August 29, 2023 • 22 mins
Andrew and Mia conclude the saga of early Egyptian anarchism by discussing the cooption of one of their projects and how local elites mounted campaigns against them
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to take it up in here.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Andrew of the Channel Andrewism and I'm here.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
With Mia who didn't.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Miss them learning today. I just wanted to shed lights
on just some of the interesting history of the anarchists
move went in Egypt. This is part two, first part really,
but just went into the historical context and progression and
how the anarchist community emerged in Egypt, you know, fueled
by this growing Mediterranean network of migration, labor, mobility and communication.
(00:39):
Of course, it started with the Italian community, known for
their anarchism in that time, but they soon gained the
support of other groups sharing a radical vision of social emancipation.
I learned all this from the book Anarchism and Syndicalism
in the Colonial and Post Colonial World, particularly the section
written by Anthony Gorma on Egyptian history. In the years
(01:07):
leading up to World War One, anarchos cynicalism, represented by
the International Union, played a leading role in organizing and
developing a militant labor movement, advocating for international solidarity among workers.
They adapted well to Egypt's diverse society, embracing ethnic and
religious pluralism and internationalism while opposing capitalism. Anarchists, along with
(01:29):
socialists and liberals, contributed to the advancement of secular thoughts
and Egyptian intellectual life, the even significant impact on their society. However,
the anarchist movement faced challenges due to the state's coercion
through surveillance, prosecution, and deportation.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
The authorities portrayed.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Them as dissolute political adventurers pushing an alien ideology. Despite
their achievements in formulating and anti capitalist discourse and advocating
for social emancipation, other forces like the Egyptian Communist Party
and the National Movement would take on some of the
ideas with a louder and more prominent voice. Do they
just want to give more details on the movement and
(02:07):
what exactly they were doing in their heyday?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Clearly, the anarchists move went in.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Egypt was not confined to the local It was all
about connected with anarchists from different countries, making international friendships
and fighting for their shared ideals. The anarchists in Egypt
got involved with the conference in Verva's and conferences in
London and Italy and hung up with anarchists from Istanbul, Greece,
Tunisia and more. Egypt became the spot for anarchists in
(02:37):
the eastern Mediterranean, and they'd made connections all the way
to the United States and South America.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
It's kind of interestingly playing a similar role to like
early nineteen hundreds Japan in terms of the anarchist movement,
where yeah, it's you know, you get these sort of
like regional hubs that develop and people sort of like
moved through and around them, which I think is really interesting.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, agreed, Agreed, and each of being in a hub,
you know, a lot of big name anarchists to are visiting, oh,
you know, big name talking people like am Claire Cypriani,
Elised Recluse, Aricoma ro Testa, Luigi Kaliani, and Pietro Gory.
And of course with these agitators in the mix, the
(03:24):
authority has called it the new of Us. But the
real life flood of the movement with not these influential figures,
they were the publications that this community was producing and
reading and distributing. The anarchists in Egypt didn't just read
from newsletters all around the world, though that was a
(03:45):
part of it, but they also contributed their own articles.
