in 2003 abbas began seeking formal registration in line with article 11 of law 84/2002, which deals with ngo registration, security and public order. abbas was critical of the registration procedures: "the law is bad and it is designed to co-opt you under government control. and there has been heavy government pressure. but we decided to try and open negotiations with them. after all, in egypt you never know what is going to happen—things could get even worse tomorrow." abbas fought attempts to exclude the words "worker" and "trade union" from the organization name or scope. "they wanted us to change our name, but we won't, it's internationally recognized. they said the name breaches article 11. we said no, article 11 has to do with your goals...they said that our work could breach article 11. 'your problem is that you speak for workers in disputes, and this we can not allow. there are government agencies and organizations that already do this, and you cannot have face to face meetings [on these issues].'"