Young Egypt Party (1933)

The 1929 Great Depression revealed the stark economic disparities between the peasents, the majority underbelly of Egyptian society, and the well-off land-owning elite, motivating social unrest in Egypt.[21]

Protesters demanding the retraction of the Constitution of 1930

In 1930, prime minister Ismail Sidqi formed his cabinent. His first major change was the creation of a new constitution, which granted the executive - the King - more powers over the democraticlly elected parliament. The king had the sole power to propose financial bills, had the power to appoint three-fifths - the majority - of the senate, and had the power to appoint the leaders of major religious institutions such as the Shiekh of Al-Azhar, while the parliament was weaken, such as the lowering of a minimum of parliamentary session to five months instead of six, and the requiring of an absolute majority for ten days for a no-confidence vote to be passed.[22] Opponents of Sidqi, the Wafdist Mustofa el-Nahhas and the Liberal Constitutionalist Muhammed Mahmud, were vehemently opposed to the new constitution, organizing protests against this move. The British backed the 1930 constitution, believing that the re-instatment of the 1923 constitution would bring the Wafd back into power. During the 1935-36 protests in Egypt, the opposition agreed to enter negotiations with Britain, specifically regarding the lack of an Egyptian military, British troop presence, and the Mixed Courts. On the 12th of December 1935, the new government ledt by Mohammed Nasim reinstated the 1923 Constitution.[23]

It was during this time in the early 1930s that the local youth leaders organized nationalist outbursts against foreign domination. Local Wafdists demanded the boycott of British good and the encouragement of local industry. On March 3rd, 1931, a manifesto was published arguing for local industrialists to product Egyptian made products. In 1930, Salama Musa formed the "Society of the Egyptians for Egypt", urging Egyptians to buy Egyptian made products for a "re-awakening of the nation's economic consciousness."[24]

Poster about the Egyptian Fez Factory Project

In late 1931, a committee of students headed by Ahmad Hussein formed the Piastre Plan, which was a drive to raise funds for developing Egyptian industry, using the funds to establish a local fez factory.[25][26] This was after discovering that the famous Egyptian headdress was produced in a foreign country. Hussein had been a supporter of the Liberal Constitutionalists leader Muhammed Mahmud during his last year in secondary school.[27] One of the principles of the party was buying only Egyptian-made products.[28] The party was formed on the 12th of October, 1933 as a nationalist party with "religious elements" by Ahmed Hussein. Its aim was the pursue a more nationalist anti-British policy than the established Egyptian parties. Its name was similar to the nationalist Young Italy and Young Turks parties.[29] Young Egypt emerged as a student organization that existed outside of the control of the traditional Egyptian parties.[30]

Ahmed Hussein - Young Egypt party 1933

On the 5th of December 1935, the party founders Ahmed Hussein and Fathi Radwan left Egypt for Great Britain, where they met with British politicians, spreading the message of Egypt's case against Great Britain, later returning to Egypt as heroes.[31] Young Egypt played a major role in the 1935-36 Egyptian protests.[26] It was during this time that future Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser joined these protests, though whether he was a formal member is debated among historians.[32][33] Members mostly engaged in street demonstrations, with the most commited wearing a green shirt, the party uniform.[34][35]

The paper - Al Sarkha - would publish letters to officials and collect signatures in petitions for publicity. In late 1933 Hussein sent an open letter to the British prime minister demanding the complete independence of Egypt and the removal of British troops from Egypt and the Sudan; in 1934 Young Egypt collected signatures for a petition to the king demanding the abolition of the Capitulation system and the Mixed Courts of Egypt.[36]

Green Shirts of Young Egypt party, including future Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, in the 1930s.

