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29-600: HADITU was founded in July 1947 through the merger of two communist factions, the Egyptian Movement for National Liberation and Iskra . Soon after the foundation of HADITU, the organization had a membership of around 1,400, being the largest communist organization in Egypt at the time. HADITU published a legal weekly newspaper, al-Jamahir (الجماهير, 'The Masses'). Al-Jamahir had a regular circulation of 7-8,000, but

58-562: A "foreigner", although he had held Egyptian citizenship for 15 years. In exile, Curiel settled down in Paris where he formed a HADITU branch of Egyptian-Jewish émigrés. The group became known as the 'Rome Group'. The Rome Group was able to secure some financial supplies to HADITU and translated HADITU documents into French and circulated them in Europe. While Curiel formally remained a HADITU Central Committee member, he no longer played any role in

87-662: A RCC member, HADITU member Ahmed Hamrush was a prominent figure in the Free Officers Movement. HADITU member Ahmed Fu'ad, a military judge, acted as a liaison between HADITU and Gamal Abdel Nasser . However, in retrospect it appears that HADITU overestimated its influence over the RCC. The RCC also contained followers of the Muslim Brotherhood , and neither HADITU nor the Brotherhood were in control over

116-602: A milling plant, and injuring dozens more. Rioting spread to other centres, including the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in El-Mahalla. In the vicinity of the Kafr El Dawwar are a great number of ancient cemeteries (including Kom Ishu, Kom El Farag, Sidi Ghazi, Kom Defshu, Kom El Terfayeh, and Tell El Kanaies), where remains of pottery, and other items from Egypt's Ptolemaic era can be found. The city

145-602: Is a major industrial city and municipality on the Nile Delta in the Beheira Governorate of northern Egypt . Located approximately 30 km from Alexandria , the municipality has a population of about 265,300 inhabitants and comprises a number of smaller towns and villages. Kafr El Dawwar was the location of the famous Battle of Kafr El Dawwar between the Egyptian army, headed by Ahmed Orabi , and

174-451: Is renowned for electricity generation as well as textile and fruit packing industries. Misr for Weaving and Spinning is the largest company in Kafr El Dawwar. Other industrial activities include paint , silk fibers and chemicals . Agriculture is a major activity for the countryside that surrounds the industrial area. The Mahmudiyya Canal ( Arabic : ترعة المحمودية ) goes through Kafr El Dawwar north to Alexandria. It branches west from

203-473: The Iskra group. Other communist factions became harshly critical of Iskra , especially the role of women in the organisation. Henri Curiel , leader of HAMITU, criticized Iskra for organizing parties as a tool for political recruitment. Kafr Dawar Kafr El Dawwar ( Arabic : كفر الدوار , lit.   'town of the farm'  Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [kɑfɾ eddɑwˈwɑːɾ] )

232-645: The Nile , and is the main source of drinking water and irrigation. Kafr El Dawwar is classified by the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system as having a hot desert climate (BWh). Its highest record temperature, 45 °C (113 °F), was recorded on 30 May 1961, while its lowest record temperature, 0 °C (32 °F), was recorded on 31 January 31, 1994. Kafr El Dawwar has, on average, 38 rainy days annually. Rafah , Alexandria , Abu Qir , Rosetta , Baltim , Kafr El Dawwar, and Mersa Matruh are

261-572: The Unified Egyptian Communist Party . The Rome Group was not consulted or informed on the merger (although, once Curiel heard of the merger he and the rest of the Rome Group supported it). As the merger went through, the memberships of Curiel and HADITU leader Kamal Abd al-Halim (a close associate of Curiel) were suspended. Iskra (Egyptian communist organisation) Iskra ( Arabic : الشرارة , ash-Sharara )

290-658: The British army, during the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882. For five weeks, Orabi was able to stop British forces from advancing toward the Egyptian capital of Cairo . Egyptian victory in the battle compelled the British to change their strategy, with British forces shifting to the Suez Canal to reach Cairo through Tel El Kebir. In the early months of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 , Kafr El Dawwar

319-694: The Egyptian communist movement. HADITU had a student front, the Communist Student League . HADITU also led the Preparatory Committee for an Egyptian Students Federation. HADITU went through a series of splits. One of the first groups to break away was the Revolutionary Bloc , led by Shudi Atiya ash-Shafi (He had left after not being included in the HADITU Central Committee as the movement

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348-538: The French communist daily L'Humanité published an article accusing Curiel of having had contacts with a Trotskyist informer during the Second World War . When HADITU attempted to conduct unity discussions with other communist factions, the issue of Curiel's membership (being tainted by the accusations in L'Humanité ) became a stumbling block. In February 1955 HADITU merged with six other factions, forming

377-545: The National People's University in 1945, an institution that provided courses in politics and social sciences for labour activists. In February 1946, Iskra was one of the groups that organised the National Committee of Workers and Students , a mass movement for national independence and social reforms. The National Committee lasted until July the same year. In 1947 the organisation began publishing

406-460: The army), but called on workers to remain calm. The support to the government after the Kafr Dawar crack-down decreased HADITU influence in the labour movement, and internal rifts developed between the party and its trade union cadres. In January 1953 the government closed down the legal press of HADITU. The Communist Student League took part in militant protests against the government, but this

435-440: The circulation occasionally peaked to around 15,000. Al-Jamahir played an important role in the growth of HADITU. Free copies of the newspaper were handed out to workers at factories, and the newspaper became an important rallying point to spread the influence of the movement among industrial workers. The newspaper had a relatively high journalistic standard, with photographic essays and exposés about industrial conditions. The paper

