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Egypt Leftist Organizations
Since the early 1950s, Egypt has banned the Communist Party of
Egypt (CPE), which was formed in 1921. The National Progressive
Unionist Organization (a bloc of leftist factions including some
Marxists), however, was legal. Egyptian communism has traditionally
been a general movement of leftist factions rather than the
platform of a cohesive single party. Before the 1952 Revolution,
the movement was represented by the CPE as well as smaller groups
with names such as the Egyptian Movement for National Liberation,
the Spark, the Vanguard, the Marxist League, and the New Dawn.
After the overthrow of the monarchy, Marxist groups endorsed
the new regime but withdrew their support when the Revolutionary
Command Council declared that Marxism was dangerous to state
security and imprisoned many leftists. When Soviet Premier Nikita
S. Khrushchev visited Cairo in 1964, Nasser released all imprisoned
leftists. During the remainder of the 1960s, most leftists
abandoned their illegal groups and joined the government party, the
Arab Socialist Union (ASU). Many occupied important positions, but
their views and activities could not exceed the bounds of
government tolerance. In 1971 Sadat dismissed a number of Marxists
and known Soviet sympathizers from the ASU. Sadat again purged
leftists from the ASU after he expelled Soviet advisers from Egypt
in 1972 and after riots later that year and in early 1973. Sadat
blamed them for inciting unrest. After the 1977 food riots and the
1986 police conscripts' riots, some observers blamed communist
involvement, but most observers believed the riots were almost
entirely spontaneous. An underground group, Thawrat Misr (Egypt's
Revolution, also known as Thawrat Misr an Nassiriyah or Egypt's
Nasserist Revolution), took credit for the murder of two Israeli
diplomats and the attempted murders of several Israeli and United
States embassy personnel between 1984 and 1987. In 1986 a number of
members of the CPE were sentenced to prison for one to three years
for producing and possessing subversive publications. Later that
year, forty-four members of a secret leftist group, Al Ittijah ath
Thawri (Revolutionary Tendency), were arrested on charges of
planning to overthrow the regime and replace it with a Marxist
system.
As of 1989, Egyptian left-wing groups remained factionalized.
The CPE existed, but its membership was believed to be minuscule.
Other organizations, with names such as the Egyptian Communist
Workers' Party, the Popular Movement, the Revolutionary Progressive
Party, and the Armed Communist Organization, claimed to be part of
the leftist underground. Foreign observers believed that the
potential threat of these groups to the security of the state was
insignificant in comparison to the potential threat of Islamic
extremists.
Data as of December 1990
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