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Anarchists in Education: The Free Popular University in Egypt (1901)

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 41; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00263200500105877

1743-7881

Anthony Gorman,

Political theory and Gramsci

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes The full text of Abbate's speech can be found in La Réforme, 28 May 1901, with an abbreviated report in Le Phare Alexandrine 28 May 1901. The UPL opening also received widespread coverage in the Arabic language press such as al-Liwa’, al-Ahram and al-Basir. Known in French as the Université Populaire Libre, the UPL apparently had no official Arabic name with al-madrasa al-'umumiyya al-hurra, al-jam‘iyya al-kulliyya al-hurra, al-kulliyya al-jami‘a al-hurra and al-kulliyya al-hurra all being used, the last being settled on by al-Ahram. Despite this, it has received only the briefest mention in the literature, see Jacques Berque, Egypt, Imperialism & Revolution. trans. Jean Stewart (New York & Washington: Praeger, 1972), p.241; and Rif ‘at al-Sa‘id, Tarikh al-haraka al-shuyu'iyya al-misriyya 1900–1940 (Cairo: Shirkat al-amal, 1987), p.204. The term ‘lost voices’ is taken from Zachary Lockman, ‘Exploring the Field: Lost Voices and Emerging Practices in Egypt, 1882–1914’, in Israel Gershoni et al. (eds.), Histories of the Modern Middle East (Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner, 2002), pp.137–53. Yianis Kordatos, Istoria tou Ellinikou Ergatikou Kinimatos (Athens: Boukoumani, 1972), p.174; Evgenios Mikhailidhis, Panorama (Alexandria: Centre of Greek Studies, 1972), p.178. It should be noted that the Italian Workers Society in Alexandria did take a political position in 1882 with their support for the ‘Urabist cause, al-Sa‘id, Tarikh al-haraka al-shuyu‘iyya al-misriyya, p.203. A history of the anarchist movement in Egypt has still to be written but for a useful survey based on Italian sources, see Leonardo Bettini, Bibliografia dell'anarchismo (Florence: Editrice, 1976), Vol.2, pp.281–8. They were later found innocent of the main charge but some were judged guilty of lesser charges. See ASMAE AIE no. 86 ‘1899 Processo in Alessandria d'Egitto contro diverti anarchici’. For a good discussion of the labour movement in the period before the First World War, see Joel Beinin and Zachary Lockman, Workers on the Nile, Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882–1954 (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998), pp.48–82. There had been strikes before 1899, see, for example, John Chalcraft, ‘The Coal Heavers of Port Sa'id: State-Making and Worker Protest, 1869–1914’, International Labor and Working-Class History, Vol.60, Oct. (2001), pp.110–24. There is no detailed study of the relationship between foreign and Egyptian workers but for a preliminary treatment see the author's ‘ Foreign Workers in Egypt 1882–1914: Subaltern or Labour Elite?’ Paper presented at the Fifth Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting, Florence & Montecatini Terme 24–28 March 2004, organized by the Mediterranean Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. Although an Internationalist newspaper of anarchist bent had appeared briefly in 1877, perhaps the first successful avowedly labour newspaper in Egypt was the Italian language L'Operaio (‘The Worker’) founded in 1889 (not to be confused with the anarchist paper of the same name, published 1902–3). The first decade of the twentieth century would see the appearance of a number of newspapers that sought to represent the voice of workers, Bettini, Bibliografia dell'anarchismo, pp.81–8. For a detailed development of nineteenth century education in Egypt until 1883 see J. Heyworth-Dunne, An Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt (London: Luzac, 1938). For a discussion of the Greek and Italian schools in Egypt, see respectively, Katerina Trimi-Kirou, ‘Se poio skholio pas?’ in Tasoula Mandala (ed.), Ellinika Istorika Ekpedeftiria sto Mesogio (Chios: Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs, 2002); and Marta Petricioli, ‘Italian Schools in