The Movement To Democratize Egypt: A People's History of Egypt--Part 10: 1930-1945 Period

(This article was originally posted on The Rag Blog on September 25, 2013)

During the 1930s “Egyptian communist activities…focused primarily on labor unions, continued to be suppressed” by the UK imperialist-backed Egyptian monarchical regime, according to Tareq Y. Ismael and Rifa‘at El-Sa’id’s The Communist Movement in Egypt : 1920-1988. But in response to both the rise of fascism internationally and the growth within Egypt of Young Egypt, “a paramilitary organization which in the mid and latter 1930s demonstrated admiration for the accomplishments of fascist regimes” in Europe, “antifascist groups…proliferated in Egypt during the 1930s,” according to Selma Botman’s The Rise of Egyptian Communism, 1939-1970.  In addition, by the late 1930s some “communist study circles” were again formed in Egypt “that evolved into several organizations and factions” by the 1940s, according to an article by Hossam El-Hamalawy that appeared in the MERIP magazine in 2007, titled “Comrades and Brothers.”

Yet in the 1930s Egyptian society was still “socially traditional,” “men and women were generally separated,” “marriages were still arranged” and “women were regarded as the legitimate possessions of men,” according to The Rise of Egyptian Communism, 1939-1970. Although Islamic law “allowed a woman to own property, conduct business, and inherit a portion of her father’s estate equal to half her brother’s share, it put her at her husband’s mercy in matters concerning divorce and the family,” according to the same book. But despite the social conservatism of Egyptian society in the 1930s, some younger, less traditional Egyptian women, however, did participate in the anti-fascist leftist Egyptian groups of the 1930s.

After the UK imperialist government and its puppet monarchical regime in Egypt signed an Anglo-Egyptian Treaty on Aug. 26, 1936 which again recognized Egypt as an independent and sovereign nation but “also stipulated…that Egypt must grant Britain…military facilities,” according to Selma Botman’s Egypt from Independence to Revolution, 1919-1952, in 1937 the UK imperialist government then finally “allowed Egypt to apply for membership in the League of Nationals and to set up foreign embassies and consulates.” But Egyptian leftists in the 1930s considered the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty inadequately anti-imperialist “because British troops were to remain in Egypt for an additional 20 years and because…promises of unobstructed democracy and self-determination were absent,” according to the same book.

The 17-year-old King Farouk--who inherited the Egyptian throne following the death of his father, King Fuad, in 1936--also, for example, “soon displayed the same autocratic tendencies as his father,” although “the British ambassador Sir Miles Lampson…always referred to Farouk as `The Boy,’ even when the king was in his twenties,” according to Jason Thompson’s A History of Egypt. And after UK ambassador Lampson "surrounded the Abdin Palace with tanks” on Feb. 4, 1942 and “ordered `The Boy’” to appoint as Egypt’s prime minister the particular Wafdist leader that the UK government alone had selected “or abdicate,” according to A History of Egypt, this “coercion action confirmed that Egyptian independence was nothing more than a sham,” according to Egypt from Independence to Revolution, 1919-1952.

So, not surprisingly, a new wave of anti-British street protests again broke out in Egypt after leaders of the Egyptian student movement met in the summer of 1945 and “decided to call for the formation of national committees to participate in the national movement” of Egypt, according to The Communist Movement in Egypt: 1920-1988.

(end of article)

Australian Anti-War Activist Joan Coxsedge's August 23, 2014 Letter

(The following letter from Australian anti-war and Latin American solidarity activist Joan Coxsedge—who is also a former member of the Victoria state parliament--originally appeared in an Australian-Cuban solidarity group’s newsletter)

"Dear Comrades,

"These are extremely stressful times for those with a conscience and political nous, so if you can, take a walk in the hills or along a beach or try out the Yarra Valley wineries, any place where you can get a lungful of fresh air and give your brain a rest from the daily assaults from what passes as `news'. It's almost impossible to be at peace with our troubled world.

"Today we're assailed with market fundamentalism where we're told the `market' will resolve all our social, economic and political problems and that the less the state taxes and regulates us the better off we'll be, with public services privatized, public spending cut and businesses freed from any form of social control.

