Party Politics In Egypt: The Wafd & Its Rivals, 1919 1939 0903729407, 9780903729406

Table of contents :
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Chapter One. Introduction
Chapter Two. The 1919 Popular Uprising and the Emergence of a New Nationalist Movement 1919-1923
Chapter Three. The Vicissitudes of Political Power: Political Parties Under the 1923 Constitutional System 1923-1930
Chapter Four. The Palace-Sidqi Dictatorship: A Culmination of the Offensive against the Wafd 1930-1935
Chapter Five. The Beginnings of the Decline of the Wafd and the Rise of New Political Parties 1935-1939
Chapter Six. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

Party Politics in Egypt: the W afd & its rivals Marius Deeb

Published for The Middle East Centre St Antony’s College Oxford by Ithaca Press London

1979

TO M Y PARENTS

AND

M Y W IFE W hose love and inspiration made this work possible

ST ANTONY’S MIDDLE EAST MONOGRAPHS No 9 Copyright Marius Deeb 1979 F irst published In 1979 by Ithaca P r e ss 13 Southwark Street London SE 1 for the Middle East Centre St Antony’s College Oxford ISBN 0 903729 40 7

Printed In England by Anchor P r e ss Ltd and bound by Wm Brendon and Sons Ltd both of Tlptree E ssex

CONTENTS

FOREW ORD

i

ACKNO W LEDG EM ENTS

i¡¡

CHAPTER O N E

Introduction

CHAPTER TW O

The 1919 Popular Uprising and the Emergence of a N e w N ationalist Movem ent 1919-1923

C H APTER THREE

C H A P T ER F O U R

C H APTER FIV E

C H APTER S IX

1

21

The Vicissitudes of Political Power: Pblitical Parties Under the 1923 Constitutional System 1923-1930

123

The P a lace-Sid qi Dictatorship: A Culm ination of the O ffe n sive against the W afd 1930-1935

221

The Beginnings of the D eclin e of the W afd and the Rise o f N e w Political Pörties 1935-1939

311

C onclusion

417

B IB L IO G R A P H Y

425

IN D E X

441

FOREWORD

by A.H. Hourani

It i* a commonplace that the political history of Egypt in the period stretching from the British declaration of independence in 1922 to the military revolution of 1952, was dominated by the struggle for power between the British, the King and the Wafd. A number of writers have described and analysed the subtle and complex changes in the relationships between the three, but there have not been so many attempts to understand the meaning of the process: on the one hand, to explain the different conceptions of the future of Egypt and its place in the world which underlay the acts and policies of the three actors, and on the other to discover the ultimate sources of their strength, social and economic as well as political. Charles Issawl's three successive studies of the Egyptian economy laid some essential foundations, and ten years or so ago Jacques Barque painted a vivid picture of the movement of Egyptian society as a whole, its loss and recovery of the signs of its separate identity.

Now Marius Deeb gives

us in this book a precise analysis of one aspect of this movement, the relationship between political activity and social change.

The sub-title of his book is 'The Wafd and its Rivals 1919-1939', and this is appropriate, for both its supporters and its opponents would agree that the Wafd stood at the centre of Egyptian life during this period and indeed for longer; it is not certain that its life has yet ended and its influence been extinguished. Dr. Deeb's study of it is placed within a theoretical framework derived from the work of such writers as Ostrogorski, M ichels and Duverger.

He tries to analyse the nature of the Wafd, in each phase of its life, in terms of three factors: its ideology, its organization, and its social basis.

He shows that

throughout its history the Wafd hod a double nature. It thought of itself as being a nationalist movement, as being in fact the Egyptian nation organized for the purpose of obtaining independence, through negotiation or through struggle; at the same time, it was a political party competing with others to obtain power and use it in order to govern Egypt.

Its double nature did not give rise to tension so

long as the two groups from which its leadership and support were drawn, the urban effendiya and the medium landowners, were strong enough to control or neutralize other forces in society, the large landowners and the still unorganized workers and peasants.

In the 1930's, however, the economic and social develop­

ment of the country led to the emergence of new groups which had or claimed to have a share of political power: a new indigenous bourgeoisie, a large under­ employed educated class, and an urban proletariat swollen by rural over-population. W hile the Wafd still drew its main support from the same groups as before, it tried to appeal to others by putting forward a programme of social reform.

By the end

of the 1930's, however, it was weakened by the secession of some of its leaders, and was not able to win the allegiance of a new generation, or to repel the challenge of new movements which rejected the secular nationalism which hod always been its creed.

A C K N O W LE D G E M E N T S

I am immensely indebted to my mentor, M r. Albert Hourani, for his guidance and encouragement in the undertaking and completion of this work. I w ish to thank D r. Roger O w e n and D r. Derek Hopwood o f St. A n to n y 's M id d le East C entre, who were o f great assistance to me at different stages of this study.

M r. W ilfred Knapp of St. C ath erin e 's C o lle g e gave me his moral

support and ad vice throughout my studies at O x fo rd , for w hich I am profoundly grateful.

In this brief statement it would be d ifficult to acknow ledge the names o f a ll who facilitated my research in Egypt.

However I must mention those to

whom I owe the most valuable assistance and insights: first, the late C onse ille r Todros M . Todros whose knowledge of the leading fam ilies of the period was most enligh te n in g, and who offered to introduce me to many of the people who were involved in the p olitics o f the era under study.

I am espe cially grateful to

D r. Muhammad Sa la h a l- D in and M r. Ibrahim Farag who gave me an insider's vie w o f the W afd, the historical events and the personalities of the time.

I also

wish to thank D r. Muhammad A n is of C a iro U niversity, for his useful suggestions for research based on his profound knowledge of modern Egyptian History; to M r . Raghib Iskandar for his kind permission to see his private papers; to M r. Sa cd c Ab d o l - N u r for letting me read the memoirs of his father and to Dr. R asuf cAbbas for show ing me the memoirs of the prominent labour a ctivist, Hasan L lmara.

CHAPTER O N E IN T R O D U C T IO N

The aim of this study is to examine the rise and development of political parties in the period extending from the 1919 popular uprising to the outbreak o f World War II.

Political parties have been analyzed internally in terms of

their main determinants and externally in terms of their interrelationships and their different and changing roles in the historical process as it unfolded itself during the course of those years in Egypt.

When the period 1919-1939 is viewed in an historical perspective it can be regarded as the heyday of party politics in Egypt. The first political party antedates the interwar period and goes back to the formation of the National Party in 1879.

However, the British occupation which followed the defeat of

the °Urobi movement introduced an element of discontinuity in the development of political parties.

It was not until the m id-1890's that the first political

stirrings began with a new nationalist movement which later crystallized around the Watani Party of Mustafa Kamil and the Umma Party of al-Jorido group.

