WEBVTT - Anarchism in Egypt Part 1 Ft. Andrew 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:06.320 Welcomes it could happen here. 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.319 I am Andrew of the future channal Andrewism, and I'm 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:12.240 here with O. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.599 Wait without the Q. Oh no, yeah, it's ties me 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:21.079 me along. I'm also here at apparently missing Ques instantly. 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.040 I don't know. It is barbarically early for me, So. 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.760 Yay, bobarically What time is it? 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:29.680 Ten o'clock? 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.640 Well, come on, come on, come on, come on. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.040 Look, it would have been fine if it wasn't up 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:40.240 till three am last night dealing with a session of 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:41.720 minor crises. 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:43.520 Down that's unfortunate. 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:44.720 Yeah, it's all right. 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.800 Otherwise, if it wasn't a crisis, I would have like 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:53.000 flexed my early bood supremacy. But you know, I have 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:57.560 enough since like seven sixthy I'd say something that job. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.360 Now, But I just didn't want to do a ling 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:01.840 with this one. 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:06.399 And yeah, So today I wanted to shed light on 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.479 some really interesting history. I think of the anarchist movement 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:15.200 in Egypt. I've readen this book called Anarchism and Syndicalism 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:17.959 in the Colonial and Post Colonial World, and there's a 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:22.479 sexual by a guy named Anthony Gorman that I found 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.920 really interested in. I just had to share it's really 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:31.240 specific to the anarchist Egyptian anarchist history of like the 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:36.720 late nineteenth and early twentieth century, And honestide, I find 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.160 that whole period to be very interesting, partially because I 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:46.880 am a dreaded paradox Games fan and I enjoy my 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.760 little you know, like you three mil you know, like 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.920 that that period in history. Honestly, any period of history 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.280 prior to World War Two I find interesting. Everything World 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.480 War two is just like a complete to me, and 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.280 then everything passed World War two is like cool, but 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.600 it seemed like the World War II period itself not 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:11.760 my thing, you know, like telling me about the Phoenicians, 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:17.359 talking about the Phrygians, talking about the Carthaginians, But I 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:22.959 don't really care about the axis and which tank was 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.200 the superior tank and all those different things, and a 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.840 lot of these could and qute history buffs into not 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.840 to a personal one cereal of course, whatever you know. 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:32.480 Floats your boat. 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.880 But for me, I really like that pre WI War 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.440 TI sort of stuff. And Victorian erarors one particularly interesting 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.840 point in history, and a lot of things will happen 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:48.600 in that time. Industrial revolution was shaken up around the world, 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.200 Colonization was going on and the effects of that, but 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:59.960 you know, reverberate for centuries to come and the true 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.840 successor to the Roman Empire. In my opinion, the Ottoman 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.840 Empire was kind of going through a series of crises, 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:14.720 and Egypt, which was under the Ottoman Empire and then 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.400 brooke free of the Ottoe Empire, had its own stuff 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:17.799 going on. 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.680 So I don't want to get too much. 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.280 Into that whole mess, but I want to give some 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.520 context because you know, this isn't this is a history episode. 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:30.720 It might be a two part history episode in fact. 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.280 So let's just start back in the late nineteenth century. 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.360 So there's this foreign work in community in Egypt thanks 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:44.160 to Muhammad Ali no relation, and he was the ruler 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.080 of Egypt from eighteen oh five to eighteen forty nine. 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.880 This guy is all about modernizing stuff like the military, state, administration, 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.839 and the economy. So he invited skilled folks to come 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:55.480 to Egypt and lend their labor. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.320 Oh, isn't he the guy that Napoleon fought for a 0:03:58.320 --> 0:03:58.760 little bit? 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.800 I think so? I think so. I mean, who didn't 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:02.720 Napoleon fight? 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.440 I'm sure if he could have, Napoleon would have fought 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:09.240 like the dinosaurs. 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.160 Napoleon fighting Cavement on the moon, Like. 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:12.640 I'm speaking of Napoleon. