Tag Archives: Egyptian History

Political Map of Egyptian Writers and Intellectuals

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political leanings of Egyptian authors according to Mustapha Byumi:

Marxists cut off from communists:

Those part of political groups at one time but broke away keeping their sympathy and political leanings

Non-Marxist progressive thinkers and writers

  • Naguib Mahfouz
  • Louis Awad
  • Fathy Ghanim
  • Baha’ Tahir
  • Gamil ‘Atiya Ibrahim
  • ‘Alla’ al-Deeb
  • Usama Anur ‘Akasha
  • Hussein ‘Abd al-‘Alim

Resources about Egyptian Intellectual History

 

 

 

The Cultural Economy of Development in Egypt: Economic Nationalism, Hidden Economy and the Emergence of Mass Consumer Society during Sadat’s Infitah

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ISI emerged gradually after the takeover of power, and it crystallized
fully only with the first five-year plan of 1960–61
From 1956 onward the pace of ISI quickened, partly as a result of the special and
unexpected conditions that the Suez War that year had created in transferring much
foreign economic enterprise into government hands when sequestration and later
nationalization of British, French and Jewish property took place.19 It also revealed
symptoms of impatience at the slow progress of economic development when left to
the ‘national bourgeoisie’, which pushed for radicalization of the Nasserist regime.
Having been so entrenched in local modernity,
national ideals, and group-turned-national identity, the standstill of ISI, and since
the early 1970s the retreat from state-led industrialization, placed a big question
mark on the notion of ‘Egyptianness’ as well.
The hidden
economy became a part of Egyptian daily life on every level in employment, housing,
shopping, or dealing with local and national government, and it impacted on
household politics and intimate family and gender relations as well as society and the
economy at large. Many small and medium-sized businesses, and the large informal housing sector,
were counted under such economic activity. Finances, whether of large-scale Islamic
companies, moneychangers, or neighbourhood women’s lending clubs (jam0
iyyat),
also operated with little interaction with the official, mostly state-owned, banking
system. Remittances from labour migrants too were siphoned back into the country
outside the official banking system, and they became the most significant
contributors to such informality in increasing both local spending and investment.
The multilayered presence of the hidden economy made it too significant to go
unnoticed. Nevertheless, it was kept concealed in the debate focusing almost
exclusively on the open-door aspect of the infitah,
28 and both government and
opposition grossly missed the revolutionary, long-term impact of the hidden
economy. Although this myopia was largely due to the ideological and identity
strings attached to economic nationalism in Egypt,
While the hidden economy did not fit easily into contemporary discourse and
economic orthodoxies, it did become an entrenched part of Egypt’s political
economy. Because the formal economic institutions would not allow a significant
enough transition to take place, they facilitated the alternative spread of informality.
This, however, did not mean a duality between formal and informal economies with
little contact between the two; it meant myriad synergies that served both sides. As
the 1977 food riots vividly demonstrated, political leadership would not or could not
push for the dramatic reform necessary fully to engage the economic downturn.
(Smuggling of things into the caves of al-khalawi as the informal economy and remittances? OMG WHATIF KHALAWIIS THE INFORMAL ECONOMY)
Consumption was indeed rampant during this period. It was manifested
everywhere, from entry points into the country, where returning migrant workers
brought back imported commodities, to the Free Zones and local markets where
imported goods were sold. Cityscapes were transformed further, with significant
investment in lucrative construction including high-rise buildings that served as
homes for the rich, business-space, and hotels. On the other hand, rapid
urbanization associated with informal settlements, pressures on physical resources,
and public services
Economic nationalism was still strong among infitah defenders and critics alike,
and both sides were taken by surprise at the sheer magnitude of the unleashed
events. Indeed, such surprise attested to an across-the-board myopia regarding the
nature of the economic transformations, associated with the rapid development of
the hidden economy and enhanced by the emergence of local consumer society.
So the economy which emerged was unrepresentable, unlike the national economy envisioned in past iterations, and so the khitat is unable to show it, tries with al-khalawi, projecting it out as another irrational space rather than part of al-khitat itself
All the best,

Workers on the Nile 1882–1954 Joel Beinin Zachary Lockman

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Citation

 

Beinin, Joel, 1948, and Zachary Lockman. Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam, and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J, 1987.