"At the heart of this bull-shit is a no-holds-barred philosophy where the rich are the righteous and the poor are the social parasites, but instead of `liberating' us, it has given us isolation and penury, except for those at the very top of the heap. Whether we're working or unemployed, we must live by the same set of rigid rules or perish. Our major political parties sing from the same sad song sheet, leaving us without a political voice and being controlled by a heavy-handed faceless bureaucracy. So if you feel betrayed by our current set of circumstances, that's fine. I means you have kept your humanity.

"But we're stuck in the present and facing the consequences of America's reckless and criminal interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria, where various sects once lived in peace under the rule of Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi and Assad and are now butchering each other. And where a new more extreme group, ISIS, a creation of Washington's meddling, is trying to create a new state out of the remnants of Iraq and Syria.

"The Clinton regime's onslaught on Serbia set the pattern, which was picked up by George Bush mobsters who unleashed appalling aggression against Afghanistan with the Orwellian slogan `Operation Enduring Freedom', bringing anything but. After 13 destructive years, Washington is now pulling out, having been beaten by a couple of thousand Taliban, leaving behind utter devastation while refusing to accept any responsibility, and barely two years after U.S. forces left Iraq, they're back, this time claiming `humanitarianism' for yet another military intervention.

"The idea that those responsible for up to a million deaths,  million refugees, mass torture and ethnic cleansing have the gall to present themselves as having a `responsibility to protect' Iraqis is beyond belief. The same screwed-up mindset came from the mouth of the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. who said that after 2000 Palestinians in Gaza were slaughtered, the Israeli army should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its `unimaginable restraint', when most of the world believed they should be charged with war crimes.

"But Israel is protected by Big Brother Washington which, since 1962, has kicked in $100 billion to its coffers. For the past few decades, Israel has been given $3 billion annually solely for `defense' purposes. Both refuse to accept anyone else's laws and turned their back on diplomacy a long time ago, preferring to bully and coerce and threaten.

"Today we're on the cusp of commemorating the horrors of WWI (one media nong said `celebrate',) a catastrophe that wiped ou a generation of our young, destroyed much of Europe, and precipitated WW2. And yet we're seeing a new repugnant form of fascism emerging today in Ukraine where Washington is using the Kiev junta to attack Russia and provoke war in Europe to maintain world domination. If ever we needed strong radical voices to speak out against these dangerous trends, it's now.

"An English academic laments that for the first time in 200 years there is no eminent British poet, playwright or novelist prepared to question the foundations of the `western way of life:' No Shelley speaks for the poor, no Blake for utopian dreams, no Byron damns the corruption of the ruling class, no Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin reveal the moral disaster of capitalism. William Morris, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw have no equivalents today. Harold Pinter was the last to raise his eloquent voice. And among the insistent voices of consumer-feminism, none echoes Virginia Woolf who described the `art of dominating other people...of ruling, of acquiring land and capital'.

"It's impossible to fully understand Cuba without also understanding the economic sanctions levelled against it by the U.S.. For over 50 years, these sanctions have been upheld by every presidential administration and at times intensified by individual presidents and acts of Congress.

"They are a key part of the U.S. government's ongoing campaign to undermine the Cuban Revolution and stand in egregious violation of international law. Most importantly, the sanctions are cruelly designed to harm the Cuban people, which is why we are members of the ACFS. And why we give three cheers for the wonderful young Cuban woman, Aili Labanino-Cardosa, who travelled around Australia to highlight the plight of five courageous Cubans--one her father--who had entered the United States in 1998 to monitor the actions of extremist groups in Miami. But instead of clamping down on the criminals, the FBI arrested the Cubans and after trumped-up charges and a politically-motivated trial, gave them horrendously long jail sentences in often brutal conditions. Two were released after serving their full time, but three are still incarcerated. And three cheers for the two unions--the CFMEU and MUA--who organized her tour and for the ACFS branches from around Australia who gave it their full support.

