Wafd Party

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the historical party, dissolved in 1952. For the modern party, see
New Wafd Party
.
Wafd Party
حزب الوفد
Party flag

The Wafd Party (lit. 'Delegation Party';

1952 Egyptian Revolution
.

History

Rise

The Wafd party was an

Ahmed Urabi in the early 1880s. This uprising fought against the ruling powers of the Egyptian Khedive and European interference with Egyptian affairs. Saad Zaghloul
, the future creator and leader of the Wafd Party, was a follower of Orabi, and participated in the revolt.

Saad Zaghloul Pasha with members of the Wafd party.

The actual party began taking shape during

British occupation of Egypt
, but not of their intention to use the Paris Peace Conference to plead their case to the world powers. Zaghloul had created a delegation that involved representatives of most of the political and social groups of Egypt. Since it was full of so many different groups, it could not yet truly be considered a political party but more of a coalition. The Wafd had formed a constitution, outlining the ways that they wished to govern Egypt.

The Wafd was denied its request to go to London and speak with the home government, nor were they allowed to attend the Paris peace conference. The Wafd counteracted this by publishing memos and giving speeches ensuring that the delegations in Paris would know what the real Egyptian delegation desired. Zaghloul became a popular figure amongst the Egyptian public and was able to arouse popular discontent at Egyptian's continued status as a

Egyptian Revolution of 1919, and in the following days many more began to strike and the government and courts shut down entirely. Several riots and other disturbances broke out over Egypt, which were gradually suppressed by the British.[5]
The British then released Saad Zaghloul and his followers, hoping to create a rift in the Wafd leadership. However, the party became more unified and the strikes continued.

The Wafd was now becoming a true party and one with widespread support of the people. The delegation made its way to Paris only to hear that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson supported the British Protectorate of Egypt. Although at this point the British were still in control, the Wafd was effectively leading the people of Egypt. In 1920, the British protectorate ended and the Wafd was placed in control of Egypt. The party rapidly became the dominant political organization in the country through most of the liberal period which came to an end with the rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Government party

The three-decade period between Britain's nominal exit in 1922 and the nationalist revolution of 1952 saw the erection of an uneasy balance of power between the

1924 parliamentary election the Wafd won 179 of 211 parliamentary seats.[7] In 1936 it won 89% of the vote and 157 seats in Parliament.[7]

However, ties between the Wafd and the two other axes of power – the King and the Residency – were strained by the party's

Farouk
, who succeeded his father to the sultanate, signed an unduly quiescent treaty with the British in 1936. This alienated the party that had arisen primarily out of popular resentment of British control of Egypt and commanded popular support by associating itself most closely with the nationalist struggle for full Egyptian independence.

Decline

The power vacuum resulting from the end of the British mandate over Egypt also precipitated a severe welfare provision vacuum which the new government failed to fill. By the 1930s, Egypt became a top destination for

Christian missionary organizations, which funded and performed badly needed social services for the Egyptian middle and lower classes.[9] Western Proselytism consortia beseeched their sponsors "to make heavy sacrifices so that Egyptian children could have a better education than their own parents could afford"; likewise, the proliferation of missionary-operated hospitals exposed the inadequacy of government-provided healthcare.[10]

Further social unrest resulted from the government's inability to resolve metastasizing labor disputes threatening the Egyptian economy. The twin occurrences of the worldwide recession prompted by the Great Depression and a regional cotton crisis slowed Egypt's GDP growth through the late 1920s and most of the following two decades.[11] The consequent instability in the labor market motivated early attempts at widespread unionization. Sensing a threat to its unrivaled power, the Wafd implemented numerous local labor conciliation boards,[12] which were essentially toothless owing to the dearth of labor laws on a national level. Though the Wafd secured guarantees of a permanent national labor council,[13] no significant labor laws were enacted; those that did gain passage were not enforced; and the Wafd was unable to effect any substantial change in the fiercely anti-union policy of the government.[14]

Failures of youth mobilization

During the 1920s, the party's leadership had placed very low emphasis on the recruitment and mobilization of youth.