Contents

Author

Context

Thesis

 

“the dialectic of class and nation [and] the formation of a new class of wage workers as Egypt experienced a particular kind of capitalist development … and these workers’ adoption of various forms of consciousness, organization, and collective action in a political and economic context structured by the realities of foreign domination and the struggle for national independence.”

 

Methodology

Key Terms

Criticisms and Questions

Notes

 

From the amazing and self-sufficient conclusion:

 

-two factors defined matrix within which working class was formed: the structure of Egyptian capitalism itself, and Egypt’s domination by British colonialism.

Egyptian Capitalism: influx of foreign capital concentrated primarily in agricultural sector, after WWI power of foreign and mutamassir capital ultimately compelled nascent industrial bourgeoisie to abandon independence. Formed a class alliance. Textile sector grew in 1930s and 40s, but growing parasitical class of large landoweners linked to foreign cotton market. Locally produced industrial good market collapsed after WWII exposed weakness of industry, and overdependence on textile market.

Working class: uneven development of Egyptian capitalism. Majority urban workers employed in small under-capitalized shops with pre-capitalist production and social relations. Working class but not trade unionists. Large scale workers in transport, public utilities and public enterprises, all to support cotton extraction.

-even with rise of industrial proletariat, still seen through lens of nationalist sturggle.

-Wafd was bourgeois nationalism which saw labor as only one part.

-Egyptian communist organizations greatest influence during jan-june 1946 and 10/51-1/52. Biggest day was February 21, 1946.

-Post war led to labor rivalry between MB and communists.

-Strikes in Mahalla al-kubra in 1947 and Kafir al-Dawwar in 1952 showed workers’ rejection of paternalism. Made “labor question” pressing issue.

-Working class, although growing in power, gave up to military regime in March 1954

-Orthodox Marxists emphasize betrayal of this deal

-March 1954 was a compromise where regime granted many economic demands so that trade union leadership would accept regime’s tutelage.

-Arab socialism rejected the concept of class struggle, but accepted it as a valid social and political category.

-Nasserism’s international political success also made labor quiescent.

-severe repression of communists and other groups that didn’t accept tutelage

-Nasserism’s economic strategy based on development of industry, economic planning, and economic redistribution, failed after 1965 because government could not sustain consumption and investment.

-New door policy abandonment of March 1954 compromise.

literature, Journalism and the avant-garde intersections in Egypt – Elizabeth Kendall

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– – This book explores the role of journalism and Egypt in affecting and promoting the development of modern Arabic literature from its inception in the mid-19th century until the late 20th century.

– What specifically, this book examines the role of the independent journal in fostering literary developments concentrating on the 1960s in the pivotal role of the avant-garde journal gallery 68.

– A single rider my belong to several literary generations, nor can one speak of a specific 60s Aesthetic

-Avant-garde indicates that a work or writer is advancing away from the dominant norms and tastes.

Chapter 1: literary journalism in Egypt, its emergence and development

-A necessary prerequisite for the emergence of literary journalism and Egypt was Muhammad Ali‘s educational program which came to fruition under ismail’s reign

-ismail supported ezbekiyya theatre in 1868, cairo opera 1869

-The real birth of a Gyptian journalism with both political and literary impact came through the efforts of Yaqub sanu and Abdallah al-nadim who identified with ordinary EGyptian‘s in a way in which the Syrians couldnt. Before the Urabi revolt conditions were right for their papers to Floreis – it ships national consciousness had reached a fever pitch with the eminent threat of European domination

-Egyptian theater was big in the 1870s.

–al-tunisi was banished in 1919 but zajal was A regular feature in the popular press of the 1920s and 30s with several journals having their own poet performing a function similar to today’s editorial columnist

-The two principal general cultural journals in Egypt at the end of the 19th century were alhilal and almuqtatif

– The former was more literary and the second was more scientific.