To ask why the period 1907-1914 was not characterized by intense party politics is tantamount to listing the faetón which were present during the inter-

2

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

war period, making such a situation possible, but were lacking then. The first factor is the nature of political parties and movements, and the extent to which they had the support of various sections of the population.

Political parties not

only owe their influence and their popularity to the individual personality of their leaders, and thrive in a congenial political atmosphere, but also depend on social forces and social classes which make it possible for them to emerge as well as to develop in certain ways. We are dealing here with a fundamental question, namely with the relationship between political parties and the social structure of the societies in which they emerge and operate. The second factor is the extent to which political movements are able to assert themselves vis-à -vis the colonizing power and realize at least some of their objectives.

This factor

is obviously related to the very nature of political parties and movements, that is to their social basis and support, and their ability to organize the various groups. And finally, the third factor is the attitude displayed by the colonizing power itself towards these parties.

After the defeat of cUrabi there was no political resistance to the British in Egypt for at least a decade.

However, even when political opposition

emerged by the turn of the century Cromer could still maintain that the nationalists were insignificant and represented nothing, and claim that they were the creations of the Khedive.

Gorst also could disregard the nationalists and deal only with

the Khedive, and Kitchener was able to drive out of Egypt and into exile the leaders of the Watani Party. Thus it was mainly due to the inherent weakness of those movements, that the British could adopt this condescending and, at times, even antagonistic attitude towards them, and in turn prevent the realization of the nationalists1 objectives for political independence, a Constitution, and a Parliament (the Legislative Assembly of 1913-1914, notwithstanding).

The new nationalist movement which emerged after World War I had elements of continuity with earlier movements.

In fact the Wafd could be viewed

INTRODUCTION

3

as a Hegelian synthesis of the Watani and Umma Parties: it borrowed the methods and hod the urban support of the former, and borrowed the ideology and had the rural support of the latter.

Nevertheless, the Wafd was qualitatively different

from both the Umma and the Watani Parties in that it had the 1919 popular uprising at its basis.

It was in the midst of this uprising that an alliance was

forged between the classes of the urban effendiya and the rural resident medium landowners which furnished the leadership of the uprising on the local level in both Lower and Upper Egypt. This urban-rural support enabled the Wafd to act as a formidable political force unprecedented in modem Egypt.

The British, in turn, had to contend with this new force and could no longer dismiss the nationalists as insignificant.

In order to appease the nationalist

movement they issued the Unilateral Declaration of 1922 which gave Egypt a semblance of independence. They also permitted the drafting of the Constitution of 1923 and the promulgation of an electoral law for a parliament which though different from Wafd ist ideals, in content and in the manner in which they were brought about, could be regarded as concessions to Egyptian public opinion.

A s the interwar period can be regarded as a period of party politics in Egypt par excellence, it is necessary therefore to make clear from the outset the criteria by which we classify and identify these political parties. O n e of the earliest and clearest formulations of the conception of a political party as it came to develop in the West, can be attributed to Edmund Burke who defined a party as "a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.

Burke's conception of a political party can be taken as a starting point in our investigation of the main determinants of a political party. The emphasis was laid down by Burke on the "general principles" which distinguished one political party from another.

2

In other words, one can fairly maintain that,

4

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

according to Burke, the raison d'etre of a political party is its general principles with respect to the workings of government. Thus the ideas or the programmes which a group of individuals share constitutes the first determinant of a political party.

Burke's definition and its applicability to Western political parties in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is limited because his idea belonged to an age where political parties were confined to a group of aristocrats and notables, and were the almost exclusive prerogative of members of parliament. The advent of the masses with the extension of the franchise, necessitated a kind of "organization" other than that of the informal gathering of notables.

3

This brings us to the second determinant of a political party which attracted the attention of social scientists at the beginning of the century.

It was the pioneering works of M.Ostrogorski

4

5 and Robert M ichels which

deals with this important feature of political parties, namely, organization. Ostrogorski's empirical study of the development of the organization of political parties in Britain and the United States, is an indication of the growinq awareness of the importance of organization for a political party. M ichels went even further by holding that although a political party could come into being for ideological reasons, however, by the very fact that it had an organization, that organization would develop "its own peculiar soul independent of the programs and the rules it possesses ...

Organization itself would breed

oligarchy and consequently these oligarchic tendencies in political parties would become more important than their professed ideology, whether socialist or liberal. M ich e ls' theory was rooted in the doctrines proposed by Vilfredo Pareto and Geatano Mosca, on the elite. As in society there would always be a ruling minority, so in a party its "bureaucracy" would develop its own interests which would not necessarily be identical with those of the members and the supporters of the party.

INTRODUCTION

5

Following in the footsteps of M ichels, Mourice Duverger, in his Political Parties, their O rgon ization ond Activity in the Modem State, emphasised organization as the most distinguishing feature of twentieth century political parties in Europe.

Organization was not regarded as the most important

determinant but the most characteristic feature of modem political parties.

g

A s Duverger phrased it: "a party is a community with a particular structure." The comparative and thorough study of Western political parties by Duverger, led him to categorise the various political parties in terms of origin (parliamentary or extra-parliamentary), basic units (caucus, branch, cell, and militia), general articulation (weak or strong articulation, vertical or horizontal links, and centralisation or decentralisation), as well as in terms of the two important categories of parties, namely the "cadre11 and the "mass" parties.

9

The heuristic value of those analytic categories cannot be over­

estimated for our study of Egyptian political parties in the inter-war period.

A third determinant of political parties is to be found in works in the tradition derived from Marx and Engels. According to this tradition, political parties are, more or less, the political expression of social classes or sections of these classes. ^

This view is rooted in the Marxist division of substructure

ond superstructure of a particular society. Although there is an interaction between the two, the substructure, according to the theory, determines the superstructure. Mutotis mutandis, the social basis of a political party ultimately determines its ideology and organization.

Max Weber also pointed

out the fact that some political parties did act for and represent the interests of certain social classes.

But this was only one kind of political party, as

another kind could represent "status groups" or certain general or abstract doctrines all of which could be subsumed under what Weber called "ideological parties"•

Even Duverger who concentrated on the study of the organization

of political parties was very much aware of the importance of the social basis o f political parties.

12

6

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

Thus the main determinants of a political party, we maintain, are doctrines or principles, organization and social basis. O u r conception of a political party is, perhaps, narrower than that of M ax Weber or Robert M ichels, who maintained that the raison d 'itre of political parties was the 13 striving for political power. Undoubtedly, no group of individuals could be categorised as a political party if their objective was not the attainment of political power.

However, the seeking of power although necessary,

is not sufficient to label a group of individuals a political party.

N or is it

simply one determinant of a political party, like doctrines or organization, sufficient for a scientific study of political parties.

In a recent study on

political parties in the developing countries, a political party was defined almost exclusively in terms of its organization.

