[nasional_list] [ppiindia] What's left of the left?
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@freelists.org>
- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 02:04:51 +0100
** Forum Nasional Indonesia PPI India Mailing List **
** Untuk bergabung dg Milis Nasional kunjungi:
** Situs Milis: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ **
** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral
scholarship, kunjungi
http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com
**http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/778/eg8.htm
19 - 25 January 2006
Issue No. 778
What's left of the left?
Amira Howeidy listens in as the Egyptian left attempts to salvage a role
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As media pundits and politicians continue to ponder the future of political
Islam in Egypt following the Muslim Brotherhood's election successes the left
has all but disappeared over the horizon from where, presumably, it has been
ruminating on its losses -- a process, one might suppose, not without a certain
bitterness.
In a follow-up seminar to last month's discussions of "the crisis of the
Egyptian left" the Socialist Studies Centre on Sunday invited a number of
leading left-wing figures, including veteran lawyer Nabil El-Hilali and the
Tagammu's Abdel-Ghafar Shukr, to address the future of the left.
The results of the parliamentary elections, said Shukr, clearly showed that the
left hardly qualified as "a political pole" in today's Egypt. In approaching
the reasons why this is the case the speakers were initially cautious, though
the discussion soon turned into a scathing self-criticism of the past failures.
Khaled Hamza, a communist and member of the left- wing Al-Tagummu, reminded the
audience that the left once had a presence on the streets and in society. This,
he continued, is obviously no longer the case. "The left's first major
withdrawal was when it abandoned the people... Some then sided with the regime
while others simply stayed at home."
The behaviour of Al-Tagammu, believes Hamza, singling out recent headlines in
the party's mouthpiece Al-Ahali which appear to highlight the links between the
government and a supposedly opposition party, has impacted negatively across
the entire left.
" Al-Ahali," said Hamza, actually urged Mubarak to interfere and stop his
party's thugs [from attacking candidates and voters] during the elections."
He listed other reasons why the left was no longer a presence on the political
scene. It is too scattered and divided, and on too many occasions the various
factions have squandered whatever political capital they possessed on
squabbling among themselves. "We need to unite, we need a party," he continued,
"an Egyptian communist party that can Egyptianise Marxism... An elected,
democratic party... we communists have never experienced democracy [from
within].We know only centralisation."
Veteran left-wing lawyer Nabil El-Hilali was more sceptical about the left's
future. "We need to admit that the left is indeed absent. And if it cannot make
its presence felt today it will have no future tomorrow."
If its presence is to be felt, though, a number of challenges must be faced.
For one thing, argued El-Hilali, the definition of the Egyptian left needs to
be revised: it now consists of a wide array of factions, "communists,
Nasserists, the Karama Party, Arab nationalists and in the future, perhaps, a
religious left which could very well impact the future of political Islam in
Egypt".
Without self-criticism and an honest acceptance of past mistakes the left
"won't have any credibility with the people".
In the past, he continued, "the communist Egyptian left indulged in theoretical
debates about Marxism. It learned Marxist texts by heart, adopted the
experiences of others without devising mechanisms to fit our Arab reality. It
approached Marxism as if it was sacred, ignoring the fact that it is not a
monotheistic religion but a methodology."
On a practical level this has led to the left's failure to organise, certainly
when compared to what El-Hilali describes as the "committed and iron-like
organisation" of the Muslim Brotherhood. Even more disastrously, the left
"divorced itself from its social base of workers and labourers and has been
ineffective with students".
"The left has been completely absent from [recent] national struggles,
contenting itself with watching from the comfort of closed rooms while others
were working."
But all is not yet lost. There is still hope, El-Hilali suggests, if leftists
find a way to work together, though "not in the form of yet another political
party". What is needed, he says, is a broad non-ideological coalition,
"including as many factions as possible and able to steer away from the typical
ghettoising of Trotskyites, Nasserists and the like".
Because leftists cannot hope to achieve political change alone, El-Hilali
echoed the calls made by less radical leftist factions on the importance of
working with Islamists, urging "hysterical and frantic critics" of such a move
to "stop".
"There are fundamental differences but we are agreed on our opposition to the
regime and to imperialism... There is no justification in refraining from
engaging in joint work."
Tamer Wageeh, of the Socialist Studies Centre, pointed to the "ill-defined"
masses of activists who have taken to the streets in the last six years, citing
Intifada solidarity demonstrations, anti-war protests and the more recent
demonstrations demanding change in Egypt. But instead of swelling the ranks of
left-wing factions these young and politicised activists are rejecting the left
label.
"They don't define themselves as yassar (left) though they subscribe to its
principles -- anti-privatisation, anti- imperialism, women's rights, Coptic
rights and so on -- because the reputation of the Egyptian left has put them
off. The challenge is to integrate these people into the movement."
It is equally important, he added, for the left-leaning anti- Mubarak group
Kifaya to not just maintain its activities but expand them to include
socio-economic issues.
If the left doesn't work on enhancing its appeal, he said, the results are easy
to foresee. "There will be a great void and people will simply turn to the
right."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
***************************************************************************
Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg
Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia
***************************************************************************
__________________________________________________________________________
Mohon Perhatian:
1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik)
2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari.
3. Reading only, http://dear.to/ppi
4. Satu email perhari: ppiindia-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
5. No-email/web only: ppiindia-nomail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
6. kembali menerima email: ppiindia-normal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ppiindia-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
** Forum Nasional Indonesia PPI India Mailing List **
** Untuk bergabung dg Milis Nasional kunjungi:
** Situs Milis: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ **
** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral
scholarship, kunjungi
http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com **
Other related posts:
- » [nasional_list] [ppiindia] What's left of the left?