-hadith isa bin hisham modern maqama

-The golden age of literary journalism was from the mid-1920s to the second world war.

– As a quest for national and political identity matured encouraged by advances such as the 1919 revolution of the 1923 constitution, you knew more subjective fictional writing emerged in the 1920s, designed to reflect intellectuals perceptions of national debt identity.

– 1930-40s islamoc arab focus takes over western (israel gershoni) attributes this cultural shift to setbacks in the parliamentary Egyptian just order which resulted in the loss of political hegemony by the secular pro-Western elite. (Could this be thought of as the failure o bourgeois hegemony as well)

-al hilal had literary heavyhitters in 1923-9 with salama musa as editor: taha hussein, ahmed amin, mahmud abbas al-aqqad, abdal qader al-mazini, muhammed huseein haykal

-diary of a country prosecutor was actually written in 11 different parts as it was serialized which helps to explain its structure.

– 2K journals of the period of the 1920s which played an avant-garde role is a literary scene was the dawn 1925 to 7 for the short story and Apollo 1932 to 4 for poetry.

– Al-fajr significance lay in it introduction of European ideas about creative literature and its role in society shifting the focus from the works political relevance to his artistic form while retaining its social and didactic role

-Apollo had extended encouragement and patronage to promising young poets and greatly stimulated the Romantic movement which had a significant impact on the course of modern Arabic literature.

– Al-majalla al-jadida became home to a kind of surrealist writing and literature formed an integral part of the groups bold Marxist program which led to its closure by military decree in 1944.

– By the 1940s literary journalism had gained a momentum of its own it was no longer reliant on nationalist zeal to act as it’s essential impetus.

Chapter 2: literary journalism and Egypt increasing polarization

 

-Account of literary journalism in the 1950s and 60s.

– In general literary journalism suffered during the second world war as it has during the first with paper shortages and many journal shrinking.

– The Egyptian writer was a literary journal in the late 1940s which introduced modern European writers and experimentalism it was close in 1948. Louis wad called it probably the finest cultural organ Egypt has ever known. Baja also said it was very important for the 60s generation.

-it also published adunis bayati and malaika

-The 1940s witnessed a flurry of activity and organization among the far left with the birth of several radical cultural groups many of which publish their own journals. Marxist ideology greatly influenced the development of modern education literature.

– jamaat al-fan wa al-hurriya 1939 – ramsis yunan, kamil al-tilmisani, fuad kamil

-al-tatawir published some of the earliest examples of surrealist tendencies in Arabic literature as well as translating forward thinkers and poets like Sigman Freud Paul Ella wired and I thought our Rambo.

-follow up journal al-majalla al-jadida in 1941 call that self a journal for social struggle and renewal which included articles on Marxist thought by awad and Al-sharuni and was close by military degree when a picture of Lenin appeared on the cover

-lots of other good stuff in here about left-wing journalism in the 1940s.

-many of the marxist writers poets and artists from the democratic movement for national liberation which had cooperated with the free officers movement in the July 1952 revolution began to fall out with the new regime. Factionalism am on the far left intensified with the Soviet union is condemnation of the officers movement as an American plot

-their journal was al-ghad many writers published the first story here like idris ghanem and sharqawi 1953, 1959

-The latter half of the 1950s witnessed a search and cultural activity there was a dramatic increase in the number of students in higher education but also increased state intervention.

– Literature was institutionalized in the 1960s with the political and cultural fields in extra bleach and twined the political disillusionment and unrest that dominated the 1960s was inevitably reflected in a cultural domain. Left wing leaders were arrested after 1959Because of the rivalry with qasim in iraq.