"Joan Coxsedge" 

The Movement To Democratize Egypt: A People's History of Egypt--Part 9: 1924-1930 Period

(This article was originally posted on The Rag Blog on September 16, 2013) 

After an Egyptian constitution was promulgated in 1923, martial law in Egypt was abolished, an Egyptian election was held and Saad Zaghlul, the leader of the Egyptian landowning elite’s nationalist Wafd party, became the Egyptian monarchical government’s prime minister in January 1924. A Wafd government was then formed in Egypt which just “represented bourgeois landowner and upper-class interests and aspirations,” did not represent the interest of Egypt ’s “poverty-stricken rural peasants and urban workers” and “was inherently hostile towards the labor movement” in Egypt , according to Tareq Y. Ismael and Rifa‘at El-Sa’id’s The Communist Movement in Egypt : 1920-1988. So during the 1920s, the plots of arable land owned by 1 million Egyptian peasants were “too small for subsistence,” and “fully one-fifth of rural families” in Egypt “owned no land at all,” according to A History of Egypt.

By late 1924 the nationalist Wafd government of the large landowners and business elite’s monarchical regime had interned the entire leadership of the Egyptian Communist Party and disbanded Egypt ’s Confederation of Trade Unions. For example, after 1,200 to 1,500 Egyptian workers had gone on strike in Alexandria at the Filatunes Nationales of Egypt firm in February 1924—and workers at Egyptian Oil Industries, Egyptian Salt and Soda Company, Kafr-El-Zayat-Coffon Company and Abouchanabs had also gone on strike during the same month—the Wafd government banned gatherings of Egyptian workers; and on Mar. 3, 1924 the Wafd government arrested Egyptian Communist Party leaders such as Hosni al-‘Arabi, Anton Maroun and Sheikh Safwan Abu-al-Fatah and destroyed the Egyptian Communist Party of the early 1920s.

But “the Comintern put together a new central committee from the remnants of the Egyptian Communist Party” still active “and not imprisoned;” and “a new” Egyptian Communist Party “organization—this time more tightly structured, with cells and a private printing press—was implemented in Cairo, Alexandria, and Port Said,” according to The Communist Movement in Egypt: 1920-1988.  And, as the same book recalled, on Mar. 6, 1925 the Egyptian communists “acquired a small newspaper, al-Hisab” and “managed to publish” prior to May 18, 1925 “eight issues before it was shut down and its editor and staff jailed.”

Yet “from the first, the organizational meetings of the” re-established Egyptian Communist Party’s’ “new central committee were infiltrated by British intelligence;” and “an intelligence agent, Mohammed ‘Abd al-‘Aziz,” even “became secretary general of the central committee in late 1924 and served in that post for 4 years,” according to The Communist Movement in Egypt: 1920-1988.

So, not surprisingly, all members of the re-established Egyptian Communist Party’s Central Committee were arrested by the Egyptian government after Ahmad Ziwar Pasha succeeded Saad Zaghhoul as the semi-colonial/neo-colonial Egyptian monarchical government’s prime minister on May 30, 1925. But, as Selma Botman observed in The Rise of Egyptian Communism, 1939-1970, “despite the demise of organized Egyptian communism” during the 1920s, “small pockets of legal leftist activists appeared…some years later…”

(end of part 9)

Australian Anti-War Activist Joan Coxsedge's July 27, 2014 Letter

(The following letter from Australian anti-war and Latin American solidarity activist Joan Coxsedge—who is also a former member of the Victoria state parliament--originally appeared in an Australian-Cuban solidarity group’s newsletter)

"Dear Comrades,

"After weeks of disasters, where to start? Certainly to express anguish for the victims and their families, but also fury at our appallingly biased media and the way Abbott and Bishop have used the downing of MH 17 to launch a political point-scoring anti-Putin tirade without a smidgen of proof, while absolving Israel from its brutal treatment of Palestinians. 

"From the minute we learned that the Malaysian airliner had crashed, Moscow was put in the frame with Washington unleashing round after round of unfounded accusations and insinuations, swiftly picked up by the western corporate media and faithfully echoed by our lackeys here.

"A `free' press indeed, free to lie on behalf of powerful vested interests. Russia is guilty. End of story. If you believe otherwise, keep your mouth shut! No capacity to look at the role of Kiev and Washington, but still the questions keep coming, questions we know will never be answered.