464-573: The decision-making of the organization. He was not consulted on any major matters. HADITU supported the 1952 coup d'état , being the only communist faction to do so. Several prominent figures in the Revolutionary Command Council and the Free Officers had links to HADITU. RCC member Yusuf Siddiq was a member of HADITU. Another RCC member, Khalid Muhyi ad-Din , had briefly been affiliated to HADITU in 1947. Whilst not

493-415: The first women cadres were Latifa az-Zayyat, Soraya Adham, Fatma Zaki, Inge Aflatun, Aimée Setton and Odette Hazan Solomon. The Iskra group soon got the reputation of being a haven for sexual libertinism. In fact the anti-communist discourse in Egypt at the time, which was centered around claims that the communist movement was morally depraved and dominated by Jews, was largely based on the reputation of

522-452: The government, due to its pan-Arab orientation in foreign policy. In September 1954 there was a major crackdown on the organization, and 25 of its cadres were arrested. In the same year Joyce Blau, who had functioned as the courier between Curiel's Rome Group and the party in Egypt, was arrested. With her arrest, communication between the party in Egypt and the exiles was cut off. Curiel's role has been considered contentious. In September 1952,

551-521: The membership of Iskra largely consisted of intellectuals. Like all communist groups, the cadres were mainly urban and based in the Cairo area. A large number of the Iskra cadres were Europeanised Jews or belonging to other European minorities. Many of the Iskra activists belonged to the upper strata of Cairo society, and were often recruited from the Lycée Français du Caire . The recruitment

580-605: The newspaper al-Jamahir (الجماهير, 'The Masses'). Shudi Atiya ash-Shafi was the director of the House of Scientific Research and later the editor of al-Jamahir . Ash-Shafi had been the first Egyptian Muslim to become part of the Iskra leadership. That same year Iskra merged with the Egyptian Movement for National Liberation (HAMITU) to form the Democratic Movement for National Liberation . In comparison to other contemporary communist organisations in Egypt,

609-553: The revolution. Toward the end of 1952, HADITU had around 2,000-3,000 members. Other communist groups expressed fierce criticism of the government for its violent suppression of a strike in Kafr Dawar and the execution of two workers accused of being the leaders of the strike. After the executions of the two labour leaders, HADITU and non-communist trade unionists agitated in the working-class neighbourhoods of Alexandria and Kafr Dawar (in vehicles, with loudspeakers, borrowed from

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638-466: The wake of the January 1950 election in Egypt, the political climate was normalized somewhat. The more open political environment enabled HADITU to work more effectively and expand its influence. HADITU was the most effective political force in the workers movement at the time, playing a leading role in various trade unions . In the summer of 1950, Curiel was expelled from Egypt. Curiel was classified as

667-563: Was a communist organization in Egypt . Iskra was founded in 1942 by Hillel Schwartz . In the initial phase of its existence, the membership of Iskra was a small group of less than 100. The followers of Iskra were, like the supporters of other Egyptian communist factions, active inside the Wafdist Vanguard (see Wafd ). Iskra emphazised studies of Marxist theory and its application in Egyptian society. Iskra's approach

696-414: Was closed in 1948 under martial law provisions that the Egyptian government enforced at the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . In early 1948 Curiel presented the paper "The Line of National and Democratic Forces" to the HADITU Central Committee, a document that became an important point of reference in the organization. The document contained criticisms against the earlier leadership and political line of

725-554: Was often done through arranging parties and social events. In 1945, Iskra had a membership of about 900. 40% of them were foreigners. Notably the Jewish members of the Iskra leadership took a more militant anti-Zionist approach than the non-Jewish cadres. Around 1946/early 1947 they formed the Jewish Anti-Zionist League . It was in Iskra that the first female communists were organized in Egypt. Some of

754-654: Was rebuked by HADITU. HADITU reversed its policy of not criticizing the government in August 1953, as the government launched a crack-down on communist groups on the advice of the American embassy in Cairo. 1953–55 was a period of disarray in HADITU. The organization was weakened over disputes on how to relate to the regime. The movement had difficulties in handling the rising Pan-Arabist nationalism. One sector favoured supporting

783-737: Was reorganized. Ash-Shafi argued that HADITU had a bourgeois outlook). In April 1948 two HADITU splinter groups, Toward a Bolshevik Organization and Voice of the Opposition, merged to form the Egyptian Communist Organisation . Other HADITU splinter groups included Toward an Egyptian Communist Party (NAHSHAM) and the Progressive Liberation Front . Leaders of Gat included Issamuddin Jilal, Ahmed Taha, Ismail Jibr, Salah Salma and Ehia al-Mazsi. In

812-410: Was that the first task of the communists was to build a base among revolutionary intellectuals, and that mass mobilisation would follow at a later stage. In 1944 Iskra established a study centre, Dar al-abahth al-'ilmiya (دار الأبحاث العلمية, House of Scientific Research). The centre published literature and gave classes on communist thought. Iskra was one of the forces behind the foundation of

841-430: Was the scene of industrial action that resulted in death sentences for two leaders of the strike. In September 1984, protests broke out in Kafr El Dawwar over efforts by Hosni Mubarak , Egypt's President , to raise food prices during a period of wage decreases. Thousands of demonstrators threw rocks, and occupied markets and roads. In response, security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas, killing three persons at

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