It had to have a permanent

organization and a continued existence ( i. e . , survive the life span of its founders) and seek both power and some kind of popular su p port.^ But such a definition of a political party underestimates the importance of the doctrines and the social basis of the party.

In conclusion we hold that no group of individuals can be categorised as a political party without having a modicum of each of these three main determinants.

In other words, a political party is an amalgam of three elements

(social basis, doctrines, and organization) which vary in degree of importance with the particular kind of party in question.

II

The study of political parties involves, as we have seen, an examination of their social basis, that is of the social composition of their leaders, members, and followers. Therefore, a brief examination of the socio-economic structure of a particular society within which political parties play their role, is absolutely necessary for a deeper understanding and study of the parties themselves.

INTRODUCTION

7

Moreover the rise of political parties can be, at least partly, connected with the interests and aspirations of particular social classes or groups in a society.

The socio-economic structure of a society, is not, in most cases, an undifferentiated and unstratified whole, although it has been claimed that some societies of the "Third W orld" can be described as classless. ^

In any

case Egypt's socio-economic structure, the foundations of which had been laid down in the second half of the nineteenth century, did have clear class divisions on the eve of the 1919 popular uprising.

By the turn of the century, Egypt's economy was permanently tied to the world market as cash crops especially cotton, were grown for several decades. The pre-capitalist relations, which characterized the Egyptian village, were gradually transformed into cash relations due to the penetration of money into the countryside, through credit banks and usurers. The free reign given to the market economy led to a greater differentiation among the rural i 17 population.

Jacques Beique outlined the social stratification which resulted from the establishment of a colonial economy in Egypt.

18

With a few important

modifications, Beique's scheme could still apply to the inter-war period. At the bottom of the hierarchy there was the Egyptian peasant. At a higher level the villoge notables that is the medium landowners. The petty bourgeoisie and the bulk of the Egyptian urban middle class, the effendiya, were so to speak, the urban equivalent of the medium landowners, many members of which were actually sons of the latter. The large landowners would be the apex of the social hierarchy but still lower than the credit and mortgage banks and cotton exporters who financed their crops or simply lent them money. Strongly linked with these financial interests were the import traders of Jews, Levantines, and a very few Egyptians who were mostly members of, or associated with, the

8

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

British, French, Greek, and Italian Chambers of Commerce, and who acted as intermediaries in the selling of the manufactured products of industrial Europe to the local population.

The rise of a local bourgeoisie in Egypt in the inter-war period could be regarded as an attempt to change this colonial structure of the economy. The development of local industry gave impetus to the development of an internal trade run primarily by Egyptians and in direct opposition to and in competition with merchants connected with import trade. Concomitantly the development of local industry led to the growth in size and importance of the working class whose members were at the lowest rung of the social ladder in the urban centres.

At the base of the rural social edifice there was the class of peasants which could be categorised as those landowners who owned less than 10 feddans, as well as landless peasants and agricultural labourers.

It was numerically the

largest c la s s ^ but the least articulate among Egypt's social classes. ^

Charles Issawi has divided Egyptian rural society into two classes, namely, large landowners and peasants,

21

but no mention is made of an important social

class which we discerned, namely, the class of medium landowners.

These we

define as that class of landowners who owned between 10 and 200 feddans.

Its

members were not absentee but were the resident village notables from among whomc umdas were recruited.

22

Boer in his history of landownership in Egypt,

deals with medium landed property but with no reference to the existence of a social class of medium landowners, as such.

In other words, statistically

there was a category of medium landowners, but they remained on that level 23 without being described as constituting a real social entity. Ibrahim Amir, an Egyptian Leftist writer attempted to subdivide the rural socio-economic structure of Egypt into social classes and the sections thereof. The class of

INTRODUCTION

9

medium landowners, in particular, was defined as that class whose members owned enough land to cultivate themselves or have only a small number of agricultural workers to assist them.

Probably his estimation of their landed

property would be between 5 to 20 feddans.

Amir was also aware, to a

certain extent, of the political role played by this class, but his categorisation 24 is too narrow as it leaves out those landowners who owned up to 200 feddans.

The class of large landowners which we define as those owning more than 200 feddans, and who were mainly absentee, living in Cairo and Alexandria, were too conspicuous to be ignored by the studies on the socio-economic structure of Egypt.

However, none of those studies were aware of the

existence of a General Agricultural Syndicate, founded in 1921, and serving as the rallying organization for large landowners, throughout the inter-war period. The interests and the aspirations of those large landowners could be seen expressed in the activities and reports of the General Agricultural Syndicate.

However, large landowners were also participating during the

1920's in the industrial and commercial enterprises such as the Bank M isr enterprises. O u r criterion, consequently, for deciding whether those individuals were primarily large landowners or whether they had become members of the local bourgeoisie, was if their main source of income and their activities were those of landowners or those of industrialists, financiers, or merchants.

Boer dealt with this interpenetration of landownership, industry,

finance, and commerce, but kept us in the dark concerning how to determine 25 who were primarily landowners and who were not. This is partly due to Baer's un-historical approach, as when he treated the first five decodes of the twientieth century as one period, glossing over the differences that took place in each decade. During the 1920's, for instance, large landowners and the Egyptian nascent bourgeoisie were combating together foreign commercial interests. Moreover, Bank M isr relied upon large landowners. During the 1930's however, the large landowners were faced with the problem of mortgage debts. That put

10

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

them in opposition to credit and mortgage banks, the interests of which were closely connected with those of local industrialists and those of financial commercial groups, such as the National Bank itself. The former included Bank M isr, which had liberated itself from its dependency upon large landowners by becoming more and more dependent on foreign capital.

During the

1940's, the interpenetration between landownership and industry, finance and commerce bepame greater, but the distinction between large landowners and members of the local bourgeoisie was still both possible and meaningful.

Socio-economically, one of the peculiar features of the inter-war period was the emergence of a nascent local bourgeoisie. We have described it as nascent because it was not until the end of the 1930's that it became a fully fledged class. As it was predominantly foreign the epithet local is more suitable than Egyptian. Moreover, the term bourgeoisie must not be equated to the corresponding class in an advanced European country. O n the one hand, there was the colonial character of the economy, in general, and on the other hand, the members of this class formed the upper strata, in terms of income and ownership within the existing industrial, financial and commercial enterprises in Egypt.

It goes without saying that the local bourgeoisie in Egypt, if compared

to its contemporary British bourgeoisie, would indeed have formed a very small section of the latter.

It is of paramount importance to note that the local

bourgeoisie was operating in a colonial set-up, and perhaps due to its strong links with foreign capital, by the end of the 1930's, had acquired some neo­ colonial relations with some European bourgeoisies.

