history (nasir)

Gamal Abdel Nasser was the leader of the Free Officers who overthrew the Egyptian

monarchy in the 1952 Revolution. Nasser and his colleagues had been able to take

advantage of the opening up of the army officer corps to native Egyptians. They were

motivated by nationalism to remove the corrupt monarchy and the last vestiges of the British

occupation. British armed forces continued to enjoy military-strategic advantages in Egypt

and to occupy the Suez Canal. The Free Officers blamed the Egyptian government for the

poor performance of the army in the 1948 Palestine War against Israel. A republic was

declared by January 1953, but Nasser did not immediately emerge publicly as its leader

until 1954.

It was only over time that Nasser adopted the ideas of Pan-Arabism, Arab socialism, and

positive neutralism, with which his years as president of Egypt (1954-70) were to become so

identified. Beyond a strong sense of nationalism, Nasser espoused a frankly pragmatic

approach to solving problems in his early years in power. Positive neutralism meant that

while Egypt would not align with either side in the Cold War, it would make deals with one

or the other as the interests of the country would best be served. Over time, however, Nasser

began to tilt more towards the Soviet Union. His positive neutralism was greatly influenced

by his attendance at the 1955 Bandung Conference of nonaligned nations. Nasser's biggest

triumph was the nationalization of the Suez Canal in July 1956, which completed Egypt's

independence from Britain. As a result, Nasser became a truly popular figure both within

Egypt and among the Arab masses outside of it for the first time. His Pan-Arabism, which

sought the political unity of the Arabs, henceforth resonated with tbem. It had its origins in

Pan-Islam, the ideology of the Ba'th Party, and the Arab League. Pan-Arabist sentiment led

to the creation of the United Arab Republic of 1958, which included Egypt and Syria.

Personal and political rivalries as well as the different nationalisms, however, soon rent the

union asunder. Egypt then found itself embroiled in a civil war in Yemen between 1962 and

1967, in which Nasser backed the republicans and Saudi Arabia supported the royalists.

Nasser's Arab socialism developed, in part, in response to the 1956 Suez War, in which

Israel, Britain, and France attacked Egypt. 1 Prior to the war, Nasser simply had a sense that

government should act to extend social justice to the people. The building of the Aswan

High Dam was to be the panacea that would expand agriculture, provide cheap electrical

power, and encourage industrialization. Now, he retaliated against the European powers by

nationalizing foreign-owned companies in Egypt. The nationalization of businesses owned

by the native bourgeoisie accused of cooperating with foreign imperialists soon followed.

The government established rent controls and food subsidies to help the masses.

Part of Nasser's popularity stemmed from his unremitting hostility to the existence of Israel.

Most of his presidency coincided with the time in which the Palestinians looked outside

themselves to Arab rulers to champion their cause, and Nasser was the foremost among

these. He sponsored, for instance, commando raids from the Gaza Strip against Israel; this,

along with the Egyptian blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba, provoked the Israeli participation in

the Suez War against Egypt. Nasser was fortunate in that a military defeat for Egypt turned

into a political triumph because of the intervention of the superpowers, the United States and

the Soviet Union, to force the withdrawal of Britain, France, and Israel from Egypt. Nasser,

1 P.J. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978), p. 212.

on the other hand, blundered into the disastrous Six-Day War, in June 1967, in which Egypt

lost the Gaza Strip and Sinai Desert to Israel. 2 His resumption of the blockade and forging of

the alliance with Jordan and Syria prompted the devastating Israeli first strike. Nasser then

returned to a strategy of "no war, no peace," that is, a war of attrition.

The last years of Nasser's rule, therefore, were marred by military defeat and growing

economic problems exacerbated by the defeat, Gains in electricity and agricultural

production, furthermore, that stemmed from the completion of the Aswan High Dam were

negated by population growth. Nasser, however, remained immensely popular with the

Egyptian masses. His sudden death from a heart attack led to a funeral in 1970 that still

holds the Guinness record for a turnout for a funeral of about six million people. The

following selections from his writings and speeches contain his key ideas that continue to

inspire many in the Arab world.

Gamal Abdul Nasser's Egypt's Liberation: The Philosophy of the Revolution 3

I do not claim for myself the Chair of History. That is the last thing I could think of. Yet

were I to attempt, as the mere primary schoolboy might, to study the history of our national

struggle, I would, for instance, straight away say that the July 23 [1952] Revolution

represented the realisation of a long-cherished hope a hope entertained by the Egyptian

people since they began in modern times to aspire to self-government and to have the last

word in the determination of their own destiny. …

Indeed, had the Army officers attempted to revolt to avenge themselves for having been

duped in Palestine, or because the defective arms had shattered their nerves, or because their

pride had been wounded in the Army Officers' Club elections, the matter would not have

deserved to be called a revolution. A mere mutiny would have been the nearest appropriate

description, no matter how fair and just might have been the motives that prompted the

movement.

