Communism in History and Theory: Asia, Africa, and the Americas

There are numerous states in Africa that for a time had Marxist-Leninist governments. Around the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism in Eastern Europe, these African communist ruling parties were either overthrown, or they transformed themselves into noncommunist parties.

In around 1920, al-Hizb al-Ishtiraki al-Misri, or the Socialist Party of Egypt, was organized in Cairo by such leaders as Hisni al-'Urabi. ¹ However, he became disenchanted with the slow pace of reform, and moving to Alexandria, he took the party's files and enough of its younger members with him to cause the collapse of the Cairo-based socialist party. In Alexandria he joined with other socialists well on their way to becoming communists led by Joseph Rosenthal, a jeweler reputed to be a Bolshevik agent disguised as a White Russian refugee. The Alexandria group was composed mostly of minorities in Egyptian society, including Armenians, Greeks, and Jews. One of the few Arabs in the group was a Christian, Artun Marun, a lawyer who would become the first Secretary General of al-Hizb al-Shuyu'l al-Misri, or the Communist Party of Egypt. At first the Rosenthal group in Alexandria also called themselves the Socialist Party of Egypt. In 1922 they sought affiliation with the Comintern, and were admitted in 1924 after they accepted the twenty-one conditions for admission and changed their name to the Communist Party of Egypt as required. Marun and most of the

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