during the revolution, abbas made an appeal for new trade unions at tahrir square. he said, “on january 30th we met with representative of other independent trade union organizations and we discussed forming a new federation. we then made an announcement in tahrir square, calling for a new federation. but at the time we had no idea what would happen. since then this call has been responded to by the workers. the challenge now that the revolution has succeeded is to be able to build a society of social justice.”