But all above causes were incidental.

Perhaps their greatest effect has been to spur us to a swifter pace on the road to revolution,

but we had already been advancing with striding steps on that road all the same. …

Was it incumbent upon us the Army to undertake what we carried out on July 23rd?

The answer to this question was definitely in the affirmative. It was inevitable. There was no

escaping it.

Indeed, I can now say that we are going through two revolutions, not one.

Every people on earth go through two revolutions a political revolution that helps them

recover their right to self-government from the hands of a despot who had imposed himself

2 Vatikiotis, Nasser, p. 256.

3 Gamal Abdel Nasser, The Philosophy of the Revolution (Buffalo, NY: Economica Books, 1959), pp. 26-

27, 36-37, and 59-62.

upon them, or free themselves from the domination of alien armed forces which had installed

themselves in the land against their will; and a social revolution a class conflict that

ultimately ends in the realisation of social justice for all the inhabitants of the country.

People who preceded us on the path of human progress have all passed through those two

revolutions, but not simultaneously. In certain cases, centuries have separated the one from

the other. In our case, we are passing through the gruelling ordeal of experiencing the two

revolutions together. …

We cannot look stupidly at a map of the world, not realizing our place therein and the role

determined to us by that place. Neither can we ignore that there is an Arab circle

surrounding us and that this circle is as much a part of us as we are a part of it, that our

history has been mixed with it and that its interests are linked with ours. These are actual

facts and not mere words.

Can we ignore that there is a continent of Africa in which fate has placed us and which is

destined today to witness a terrible struggle on its future? This struggle will affect us

whether we want or not.

Can we ignore that there is a Muslim world with which we are tied by bonds which are not

only forged by religious faith but also tightened by the facts of history? I said once that fate

plays no jokes. It is not in vain that our country lies to the southwest of Asia, close to the

Arab world, whose life is intermingled with ours. It is not in vain that our country lies to the

northeast of Africa, a position from which it gives upon the dark continent wherein rages

today the most violent struggle between white colonizers and black natives for the possession

of its inexhaustible resources. It is not in vain that Islamic civilization and Islamic heritage,

which the Mongols ravaged in their conquest of the old Islamic capitals, retreated, and

sought refuge in Egypt, where they found shelter and safety as a result of the counterattack

which Egypt repelled the invasion of these Tartars at Ein Galout. …

The annals of history are full of heroes who carved for themselves great and heroic roles and

played them on momentous occasions on the stage. History is also charged with great heroic

roles which do not find actors to play them on the stage. I do not know why I always imagine

that in this region in which we live there is a role wandering aimlessly about seeking an actor

to play it. I do not know why this role, tired of roaming about in this vast region which

extends to every place around us, beckoning us to move, to dress up for it, and to perform it,

since there is nobody else who can do so.

Here I hasten to point out that this role is not a leading role. It is one of interplay of reactions

and experiments with all these factors aiming at exploding this terrific energy latent in every

sphere around us and at the creation, in this region, of a tremendous power capable of lifting

this region up and making it play its positive role in the construction of the future and

humanity.

There is no doubt that the Arab circle is the most important and the most closely connected

with us. Its history merges with ours. We have suffered the same hardships and lived the

same crises, and when we fell prostrate under the spikes of the horses of conquerors, they lay

with us. …

March 26, 1964 Address by Nasser to the National Assembly 4

The six principles [that guided Egypt's political life in 1952-64] … were as follows: the

elimination of imperialism and its traitorous Egyptian agents; the eradication of feudalism;

the destruction of monopoly and of the domination of capital over the government; the

establishment of social justice; the establishment of strong national Army and the

establishment of a sound [democracy]. …

First: the first principle the elimination of imperialism. I do not think we need much

effort to prove that this nation today is foremost among the independent countries of the

world after having been a foreign-occupied base firmly gripped for more than 70 years and

terrorized by 80,000 armed British soldiers on the banks of the Suez Canal. …

Second: the second principle the elimination of feudalism. The ownership of the greater

and more fertile part of the agricultural land was in the hands of a small number of big

landlords, besides other vast areas held by agricultural companies that were owned by

foreigners, though they tried to conceal their real identity behind Egyptian facades. In

accordance with the socialist laws, including the Agrarian Reform Law, the area of lands

that has been expropriated for distribution to farmers amounted to 944,457 feddans. …

Third: the third principle is the abolition of monopoly and the domination of capital over

the government … the public sector … consolidated itself through the complete domination

of capital .. in banks, insurance companies, foreign and internal trade companies which were

nationalized and which became public property. It [i.e., the consolidation of the public

sector] was followed by the socialist decrees of July, 1961, which ensured the public

ownership of the larger part of the means of production, particularly in the industrial field.