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.280 I really don't appreciate how I mean no disrespect to 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:21.240 hawqu In Phoenix, But was Napoleon like in his twenties 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.039 when he rose up the ranks military and all that. Like, 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:26.760 I could be mistaken. I could be confused in him 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.839 with the other Napoleon. But I'm pretty sure Napoleon was 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:31.800 not the old man when he was making a lot 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:32.040 of the. 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.920 Moves he was making. Let's see again, I could be. 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.040 Wrong, Well, he was, he was more in seventeen seventeen 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.040 sixty nine. I'm leaving I'm leaving the maths of this 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:43.400 as an exercise for the reader. 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:48.159 What really through his new office. 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.640 So there's like multiple Napoleons, and so I mix up 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:57.480 the histories of the different Napoleons. Reasonable, But if it 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:59.400 wasn't that Napoleon, I know for sure one of the 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:05.479 Napoleon in question was like relatively young when he was 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.240 making some of his moves, like in his early to 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:12.320 mid twenties, when he's rising up the ranks kind of thing. Yeah, 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:15.400 but I could be entirely mistaken, and I'm sure somebody 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.600 will correct me, none of this is relevant to what 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:25.159 this episode is ever. But yeah, so Muhammad Ali again 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:29.640 no relation. His successors, Sayid and Ismail, took things to 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.960 the next level after he passed on with some major 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.800 infrastructure projects. They were building railways, they were expanding canals, 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.800 they were going wildly urban development, and they need a 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:42.360 bunch of skilled workers for. 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:44.040 A lot of that, so they brought. 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:49.480 In Italians, Greeks, Syrians, Dalmatians, and of course they used 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.160 their local Egyptian laborers as well. Many of those workers 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.599 came to work on the famous Suez Canal, of course, 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:58.760 and that required. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.120 A massive workforce, many of whom died. 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.120 Yeahing like like canal digging. 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.760 I don't know if female high immortality read professional. 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.640 Yeah, yeah, like you might as well dig your own 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.120 grave too, like like dig it before you start, so 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:17.880 they can bury your body halfway through. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.400 Yes, it's like not gallows humor. It's like canal humor. 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:24.520 You know, it's like this canal, we're going to die 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.600 here anyway. It's kind of similar thing I could in 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.880 the Panama Canal, although in that case they brought in 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:34.000 a lot of Beesian and other Caribbean workers to Yeah, 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.720 you know set that up, and actually the Panama Canal 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.840 is responsible for, like what's responsible for I think a 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.680 third of the Beigian economy at one point because the 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.440 remittances they were being sent back to their families at home. 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.280 That's a whole different chapter in history. But yeah, so. 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.000 This this massive and diverse workforce is bringing, of course, 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.120 not just their labor, but ideas, because whenever you get 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:01.479 people together, they start talking. Egypt was already considered some 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.839 kind of a place of refuge for political exiles, so 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.599 it's not very surprising that anarchism was starting to gain 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.640 popularity around that time, particularly with the Italians in Egypt. 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:13.440 Yeah, that's the thing. 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:15.440 That's the thing in this period is like you can 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:19.480 literally track the spread of anarchism, like by where there 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.360 are a bunch of Italians. Happens in Argentina too. It's 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.600 like anywhere there are Italians, anarchy spreads. 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:31.680 It's like it's a me anarchism. 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:35.400 Yeah, yeah, that's that's gonna set somebody off. My apology 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:37.560 is to the Italian Communitee. I shouldn't have said that. 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.880 Yeah, look they had they hadn't invented fascism yet. This 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.679 is back when the Italians were still cool. 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:49.320 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm probably gonna get a letter hopefully. 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:54.840 You know, there's nothing else what's attached to it. Italians 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:57.680 already had a history with the anarchist movement, as we know. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.760 I mean some people would of course familiar with folks 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:05.880 like Erica Manchester, so there's no surprises there. Label and 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:10.600 political radicalism court sparks first in the Italian Worker Society 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:17.200 or Society Operao Italiana in eighteen sixty, which was formed 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:18.880 to look out for the interests of its members, and 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.320 later on in the mid eighteen seventies, you had these 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.920 veterans from Gary Baldi's campaigns, and by the way, Gary 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.760 Baldi is one of the figures responsible for the Italian unification. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.600 And then you also had other radicals forming Thought and Action, 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:37.000 a political association with Massinian principles. Messini, by the way, 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:41.439 Giuseppe Muscinni was an Italian republican who advocated for liberty 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.200 and democracy and class collaboration. 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:44.880 And all that. 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:50.600 Jazz Marx once called him an everlastin old ass which is. 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.319 Just really funny, and I had to include that there. 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.559 It's just I've made for real anyway. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.560 And then an eating seventy six more radical splinter group 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:07.559 became an official section of the First Internationale in Alexandria, 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:09.400 which is one of the earliest attempts to create a 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.760 worldwide association of workers and socialist groups. I don't know 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:15.880 if it could happen, he has ever discussed, like the 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:20.920 history of the International it's before but it gets messy, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.640 Oh god, it's yeah, it gets messy, It gets katti, 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.520 it gets like we gotta spill that tea at some point. 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.880 Yeah, it's fucking wild, like, especially especially once you get 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:36.920 into like the seventeen different Fourth Internationals, and it's it's 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:41.320 a time, like the Second International is such a disaster 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.560 that Hosni Mubarik is part of it when he gets 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.280 overthrown like it's a it's a good time, and by 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:49.760 a good time, I mean an incredibly bad time. 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:51.720 Yeah, yeah, exactly. 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.600 Honestly, I just have to throw my head back and 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.840 laugh quite hotily when I hear folks talking about, you know, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.520 why can't the left unite? You know, like where's the 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:08.480 leftist unity? Why can't we just come to like nah, 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.840 this has been taking place since nineteenth century. 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:11.520 You know. 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:15.160 My absolute favorite version of this is people being people 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.120 taught people being like, Ah, Marx, Marx wouldn't want there 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.040 to have been so much discord on the left. It's like, 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.719 have you ever read any Marx like that? That is 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:28.040 a man who's writing is about sixty percent yelling at 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.520 someone whose ideas he's also stolen, like by volume. Like 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:33.840 one of his most famous, like one of the things 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.120 that you get decided to read from Marx in college 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:38.680 is the German Ideology, which is like four hundred pages 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:40.880 of him being annoyed by people whose ideas are slightly 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:43.320 different than his. It's like like, this is this is 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:44.679 this is an ancient tradition. 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.640 The irony of Marx calling somebody else in Avlastian old 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:49.920 ass will not be lost on me. 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.319 And quite frankly, this idea. 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.440 Of oh Max wouldn't want this, Max wouldn't that that 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.200 really comes from that sort of messiahification of Marx. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.280 I just coined that to him. You know, I could 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:05.439 send me my flowers. 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.400 In the male because essentially what people are doing is 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:12.880 treating Max and max ideas and Marxism. It's just like 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.839 Christianity two point zero. And it's kind of like how 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:17.640 you know, people would have been saying like, oh, Jesus 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.719 wouldn't want all this division in the church, except he 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.160 just replacing Jesus Marx and the chewch. 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:23.120 With the left. Yeah. 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.040 Like Marx has his famous line where he goes like 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:30.319 if he's just wanting to like the first like French Marxists, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.280 and he goes, if this is Marxism, then I am 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.840 not a Marxist. Oh yeah, And then everyone proceeded to 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.080 ignore him but call themselves Marxists like, well, this is 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.640 great things have gone, this is yeah. 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.160 Yeah, I mean even in their lifetimes, all of these 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.240 figures that we respect, now they didn't really like the admirers, 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.199 like Mala Testa was quite embarrassed that he had fans. 