudan to discharge its responsibilities towards workers and pay their salaries; To support stability and blockade the aftermath of war is more than an act of opposition to coup d état power and its heinous war.
Since the outbreak of the Khartoum war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in mid-April, the Government has been unable to pay the wages of the States employees, especially the teachers. In particular, wages support families ability to withstand and resist the deadly effects of war, which have led to the displacement of most workers out of cities, as well as the other economic and social repercussions of war, notably the high cost of living as a result of the booming economics of war in all Sudanese cities and even outside the Sudan.
The Secretary of the Trade Union Front considered that the States discontinuation of salaries for its employees was tantamount to cutting the cord between it and the workers, and also a demolition of one of the most important pillars of the State. The States discontinuation of salaries meant that its contractual relationship with its workers and the State without workers was in fact not a State.
In a statement, the Sudanese Journalists Network condemned the arrest of al-Baqir. and considered that the demands of Professor Sami Al-Baqer and his successor, the Teachers Committee, represented the voice of reason and the strength of biased modernity in the cause of building a capable State apparatus capable of meeting the needs of the people, Those who arrest him in fact arrest tens of thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of employees of the State apparatus and arrest the voice of institutions, their freedom to demand and organize them.
The Sudan Trade Union Front warned against restricting trade unionism and the right to demand workers rights, viewing the arrest of Al-Baqir as a heinous response to the freedom of union democratic organization.
In a related context, the Middle East and North Africa Solidarity Network launched a memorandum of solidarity with Sudanese teachers and the release of Sami al-Baqer. The network appealed to trade unions in Britain to pressure the Government of Britain and the Sudanese Embassy in London to release Sami al-Baqer.
Since the coup d état of 25 October 2021, through the mid-April war, the public and higher education sector is facing a major crisis in the non-continuation of the school season, the non-payment of teachers salaries and the collapse of infrastructure in many areas of Khartoum and Darfur as a result of the war.