But always happening in Egypt they're connected, informed and motivated
by the international community they had built. There are a
bunch of publications dedicated to work as issues, offering insights, debates,
and discussions on common difficulties on matters of labor, organization,
(04:06):
and strategy. Facilitated by an increasingly developed international transport system,
particularly steamership services, the International Anarchist press served as a
vital channel the dissemination and diffusion.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Of the movement's ideas.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It was the anarchist Library before the anarchist Library in
terms of.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
How they went about organizing and propriation.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
In Egypt, the anarchists there recognized the unique challenges of
the local situation.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That they have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
For the European anarchists, promoting the message of emancipation and
combat and the exploitation, ignorance, and injustice caused by capitalism,
the states and religious authority would be no easy task
in a region where, for one, they're already being seen
as part of the onicle and attempts of political domination
(04:57):
by Western powers, and also in a region with very
deep historical religious divisions, you know, such as the Crusades
and the British French colonization. It's really one of the
major projects I suppose the European anarchists needed to communicate
to the local population was that their ire did not
(05:18):
lay with Europeans as a whole. It lay primarily with
the European ruling class, and so when it came into
critique and societal issues and has strongly attacked the evils
of capitalism, and of course that had the best reception
among the Egyptian workers. Of course, this isn't to say
that the European workers in Egypt were like completely in
(05:41):
common with the Egyptian workers, despite the fact that the
ire of the Egyptian workers should really lie primarily with
the European ruling class that was responsible for the imperialization
of their country and the expectation of their people. The
presence of the European workers did also contribute to the
(06:01):
exploitation because those European workers were paid so much better
than native worn workers were. It was experienced and privileges
that the Native one workers did not have access to. Interestingly,
although anarchists typically advocate for emancipation from all religious authorities,
Islam wasn't specifically targeted in their literature, and there was
(06:25):
probably a pragmatic consideration for whether anti religiou rhetoric would fly,
considering they could just be reported because of course that
was a crime. They still took on a hostile attitude
towards the Egyptian state, though, condemn its course of actions,
surveillance culture, and abusive power, but they didn't confront it
head on. The program of action was far more focused
(06:47):
on the goal of social transformation through the use of propaganda, education,
and workers associations. Because of the mixed conditions in Europe
and in Egypt, the ideal of people of different races, religions,
and nationalities united in solidarity had some real potency to it.
So the internationalist mission was a very central component in
(07:07):
their messaging at public conferences and at labor meetings, But
it really was more so about the speaking the propaganda
of the word rather than the propaganda of the deed.
In fact, interestingly, for that time, the anarchists in Egypt
didn't really engage in much propaganda of the deed at all,
Propaganda the deed being you know, political violence and assassination attempts.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
For those who know you know a bit about.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
The anarchists of that time, propaganda of the deed was
what they were known for. They had some some big
name assassinations in the books. For example, Franz Fudinan I
believe was assassinated by an anarchist.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
No hold on Franford nand is the guy he was
killed by. Gavya Princett, the guy who started World War One.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Right. I've seen some sources call him a nationalist, souses
call him an anarchist.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I don't think he was an anarchist.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, he was exposed to socialist, anarchist and communist writings
when he was younger, through school and through his roommate
danielo Iriech, but he was more so associated with nationalists,
particularly when he got around to assassinate in Franz Ferdinand.
Nazis and fascists did call him an anarchist and a socialist,
(08:42):
But it seems as though although he was inspired by
nationalists anarchists, he was more so in the nationalists side
of the equation.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah. I mean they did kill a few Habsburgs, which
always always a good thing to have less Habsburgs in
the world. You can you can you can make you
can make a chart over time and what access is
good and the other axis is Habsburg. You can see
that they're adversely correlated.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, yeah, habspurgs or something else.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
But yeah, the anarchists in Egypt not too much into
the political violence and assassinations. They were focused really on
promoting the ideas through spoken and written communication, you know,
like public meetings, demonstrations in the press, and the press
was really the crucial axis of their efforts and disseminating
the ideas and sustaining their identity. They had local properly,
(09:32):
they had local publications like that Tribuna Liberal, Lepero, Looks
and others, which save to spread anarchist thought and discuss.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Ideas and issues of social emancipation.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
The weekly paper l'apero mostly promoted anarcho syndicalism, and then
the paper Ill Dominant Dominie came up and decided to
adopt a more tridently libertarian tone. And then you have
Rise Again Or, which is another people another weekly that
(10:14):
promoted a very strong anti clerical line. And then there
was the people who Ergatis, which was or the Worker,
and that was an organized organ for the emancipation of
women and the worker, and it provided primarily for a
Greek language readership. Are see a lot of these seapers
(10:35):
will tailor towards specific languages, so that Greek had Italian
and you also had French like Legnon and l Idea.
