“The paradox of the Egyptian left is not by any means unique. The gradual sidelining of class by identity conflicts in national politics has been part of a global trend, or what I describe in Classless Politics as ‘more identity, less class’.”
—Hesham Sallam, 2022
The root of it – although Sallam does not mention this is the theoretical dependence on the Stalinist approach to change and the ‘national bourgeoisie’ – was “the communists’ capitulation to Abdel-Nasser in 1965.” That “would shape the left’s political fortunes for decades. More immediately, it meant that as the era of infitah commenced, the left was in disarray, lacking the leadership to unify the dispersed (albeit troublingly loud) opposition to Sadat’s right-wing administration.”
“The legacies of Islamist incorporation (and their role in centering battles over the religious identity of the state) steered many sectors of the left, as epitomized by Al-Tagammu, toward culture wars and away from questions of redistribution and economic priorities.” A shift to ‘identity politics’ plagued Europe and the US as well. Thus Sallam is correct in describing such a shift as a global trend.
Further readings
Lineages of Revolt by Adam Hanieh
Revolutions Without Revolutionaries by Asef Bayat
Classless Politics – Islamist Movements, the Left, and Authoritarian Legacies in Egypt by Hesham Sallam
The Middle East Popular Politics– A Gramscian Perspective By John Chalcraft
Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen by Hazem Kandil
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