Clear limits for public ownership were then drawn so as to include the main skeleton of

production, such as railways, roads, ports, airports, motor power, the means for land, sea,

and air transport, then the heavy, medium, mining, and [the] building materials industries,

the effective part of the consumer industries, in a manner which leave no room for

exploitation. This was connected with the realization of complete popular supervision over

foreign trade, the breaking of any monopoly in internal trade which was thrown open to

private activity. …

Fourth: the fourth principle the establishment of social justice. Experience has proven

that social justice cannot be attained except upon the two bases of sufficiency and justice,

neither of which could attain the objective without the other. Indeed, each of them without

the other would take a course contradictory to the objective.

Sufficiency that is, increased production without justice means a further monopolization

of wealth. Justice that is, the distribution of national income without increasing its

4 Extracts from Address by Nasser at the Meeting of the National Assembly's Ordinary Session, Cairo,

March 26, 1964 (Cairo: Information Department, 1964), pp. 3-47, passim.

potentiality ends only in the distribution of poverty and misery. But both together that is,

sufficiency and justice hand in hand [they] reach their objective. …

In the field of internal action: The final step lay in the liquidation of the ruling alliance

between reaction and imperialism as well as the liquidation of their inherited privileges.

There was no enmity toward any individual or family. …

Although I consider that this class has been liquidated, I find it important here to make two

remarks:

First: To see with tolerance that we were not against individuals. We were opposed to class

distinctions. It was our right to eliminate its effect but it was not our right to destroy the

dignity and humanity of individuals. Therefore, a new page should be opened in front of all

without distinction.

Second: We should not, at any cost, permit the emergence of a new class which would

believe that it is entitled to inherit privileges from the old class. …

We moved from the domination of one class which monopolized all privileges, to a position

which, for the first time in our country, allows for the establishment of a social democracy on

the basis of sufficiency and justice and social democracy.

The old picture of a state of princes, pashas, and foreigners has disappeared and [has been]

replaced by a state of farmers, workers, intellectuals, soldiers, and national capital the

working popular powers and its leading alliance. …

In the stage of the great upsurge which followed the stage of the great conversion, there are

three major objectives which we have unlimited capacity to achieve if we arm ourselves with

sincerity to both the experiences and to the hope.

First: There is the objective of continuous development, a comprehensive plan preparing for

another comprehensive plan, a doubling of the national income followed by another

doubling based on the result of the first doubling. …

Second: There comes after development the objective of democracy and the continuous

expansion of its framework and deepening of its concept. In the next stage, there are

interactions which we should allow to have full effect on life in our society.

We have to complete the structure of the political organization of the Socialist Union.

Through the general structure of this Union is now perceptible before us, this structure

should be full of effective and creative life. …

But we should not allow ourselves to get entangled in lengthy philosophical discussions on

the role of the Socialist Union.

The Socialist Union, in short, is the political organization of the working popular powers

through which they work to ensure that authority shall, at all times, remain in their hands

and shall not move into other hands.

This is the aim of all political organizations, including parties. But whereas a party

represents a certain interest in any country or class, the Socialist Union does not represent a

group or a class but expresses the political will of the active popular powers allied within its

framework. …

Third: There follows the stage of upsurge with development and democracy, the objective of

realizing over-all Arab unity.

Although we cannot, as yet, give this inevitable unity its final shape, the success in realizing

the aim of development and the aim of democracy in this country, which we consider to be

the base and vanguard of the Arab nation, will bring nearer the day of unity, define in final

form, and mold it in accordance with the will and requirements of national conscience. …

Questions

1. What reasons does Nasser stress for the July 23rd revolution? What are the two kinds of

revolutions that he sees it embodying simultaneously? What challenges does this duality

pose?

2. Describe Nasser's socialist ideology and policies. To what extent does he subscribe to a

Marxian notion of class conflict? What is the relationship between imperialism and

economic exploitation in his thinking?

3. According to Nasser, what are the three circles with which Egyptian foreign policy must

be concerned especially? Which does he regard as the most important? What does he think a

nation must first accomplish domestically before Arab unity can be achieved?