But despite its polygod character, the anarchist press in Egypt
doesn't seem to have included an Arabic language newspaper, which
is kind of weird when you're surrounded by Arabic speaking people. However,
(11:02):
anarchism had regularly featured in the mainstream Arabic newspapers since
since the eighteen nineties, usually however in reports and the
activities in the movement abroad, not locally in Egypt. At
the same time, there were also journals like Al Muktataf
and Al Hilal, which carried articles discussing the origins and
(11:22):
development of anarchist thought and practice. It seems as though
in eighteen ninety seven there was also a figure who
engaged with socialized ideas, but that particular publication seems to
have been closed down quite quickly by the authorities, particularly
for feature in the work of Salama Musa and Shibili Shumayu,
(11:44):
who were two Egyptian writers who were clearly influenced by
anarchist ideas. Something that just occurred to me is that
what it could be influencing this is that the Italians
and the Greeks and the French and all these different
people who are writing about these anarchist ideas in Egypt.
(12:04):
It's possibly they had a bit more leeway when it
came to the local authorities that locals themselves would not have.
Their foreign status may have provided them with slight immunity
in comparison. And this is just me spitball in, but
it's possible that Arabophone writers and speakers would be taken
(12:28):
on significantly more risk if they were to agitate in
the same ways that these you know, migrant workers were advocating.
And then there's also the component and that speculation, but
there is a proven component of financial difficulties and limited
literacy rates among the Egyptian population that made it difficult
(12:49):
to distribute Arabic language material, religious and anarchism because a
lot of the workers in Egypt who spoke Arabic were
not literate. What did help, though, because you know, the
anarchists were about that life. They would go to cafes
(13:09):
and read the newspapers out loud to reach their target audience.
The first podcasters exactly exactly, the first podcasters for real,
as the anarchist movement in Egypt was really commemorating important
political events, celebrating new principles through posters, leaflets, and flyers
(13:30):
celebrating the animal history of events like the Paris Commune
in May day truly spread that message of international solidarity
among the workers, and anarchists in Egypt are also very
fond of showing solidarity to their international figures like Francisco Ferrer,
who was a very influential Spanish anarchist thinker who did
(13:53):
a lot of work in the field of anarchist education.
He created for their schools, which influenced figures like Goldman
to create their own modern schools in the US and elsewhere.
And he was arrested and then executed, which led to
a lot of protests both locally and internationally, making him
(14:13):
something of a martyr for the anarchist cause. And so
the outrage expressed at the execution of Ferver was not
simply just a protest against the attorney, but also recognition
(14:34):
of his status as an advocate for cycle education, which
is an important vehicle for you know.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Social emancipation.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Before Francisco Ferrera was executed, though anarchists in Egypt were
already working on educational programs. In fact, they launched their
most ambitious project, the Free Popular University or Universita Popularity
Liberal or UPL, in alexand Andrea in nineteen oh one.
(15:02):
The UPL aimed to provide free evening education to the
popular classes and received great support across alexandri and society.
Courses included you know, the works of Tolstoi and Bucunan,
the arts, and pragmatic topics like worker negotiation strategies. However,
(15:24):
the upl's radical nature also brought criticism, with the Italian
authorities initiating legal proceedings against the UPL lecturer for some
remarks he made about the assassination of the Italian king Umbelta. First,
I of course leave you to speculate what those comments
and remarks may have been. But despite some initial public support,
(15:46):
its critics accused the UPL of being based on depraved principles.