  • Nationalization of literature was a double edged sword with many financial benefits but very much censorship and control which culminated in the increasing stagnation of cultural activity in the 1970s.
  • Leftist intellectuals under mass arrest in 1966: ghitano, abnudi, ghali shukri, sabry hafez
  • In the middle of the 60s there was a brief cultural surge but after a decade of state control young experimental writers felt excluded and frustrated.
  • An avant-garde responded to this with the new sensibility.
  • While nasser
  • respected intellectuals he did not trust their political tendencies and while he let them work with in the institutions he left real power in the hands of others and maintained a sort of control.
  • The cultural seen deteriorated after 1967 as the reverse outcome of the state monopoly on culture made it self felt, most of the journals sponsored by the Ministry of culture we’re close down in 1971 to 1973
  • The remainder of the book focuses on gallery 68.There was not a disagreement about the portrayal of working class realities, it was the static socialist realist approach to this portayal. Page 167

Class Conflict in Egypt – Mahmoud Hussein

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Citation:

Relevance:

Marxist reading of 20th century Egyptian history

Notes:

-big landowners preferred uprooted irregular labor to tenant farmers, but also them to mechanized labor

-interests of landowners clashed with growing productive forces of capitalism

-colonial power relied on local business elite which has no solid domestic foundation.

-newer commercial bourgeoisie was more local in origin. investment originally had to come from the countryside until WWII.

-relations of production which let ruling class exploit masses were transitional between fueudalism in decay and capitalism, which paralyzed country. direct reflection of Egyptian dependence on global market.

-petty-bourgeois elite were in favor of capitalism and hostile to those in the way.

-the petty bourgeois is the connecting link between all these dissociated social levels. monopolize intellectual activity ideological background based on individualism, elitism, and idealism.

-interwar system based on two rival institutions: the palace and the wafd, who could be played against one another.

-key posts in civil service reserved for palace, why Wafd was only ever an appendage of power structure.

-value system of puppet kind regime disintegrated after the war.

1945-47 workers and students alliance to push British out of canal.

-King used Palestine war as a way to recapture popular patriotic movement.

-Free officers original plan to streamline army made them realize they needed to change state structure.

-Cairo fires were dispossessed masses setting fire to symbols of class privelege and haunts of imperialism (groppi, rivoli shepheards, etc.)

-1950-1952 wildcat strikes and independent movements, while the communists were still theorizing.

-Free officers and MB both trying to seize power, free officers had positions in state apparatus, MB had mass support.

-Communist movement lived a life of its own remote from mass support

-Free officers only understood superstructural crises, wanted to promote capitalism

initial stage of regime (1952-1954) the council of the revolution was led to suppression of all parties without its own class foundations, relative autonomy of state power to suppress mass movements.

-second stage (1955-1958) Suez crisis gave huge legitimacy to the regime, soviet support and growing ruling class abmitions of petty-borgeois elite to push aside traditional bourgeoisie.

-third stage (1959-1963) had to choose between crisis of capitalist growth, or taking over with state bourgeosise to orient the economy in keeping with the requirements of capitalist expansion. 61-63 state power destroyed economic power of traditional bourgeoisie, political tutelage and “anti—capitalist” demagoguery.

years of decline (1964-67) autonomy began to narrow as US and USSR closed in, state bourgeoisie had consolidated position and wanted to put brakes on industrialization, wanted to play increasing political role, ending its effective autonomy, and withering its demagogic power.

-seperation in mass opinion between state power and ineffecitve state bourgeoisie until 1967.

“bloodless revolution” “no dictatorship of one class over the others” . Salazar regime type liberation rally, and the Arab Socialist Union corporatist trade-union and parlimentary life. workers and management labeled “salaried” while rural bourgeoisie and peasants labeled “peasantry”

-masses basically knew (1955-1963) that they weren’t represented, as their small initiatives were crushed, but the intellectuals stood by uncomprehending.

-regime put down worker’s strike at Kafr el-Dawwr

-From 1959-1964 most communists jailed until given amnesty, Nasser thinking of using their theoretical and organizational skills as long as they disolved their own orgs. appointed a few dozens to various press services, not only implementing regime’s policies, but for translating them into demagogic language (yusuf in man who lost his shadow), communists joined ranks of regimes intelligenstia, that segment of the state apparatus specializing in demogogery.