Not unlike the medium landowners the urban middle class was only casually referred to in the various studies on Egypt. Safran talks of "whitecollar professional class" but attributed to them no significant independent social role although it did play a "leading role in the nationalist struggle". According to Issawi, there was no separate entity as such called the urban

26

INTRODUCTION

middle clou.

11

The higher strata of the professionals were merged with the large

landowners and the remaining strata were subsumed under the petty bourgeoisie.

27

The concept of the urban middle class as employed in our study, needs clarification. *lt is a middle class in contrast to an "upper class" of urbanized sons of laige landowners, or Turco-Egyptians, who occupied the higher echelons of the civil service and the professions, as well as in contrast to the members of the nascent local bourgeoisie. This "upper class" did not constitute a class in the sense of a social force distinct from the class of large landowners or the local bourgeoisie. O n the other hand, the urban middle class was formed out of the bulk of the professionals and the civil servants. The distinction between those two latter groups is significant, theoretically, as the professions were self-employed and the civil servants were not.

But in reolity there was

a great deal of overlapping os a large number of the professionals were working for the Government.

Undoubtedly there was such an urban middle class to contrast to the "upper c lo u " and the local bourgeoisie, but was it basically different from the tradesmen and owners of small industry who constituted the petty bourgeoisie? Issowi's definition of the latter as "consisting of officials, employees, tradesmen, the leu succeuful members of the profesions and the upper layer of artisans" is perhaps not without significance. Although merchants and small industrialists were self-employed and did not enjoy the prestige of the professionals and the civil servants, they did share a common history, as both groups were in competition with local foreigners, adopted the ideology of "economic independence", and experienced a crisis by the mid-thirties. Thus these factors tended to make their class interests, which were euentially in harmony, almost indistinguishable. They shared, too, a common consciousneu which was 28 perhaps aptly attributed to "a class of effendiyo". The latter would comprise the bulk of both the urban middle class and the petty bourgeoisie. The term

12

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

effendi meant in this context, the acceptance of a set of ideas and modes of --------29 behaviour which characterized an individual belonging to this class, whilst al-bashawiya, according to the ideologies of the effendiya class, meant, not

---------------

-------- *"*30

merely a title, but the acceptance or the adoption (R ina q )

of ideas and

values which were different from those held by the former class. The effendiya was the class, it was claimed in the early 1930's, "which moulded public opinion and led the nation in times of crisis, set up its ideals and stamped it 31 with its particular character."

The Egyptian urban workers did not constitute an important section of the population as did the proletariat of advanced European countries. The size of the working class, in the inter-war period, was small: the Industrial Census of 1927 gives 215,000 as the number of those employed in industry, while in 1937, the figure was 273,000, giving an increase of 58,000 or 2 7% . The working class was geographically concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria: 4 9 % in 1927 and 4 7 % in 1937 of the total number of workers were employed 32 in these two main cities. Thus the concentration in those cities of the workers could have made the class potentially more powerful than it appeared to be in sheer numerical strength.

Ill

The existence of a colonial situation in a particular country involves both a certain colonial socio-economic structure (which would have in common, features with structures of other colonized countries and would also, necessarily, have its own specificity) and the actual presence of the politically dominant power of the colonizer in the country. Therefore, the rise of political parties in such a situation is inevitably related directly or indirectly to the movement for political independence.

In other words, these political parties in their

general character and feature are quite different from the political parties in

INTRODUCTION

13

politically independent and economically advanced countries.

It 9oes without saying that political parties in colonized countries can still be analysed in tenus of their ideology, organization and social basis, but their relationship to the nationalist movement for independence odds a new dimension to the picture.

It has been noted that political organizations in

countries under colonial rule follow a three stage development: from pressure 33 groups to national movements and then to political parties. However, "the dividing line between these various categories is not sharp, indeed, depending upon circumstances and the stage of development some organizations could 34 quite properly fall in any one or all of them. " We will examine in our study the extent to which such a three stage development could be relevant to Egyptian political parties. The stage of the pressure group belongs to the earlier pre-World War I period, when independence and the taking over of the reins of political power were not part and parcel of the objectives of some political organizations. The most interesting category, for our purpose, is that of the nationalist movement.

What are the characteristics of a nationalist movement? By its very nature a national movement demands changes in the status quo, and consequently employs methods of a semi-revolutionary nature like demonstrations, general strikes, and boycotts, to achieve its ends. The nationalist movement, or the 35 "congress", in Thomas Hodgkin's terminology, has certain basic characteristics in contrast to political parties as such.

Ideologically, the congress claims to

represent the whole nation and to be the embodiment and the expression of the national w ill. Moreover, the very term tends to "imply a notion of 36 universality". Organizationally, the congress has usually a loose structure comprising different organizations but with no well-defined relations between them, and which are conglomerated around a leading or directing committee. The congress tends to have supporters from all sections of the population as it

14

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

attempts to represent the whole notion. The congress usually regards with suspicion any other political organization in the country, and all efforts are mode to exercise some control over it.

In brief the nationalist movement

or congress is characterized by a "universality11 in ideology, structure, and social basis, but whether it succeeds in organising the people, in a particular country, depends on the specific socio-economic and political conditions in that country.

Another set of categories which w ill be useful for our study is the distinction made by Duverger between "cadre" and "mass" parties. This distinction could be made with respect to the three main determinants of a political party.

Ideologically, the mass party is more plebian and democratic,

for it appeals to the masses and the common man, whilst the "cadre" party tends to be more conservative and emphasize the "established interests and the 37 government of the best.11 O rganizationally, the mass party is most likely to have branches as the basic units, rather than "caucus" or committees, as in the case of the cadre party. The latter would have a vague conception of membership and would depend mainly on donations for its finances, rather than on a system of subscriptions. A mass party's local branches are of a permanent character*whilst the cadre party's basic units are most likely to "hibernate" in 38 between elections or other politically active periods. If the coming of the 39 mass party was due to the emergence of socialist parties in the West, mass parties owed their origin to being connected to nationalist movements in colonized countries.

IV

In the light of what we have said the arrangement of this study will then be clear. With the help of these analytic concepts we will categorise the various political parties into the congress type or the purely political party

INTRODUCTION

15

whether "cadre" or mass party. This analysis will be based on the three main determinants of a political party, namely, ideology, organization, and social basis. Under the ideology, not only will the very general principles be examined, but also the specific programmes of each party as expressed by their leaden and their prominent memben, or as elicited from their policies. Organization will include the setting up on the national level and on the local level of branches and auxilliary organizations such as labour, students, youth, and women's organizations. We will also analyse the distribution of power among the party branches and the degree of the centralisation of the party as well as its degree of articulation, whether weak or strong, and also the character of the leadership itself. The analysis of the social basis of political parties w ill consist of an examination of the social composition of the prominent members of the party in question, and if possible of the leaders on the local level as well.