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.480 I yeah, no, it to be clear, to be clear 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.839 that is that is the appropriate we actually having fans 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.320 is a terrifying thing, right, flee and terror. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.360 Exactly exactly. 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:23.640 Back to Alexandria, right where the First International's first official section, 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.120 one of its sections came about, and it was one 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.400 of the earliest attempts to create a world wide association 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.800 of workers and socialist groups and expanded and it formed 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.000 sections in Cairo and in Port Said and in Ismailia 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:41.200 or Ismailia, Ismailia, and they even had the idea of 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:45.160 spreading socialist propaganda and different languages like Italian and Greek 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.880 and Turkish and Arabic to reach more folks in the 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.320 quote unquote East. They want to take the ideas of 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:57.160 the First International beyond chest European communities, you know, try 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:00.880 and reach out to the locals. Unfortunate leave for those 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.640 familiar the history with his International, it fizzled out, So 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.480 you know, they couldn't really fully execute their plans, but 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:09.960 you know, they got to get them credit for trying 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:13.680 to make a difference beyond their own little circles. Meanwhile, 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.600 Egypt was in the midst of a deep political crisis. 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.320 The military was pissed because of the disastrous Egypt to 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.920 European War. The upper ranks the civil service, the army, 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.120 in the business world had become dominated by Europeans, who 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.800 were paid much more than native Egyptians. The country's inability 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:33.920 to service its debt from cost infrastructure projects and lavish 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.120 spending bymayel It's rule at the time led to European 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.680 control over its treasury. In eighteen seventy six, another European 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.720 treasure pressure Ismayel was to pose in eighteen seventy nine 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.960 replace his son Telfik, who aimed to basically satisfy each 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.680 of its creditors by any means necessary. And so this 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:56.079 tumultuous political climate provided both challenges and opportunities for the 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:01.160 anarchists in Egypt. A revolt led by an Egyptian officer 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:05.680 of the Egyptian Army, Ahmed Urabi, sorta deposed Telfik, established 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:09.160 a constitutional government and the British and French influence over 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:13.440 the country. Although he was characterized as anti foreign, Urrabi 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:17.079 received support from some foreign elements, including the very same 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.560 Italian workers in Alexandria and a lot of the anarchists 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:24.120 in the area. Now, as we know, anarchists are not 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.120 really advocates of nationalism, though they will fight for national 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:32.080 liberation causes. So anarchists and nationalists fall themselves on the 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.960 same side when it came into fighting against European imperialism 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.800 in Egypt. So when the British were causing trouble, anarchists 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:44.280 like Malchester teamed up with nationalists led by Urabi to 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:49.680 resist foreign domination. However, the British and French governments, who 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:54.600 were intent on protecting their investments and nationals confronted Urabi, 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.840 which resulted in British forces bombard in Alexandria and eventually 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:03.680 occupying the country in eighteen eighty two. Throughout the early 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.120 years of British occupation, the anarchist movement in Egypt faced 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:11.760 both internal divisions and factionalism. Both internal divisions and factionalism 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:13.960 similar to what was happening in other parts of the world. 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.360 Anarchists and socialists had been uneasy comrades under the umbrella 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.600 of the International during the eighteen seventies, but the defection 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.880 of a particularly locally influential figure named Andrea Costa from 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:30.440 Libertarian Socialism from Libertarian Socialism in eighteen seventy nine caused 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.480 a significant schism within the local movement. 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.480 Let me reread that so. 