One of the main issues of the time was the exact relationship between Egypt and Britain, especially regarding the Mixed Courts, the Suez Canal and the stationing of British troops in Egypt. The nationalist slogan had long been "No Negotiation Except After Evacuation!", so when the Wafd agreed to seek a compromise with Britain, Hussein wrote "There is no way for us to achieve all except by means of force, physical force".[37] Young Egypt opposed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, because it allowed British troops to be stationed in Egypt for 20 years, in effect legitimizing British domination over Egypt.[38][39] During the Montreux negotiations of 1937 for the abolition of the Capitulatory system in Egypt, Hussein wrote:

"If he [Nahhas] had a spark of patriotism, he would prefer to remain in his own house, strong, and to invite the foreigners to come to him. The Capitulations must be abolished. The Mixed Courts must be abolished. But their abolition should occur in Egypt, not in Switzerland, because Egypt is the competent authority, the deciding element, the master in its own house."[40]

Blue Shirts. Mohammed Bilal and Mustafa al-Nahhas (Wafd party)

Dr Muhummad Bilal and the Wafd's Blue Shirts

Blue Shirts (Wafd party) Abdeen Palace Parade 1936

The Wafd Party, the mainstream liberal party, viewed Young Egypt with suspicion, believing it to controlled opposition sponsered by the king. After the Wafd's victory in the 1936 elections, the Wafdist leader Mustofa al-Nahhas accused Young Egypt with collaborating with a foreign power, implying Italy.[41] This incited a series of street battles between the Green Shirts and the Blue Shirts - the Wafdist youth branch.[42] Frequent clashes took place between the Green Shirts of Young Egypt and the Blue Shirts of the Wafd, culminating in the unsuccessful attempt on the life of al-Nahhas by a member of Young Egypt in November 28th, 1937.[43][44] While there are similarities between the Green Shirts and the fascist paramilitaries of the Italian Black Shirts and Nazi Brown Shirts, a key distinction is that Young Egypt's "fighters" were college students fighting with clubs and bricks - not demobilized, brutally experienced and disillusioned World War One veterans.[45][46] These "shirt" organizations would participate in marches and street brawls. After numerous incidents of violence between militant students, paramilitary organizations were banned on March 1938.[47]

Despite being formally founded as a party in 1936, Young Egypt never sent representatives to the Egyptian parliament. Until its wartime ban in 1941, the only parliamentary election it could have participated in was in 1938, however none of its members met the minimum age of 30 to run for office.[48] Young Egypt claimed to have almost 2,000 members, though the historian James Jankowski claims that the true number was around one thousand at its peak.[49] It was around this time that Young Egypt began to decline, due to the Wafdist government ordering crackdowns such as preventing meetings and issues fines and arrests for members, ironically under the government ofMuhammed Mahmud Pasha, whom Hussein was a suppporter of before founding Young Egypt.[50]

Al-Ishtrakeyia Journal (Young Egypt party)

The group was renamed the Nationalist Islamic Party in 1940, when it took on a more religious, as well as anti-British tone. After the war it was renamed yet again, now the Socialist Party of Egypt. The group's one electoral success came when it sent Ibrahim Shukri, its vice-president, to parliament in 1951. However, it was disbanded, along with all other parties, in 1953 following the 1952 coup d'etat.[51]

After political parties were allowed again in Egypt, Ibrahim Shoukry formed a group, the Socialist Labor Party in 1978, which despite its name look much like the social nationalistic ideology of Young Egypt. It consists of members from different economic and social levels.

Young Egypt espoused the most extreme Egyptian nationalism at the time, going further than any of the existing party. It believed in the complete rejection of foreign influence. One of its Ten Principles was to "cling steadfastly to your nationality, making it an obsession."[52] Ahmed Hussein saw in his vision of Egypt a country that has only been recently held back by foreigners, and Egypt should instead return to its former glory, saying:

"I will tell you, gentlemen, a reality which I discovered in Europe. It is that most of its peoples are close to the primitive, primal stages of life. The only thing responsible for their progress in life is the great amount of learning which they receive all over Europe. Their knowledge, their character, their virtues, their peculiarities - all of these have been acquired by striving and only by that. This means that if you strip from them this learning and this knowledge which they have won through striving and study, you will find Europeans close to the barbarism of prehistoric times."[53]

Hussein believed that while Europe had abandoned religion for "godless, materialist principles", modern Egypt's religious culture made it superior.[54] This is in stark contrast to the Wafd, who were secularists. Young Egypt railed against foreign-owned factories, "anti-Islamic" entertainment, gambling, cinemas and alcohol.[55] Young Egypt combined the religious values of the Egyptian urban worker with the nationalist values of the modern Egyptian student.