"Why did Ukrainian air control re-route the Malaysian plane 200 kms north from its usual flight path plunging it smack in the middle of a war zone? The Russian government has also released satellite photos showing the presence of Ukrainian BuK anti-aircraft missiles in locations that could have brought the airliner down and provided documentation that a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet rapidly approached the Airliner prior to its downing. It is certainly true that Russian separatists have ground-to-air missiles of the type that the U.S. supplied to Afghanistan during the Russian invasion, but these missiles can only attack low-lying aircraft. They cannot reach a height of 33,000 feet.

"And then there's the weird story of Carlos, the Spanish air traffic controller working at Kiev's tower who was following MH 17 in real time and tweeting like mad that the missile was fired by the Ukraine military under orders from the Ministry of the Interior run by the notorious Andriy Parubry working alongside U.S. neo-cons and neo-Nazis. Carlos has disappeared and his friends are desperately searching for him. And the timing. A coincidence that the downing happened two days after BRICS, an acronym for a grouping of countries--Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa--set up to challenge major trade accords and the power of the IMF and World Bank, announced it was bypassing the US dollar?

"If you're not outraged at what is happening in Gaza than you bloody well should be. People need to be reminded that Israel was formed by the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians who were brutally driven from their homes and sent to refugee camps, stealing half their land, whittled away over the decades through illegal Israeli settlements, now less than 20%. 

"More than 800 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's latest onslaught, most of them women and children, and many thousands wounded, as missiles indiscriminately rain down on a defenseless people sheltering in schools, houses, mosques and hospitals, with Gaza's borders blockaded by land, sea and air, as water supply turned off and reservoirs destroyed.

"A book on Israeli military psychology should devote an entire chapter to sadism, illustrated by a recorded message demanding that hundreds of thousands of people should leave their already-targeted homes for another place equally dangerous ten kms away. Israel is a nation run by demented thugs twisted by beliefs forced into their heads by psychotic teachers. How else can you explain the actions of young Israeli killers who abducted Abu Khdeir and forced him to drink gasoline before buring him alive or why it was considered acceptable to fire missiles from a ship off the coast killing four young boys playing on the beach as they ran for safety.

"Is it any wonder that a senior official from Medecins Sans Frontreres (MSF) has described its work among the 1.8 million besieged Palestinian refugees akin to being in an open-air prison where they patch up prisoners in between their torture sessions. He asked: `At what point does MSF's medical activities in an unacceptable situation like Gaza become complicit with aggression and oppression?'

"Since 2010, MSF has run a post-operative clinic in Gaza City where 80% of patients suffer from severe burns. But his voice of outrage is drowned out by the propaganda that erupts each time Israel is attacked for its war crimes. Israel obeys only Israel because it controls the US veto and walks with impunity across the world stage. The US House of Representatives recently voted unanimously to give unqualified support for Israel.

"The federal government is about to vastly increase ASIO's powers claiming they haven't been upgraded since the 1970s, which is rubbish. In the first post 9/11 package two parliamentary committees responsible for the bills received between 200-300 submissions from around Australia and yet they only allocated a couple of days for a select few to appear at public hearings for some perfunctory questioning about legislation that was altering some of the most basic tenets of our criminal justice system by removing the right to silence and presumption of innocence.

"In total more than 20 `terrorism' laws have been passed since the twin towers collapsed, once again supported by our Labor Party comrades with `safeguards' which aren't worth the paper they're written on. These are fascist laws that criminalized dissent, with more in the pipeline.

"Thank god for Cuba which continues to give us hope. This week we celebrated their marvelous July 26 revolution and were delighted that Cuba has received some positive publicity here over its excellent adult literacy program called Yo Si Puedo, Yes I can. Under Cuban guidance, in the form of Havana grandmother Lucy Nunez, Aboriginal residents of Wilcannio, Bourke and Inngonia have been encouraged to attend classes through a `mass campaign' approach pioneered in the early days of the Cuban revolution.

"More than six million people from 28 countries have learned to read and write through Yes I Can, but it's a first for Australia, where to our deep shame, about 65% of Aboriginal people are `functionally illiterate', with their young supplying almost half the juvenile prison population. Viva Cuba!"