Moreover, we will attempt to determine which

social groups or classes the party appealed to and which were in fact the social groups which supported the party; and inversely, which social groups or classes found in some particular political party the satisfaction of their interests and the realisation of their aspirations.

Finally, we will trace the historical development of each party on two levels: from within, through its three main determinants, and externally in its relationship to other parties. We will devote in each historical sub-period a part for the narrative of political events showing the role played by the main political parties in the historical process itself. The socio-economic background will assist us in seeing both the social basis of political parties and not infrequently, the underlying reasons for the emergence of new political parties and perhaps to a certain extent explain their rivalry.

16

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

N O T E S T O C H APTER O N E

1.

Edmund Burke, The W orks o f the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, V o l . l l (London, 1906), p .8 2 .

2.

Ib id . , p p .84-85; a sim ilar conception o f a political party was that o f Benjamin de Constant: " . . . mSme doctrine politique. "

r.e reunion d'hommes q ui professent la Benjamin de Constant, D e la Doctrine

Politique, qui peut Réunir les Partis en Fronce (Paris, 1816), p .5 . 3.

M a x W eber, "P o litics as a V o c a t io n ", in H .H .G e rth and C . W . M ills , e d s ., From M a x Weber; Essays in S o cio lo gy (London, 1964), pp. 100, 102.

W eber defined "p a rtie s" in terms o f power.

A party could exist

in an organization with no political objective such as a social club. How ever, it is doubtful whether a p olitical party, in his term inology, was meant to be a w ide concept im plying a greater range of interests and activitie s than what is related to the state.

M a x W eber, Economy

and So cie ty, V o l. ll (N e w Y o rk , 1968); p p .938-939; idem, Economy and S o c ie ty , V o l. l (N e w Y o rk , 1968), p p .2 8 4 -2 8 5 . 4.

M .O stro g o rsk i, Dem ocracy and the O rga n iza tio n o f M i t i c a l Parties, 2 vols. (London, 1902).

5.

Especially his first book published in Germ an in 1911, Political Parties: A So c io lo g ic a l Study o f the O lig a rc h ic a l Tendencies o f M od em D em ocracy

IN T R O D U C T IO N

17

(N e w Y o rk , 1966). 6.

Roberto M ic h e ls, First Lectures in Politicol S o cio lo gy (N e w Y o rk , 1965), p .14 1 .

7.

M o u ric e D uverger, Politicol Forties their O rga n izo tio n ond A c tiv ity in the M o d em State (London, 1967), p .x v .

8.

Ibid.

9.

See ib id . , chapters I and II.

10.

Karl M a rx and Frederick Engels, Selected W o rk s, V o l. l (London, 1950), p .1 1 0 .

11.

W eber, Economy ond So cie ty, V o l . l , p.285.

12.

Duverger, p .x v .

13.

M a x W eber, Economy and S o c ie ty , V o l. lll (N ew Y o rk , 1968), p.1409; M ic h e ls, First Lectures in Politicol S o c io lo g y , p.146.

14.

This could refer, for instance, to the w inning o f the elections o f m unicipal co u n cils, if the issues were broad enough and related directly o r indirectly to the government of the country as a w hole, otherwise it should m erely be categorised as a pressure group.

15.

J. La Folombaro, M .W e in e r (eds.), Politicol Parties ond Political Development (Princeton, N e w Jersey, 1966), p .6 .

16.

Peter W orsley, The Third W orld (London, 1967), p .16 5 .

17.

For these gradual but fundamental changes in the countryside see G ab rie l Baer, "The Dissolution of the Egyptian V illa g e C om m unity", D ie W e lt Des Islam s, V o l . V I, N o s . 1 -2 , 1959, p p .64-69; E .R .J . O w e n , Cotton and the Egyptian Economy 1820-1914 (O xford , 1969), p p .2 4 3 244; G a b rie l Baer, A History o f Landownership in M od em Egypt 18001950 (London, 1962), p p .5 3 -5 4 .

18.

Jacques Betque, L'Egypte Impérialisme et Revolution (Poris, 1967), p p . 192-193.

19.

In 1939 there were 2 ,4 8 1 ,2 5 0 landowners o f whom 9 7 . 2 % belonged to the category o f peasants, that is, those who owned less than 10 feddans.

2 . 8 8 % owned between 10 and 200 feddans, and less than

18

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

0 . 1 % (in fact 2 ,3 2 4 landowners) owned more than 200 feddans.

The

total area owned by each category of landowners was, respectively, 4 2 . 2 % , 3 6 . 1 % , and 2 1 . 7 % out o f the total cultivated land of 5 ,8 3 6 ,7 4 6 feddans.

Egypt, Annuaire Statistique 1 939-1940 (C a iro,

1941), p p .3 30 -33 1 . 20.

See below pp. 162-163.

21.

Charles Issawi, Egypt: on Economic and So cial A n a ly sis (C airo, 1947), p p . 148 -15 0 , 154-159.

22.

See below pp. 2 6-2 7.

23.

There were some instances, however, o f reference to medium landowners as such.

24.

8aer, A History e t c . , p p .5 5 , 115.

A m ir 's subdivisions o f this class were three in number: the first was the landowner with a surplus incom e, the second, the one who could hardly make both ends meet, and the third, the landowner with a d e c lin in g income.

To each a certain social and p olitical consciousness was

attributed ranging from the "re a ctio n a ry " to the quite progressive. O th e r than the inherent contradictions in such a d ivisio n , the a p p lic a ­ tion o f the w e ll-know n vulgarized M arxism relating m echanically classes to p o litical ideas is obvious.

Ibrahim % n i r , A l- A r d w o l-F o llo h (C a iro ,

1958), p p .121-122. 25.

Boer, A History e tc ., pp. 138-142.

26.

N a d a r Safran, Egypt in Search of Political Comm unity (Cam bridge, M assachusetts, 1961), pp. 194-195.

27.

Issawi, Egypt: on Economic and So c ia l A n a ly sis, p p .1 5 0, 151.

28.

A l - M i s r i , N o . 6 , 9 O cto b e r 1930, p.15; see also Z . M . Q u r a is h i, Liberal N ationalism in Egypt: Rise and Fall o f the W afd Party (D e lh i, 1967), p p .3 6 -3 7 .

29.

A l - M is r i, N o . 6 , 9 O cto b e r 1930, p .1 5 .

IN T R O D U C T IO N

32.

19

Egypt, Industrio! ond Comm ercial C ensus, 1927 (C a iro, 1931), Table V , p.194; Egypt, Industrial ond Com m ercial Census, 1937 (C a iro, 1942), Table V , p .33 6 .

33.

James S. Colem an "The Emergence of A frica n Political Parties" in C . G ro ve Haines, e d ., A fric a Today (Baltimore, 1955), p p .2 26 -22 7 .

34.

Ib id . , p .22 7 .

35.