Now I mentioned this school before, and the episode did
on Islam and anarchism, and like I said in that episode,
Ouric speakers would quickly marginalized from the education, and the
(16:07):
UPL gradually became more aimed toward and controlled by upper
class interests. In fact, within a year, reliably bourgeois elements
had arrested control of the UPL from its anarchist founders
and had wrested controlled the UPL from its anarchist founders
and proceeded to transform it into a vocational college that,
(16:29):
among other things, taught shorthand, accountancy, and languages. So, despite
its very brief existence as a revolutionary project, the UPL
marked an important movement for anarchism in Egypt and inspired
other movements seeking educational reform. The upl's impacts and vision
influenced Egyptian nationalists, who established the Higher Schools Club in
(16:52):
nineteen oh five, which also emphasized educational means.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
For political purposes.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Anarchism in Egypt had a significant impact on the development
of the labor movement. As a new working class emerged
towards the end of the nineteenth century, anacho cynicalism emerged
as a powerful force advocating for formal collective organization as
the instrument of social revolution. Of course, each just's labor
movement wasn't entirely new, as killed have been part of
(17:20):
the traditional Ottoman order, regulating trade and provide mutual lead
but the modernization efforts of Muhammad Ali no Relation and
Egypt's integration into the international capitalist system changed that landscape,
affecting the role of guilds and shape in the working class.
Foreign workers, like I mentioned before, came into Egypt alongside
native Egyptian labor, but despite the differences between them, evidence
(17:44):
does show a strong cooperation and collaboration between the groups.
The native Egyptian working class was affected by a variety
of factors, but there was a model of collaboration that
was emersion between European and Egyptian workers. The Cigarette Rollers Union,
(18:10):
for example, was initially a Greek body in Cairo, but
later became more inclusive as their successful strike in eighteen
and nine to nineteen hundred marked a milestone in Egyptian
industrial militancy. However, their subsequent strikes fixed However, subsequent strikes
(18:30):
faced brutal confrontations with the police, leading to divisions.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Among the workers.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
By the end of the first decade of the century,
the Anacos Syndicalist International Union had emerged as a significant
force based on universalist principles and international solidarity. The optimism
for the future of a socialist center in Cairo was
a reflection of the broader movement within the working class
led by anarchists and cynicalists. Anarchism first appeared in Egypt
(18:59):
among Italian political refugees and workers during the eighteen sixties,
nurtured by a development international network of labor transporting communications
expanded beyond Italian circles, attract members from across Egypt's diverse
communities the heterogynous through the discourse of radical social emancipation
(19:19):
and propaganda and public action declaring the universality of humankind
and the crime the evils of capitalism state power on
the dogma, the anarchist movement would come into force in
Egypt's history in the years after nineteen hundred. Anarchist cyndicalism
played a central role in development of the labor movement
or circulating the rights of workers in struggle against capital,
(19:43):
against capital and promoting internationalists activism yet wildly rejected. Yet
while they rejected nationalism as an organizing principle, anarchists did
at times to make common cause of the nationalists against
imperialism and arguably had a revie lub eats An influence
on the strategy is antactics of the nationalist movement.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
That's all I have for today.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
On this brief month in Egyptian anarchist history, but I
hope an illuminated, very interesting.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Chapter and context. That's fair.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Yeah, And I think there's another kind of important, broader
lesson from this that is I think mostly forgotten, which
is that you know, from this period of I don't know,
roughly the late eighteen hundreds through about nineteen seventeen, like
in most parts of the world except for basically like
(20:47):
Western Europe, or not even Western Europe, like apart from
basically like the Germany's, if you're talking about socialism, there's
like anywhere in the world, there's a very very good
chance the thing you're actually talking about isism. And you know,
there's been a sort of systemic attempt by both liberal
and sort of later communists like historians to sort of
(21:10):
like wipe the historical record clean and make it look
like everything was always sort of like the sort of
on rush of Marxism, but like that just wasn't true.
And they were very powerful anarchist movements on every continent,
and they did a lot, they did a lot of
really interesting things, and yeah, yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Really needs to be respected and recognized and it hasn't
so far, So flee this and if folks check out
the book they can get some more insights on some
of the other actions that have taken place in that time. Again,
the book is anarchism and syndicalism in the colonial and
post colonial world. It really illuminates a lot of that
(21:53):
lost history. Thanks for joining me and be young on
this episode of It Can Happen Here Again. You can
follow me Andrew on the YouTube channel andrewism on support
on petare dot com slash Sandrew take Ko.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated
monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for
listening
Welcome to take it up in here.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Andrew of the Channel Andrewism and I'm here.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
With Mia who didn't.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Miss them learning today. I just wanted to shed lights
on just some of the interesting history of the anarchists
move went in Egypt. This is part two, first part really,
but just went into the historical context and progression and
how the anarchist community emerged in Egypt, you know, fueled
by this growing Mediterranean network of migration, labor, mobility and communication.