Egypt’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.24, No.2 (1997), pp.179–91. Anthony Gorman, Historians, State and Politics in Twentieth Century Egypt (London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), pp.45–50; Donald M. Reid, ‘The Egyptian Geographical Society: from Foreign Laymen's Society to Indigenous Professional Association’, Poetics Today, Vol.14, No.3 (1993), pp.539–72. First established by Italian workers, the school was later put under the direction of the Dante Alighieri Society, itself affiliated to the Italian embassy, Marta Petricioli, ‘Italian Schools in Egypt’, p.181. See, for example, ‘Technical Education in Egypt’, Egyptian Gazette, 8 July 1902; and ‘Wanted – An Institute’, Egyptian Gazette, 19 July 1902. The latter proposed an institute that ‘would naturally take the character of an English one’ attracting English nationals and ‘the large number of Egyptians and others who are anxious to avail themselves of their knowledge of English as a means of self-advancement.’ Maria Grazia Rosada, Le Università Popolari (Rome: Rinuti, 1975). For the phenomenon in France, see Lucien Mercier, Les Universités populaires: 1899–1914, Education populaire et mouvement ouvrier au début du siècle (Paris: Edn. ouvrières, 1986). Among earlier mid-nineteenth century attempts to provide education for workers were the Mechanics Institutes and the University Extension in Britain. Rosada, Le Università Popolari, p.27. Sanford Elwitt, ‘Education and the Social Questions: The Universités Populaires in Late Nineteenth Century France’, History of Education Quarterly, Vol.22, No.1 (1982), pp.55–72. ‘Università Popolare Libera’, La Tribuna Libera, 20 Oct. 1901. The anarchists in Alexandria were in contact with Reclus, at this time living in Constantinople, who wished the UPL every success, ASMAE AIE no. 87, ‘Università popolare in Cairo’, corresp. 8 June 1901. Reclus, in fact, was familiar with the East having travelled to Constantinople and Anatolia in the spring of 1883 and in the following year to Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria, Henriette Chardak, Élisée Reclus, une vie: l'homme qui aimait la terre (Paris: Stock, 1997), pp.403–7. Nunzio Pernicone, Italian Anarchism 1864–1892 (Princeton NJ: Princeton UP, 1993), pp.223–4, 238–9. Galleani would leave Egypt in November 1901 to take up a position in the United States as editor of the influential anarchist newspaper La Cronaca Sovversiva. From here he would become a revered leader and prominent advocate of the anarchist doctrine of ‘propaganda of the deed’. In 1918 he was deported from the USA but he remained a powerful spokesman and a notable defender of Sacco and Vanzetti. Ugo Fedeli, Luigi Galleani, Quarant'anni di lotte rivoluzione (1891–1931) (Cesena: L'Antistato, 1956). ASMAE AIE no. 87 ‘Università popolare libera in Alessandria’, corresp. 22 April 1901. ASMAE AIE no. 84 ‘Luigi Galleani’, corresp. 1 April 1901. ASMAE PI no. 28 ‘Università popolare, II Assemblea generale’, 12 May 1901. See also Le Phare Alexandrine, 13 May 1901. The members of the committee were S. Bellantuono, Salvino Bensilum, LA. Biagini (alias of G. Pozzesi), Dr R. Camerini, Raoul G. Canivet, G. Cervetta, Roberto D'Angio, S. Fischer, Augusto Hasda, Dr Polis Modinos, Osman Effendi, Cav. Paneghini, Jacques Rolo, Joseph Rosenthal, Papadakis, Constantin Sajous, Stein, Enrico Terni, Giovanni Tesi, Tuni and Pietro Vasai. For D'Angio see Nunzio Dell'Erba, Giornali e gruppi anarchici in Italia, 1892–1900 (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1983), pp.180–1. Rosenthal (1867–1927?) would be one of the leading figures in the establishment of the Egyptian Socialist Party in the 1920s though his activities prior to this have been little discussed, see Tareq Y. Ismael and Rifa‘at El-Sa‘id, The Communist Movement in Egypt, 1920—1988 (Syracuse NY: Syracuse UP, 1990), pp.13–14; al-Sa'id, Tarikh al-haraka al-shuyu‘iyya al-misriyya, pp.182–91. Camerini had apparently attempted to introduce anarchist ideas into the Dante Alighieri Society in 1898, ASMAE PI. No. 28 ‘Egitto’, corresp., 7 June 1901. Egyptian Gazette, 24 March 1902. On these families see Gudrun