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.800 Anarchists and socialists had been uneasy comrades under the umbrella 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:46.400 of the International during the eighteen seventies, but the defection 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:52.000 of one particularly locally influential figure named Andrea Acosta from 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:56.480 the school of Libertarian Socialism in eighteen seventy nine caused 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.680 a significant schism within the local movement, and the movement 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.440 also suffered other interel divisions, particularly with the enduring conflict 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:09.760 between anti organizationalists and anarcho syndicalists on the role of 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.960 collective association in achieving anarchist aims quote. Until the end 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.760 of the nineteenth century, the former trend appears to have 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.640 been in the ascendency, but the growth of the labor 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:26.000 movement anarcho synicalists expanded their influence. Other disputes reflected the 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:31.000 power of personalities. Ugo Parini, a key figure staunch anti organizationalist, 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:35.200 was notorious for his uncompromising style and was a persistent 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:39.400 obstacle to create a cooperation among anarchists. Not until after 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.800 his death in nineteen oh six was a national program 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.040 of action agreed, which provided a solid basis for collaboration 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:51.200 within the Egyptian movement. Now, I didn't find any writings 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:56.600 by Ugo Purini himself to speak his piece, but it 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.160 sounds like he might have been a everlastin Olassim seal. 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.960 If you know, after the movement he died, they were 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.800 able to finally come together and come to agreement on something. 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:11.919 That means bro is like a significant obstacle to the 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:16.000 organizational efforts. But you know, he fought with his principles 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:31.080 and he died by them, so you know, some respect there. So, 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.359 until the end of nineteenth century, the anti organizationalists seem 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.480 to have had the upper hand, but with the growth 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.800 of the labor movements, anarchist syndicalists gained a lot more influence. 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:48.520 Tut tut, leftist disunity strikes again. The real downside of 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.639 this history is that the anarchist movement was still quite 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:56.959 European and quite male, and the right and nationalists movements 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:01.240 will not exactly helping matters. However, while the majority of 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:05.919 anarchists women, there was a women's section established in Cairoage 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.720 in the eighteen seventies, so there was some female participation 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:14.359 happening as well. You know, it's the real, real Barby 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.840 moment there, you know, real win for feminism. 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:18.879 The ethnic diversity. 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.640 Of the anarchist movement in Egypt did expand over time, though, 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.359 although Italians remained the dominant group until World War One, 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:31.119 they one attracted Greeks, Jews, Germans, and various Eastern European nationalities. 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.960 Arabi phone Egyptians also began to play a lot more 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:39.080 significant role, as seen in the involvement in industrial actions, 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.880 educational activities, and anarchist meetings during the early nineteen hundreds, 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.960 and the occupational backgrounds of these anarchists were just as 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:52.360 diverse as the ethnicities. Skilled artisans, including carpenters, masons, tailors, 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.639 and painters were among the majority. Some came from the 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.760 petit bourgeoisie like crousers and tavernonas, while others were involved 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.800 in trade or worked for merchant hoses and the movement 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:07.680 also include professionals like doctors, lawyers, and journalists. By the 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.000 late nineteenth century, the anarchistic community started to shift its 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:15.800 focus toward the new working class, such as cigarette workers, printers, 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:22.200 and employees of large utilities like tramway companies. However, despite 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.679 this diversity, and despite all the calls for internationalism, local 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:30.479 nationalist associations still held a lot of power because they 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.639 provided their communities with welfare services and social events and 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:37.280 all that. It's kind of like how immigrants in new 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:44.400 countries even today will typically like group together in enclaves 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.280 and communities to share their culture and to share their 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:53.240 support economic and otherwise. When in a situation where ef 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:58.040 we'e around you is perceived as foreign and you're seeking 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.639 some measure of security and safe, you know it's culture prociliation. 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:01.880 That is a thing that. 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:06.280 Immigrants tend to do, and these workers were immigrants to Egypt, 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.080 and so they kind of did the same thing. Unfortunately, 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.679 many of these national associations were controlled by bourgeois interests 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:16.119 in the Greek community. For example, the powers of the 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:20.600 bourgeois o higarchy in funding and controlling community institutions really 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.960 worked to keep workers in line with what the authorities wanted, 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.520 because if you stepped out of line from what this 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.800 oligarchy wanted, you know, you kind of like lose access 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.880 to those essential community institutions. And if you try, if 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:35.760 you still have like a family to take care of, 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.280 a family that you might have brought to Egypt or 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:43.199 started in Egypt, or really just struggling against meat, or 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.200 you know, your fish out of water and you don't 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:50.639 really know any other languages, you just know your own people. 