(00:39):
Of course, it started with the Italian community, known for
their anarchism in that time, but they soon gained the
support of other groups sharing a radical vision of social emancipation.
I learned all this from the book Anarchism and Syndicalism
in the Colonial and Post Colonial World, particularly the section
written by Anthony Gorma on Egyptian history. In the years
(01:07):
leading up to World War One, anarchos cynicalism, represented by
the International Union, played a leading role in organizing and
developing a militant labor movement, advocating for international solidarity among workers.
They adapted well to Egypt's diverse society, embracing ethnic and
religious pluralism and internationalism while opposing capitalism. Anarchists, along with
(01:29):
socialists and liberals, contributed to the advancement of secular thoughts
and Egyptian intellectual life, the even significant impact on their society. However,
the anarchist movement faced challenges due to the state's coercion
through surveillance, prosecution, and deportation.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
The authorities portrayed.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Them as dissolute political adventurers pushing an alien ideology. Despite
their achievements in formulating and anti capitalist discourse and advocating
for social emancipation, other forces like the Egyptian Communist Party
and the National Movement would take on some of the
ideas with a louder and more prominent voice. Do they
just want to give more details on the movement and
(02:07):
what exactly they were doing in their heyday?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Clearly, the anarchists move went in.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Egypt was not confined to the local It was all
about connected with anarchists from different countries, making international friendships
and fighting for their shared ideals. The anarchists in Egypt
got involved with the conference in Verva's and conferences in
London and Italy and hung up with anarchists from Istanbul, Greece,
Tunisia and more. Egypt became the spot for anarchists in
(02:37):
the eastern Mediterranean, and they'd made connections all the way
to the United States and South America.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
It's kind of interestingly playing a similar role to like
early nineteen hundreds Japan in terms of the anarchist movement,
where yeah, it's you know, you get these sort of
like regional hubs that develop and people sort of like
moved through and around them, which I think is really interesting.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, agreed, Agreed, and each of being in a hub,
you know, a lot of big name anarchists to are visiting, oh,
you know, big name talking people like am Claire Cypriani,
Elised Recluse, Aricoma ro Testa, Luigi Kaliani, and Pietro Gory.
And of course with these agitators in the mix, the
(03:24):
authority has called it the new of Us. But the
real life flood of the movement with not these influential figures,
they were the publications that this community was producing and
reading and distributing. The anarchists in Egypt didn't just read
from newsletters all around the world, though that was a
(03:45):
part of it, but they also contributed their own articles.