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which had employed a far more effective local-franchising system since its inception in 1928.[16]

After student demonstrations against the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and the anti-labor policies of the government began to reveal cracks in the previously ironclad Wafd coalition, party leaders created a youth wing dubbed the "Blue Shirts."[17] However, rather than capitalizing on the grassroots nature of the youth movements, the party instead tried to slot the Blue Shirts onto their own rung in the top-down Wafd hierarchy, presenting members with uniforms, badges, and a standardized salute – all under the motto "Obedience & Struggle."[18] By June 1937, the Wafd feared that the Blue Shirts were becoming too militant, and thereafter further restricted their privileges.[19] Having never fully embraced youth mobilization, by the close of the 1930s the uneasy Wafd leadership had essentially abandoned any efforts at intergenerational coalition-building.[20]

Accommodation of the British presence

Easily the greatest factor contributing to popular disillusionment with the Wafd was the party's failure to boycott the Farouk government after it acceded to the

Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. The policies followed by the party during the Anglo-Egyptian crisis of the mid-1930s alienated many Egyptian nationalists – heretofore the single most reliable support bloc for the Wafd – and severed the party between its small but powerful accommodationist minority and its large but voiceless resistant majority. The failure of the Wafd to more aggressively oppose the continuation of the British presence "left Egyptian politics devoid of a popularly legitimized leader or party."[21]

Dissolution

The collapse of the widespread popular support once commanded by the Wafd has been historically attributed to the combined embattlements of three distinct trends in Egyptian politics of the pre-revolutionary era. The party, along with all other Egyptian political parties, was

Revolution of 1952. The paper of the party, Al Misri, was also closed in 1954.[22]

Electoral history

House of Representatives elections

Election Party leader Seats +/– Position
1923–1924
 Saad Zaghloul
188 / 215
 Increase 188 Increase 1st
1925
86 / 215
 Decrease 102 Steady 1st
1926
150 / 215
 Increase 64 Steady 1st
1929
Mostafa el-Nahhas
198 / 236
 Increase 48 Steady 1st
1936
169 / 232
 Decrease 29 Steady 1st
1942
240 / 264
 Increase 71 Steady 1st
1945
29 / 264
 Decrease 211 Decrease 3rd
1950
225 / 319
 Increase 196 Increase 1st

References

  1. ^ "Brotherhood to run in Egypt polls". Al Jazeera English. 9 Oct 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  2. ^ Osman, Tarek, Egypt on the Brink, by Tarek Osman, (Yale University Press, 2010), p. 26
  3. ISBN 9780813348339
    .
  4. ISBN 9780813348339
    .
  5. S2CID 159888450
    .
  6. ^ a b Gibb, H.A.R. "The Situation in Egypt." International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1931–1939), Vol. 15, No. 3 (May–June 1936), p. 354
  7. ^ a b c THE ERA OF LIBERAL CONSTITUTIONALISM AND PARTY POLITICS. The Rise and Decline of the Wafd, 1924–39
  8. ^ Gibb, 1936, p. 355
  9. ^ Carter, B.L. "On Spreading the Gospel to Egyptians Sitting in Darkness: The Political Problems of Missionaries in Egypt in the 1930s." Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 20, No. 4 (October 1984), pp. 18–36.
  10. ^ Carter, B.L. "On Spreading the Gospel to Egyptians Sitting in Darkness: The Political Problems of Missionaries in Egypt in the 1930s." Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 20, No. 4 (October 1984), p. 18
  11. ^ Deeb, Marius. "Labour and Politics in Egypt, 1919–1939." International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2 (May 1979), pp. 187–203.
  12. ^ Deeb, 1979, p. 188
  13. ^ Deeb, 1979, p. 199
  14. ^ Deeb, 1979, p. 203
  15. ^ Jankowski, James P. "The Egyptian Blue Shirts and the Egyptian Wafd, 1935–1938." Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1 (January 1970), pp. 77–95
  16. ^ Munson, Ziad. "Islamic Mobilization: Social Movement Theory and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood." The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Autumn 2001), p. 501
  17. ^ Jankowski, 1970, p. 79
  18. ^ Jankowski, 1970, p. 82
  19. ^ Jankowski, 1970, p. 85
  20. ^ Jankowski, 1970, p. 87
  21. ^ Munson, 2001, p. 495
  22. ^ "The Press: Egyptian Uproar". Time. 17 May 1954. Retrieved 28 April 2023.

See also

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