Thomas H odgkin, A frica n Political Parties A n Introductory G u id e (Harmondsworth, M id d lese x, 1961), p .5 1 .

36.

Thomas H odgkin, N ationalism in C o lo n ia l A fric a (London, 1956), p .146.

37.

H odgkin, Political Parties, p .73 .

38.

Duverger, pp. 1 7 -2 7 , 62-71.

39.

Ib id ., p p .6 6 -6 7 .

CHAPTER TW O THE 1919 P O P U LA R U P R IS IN G A N D THE E M E R G E N C E O F A N E W N A T IO N A L IS T M O V E M E N T 1919-1923

The purpose of this chapter is to deal with the emergence of new p o litic a l parties, starting with the formation of the W afd in Novem ber 1918 and the outbreak o f the 1919 popular uprising up to the promulgation o f the 1923 Constitution.

Undoubtedly, the rise of those new p olitical parties,

nam ely, the W afd, the Liberal Constitutionalist and the So cialist parties, did not take place in a vacuum but in the midst o f the social forces at work in Egypt.

This involves some consideration o f social classes and groups, with

their varying degrees o f social consciousness and p olitical activism , as necessary for the understanding o f the social basis of those parties as w ell as for the composition of their leadership, and even to a certain extent o f their o rgan ization and ideology.

M oreove r, the W afd and the other p olitical parties did not emerge as fu lly fledged parties, but grad ually came into being in the very historical process itself.

The w ay in w hich the W afd acquired certain features whether

structural, id e o logical or social is inseparable from its p olitical "stru ggle " e sp e c ia lly in those formative years.

Therefore an examination o f the political

22

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

parties in relation to the interplay of the main p olitical forces in the period 1919-1923 is indispensable as it can shed light upon the parties' development and even perhaps upon their particular characteristics.

For these reasons, this chapter w ill be divided into four parts.

The first

part w ill be merely a socio-econom ic background o f the main social classes and groups in Egypt during the years 1919-1923.

The second part w ill deal

w ith the formation o f the W a fd , the causes of the 1919 popular uprising and the historical development o f the W afd and its role in the political process. The analysis o f the W a fd 's organizations, social basis and ideology w ill be treated in the third part in the light o f the p olitical and historical developm ent, as w ell as o f the socio-econom ic forces.

Lastly, in the fourth part the other

p o litical parties w ill be dealt w ith, such as the Liberal Constitutionalist Party w hich was rooted in a splinter group w hich seceded from the origina l W a fd , the d e c lin in g W atani Party of M ustafa K a m il, and the S o cia list Party w hich emerged concom itantly with the rising trade union consciousness w hich characterized the early years o f post-W orld W ar I.

A Socio-E con om ic Background

(i)

The Large Landowners The class o f large landowners came into being in the midst of the

agrarian revolution of the latter half o f the nineteenth century. W ith the establishment o f the K hedival A gricultu ra l Socie ty in 1898 and L 'U n io n des Agriculteurs in 1911 a modicum o f class consciousness had been already acquired.

How ever, the large landowners did not emerge as a fu lly fledged

class until the aftermath of W orld W ar I. absenteeism.

This class had a high degree o f

The rent in cash system m aking the residence o f the landowner

NEW N A T IO N A L IS T M O V E M E N T

23

on hit estates superfluous, he began to run his estates through the medium of a n a zir or w o k il.

M oreove r, the commercial character o f the agricultural

crops grow n, particularly cotton, ga ve rise to the need for being informed about prices in the A le xa n d ria Bourse, and the se llin g o f his crop to exporters.

The econom ic grievances o f large landowners go back to the W orld W ar I period during w hich the cotton p o licy pursued by the Egyptian Governm ent was much criticised as being unfair to Egyptian landowners: profit was made by the Governm ent and the cotton exporters at the expense o f the cotton grower.

2

How ever, the cotton crisis o f 1920-1921 was the major factor that

led to the ra llyin g o f large landowners and the formation o f the "syndicate for the defence and protection o f cu ltivators' interests" (later named the G eneral A gric ultu ra l Syndicate) in January 1921, w hich testified to the attainment o f a high degree o f class consciousness.

The main objectives o f the Syn d icate , as put forward in its programme,

3

were fourfold.

First, to elim inate, or at least, to decrease the number o f

middlemen between the cotton growers and the spin n en .

Se con d ly to

facilitate the disposal o f agricultural crops such as cotton, cereals, e t c . , and to protect their markets in times o f crisis. c u ltiva to n on these crops.

Thirdly, to advance the

F in a lly , to become the central syndicate for a ll

agricultural cooperatives alreod y existing or that were to be formed.

The fin t objective would have been, if realised, detrimental to the cotton exporten — for it was an attempt to by-pass them and arrive at an agreement with the cotton industrialists.

The Syndicate made unsuccessful

bids to the British cotton sp in n e n in the International Cotton Conference in Liverpool and M anchester in June 1921, for the establishment o f direct relations between the grow en and the sp in n en by showing that their interests

24

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

were after a ll in harmony although they seemed at loggerheads.

Sim ilar

approaches were made to Germ an and French cotton spinners and chambers o f commerce but apparently with no success.

Sim ultaneously, the Syndicate

entertained, in the early 1920's the idea o f establishing a joint-stock company to buy cotton from the cultivators and act as an exporter, so that the Egyptian grower could export his own cotton instead o f being the victim o f cotton exporters; and consequently the role of middlemen was to be considerably 4 curtailed.

Strong ties between the British spinners and the cotton exporting firms in A le xa n d ria were constantly m aintained, for some o f the latter were financed by the former.

M o reove r, the expert knowledge for the grading o f the cotton

and the established names o f some o f the exporters made the schemes suggested by the Syndicate quite un re alistic.^

A s the Syndicate aimed at direct links with cotton industrialists, it advocated dom estically a p o lic y w hich would curb the power o f cotton exporters. First and foremost it demanded an amendment to the statutes o f the M in e t - a lBasal

Bourse ("sp o t" market) and the Royal Bourse ("futures" market).

It

claim ed that through the A le xa n d ria G eneral Produce Association , the cotton exporters controlled the "sp o t" and "futures" markets.

To remedy the

situation the Syndicate urged the Governm ent to set up a committee to super­ vise and inspect the two Bourses, half o f w hich were to be members o f the General A gricultu ral Syn d ica te .^

A n important weapon in the hands o f the cotton exporters was the sale o f cotton on coll by the large landowners.

Consequently, the Syndicate urged

cultivators to refrain from se llin g cotton on call because it benefited the cotton exporter at the expense o f the grow er.^

NEW N A T IO N A L IS T M O V E M E N T

25

Another weapon in the hands o f the cotton exporters was the abundance o f the cotton crop w hich the Syndicate claim ed forced down the price o f g cotton. C onsequently, the stabilization o f the price o f cotton was o f major concern to the Syndicate.