But always happening in Egypt they're connected, informed and motivated
by the international community they had built. There are a
bunch of publications dedicated to work as issues, offering insights, debates,
and discussions on common difficulties on matters of labor, organization,
(04:06):
and strategy. Facilitated by an increasingly developed international transport system,
particularly steamership services, the International Anarchist press served as a
vital channel the dissemination and diffusion.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Of the movement's ideas.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It was the anarchist Library before the anarchist Library in
terms of.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
How they went about organizing and propriation.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
In Egypt, the anarchists there recognized the unique challenges of
the local situation.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That they have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
For the European anarchists, promoting the message of emancipation and
combat and the exploitation, ignorance, and injustice caused by capitalism,
the states and religious authority would be no easy task
in a region where, for one, they're already being seen
as part of the onicle and attempts of political domination
(04:57):
by Western powers, and also in a region with very
deep historical religious divisions, you know, such as the Crusades
and the British French colonization. It's really one of the
major projects I suppose the European anarchists needed to communicate
to the local population was that their ire did not
(05:18):
lay with Europeans as a whole. It lay primarily with
the European ruling class, and so when it came into
critique and societal issues and has strongly attacked the evils
of capitalism, and of course that had the best reception
among the Egyptian workers. Of course, this isn't to say
that the European workers in Egypt were like completely in
(05:41):
common with the Egyptian workers, despite the fact that the
ire of the Egyptian workers should really lie primarily with
the European ruling class that was responsible for the imperialization
of their country and the expectation of their people. The
presence of the European workers did also contribute to the
(06:01):
exploitation because those European workers were paid so much better
than native worn workers were. It was experienced and privileges
that the Native one workers did not have access to. Interestingly,
although anarchists typically advocate for emancipation from all religious authorities,
Islam wasn't specifically targeted in their literature, and there was
(06:25):
probably a pragmatic consideration for whether anti religiou rhetoric would fly,
considering they could just be reported because of course that
was a crime. They still took on a hostile attitude
towards the Egyptian state, though, condemn its course of actions,
surveillance culture, and abusive power, but they didn't confront it
head on. The program of action was far more focused
(06:47):
on the goal of social transformation through the use of propaganda, education,
and workers associations. Because of the mixed conditions in Europe
and in Egypt, the ideal of people of different races, religions,
and nationalities united in solidarity had some real potency to it.
So the internationalist mission was a very central component in
(07:07):
their messaging at public conferences and at labor meetings, But
it really was more so about the speaking the propaganda
of the word rather than the propaganda of the deed.
In fact, interestingly, for that time, the anarchists in Egypt
didn't really engage in much propaganda of the deed at all,
Propaganda the deed being you know, political violence and assassination attempts.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
For those who know you know a bit about.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
The anarchists of that time, propaganda of the deed was
what they were known for. They had some some big
name assassinations in the books. For example, Franz Fudinan I
believe was assassinated by an anarchist.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
No hold on Franford nand is the guy he was
killed by. Gavya Princett, the guy who started World War One.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Right. I've seen some sources call him a nationalist, souses
call him an anarchist.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I don't think he was an anarchist.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, he was exposed to socialist, anarchist and communist writings
when he was younger, through school and through his roommate
danielo Iriech, but he was more so associated with nationalists,
particularly when he got around to assassinate in Franz Ferdinand.
Nazis and fascists did call him an anarchist and a socialist,
(08:42):
But it seems as though although he was inspired by
nationalists anarchists, he was more so in the nationalists side
of the equation.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah. I mean they did kill a few Habsburgs, which
always always a good thing to have less Habsburgs in
the world. You can you can you can make you
can make a chart over time and what access is
good and the other axis is Habsburg. You can see
that they're adversely correlated.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, yeah, habspurgs or something else.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
But yeah, the anarchists in Egypt not too much into
the political violence and assassinations. They were focused really on
promoting the ideas through spoken and written communication, you know,
like public meetings, demonstrations in the press, and the press
was really the crucial axis of their efforts and disseminating
the ideas and sustaining their identity. They had local properly,
(09:32):
they had local publications like that Tribuna Liberal, Lepero, Looks
and others, which save to spread anarchist thought and discuss.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Ideas and issues of social emancipation.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
The weekly paper l'apero mostly promoted anarcho syndicalism, and then
the paper Ill Dominant Dominie came up and decided to
adopt a more tridently libertarian tone. And then you have
Rise Again Or, which is another people another weekly that
(10:14):
promoted a very strong anti clerical line. And then there
was the people who Ergatis, which was or the Worker,
and that was an organized organ for the emancipation of
women and the worker, and it provided primarily for a
Greek language readership. Are see a lot of these seapers
(10:35):
will tailor towards specific languages, so that Greek had Italian
and you also had French like Legnon and l Idea.