"Joan Coxsedge"

The Movement To Democratize Egypt: A People's History of Egypt--Part 8: 1922-1923 Period

(The following article was first posted on The Rag Blog on September 2, 2013)

In 1922 “the British decided unilaterally…to allow Egypt formal independence…because of the realistic possibility that the 1919 Revolution could recur,” according to Selma Botman’s Egypt from Independence to Revolution, 1919-1952. Yet despite obtaining its formal independence from UK imperialism Feb. 28, 1922, “Egypt of the pre-Nasser period was dominated by foreigners: the British controlled the upper levels of the military and the government, and people of various European nationalities owned and operated the banks, hotels, textile factories, and insurance companies,” according to the same book. Although the UK-selected Sultan Ahmad Fuad was now officially the King of a formally independent Egyptian monarchical government in March 1922, the UK government still “retained the right to maintain the security of British imperial communications through Egypt (i.e., the Suez Canal),” according to Jason Thompson’s A History of Egypt; and during the next few decades “more than once Royal Navy warships appeared before the palace windows in Alexandria when the British wanted a controversial decision to go their way,” “a strong British military presence remained in Egypt, not only in the canal zone but also in Alexandria and in Cairo, where the British army barracks stood in the middle of town on the site now occupied by the Nile Hilton Hotel,” and “a British high commissioner…was quite willing to intervene,” according to the same book
.

So, despite the monarchical government’s censorship policy, during the next few years “between 15,000 and 20,000 workers” in Egypt “were influenced by” the anti-imperialist Egyptian Socialist Party’s labor activism, according to Tareq Y. Ismael and Rifa‘at El-Sa’id’s The Communist Movement in Egypt: 1920-1988.

Party activists mobilized workers, organized meetings and recruited new members in the Alexandria and al-Mahulah al industrial districts of Egypt; and one of the Egyptian Socialist Party’s founders, Joseph Rosenthal, organized 3,000 Egyptian workers to become members of the General Union of Workers (Itihad al-Naqabot al-‘Am) before being expelled from the Egyptian Socialist Party in December 1922 for opposing the party’s decision to accept the Comintern’s requirements for being affiliated to the Comintern.

Between August 1921 and April 1922, Egyptian workers in 50 different Egyptian workplaces were mobilized to fight for improved labor conditions in 91 separate strike actions. Tram workers in Alexandria , for example, went on strike for 42 days and Cairo ’s tram workers went on strike for 102 days; and workers at the Shell Oil Refinery in Egypt went on strike for 113 days. And, by late 1922, the Egyptian Socialist Party had recruited around 400 members in its Alexandria branch and about 1,100 members in its branches in other Egyptian cities; and the General Union of Workers--that Egyptian Socialist Party members led—now had about 20,000 members.

After affiliating with the Third International’s Comintern, the Egyptian Socialist Party then changed its name to the Egyptian Communist Party; and, led by a Central Committee which Hosni al-‘Arabi’ chaired, adopted the following program for the democratization of Egyptian society in its January 1923 meeting: 1. nationalization of the Suez Canal ; 2. the liberation and unification of Egypt and the Sudan; 3. the repudiation of all Egyptian state debts and foreign capitulation agreements; 4. an 8-hour workday; 5. equal pay for Egyptian and foreign workers in Egypt; 6. abolition of land tenancy agreements in which Egyptian peasants had to pay 50 percent of the crop on rented land to large landowners; 7. the cancellation of the debts of all Egyptian peasants who owned less than 10 feddans of land; and 8. the restriction of landownership by individual landlords in Egypt to no more than 100 feddans.

To prevent the development of an anti-imperialist leftist movement of workers and intellectuals in Egypt during the early 1920s, however, “a special bureau” had been “established” by the UK-backed Egyptian Ministry of the Interior in 1921 “to monitor the activities” of the Egyptian Socialist Party; and “in their opposition to socialist activists the British found allies within the Egyptian bourgeoisie and religious circles,” according to The Communist Movement in Egypt: 1920-1988.

