Al-Ahram Weekly Issue 244 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Continuing a series on the political parties contesting the November general elections, Amira Howeidy traces the roots of the Labour Party, chronicles its switch to an Islamist ideology, interviews its leader, Ibrahim Shukri, and sounds out political experts on the party's performance

Old but also new

In discussing the ideological orientation of the Labour Party, particularly its slogan "Islam is the solution", we should point out that this trend has deep historical roots. It is not something new which the party adopted in the last few years. Labour is the continuation of the pre-1952 Young Egypt Party which later became known as the Misr Socialist Party.

If we go back to the ideological principles of Young Egypt and its "10 commandments", we find that they were a successful combination of Egyptian nationalism, pan-Arabian and Islamism. These principles were upheld by the Misr Socialist Party.

Consequently, with the establishment of the Labour Party in 1978, it was only to be expected that the Islamist trend would be part of its platform.

What happened in the last few years, however, is that the party focused more on the "Islamic solution" after it forged a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Liberal party on the eve of the 1987 elections. This new, but also old, trend has its roots not only in Young Egypt but also in other pre-1952 political groups. In fact, some historians believe that those groups were a continuation of Mustafa Kamel's National Party whose platform was a mixture of Egyptian nationalism and Islamism.

Mohamed Emara
Islamic thinker

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In the Brothers' boots

In talking about the Labour Party, two facts have to be taken into consideration. Firstly, that it is a continuation - both in terms of principles or people - of the old Young Egypt Party which had a composite nationalistic-religious-socialist ideology. Secondly, that Labour was established as a result of an agreement between President Anwar El-Sadat and Ibrahim Shukri to form a socialist opposition party acceptable to the state. These two facts shed light on the party's politics and ideology.

Labour's main problem is the ambiguity of its ideological framework. Because this framework is a mixture of Islamist, socialist and nationalist trends, the party may embrace one or other of these trends in a certain situation. The predominant trend right now is the religious or Islamist trend.

This accounts for another paradox because it will undoubtedly lead to competition with other Islamic groups, led by the Muslim Brotherhood. I believe that the alliance which was formed at one point between Labour and the Brotherhood was intended to face common external challenges, rather than reflect an authentic uniformity of thought. Thus it is expected that this old coalition could turn into fierce competition at any moment, particularly as the Islamist trend is viewed as a horse that many political forces are vying to bet on, believing that it's a winner.

However, the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood members could leave the arena wide open for the Labour Party to lead the Islamist trend. This is a possibility because Labour is nominating candidates in electoral districts where the Islamist trend predominates, apparently in the hope that it will take over leadership of this trend from the Brotherhood.

Although this is a very delicate and complicated issue, politics are politics. The competition for the leadership of the Islamist trend is still very open and no one can claim that it has been settled in favour of the Labour Party.

Osama El-Ghazali Harb
Editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram's Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya (International Politics)

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Politics of ambivalence

In discussing domestic politics, one has to point out that the Egyptian legal system has managed to disfigure the political parties. This is because most of the forces that needed to have political parties, such as the Islamists, Nasserists and Marxists, had to join already existing political parties in order to be able to express themselves legally, and not necessarily because they supported the platforms of those parties.

Examples include the secret communist organisations which could only speak up by joining the leftist Tagammu Party, and the Islamist movement, represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, which entered the People's Assembly only by means of forging the tripartite alliance of 1987.

In the light of this, one can easily see that one of the Labour Party's biggest problems is political ambivalence. This has had a negative effect on the party's internal structure. Divisions occurred. Many Nasserists left the party because it was no longer a channel for expressing their Nasserist ideology. Other members, who owed allegiance to the pre-'52 Young Egypt Party, also quit.

After its conversion to Islamism, Labour dropped its vague socialist mottos and introduced strident Islamist slogans in an attempt to absorb a part of the phenomenon of Islamic resurgence, which Egypt has witnessed since the late 1970s.

The party did benefit from the prevailing Islamist "climate", particularly after it forged the tripartite coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Liberal Party. In fact, both Labour and the Brotherhood made gains. Labour gained from the strong Brotherhood groups and their grassroots support. And the Brotherhood found in the Labour Party a channel for projecting its political views, both among party members and the public at large. This has had a big impact on Labour because its politics and platform were shaped by the Brotherhood.

Nabil Abdel-Fattah
Expert at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies

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