Krämer, The Jews in Modern Egypt, 1914—1952 (London: I.B.Tauris, 1989), pp.76–9. Despite the considerable scholarship on Jewish Egyptian life, the prominence of Jews in radical circles before 1914 has been overlooked. Jacob Landau's view that Jews had little to do with anarchism is clearly inaccurate, Jews in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (New York, NY: New York UP, 1969), p.115. Attending the dinner were Dr Abbate Pasha, Raoul G. Canivet, Dr H. Legrand, Dr P. Trehaki, engineer Emilio Diamanti, Dr Burlazzi bey, Dr de Semo, Dr Polis Modinos, Dr Carlo Flack, Dr Terni, Dr Camerini, Dr Latis, Dr Lakha, Dr Augusto Hasda, Francois Bourgeois, Muhammad Kalza, Mario Colucci, Mr Cattaoui, Mr Colorides, Edgard Souares, and Dr Bonan. Those with strong anarchist credentials were conspicuously absent. The original text of the UPL constitution can be found in ASMAE PI no. 28 ‘Egitto’. ‘…si costituisca all'infuori dell'ingerenza, del concorso, del patronato di ogni e qualsiasi autorità la libertà illimitata della cattedra e la severità degli studi trovando in questa forma d'indipendente raccoglimento la loro migliore garanzia’ [art. 6]. The weekly UPL programme was regularly publicized in the local Italian, French, English and probably Arabic language press. For a discussion on the process of working class formation as a discursive process during this period, see Zachary Lockman, ‘Imagining the Working Class: Culture, Nationalism, and Class Formation in Egypt, 1899–1914’, Poetics Today, Vol.15, No.2 (1994), pp.157–90. L'Operaio 22 Nov. 1902. Ibrahim ‘Abduh, Tatawwur al-sihafa al-misriyya, 1898—1981, 4th edn. (Cairo: Sijl al-arab, 1982), p.358 mistakenly gives its title as Université Populaire Libre d'Alexandrie. ‘Université populaire libre’, Le Réforme, 18 Nov. 1901. Egyptian Gazette, 31 May 1901(Hilmi); Hobsbaum was the uncle of the historian, Eric Hobsbawm. Guarnotta would later gain some notoriety in 1919 for alleged anti-British activities (FO 141/744). La Réforme, 20 Dec. 1901; Il Corriere Egiziano, c.20 Oct. 1901. In the 1890s Badran had been associated with Lisan al-‘arab, a politically moderate daily in Alexandria, Tawfiq ‘Azuz with al-Tiligrafa al-jadida, a conservative Cairene daily, see Martin Hartmann, The Arabic Press of Egypt (London: Luzac, 1899), pp.26, 56, 59. ‘Young ladies’ however were excluded on at least one occasion when Modinos spoke on criminal anthropology, see Tachydromos, 9 Jan. 1902. No woman seems to have sat on the UPL committee in Alexandria, at least not in the first two years, although Madame Moial was a member of the provisional UPL committee in Cairo. This lecture was published by the UPL and later reviewed in Lux! 15 June 1903. Gorman, Historians, State and Politics, p.36, Margot Badran, Feminists, Islam and Nation, Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt (Cairo: AUC Press, 1996), pp.8–10, 52–6. See Beth Baron, The Women's Awakening in Egypt (New Haven: Yale UP, 1994), p.85. ‘al-Kulliyya al-hurra’ al-Ahram, 4 June 1901. ‘L'Università popolare’, Il Corriere Egiziano, 19 Oct. 1901. ‘Università Popolare Libera’, L'Imparziale, 17–18 Nov. 1901. al-Liwa’, 27 May 1901. al-Liwa’, 29 May 1901. al-Basir in Alexandria also provided positive coverage, 27 May 1901. The anarchist newspaper La Tribuna Libera, edited by Joseph Rosenthal, did not appear until October 1901 but regularly promoted the UPL during its short life. ASMAE PI no. 28 ‘Egitto’, corresp. 7 June 1901, AIE no. 87, ‘Università popolare libera in Alessandria’, 30 Oct. 1902. For the following see ASMAE AIE no. 87, ‘Università popolare in Cairo’. ‘al-Kulliyya al-hurra’, al-Ahram 4 June 1901. Leaflet, ‘Università Popolare Libera’, Cairo, 6 June 1901. The most complete list of committee members is as follows: Musa Roditi, Luigi Losi, Vittorio Brogi, Giovanni Brunello, Ugo Parrini, Nikolas Karavias, G. Fasani, Paolo Pilogatti, Neumann, Salomone Gonderberich [Goldenberg?], Moise Benrubi, Panos Machairas, Dr and Madame Moial, Samuele Haudlich, Rodolfo Borgovic, Dr D'Andrea, Charles Tapié, Paolo Karakache and Roberto D'Angio. [Sempad?] Papazian, Antio, Elias Fayad, Shaykh Muhammad al-Ebiari and Cioni were proposed as members but it is unknown if they accepted, ASMAE AIE no. 87, ‘Università popolare in Cairo’, corresp., 20 June 1901. ‘L'Università popolare’, Il Corriere Egiziano, 19 Oct. 1901; ‘Per l'Università popolare’, Il Corriere Egiziano, 22 Oct. 1901. ASMAE PI no. 28 ‘Egitto’, corresp. 