But despite its polygod character, the anarchist press in Egypt
doesn't seem to have included an Arabic language newspaper, which
is kind of weird when you're surrounded by Arabic speaking people. However,
(11:02):
anarchism had regularly featured in the mainstream Arabic newspapers since
since the eighteen nineties, usually however in reports and the
activities in the movement abroad, not locally in Egypt. At
the same time, there were also journals like Al Muktataf
and Al Hilal, which carried articles discussing the origins and
(11:22):
development of anarchist thought and practice. It seems as though
in eighteen ninety seven there was also a figure who
engaged with socialized ideas, but that particular publication seems to
have been closed down quite quickly by the authorities, particularly
for feature in the work of Salama Musa and Shibili Shumayu,
(11:44):
who were two Egyptian writers who were clearly influenced by
anarchist ideas. Something that just occurred to me is that
what it could be influencing this is that the Italians
and the Greeks and the French and all these different
people who are writing about these anarchist ideas in Egypt.
(12:04):
It's possibly they had a bit more leeway when it
came to the local authorities that locals themselves would not have.
Their foreign status may have provided them with slight immunity
in comparison. And this is just me spitball in, but
it's possible that Arabophone writers and speakers would be taken
(12:28):
on significantly more risk if they were to agitate in
the same ways that these you know, migrant workers were advocating.
And then there's also the component and that speculation, but
there is a proven component of financial difficulties and limited
literacy rates among the Egyptian population that made it difficult
(12:49):
to distribute Arabic language material, religious and anarchism because a
lot of the workers in Egypt who spoke Arabic were
not literate. What did help, though, because you know, the
anarchists were about that life. They would go to cafes
(13:09):
and read the newspapers out loud to reach their target audience.
The first podcasters exactly exactly, the first podcasters for real,
as the anarchist movement in Egypt was really commemorating important
political events, celebrating new principles through posters, leaflets, and flyers
(13:30):
celebrating the animal history of events like the Paris Commune
in May day truly spread that message of international solidarity
among the workers, and anarchists in Egypt are also very
fond of showing solidarity to their international figures like Francisco Ferrer,
who was a very influential Spanish anarchist thinker who did
(13:53):
a lot of work in the field of anarchist education.
He created for their schools, which influenced figures like Goldman
to create their own modern schools in the US and elsewhere.
And he was arrested and then executed, which led to
a lot of protests both locally and internationally, making him
(14:13):
something of a martyr for the anarchist cause. And so
the outrage expressed at the execution of Ferver was not
simply just a protest against the attorney, but also recognition
(14:34):
of his status as an advocate for cycle education, which
is an important vehicle for you know.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Social emancipation.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Before Francisco Ferrera was executed, though anarchists in Egypt were
already working on educational programs. In fact, they launched their
most ambitious project, the Free Popular University or Universita Popularity
Liberal or UPL, in alexand Andrea in nineteen oh one.
(15:02):
The UPL aimed to provide free evening education to the
popular classes and received great support across alexandri and society.
Courses included you know, the works of Tolstoi and Bucunan,
the arts, and pragmatic topics like worker negotiation strategies. However,
(15:24):
the upl's radical nature also brought criticism, with the Italian
authorities initiating legal proceedings against the UPL lecturer for some
remarks he made about the assassination of the Italian king Umbelta. First,
I of course leave you to speculate what those comments
and remarks may have been. But despite some initial public support,
(15:46):
its critics accused the UPL of being based on depraved principles.