This objective necessitated intervention by the

Governm ent in the cotton market and the restriction o f cotton acreage. These measures were frequently resorted to d uring the 1920's.

The years

1921, 1922, 1923, saw the Governm ent intervening in the "sp o t" cotton 9 market in response to the S y n d ic a te 's pressure. Sim ultaneously, a law follow ing the cotton crisis o f 1920-1921 was issued restricting the cotton acreage to one third o f the landholding and this remained in force in 19221 9 2 3 .10

The third objective sought by the Syn d ica te , nam ely, agricultural credit was interlocked with the first two objectives.

A gricultu ra l credit organised by

the Governm ent, accord ing to the Syn d ica te , relieved the cultivator from dependency on other means o f credit such as the sale o f cotton on c o ll, and when coupled w ith the holding up o f cotton by the growers and se llin g it in instalments spread a ll over the year, tended to prevent the foil o f cotton prices.

11

The fourth objective envisaged by the Syndicate was to form agricultural cooperatives, and to act as the central organ for them.

It suggested that the

revenue from the cotton tax should be used for promoting agricultural co­ operatives, and when formed would safeguard the interests o f cultivators, thus substituting the present role played by the Governm ent.

12

Due to the

S y n d ic a te 's influence the Governm ent issued Law N o . 27 o f 1923 on agricultural cooperatives, and on 13 August 1923 a M in iste ria l decree set up an adm inistrative organ in the M in istry of Agricultu re to register and inspect 13 cooperative societies.

26

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

The class o f large landowners had no interest in reducing agricultural rent for it was from them that the peasants leased land for cultivation , and therefore the latter's interests were at loggerheads with those o f large landowners.

Law N o . 14 o f 1921 w hich set up the Provincial Rents Commissions

in 1921, was successful in reducing rents because the landowner who leased his land was unable to get more than a certain portion o f the rent out of his tenants. In other words, the Rent Law sim ply legalized or sanctioned an . f . 14 econom ic fact.

(ii)

The M edium Landowners *1 0 The class o f medium landowners can be defined as a category o f land-

owners who owned between 10 and 200 feddans, thus h aving a middle position in terms o f landownership between the small landowners who owned less than 10 feddans, and the large landowners who owned more than 200.

The large

landowners' Synd icate, from its very foundation, and throughout the period under study, was unsuccessful in ra llying the medium landowners, to any significant e x t e n t . ^

In other words, the membership of the Syndicate

continued to comprise, first and foremost, large landowners.

M oreove r, in

contrast to the latter class, the medium landowners were residents o f the countryside.

The m ajority o f v illa g e notables in the period under study, and

perhaps since the late 19th century, belonged to the class o f medium landowners.

It was pointed out that the cumdas in the same period could no

longer be classified as large landowners for they were recruited from the class o f medium la n d o w n e rs.^ O n e could perhaps go further, and hold that the rise o f the medium landowners as v illa g e notables, was a concomitant process with the grow ing absenteeism among large la n d o w n e rs.^ A s the latter grad ually moved to urban centres, the medium landowners gradually replaced them as leaders in their rural communities.

The medium landowners constituting the class of villa g e notables, were

NEW N A T IO N A L IS T M O V E M E N T

27

scattered a ll o ver the countryside, and thus were unable to organise themselves (in a syndicate, for instance, as the large landowners had), whilst the latter being absentee in C airo and A le xa n d ria , did not find d ifficu lty in grouping themselves.

Therefore what was characteristic o f the medium landowners in

this respect was the lack o f a central body or organization w hich would unite and be a ve hicle for expressing their socio-econom ic interests.

The

chances that the A gricultu ra l Cooperative movement would have developed into such an organization were meagre.

The cooperatives were strictly 18 supervised and organised by the Governm ent w ho, probably, hampered the setting up o f a central body w hich would have strengthened the movement 19 and made it dependent on it.

A gric u ltu ra l credit was needed by a ll agricultural classes for the rural population spent its income in advance.

20

The need, therefore, for agricultural

credit by the medium landowner was genuine.

D ue to their lack o f organization,

how ever, they were unable to vo ice their demands.

O n e o f the main objectives

o f the large landowners, as we have seen, was the supply o f agricultural credit by the Governm ent.

This was not o n ly for their own benefit but also,

they m aintained, for the extension of a system o f agricultural credit to v illa g e notables and cumdos, that is the medium landowners.

This was a means

o f organising the supply o f crops, e sp e cia lly cotton, to prevent the downfall o f prices and excessive speculation in the Bourses.

Therefore with respect

to the problem o f agricultural credit, the interests o f large landowners co­ incided with those o f medium landowners.

M oreove r, the former class

viewed agricultural credit as an integral part o f their grand scheme directed against cotton exporters.

It also seems that the large landowners aimed at

the control o f the system o f agricultural credit as shown in the Sy n d ica te 's suggestion to establish v illa g e savings banks as branches of the proposed A gric u ltu ra l C redit Bank, w hich would form a federation "a d v ise d " by the Syndicate on the various issues such as prices, kinds o f cotton to be grow n,

28

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

and restriction o f acreage, thus replacing the Governm ent in these respects.

The first attempt to form agricultural cooperatives was undertaken m ainly, in the aftermath o f the 1907 financial crisis, by large landowners, as a committee o f the K hedival A gricultu ral Socie ty laid the basis o f the movement.

22

How ever, the movement declined soon after and was o n ly

revived after the 1920-1921 econom ic crisis.

The revival o f the agricultural

cooperative movement, was enhanced by the promulgation o f Law N o . 14 o f 1923 w hich was m ainly due to the pressure exercised by the G eneral A gricultu ral Syndicate. Alth ou gh the movement was promoted by large landowners in fact the actual leaders o f the agricultural cooperatives in 23 the provinces belonged to the class o f medium landowners. This shows that the laige landowners interests coincided with those o f the medium landowners.

M oreove r, the medium landowners were as reticent as the

large landowners with respect to the problem o f agricultural rents; for it seems that a reduction o f rents was against their interests.

However other objectives o f large landowners had no direct bearing upon the interests o f resident medium landowners as, for instance, few 24 medium landowners practised the sale o f cotton on c o ll. S im ila rly , the revision in the regime o f the two Bourses was o f no interest to medium land owners who would sell their crops to the local agents o f cotton exporters, banks o r cotton merchants.

M oreove r, the abolition of the cotton tax was 25 m ainly the concern o f large landowners and big merchants — medium 26 landowners would probably sell their cotton before being ginned.

W e hold that the two classes had, b a sica lly, no con flictin g interests as such.

They had sim ply different outlooks.

The "p a ro c h ia l" outlook o f

the medium landowners, could be contrasted to the "n a tio n a l" outlook o f the large landowners.