7 June 1901. Far from being dissuaded Abbate also offered to give lectures, Egyptian Gazette, 5 June 1901. For documentation of the following, see ASMAE PI. no.28 ‘Egitto’. Garzoni already had a well-established record of anarchist activity having been condemned in Italy for political activities in 1894 and being one of the defendants in the anarchist trial of 1899. ‘Il processo di Alexandria’, L'Imparziale, 11 July 1901. Garzoni received 100 days' imprisonment and a fine of 60 lira; Torchia, 3 months and a fine of 50 lira. The sentences were subsequently confirmed in the Court of Appeal in Ancona but Garzoni's sentence appears to have been set aside after his recantation, ASMAE AIE no. 84 ‘Garzonio (Curti-Garzoni) Dr Pietro’, corresp., 12 May 1902. See al-Ahram 9–13 July 1901. I have been unable to establish the reaction of al-Liwa’ to the prosecution but, at worst, it is unlikely to have been as hostile to the defendants as that of al-Ahram. Le Petit Ėgyptien, 8 Dec. 1901 They were later used in support of striking cigarette workers, ASMAE AIE no. 88 ‘Scioperi’, corresp., 6 Jan. 1902. ASMAE AIE no. 87 ‘Università popolari libere in Egitto, corresp.14 April 1902. D'Angio, writing some years later, described the UPL committee as ‘composed of men of much goodwill and very honest but weak’ and blamed Canivet for taking control of the organization and turning it to his own purposes (see ‘4 anni in Egitto’, Il Libertario, 10 Aug. 1905, 18 Aug. 1905). Tachydromos, 18 Dec. 1901 Tachydromos, 14 June 1902. ASMAE AIE no. 87, ‘Università popolare libera in Alessandria’, corresp., 14 April 1902. ASMAE AIE no. 87, ‘Università popolare libera in Alessandria’, corresp., 6 Feb., 14 April, 17 May, 19 May, 21 May, 5 June, 3 July 1902 (quote). The members were Mario Colucci, Raoul Canivet, and Drs Camerini and Latis, ASMAE AIE no. 87, ‘Università popolare libera in Alessandria’, 30 Oct. 1902. L'Università Popolare Libera e gli operai’, L'Operaio, 19 July 1902 ‘L'Universita Popolare Libera e gli operai’, L'Operaio, 26 July 1902. This difficulty of providing the type of instruction suitable for workers was one shared by UPLs in Italy, Maria Grazia Rosada, ‘Università populari’, pp.614–17 in Aldo Agosti et al. (ed.) Enciclopedia della sinistra europea nel XX secolo (Rome: Riuniti, 2000). L'Operaio, 26 July 1902. L'Operaio, 3 Jan. 1903; 1 Nov. 1902. L'Operaio, 22 Nov. 1902. The editors also took the current UPL committee to task for failing to give due credit to the institution's founders. Rosenthal was still making this point ten years later, J.R., ‘A propos des Secours d'Urgence’, La Bourse Egyptienne 12 Jan. 1912. L'Operaio, 3 Jan. 1903 Egyptian Gazette, 24 July 1903. ‘Free Popular University’, Egyptian Gazette, 20 July 1904. ‘Université Populaire Libre d'Alexandrie’, Egyptian Gazette, 26 July 1904. Egyptian Gazette, 14 Oct. 1909; the Greek Academy was established in 1907 (Phos 3 Oct. 1908). See, for example, ASMAE AIE no. 86, ‘Circolo libertario anarchico in Cairo’, corresp., 15 June 1902. In October 1907 a socialist, Brando Faccio, called for a Casa del Popolo to be established along the lines of the original UPL of 1901, ASMAE AIE no. 111, corresp. 15 Oct. 1907. The proposal was made by Rosenthal at the pro-Ferrer meeting on 4 Oct. 1909, ASMAE AIE no. 120 ‘Pro-Ferrer’, corresp. 7 Oct. 1909. On the secular school, see Landau, Jews in Nineteenth-Century Egypt, p.330, and Libera Tribuna, 18 March 1913 for criticism. Gorman, Historians, State and Politics, p.82. The UPL also recalls the People's University (al-Jami‘a al-sha‘biyya) set up in Cairo by the communist Iskra in the 1940s though it is unlikely that it was a direct influence, see Ismael and El-Sa'id, The Communist Movement in Egypt, p.46 and Anthony Gorman, ‘Egypt's Forgotten Communists: the Postwar Greek Left’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Vol.20, No.1 (2002), p.9.