5 - 11 April 2001
Issue No.528
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 April 2001 Issue No.528 |
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Passing the torch
The Islamist-oriented Labour Party, beleaguered as it may be, can be sure of one thing: the death on 16 March of Adel Hussein will not change much in the way of the suspended party's activities. His nephew and ideological heir, Magdi Hussein, 49, was voted in as the party's new secretary-general last week. Hussein, who is editor-in-chief of the party's mouthpiece, the weekly Al-Shaab newspaper, was approved by nearly two-thirds of the executive committee at a meeting held in the home of Ibrahim Shoukri, the party's 82-year-old leader. Only one of the 43 members who took part in the meeting abstained from the vote, saying that the appointment would send a negative message to the government.
"Some people thought that Adel Hussein's death would mean an end to the confrontation with the government," said Talaat Rumeih, deputy chief editor of Al-Shaab. "But those people are wrong because they do not recognise the fact that the late Adel Hussein did not merely represent himself, but the party's leadership and its views." The late Hussein was well known for his hard-line stance against the government, having masterminded several Al-Shaab campaigns against top cabinet ministers. Although Adel Hussein retired as Al-Shaab's editor in the early 1990s, he remained one of the paper's main writers. As secretary-general, he was often accused of trying to control the party, excluding any dissenting voices and even overruling the Labour leader himself.
As editor-in-chief of Al-Shaab Magdi Hussein has been equally confrontational. He was serving a two-year prison term for libelling Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali, when his uncle led the notorious campaign against Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni that ultimately shut down both the Labour Party and Al-Shaab last May. The row exploded over the Culture Ministry's choice to republish a novel by Syrian writer Haydar Haydar, which Al-Shaab claimed was insulting to Islam. Students at Al-Azhar University reacted angrily, holding violent demonstrations. Based on reports of an internal power struggle, the government-controlled Parties Committee acted swiftly and decided to halt all Labour Party activities, including the publication of Al-Shaab.
The Labour Party responded by filing a series of appeals against the decisions taken by the Parties Committee, which licenses new parties. Despite winning all the court cases filed against the committee's decision to suspend Al-Shaab, government lawyers have always been able to come up with a new legal trick to delay the paper's return to news-stands. In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Magdi Hussein said his top priority as Labour's new secretary-general would be to continue the effort to lift the government suspension, at least against Al-Shaab. The paper is considered the most influential activity carried out by the group, as is the case with most opposition parties.
"We will continue our contacts with other opposition parties, take part in all public activities and forums and use all other peaceful means to assure Al-Shaab's return," Hussein said. Although there are no indications that the government is ready to offer any compromise, Hussein is confident that the law is on their side. "I am optimistic that we are going to win. The government has no choice but to concede defeat after all the court verdicts in our favour."
The Labour Party is currently filing cases against the head of the Shura Council, Mustafa Kamal Helmi, in his capacity as the head of the Supreme Press Council, as well as the ministers of interior and justice. The party is demanding that the courts force the officials to implement the rulings on Al-Shaab, emphasising that newspapers in Egypt cannot be suspended or closed down by administrative orders. "They [the government] cannot go on like this forever," Hussein said. "For our part, we are ready for dialogue with the government, but not to change our principles or the causes we defend."
Hussein is forced to concede that no matter how righteous their cause, Labour is fighting alone. The newspaper and party are getting little support from other main opposition groups, particularly the liberal Wafd and the leftist Tagammu parties. A pledge from the Nasserist Party mouthpiece Al-Arabi not to appear on their regular publication day as a show of solidarity with Al-Shaab was retracted, and despite a similar promise from the relatively independent weekly Al-Osbou, the paper came out all the same on Monday.
"Al-Arabi have their own problems with the government, and probably they did not want to add to these problems by joining the [Al-Shaab] solidarity campaign," said Hussein, who is also an elected member of the Press Syndicate's council. As for Al-Osbou, "They told us they had to comment on the outcome of the Arab summit and that they will not appear next week."
Even the support of the party's closest ally -- the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood -- has waned. "The Brotherhood needed the Labour Party when it was a functional political party, with its own newspaper, as a tool to overcome the government's ban on their activities," remarked one opposition party member, who did not want his name mentioned. "After all this disappeared, and with the victory of Brotherhood members in the last parliamentary elections, they don't need the Labour Party anymore." It is generally believed that the government clampdown on the Labour Party was not only because of its heated campaigns, but also because of its alliance with the Brotherhood.
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