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.760 To be isolated like that is really hazard a situation 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:55.240 to be in. And so that's how they kept people 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:58.400 in line. But that's in terms of the European nationalists. 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.720 There's also some rise in Egyptian nationalism. They also had 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:06.760 some sway originally Egyptian nationalists called signs of militant labor 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:12.960 as part of a European disease an alien Egyptian context, which, 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:14.280 by the way, I've noticed a lot of. 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:20.359 Right wing organizations and movements. 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:26.400 Tend to apply that pseudo anti imperial label to things, 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:31.360 so you would see it with for example, some right 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:38.560 wing African nationalist groups would describe the presence of homosexuality 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:43.560 in the country as a consequence of European imperialism. European 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.760 cludism is completely foreign to any kind of African context 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:48.920 of history or whatever, which. 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:54.200 Is entirely false. But they do use that sort of like. 0:21:55.760 --> 0:22:01.320 False anti imperialism to build their power base and build 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.920 up their reactionary base, so it's a partner. You can't 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:09.440 observe a lot of these right way movements, and particularly 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:14.480 global South right way movements. Interestingly, though, the Egyptian nationalists 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:19.240 who were called in militant labor European disease, their opinions 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:21.359 turned around kind of quick when they saw how potent 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.880 it was for exercise and power. In nineteen oh nine, 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:28.800 the Watani Party openly backed the formation of the Manual 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:33.080 Trades Workers Union, which was a diverse body of Egyptian 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:39.040 urban workers, because they recognized the party. Finally recognized both 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.120 the need to constitute a broader national community and the 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:48.000 political potential of the workers in the struggle against British occupation. Now, 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:51.200 before the different nationalists came around on this, the anarcho 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.880 syndicalists had already begun trying to attract more Egyptian workers 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:59.240 into their Internationalists anarchist struggle. They knew how, they knew 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:02.000 that to make a real impact, they had to connect 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:05.280 with native Egyptian workers. But it's a thing, you know, 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:09.440 the international union structure wasn't always practical for them. Many 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:13.040 occupations in Egypt were pretty much exclusive to Egyptians, and 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:16.280 many occupations in Egypt were pretty much exclusive to Europeans, 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.560 so forming those unions was easier said than done. But 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:22.600 that didn't stop the anarchists from trying. You know, they 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:26.280 saw the importance of promoting lab organization and militancy among 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:29.560 the Egyptian working class. And so when the cab drivers 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:32.800 and Alexandria went on striking nineteen oh three, the anarchists 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:35.240 were there to gas them up. The anarchists who, of 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:38.320 course trying to emphasize what the workers had in common, 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.640 the lack of boundaries that labor has, that doesn't care 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:44.680 for things like nationality, or religion or race, that all 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:47.280 workers had the same needs, the same struggles, and the 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:52.640 same aspirations for their well being. Of course, the nationalists 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:55.879 had their own political visions, so while anarchists emphasized international 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:59.800 solidarity and shared interests, nationalists were resorting to nativist of 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:04.199 peace and organizational tactics to splinter the labor movement and 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:08.760 break up at internationalist orientation. To give them some credit, though, 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:11.720 the Returning Party did recognize the importance of allying with 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:15.600 foreign workers and urged Egyptian workers during the Trams strike 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:19.800 of nineteen eleven to unite and strengthen yourselves and increase 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:23.520 your numbers through combination and through unity with the European workers, 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.720 your comrades, and let me get to nineteen nineteen and 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:31.800 the quote unquote nineteen nineteen revolution. It's kind of a 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:36.640 significant moment in Egyptian history, and an I guests were there, 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:40.399 so let's talk about it. In nineteen nineteen, the British 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:44.760 government imposed new taxes and restrictions on civil liberties, which 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:49.000