Young Egypt Party (1933)


The Young Egypt Party also known as the Green Shirts was an Egyptian nationalist political party. It is notable for counting a young Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat as members.

History

The party was formed October 1933 as a "radical nationalist" party with "religious elements" by its leader Ahmed Husayn. Its aim was to make Egypt an "empire"—the empire consisting of Egypt and Sudan—that would ally with other Arab countries and "serve as the leader of Islam". It was also a militaristic organization whose young members were organized in a paramilitary movement called the Green Shirts. Founded around the same time as many other fascist organisations, it openly admired the achievements of Nazi Germany, the enemy of Egypt's occupier, Great Britain. As German power grew, its anti-British tone increased.
During its heyday in the 1930s Young Egypt's "Green Shirts" had some violent confrontations with the Wafd party's "Blue Shirts". One member even tried to assassinate Mustafa el-Nahas Pasha in November 1937. Under government pressure, the Green Shirts were disbanded in 1938. 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'état.
After parties were allowed again in Egypt, Ibrahim Shoukry formed a group, the Socialist Labor Party in 1978, which despite its name it took much of the populistic and nationalistic ideology of Young Egypt. Its organ was Al-Sha'ab.