Tag: students

1976

Posted on By 3arabawy
[25-11-1976] Leftist students demonstrate outside the parliament building to protest the high cost of living and Sadat's economic policies. Two months later, the country was to witness a national uprising on 18 and 19 January 1977, that was crushed by Sadat's army [Photo by Popperfoto, Courtesy of the UK Socialist Worker Archives]
[25-11-1976] Leftist students demonstrate outside the parliament building to protest the high cost of living and Sadat’s economic policies. Two months later, the country was to witness a national uprising on 18 and 19 January 1977, that was crushed by Sadat’s army [Photo by Popperfoto, Courtesy of the UK Socialist Worker Archives]

Kamal Khalil, recalling the 25 November 1976 Cairo University march which he led as an Engineering graduate student and a communist organizer:

The Nasserists and the Communists were due to march on that day. But there were divisions in every faction.. both among the Nasserists themselves and the Communists. The Workers Communist party activists had announced they were not joining the march. My group’s cell leaders back then, the “Communist Party-8th of January,” voted 3 to 2 against joining the march. I decided to break the organizational orders, and agitate for the protest by noon. We had drafted together with the Nasserists, the “November Progressive Document”, where we stated the demands of the student movement against the reconciliation with Israel, the repression of the opposition and the “Open-Door” Policy [Sadat’s neoliberal reforms]. The original plan, before the student leaders started hesitating, was that we were to mobilize for a march on the parliament, and hand the “Document” to the parliamentarians. The march started by only 200 students, but soon swelled to more than 3000 and those who were hesitating, ended up joining when it became clear the Central Security Forces were not going to obstruct the march.
We camped outside the parliament, at el-Qasr el-Eini. Back then it was two-way street. One thing I’ll never forget was a bus driver who was on the opposite direction. We started chanting: “El-Ta’ayeed el-Tam el-Tam, li Edrab el-Na’l El-‘Am! [Our full solidarity for the transport workers’ strike]”. The bus drivers in Cairo had gone on strike earlier in the summer, bringing the capital to halt. The bus driver stopped his bus, and leaned out of the side window, to hug the demonstrators and kept on honking. A student delegation went up to deliver the “Document” to the parliamentarians. Of course their response was “sure we’ll look into that”.. but nothing happened. In less than two months, the intifada broke out.

1978 Tunisian Intifada

Posted on By 3arabawy

[2-1-1978] Protesters attacking ruling party office, during a general strike organized by the General Union of Tunisian Workers, which turned into an intifada [Photo courtesy of the UK Socialist Worker Archives].
[2-1-1978] Protesters attacking ruling party office, during a general strike organized by the General Union of Tunisian Workers, which turned into an intifada [Photo courtesy of the UK Socialist Worker Archives].
The following paragraph is an edited excerpt from my MA thesis, which I wrote around eight years ago on the 1977 Egyptian bread intifada:

Following the 1967 war, anti-Jewish riots spread in Tunisia as well as attacks on western interests and embassies [1]. The movement, however, was soon to assume a more mature political character, with students coming in the forefront. Strikes and demonstrations continued over the following year by the students, with support of the lecturers against state repression [2]. The government noted the militant intervention of Communists and Maoists in the events [3]. It also stepped in more than once to ban demonstrations in support of the Vietnamese struggle and the French students during the May Parisian uprising [4]. Maoism became a dominant force in the Tunisian universities, drawing its main inspiration from the French student movement [5]. The radicalization reached the peak by the 1970s, to explode into a workers’ uprising led by the trade unions against the government in 1978, that was put down brutally by the security services and the army.

1] Arab Report And Record, London, 1-15 June 1967: 196.
2] Arab Report And Record, London, 16-31 March 1968: 79; 1-15 April 1968: 95-6.
3] Arab Report And Record, London, 1-15 August 1968: 229; 1-15 September 1968: 266.
4] Arab Report And Record, London, 16-31 May 1968: 138; 16-30 November 1967: 368.
5] Harmel, Muhammad. Men ‘l-Hizb al-Wahed ‘l-ta’dodya: Massira Majida le-Tahqiq al-Badil al-Demoqrati (From one Party to pluralism: a glorious march towards achieving the democratic alternative). Damascus: Markaz El-Abhath We El-Derassat El-Ishtirakyya Fi El-Alam El-Arabi, n.d., Page 47.

1985 Cairo University Clashes

Posted on By 3arabawy
[12-10-1985] Central Security Forces taking shelter while students hurled stones at them, during demonstrations outside Cairo University denouncing the United States and Israel [Photo by Reuters, Courtesy of the UK Socialist Worker Archive]
[12-10-1985] Central Security Forces taking shelter while students hurled stones at them, during demonstrations outside Cairo University denouncing the United States and Israel [Photo by Reuters, Courtesy of the UK Socialist Worker Archive]