In addition, a Constitution for Egypt, “written by Egyptian legal experts who were sympathetic to the king and the British,” was also decreed on Apr. 19, 1923 which set up an Egyptian Senate and Chamber of Deputies--with members elected only by Egyptian men, “except for the two-fifths of the Senate who were appointed by the king” of Egypt, according to Egypt from Independence to Revolution, 1919-1952. This same Egyptian Constitution of 1923 also “gave excessive power to the monarch, who was granted authority to dismiss cabinets, dissolve parliament and appoint and unseat prime ministers,” according to the same book.

And besides holding excessive political power under the April 1923 Egyptian Constitution, “the royal family of Egyptian King Fuad also “owned about one-tenth of the arable land in Egypt ” in 1923, according to A History of Egypt. Yet, according to the Encyclopedia Judaica, the Egyptian monarchical government’s minister of finance and communications in 1923, Joseph Cattaui, was apparently of Jewish religious background.

(end of part 8)

Black Worker `Not Seasonally Adjusted' Unemployment Rate Increases To 12.2 Percent In July 2014

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Black workers (youth, male and female) increased from 11.1 to 12.2 percent between June and July 2014; while the total number of unemployed Black workers in the United States increased by 248,000 (from 2,107,000 to 2,355,000) during the same period, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States increased from 10.6 to 11.5 percent between June and July 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted’ unemployment rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 9.3 to 10.9 percent during the same period. In addition, between June and July 2014, the total number of unemployed Black female workers over 20 years-of age increased by 163,000 (from 893,000 to 1,056,000); while the total number of unemployed Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 81,000 (from 922,000 to 1,003,000) according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

In July 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age in the United States was still 36.8 percent; while the number of unemployed Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 3,000 (from 292,000 to 295,000) during the same period, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 28.3 to 29 percent between June and July 2014; while the number of unemployed Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 30,000 (from 355,000 to 385,000) during the same period.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 18.9 percent in July 2014; while the number of unemployed white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 1,059,000 during that same month, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data. In addition, in July 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 21.1 percent; while the total number of all unemployed youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 1,483,000 during that same month, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all Latino workers (male, female and youth) in the United States increased from 7.8 to 7.9 percent between June and July 2014; while the total number of unemployed Latino workers in the United States increased by 19,000 (from 1,988,000 to 2,007,000) during the same period, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 7.2 to 7.7 percent between June and July 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 6 percent in July 2014.. In addition, the number of unemployed Latino female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 40,000 (from 735,000 to 775,000) between June and July 2014, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

In July 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all Asian-American workers was still 4.5 percent; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Asian-American workers who were still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 29,000 (from 8,746,000 to 8,717,000) during the same month..

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 4.6 percent in July 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 4.9 to 5.5 percent between June and July 2014. In addition, the number of unemployed white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 277,000 (from 2,671,000 to 2,948,000) between June and July 2014, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white workers (male, female and youth) increased by 110,000 (from 6,858,000 to 6,968,000) during the same period.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 5.5 to 6.3 percent between June and July 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 5.5 percent in June 2014. In addition, the total number of all unemployed female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 543,000 (from 3,843,000 to 4,386,000) June and July 2014, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of all unemployed male workers over 16 years-of-age was still 5,220,000 in July 2014.

Between June and July 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all U.S. workers (male, female and youth) increased from 6.3 to 6.5 percent; while the total number of unemployed workers in the United States increased from 9,893,000 to 10,307,000 during the same period, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ August 1, 2014 press release:

“…The unemployment rate was little changed at 6.2 percent…Both the unemployment rate (6.2 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (9.7 million) changed little in July….Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult women increased to 5.7 percent and the rate for blacks edged up to 11.4 percent in July…The rates for adult men (5.7 percent), teenagers (20.2 percent), whites (5.3 percent), and Hispanics (7.8 percent) showed little or no change in July...

"The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 3.2 million in July. These individuals accounted for 32.9 percent of the unemployed...

"The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers), at 7.5 million, was unchanged in July. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

"In July, 2.2 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force..These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

"Among the marginally attached, there were 741,000 discouraged workers in July…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

.

“Employment in temporary help services changed little over the month…Employment in health care changed little over the month, with job gains in ambulatory health care services (+21,000) largely offset by losses in hospitals (-7,000) and nursing care facilities (-6,000)…Employment in leisure and hospitality changed little in July…Employment in…wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and government, showed little change in July…”