The left and working-class movement in Egypt

It is commonly understood that leftist political ideology is aligned with the working class and trade unions in democracies. However, in authoritarian regimes like Egypt, where political parties are not the main source of political power, the leftist ideology is not “free” or able to support the working class or even provide it with the ideological “food” to nurture and nourish its ideological needs. The thesis of this chapter is to show how the stunted growth of Egypt’s political leftist groupings, movements, and even political parties were not allowed to function freely, and thus had a dysfunctional impact on the working class and its development. The Egyptian labour movement was corporatized or otherwise co-opted to serve the needs of Nasser’s socialist movement and thereafter to serve Sadat, Mubarak and now President el-Sisi’s political agenda. The political agenda was that of controlling the workers, and definitely not to support independent trade union working class organizations to either protect or advocate for workers’ rights.