Now I mentioned this school before, and the episode did
on Islam and anarchism, and like I said in that episode,
Ouric speakers would quickly marginalized from the education, and the
(16:07):
UPL gradually became more aimed toward and controlled by upper
class interests. In fact, within a year, reliably bourgeois elements
had arrested control of the UPL from its anarchist founders
and had wrested controlled the UPL from its anarchist founders
and proceeded to transform it into a vocational college that,
(16:29):
among other things, taught shorthand, accountancy, and languages. So, despite
its very brief existence as a revolutionary project, the UPL
marked an important movement for anarchism in Egypt and inspired
other movements seeking educational reform. The upl's impacts and vision
influenced Egyptian nationalists, who established the Higher Schools Club in
(16:52):
nineteen oh five, which also emphasized educational means.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
For political purposes.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Anarchism in Egypt had a significant impact on the development
of the labor movement. As a new working class emerged
towards the end of the nineteenth century, anacho cynicalism emerged
as a powerful force advocating for formal collective organization as
the instrument of social revolution. Of course, each just's labor
movement wasn't entirely new, as killed have been part of
(17:20):
the traditional Ottoman order, regulating trade and provide mutual lead
but the modernization efforts of Muhammad Ali no Relation and
Egypt's integration into the international capitalist system changed that landscape,
affecting the role of guilds and shape in the working class.
Foreign workers, like I mentioned before, came into Egypt alongside
native Egyptian labor, but despite the differences between them, evidence
(17:44):
does show a strong cooperation and collaboration between the groups.
The native Egyptian working class was affected by a variety
of factors, but there was a model of collaboration that
was emersion between European and Egyptian workers. The Cigarette Rollers Union,
(18:10):
for example, was initially a Greek body in Cairo, but
later became more inclusive as their successful strike in eighteen
and nine to nineteen hundred marked a milestone in Egyptian
industrial militancy. However, their subsequent strikes fixed However, subsequent strikes
(18:30):
faced brutal confrontations with the police, leading to divisions.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Among the workers.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
By the end of the first decade of the century,
the Anacos Syndicalist International Union had emerged as a significant
force based on universalist principles and international solidarity. The optimism
for the future of a socialist center in Cairo was
a reflection of the broader movement within the working class
led by anarchists and cynicalists. Anarchism first appeared in Egypt
(18:59):
among Italian political refugees and workers during the eighteen sixties,
nurtured by a development international network of labor transporting communications
expanded beyond Italian circles, attract members from across Egypt's diverse
communities the heterogynous through the discourse of radical social emancipation
(19:19):
and propaganda and public action declaring the universality of humankind
and the crime the evils of capitalism state power on
the dogma, the anarchist movement would come into force in
Egypt's history in the years after nineteen hundred. Anarchist cyndicalism
played a central role in development of the labor movement
or circulating the rights of workers in struggle against capital,
(19:43):
against capital and promoting internationalists activism yet wildly rejected. Yet
while they rejected nationalism as an organizing principle, anarchists did
at times to make common cause of the nationalists against
imperialism and arguably had a revie lub eats An influence
on the strategy is antactics of the nationalist movement.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
That's all I have for today.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
On this brief month in Egyptian anarchist history, but I
hope an illuminated, very interesting.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Chapter and context. That's fair.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Yeah, And I think there's another kind of important, broader
lesson from this that is I think mostly forgotten, which
is that you know, from this period of I don't know,
roughly the late eighteen hundreds through about nineteen seventeen, like
in most parts of the world except for basically like
(20:47):
Western Europe, or not even Western Europe, like apart from
basically like the Germany's, if you're talking about socialism, there's
like anywhere in the world, there's a very very good
chance the thing you're actually talking about isism. And you know,
there's been a sort of systemic attempt by both liberal
and sort of later communists like historians to sort of
(21:10):
like wipe the historical record clean and make it look
like everything was always sort of like the sort of
on rush of Marxism, but like that just wasn't true.
And they were very powerful anarchist movements on every continent,
and they did a lot, they did a lot of
really interesting things, and yeah, yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Really needs to be respected and recognized and it hasn't
so far, So flee this and if folks check out
the book they can get some more insights on some
of the other actions that have taken place in that time. Again,
the book is anarchism and syndicalism in the colonial and
post colonial world. It really illuminates a lot of that
(21:53):
lost history. Thanks for joining me and be young on
this episode of It Can Happen Here Again. You can
follow me Andrew on the YouTube channel andrewism on support
on petare dot com slash Sandrew take Ko.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated
monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for
listening
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James Stout
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