The former class hod already made bids for dom inance

NEW N A T IO N A L IS T M O V E M E N T

29

in the provinces, where its p olitical power had been grow ing since the 1919 popular uprising, and eventually found p olitical expression in the W afd Party.

The large landowners wanted to act not o n ly as producen o f crops 27 but as merchants too, and were fu lly conscious o f their interests as being in opposition to foreign commercial interests in general and to cotton exporten, in particular.

(iii)

The Peasants The peasant class could be defined as essentially com prising two

categories o f people: the small landow nen who owned less than 10 feddans, and the agricultural labouren (both permanent and seasonal).

N o t unlike

large landow nen this class had its historical roots in the qualitative changes that took place in the second h alf o f the 19th century.

Sim ila rly the basic

problems w hich faced this class were m ainly anterior to the period under study: for instance, the problem o f indebtedness w hich led to the sequestration o f the peasants' land if they were unable to pay their debts or get more credit.

The peasant or small landowner, e specially the small tenant who had to rent a plot o f land to earn his liv in g , suffered from the econom ic crisis o f 1920-1921.

Reports from the provinces described the peasants as "the most 28 embarrassed c la ss". The peasant began to unearth his hoardings to enable him to fulfil his financial ob ligations.

Another symptom o f the distress was 29 the increase in the number o f slaughtered cattle. In Lower Egypt, the large and medium landowners who leased their lands, whether through intermediaries, or d ire ctly to peasants, were not too strict in colle ctin g rents; however, the unpaid portion o f the rent was not nullified but sim ply transformed into a debt, and thus the peasant was more and more at the mercy o f the landlord and sometimes the m oney-lender too.

In Upper Egypt the

situation was worse: the landlords were more exacting in the colle ction o f rents and therefore the peasants were more helpless.

M oreove r, the seizure

30

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

o f the peasants' crops by the landowner to substitute for the unpaid portion o f rents was widespread.

In Lower Egypt the number o f "sa isie s" was not

alarm ing and it consisted m ainly o f the seizure o f cotton, w h ile in Upper Egypt the number o f "sa isie s" was greater, and in A s y u t , for instance, landlords were confiscating everything that could be confiscated: cereals 30 and cattle, and even expropriating the peasants' land.

The soaring rise o f agricultural rents during the econom ic boom that followed W orld W a r I to an increase o f not less than 1 0 0 % and even some­ times to 2 0 0 % was the main cause o f the peasants' distress in the econom ic 31 crisis o f 1920-1921. Law N o . 14 o f 1921 w hich set up Rent Commissions for the reduction o f agricultural rents succeeded in reducing the latter to an average varying between 4 0 % and 0 0 % .

How ever, this legislation did

not really a lle via te the conditions o f the lessee peasants because the rents 32 were still too high to enable them to make both ends meet.

(iv)

Industrialists, Financiers, and M erchants

(a)

The Federation o f Industries The post-W orld W a r I period witnessed the emergence o f a nascent local

bourgeoisie.

It was formed m ainly out o f three groups.

First the foreign

local industrialists o f the pre-W orld W a r I period who formed the A ssociation des Industries en Egypte in 1922.

The ideas o f this group were formulated

by industrialists such as S .S o m a g a , the owner o f a build ing materials factory, and H. N o u s the president of the o n ly sugar refinery in Egypt, and a former 33 member o f the Commerce and industry Commission of 1916.

Three major factors led to the formation o f this Association of Industries or Federation o f Industries as it came to be known after A p ril 1930.

The first

factor was the breaking down o f the a rtificia l protection w hich local industry

NEW N A T IO N A L IS T M O V E M E N T

enjoyed during W orld W a r I.

31

In other words foreign competition became

rampant and consequently the need was felt for the protection of local industry by the means o f preferential treatment in matters such as G o v e rn ­ ment adjudications, ordinary freight rates, import tax on raw m aterials, and semi-manufactured goods used by local industrialists.

The second cause

w as, perhaps, the series o f labour strikes, w hich took place immediately 34 a fte rW o rld W a r I, and affected most o f the major industries. A n d lastly, the w ave o f popular enthusiasm, witnessed by the foundation o f Bank M is r in 1920, for the establishment and promotion o f industrial undertakings. The main objective o f the Federation o f Industries, as A rtic le 2 o f its Statute stated, was "to bring together the important industrial establishments so that industrialists w ill be able to pursue their common interests and study the means for the advancement . . . and if necessary the protection, o f 35 local industry. "

The Federation of Industries represented, from its very inception, big industry. A t least seven out o f the eleven members o f the first board o f directors represented big enterprises in sugar, cement, salt, clothing, cotton 36 and m ining industries. M oreove r, the Federation was predominantly foreign in character as eight of the eleven members o f the board o f directors in 1925 were non-Egypt io n .

(b)

Bank M is r The second group w hich came to constitute an important element of

this nascent local bourgeoisie was the Bank M is r group o f Egyptian financiers Bank M is r was formed in M a y 1920 and it marked the beginning o f a new stage in the econom ic development o f the country.

Muhammad T a l^ t Harb,

the founder, conceived o f Bank M is r as the necessary prerequisite for the achievem ent o f econom ic independence, ol-|stiqlal o l-lq tisa d i.

The latter

meant that Egypt had to have an independent econom ic p o licy w hich would

32

PARTY POLITICS IN EGYPT

be supported by a purely Egyptian Bank.

The N a tio n a l Bank (al-B an k

a l- A h li) in Egypt was not national for it was foreign in capital and in management.

Therefore Bank M isr was to be formed to satisfy this need

for a national bank.

A s Bank M isr was supposed to be Egyptian in character

it restricted the buying o f its shares to Egyptians o n ly — otherwise it would 37 not have been different from any foreign bank operating in Egypt. To achieve the goal o f econom ic independence Bank M is r was to "encourage the various econom ic enterprises . . . and assist in the establishment o f fin a n c ia l, com m ercial, industrial, a gricu ltu ral, transport and insurance companies. ” It would also "pursue a p o lic y w hich would giv e Egypt a say in its econom ic affairs and defend her interests as other banks defend their ,38 countries' interests."

Bank M is r was founded in the midst o f the econom ic boom that im m ediately followed W orld W ar I and it was o n ly with the surplus money accumulated by the two classes w hich profited from the boom, namely large landowners and b ig Egyptian merchants, that the project m aterialised.

Talfot Horb related

how he drew up a list o f the names o f those who would not d ecline to 39 participate in the project. They were mostly large landowners who bought 40 the vast m ajority o f the shares am ounting to a total of LE. 8 0 ,0 0 0 .

This reliance on large landowners was reflected in the board o f directors o f the Bank.

O u t of the ten members six were either large lan d -

owners like Ahm ad M id h at Y a g h a n , cAbbos Basyuni a l-K h a tib Fu’ad Sultan and cAb d a l -