In early 1946, protests by students and workers erupted throughout Egypt. Motivated by Egyptian nationalism and anti-colonialism, they resulted in the retreat of British troops in Egypt from the main delta to the Suez Canal. The protests are most known for the Abbas Bridge Incident, where protesters were thrown into the River Nile after the police raised the sides of a drawbridge. They resulted the resignation of prime minister Mahmoud el Nokrashy and a draft treaty between Egyptian prime minister Ismail Sidky and British foreign minister Ernest Bevin, though the failure of this draft led to Sidky's resignation later on that year. Historical Context British control of Egypt was firmly established following the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. After the 1919 Egyptian revolution, a delegation - Wafd in Arabic - of Egyptian nationalists formed to negotiate with the British government over the question of Egyptian independence. This began a decades long political struggle between Egyptian nationalists and British officials, specifically over the issues of British troop presence and the status of the Suez Canal and Sudan.For an overview of this early period of Egyptian-British negotiations, see Gifford, Jayne (2019) Britain in Egypt: Egyptian Nationalism and Imperial Strategy, 1919-1931. I.B. Tauris. During the interwar period, mainstream Egyptian politics was divided between the British, the conservative monarchy, the Wafd party. In 1936, the British and Egyptian governments signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty. The treaty raised the number of British forces in the canal from 8,000 to 10,000, authorized British troops in and near Alexandria for eight years as well other provisions further legitimizing British military and political control in Egypt. While the Wafd party did believe in Egyptian nationalism, it was also fiercely against fascism, leading to a brief British-Wafd alliance during World War II. This culminated in the 1942 Abdeen Palace Incident, when British forces nearly overthrew King Farouk unless he appointed the leader of the Wafd, Mustafa al-Nahhas, prime minister. This incident greatly damaged the Wafd's credibility among the Egyptian masses. Nahhas would govern the country until his dismissal in 1944, when the Axis threat to Egypt was no longer present. The Wafd boycotted the 1945 Egyptian parliamentary election, leading to a victory of minor opposition parties. The new prime minister Ahmed Maher brought Egypt into the war on 24 February 1945 in order to give Egypt a seat at the post-war peace conference. He was assassinated by an fanatic Egyptian nationalist for this supposed 'capitulation to British pressure'.
While mainstream Egyptian politics was dominated by the political wrestling match between King Farouk and the Wafd party, they were not the only players on the scene. Though the Wafd party was the most popular, the king could rely on support from anti-Wafd opposition parties, such as the new prime minister Mahmoud El Nokrashy's Saadist Institutional Party and Ismail Sidky's 'People's Party'. Further to the right were the Islamist Hasan al-Banna's Muslim Brotherhood and nationalist Ahmed Hussein's Young Egypt. While these parties never officially had any seats in parliament, they could marshal support from the rural masses and nationalist urban middle class. On the left were numerous socialists organizations. The first Egyptian Communist Party was crushed by the Wafd in 1924, yet by the end of World War II, Egyptian leftists came back under the banner of Henri Curiel's DMNL, Hillel Schwartz's Iskra and Fu'ad Morsi's new Egyptian Communist Party. Inside the Wafd, a left wing faction called the 'Wafdist Vanguard' faction emerged. The Wafdist old guard was dealt a severe blow following the departure of Makram Ebied in 1943. Ebied created the splinter party the Wafdist Bloc', and after exposing al-Nahhas' corruption in his Black Book, joined el Nokrashy's cabinet. The end of the war in 1945 also meant an end to martial law, making way for these forces to fight for the future Egypt.
The Wafd sought to unseat prime minister Mahmoud el Nokrashy's government by organizing student demonstrations at the start of the 1945/46 school year. In August 1945, the Wafdist Fouad Serageddin along with Hasan al-Banna and Ahmed Hussein created the Preparatory Committee of the National Committee of Students'. This organization had representatives from both rightist and leftist students as well as contacts in the trade unions. The government sought to weaken the committee by flipping Hasan al-Banna. After a meeting with Ali Maher, al-Banna urged his followers against demonstrations. While some joined the left, the majority followed his advice. On October 6th, al-Banna received enough funds from the Interior Ministry to set up headquarters in Cairo. On the same day, thousands of students demonstrated against the British, while the Brotherhood urged students not to join them. On the next day, students called for a general conference to renew Anglo-Egyptian negotiations and establishing National Committees in universities throughout the country. On the campus of Cairo University, they adopted three resolutions:
"The struggle for national independence is not only a struggle against military occupation, but is also a struggle against colonial domination of economic, political and cultural aspects of Egyptian society." "Local oligarchs are the local partners of the colonial power and should accordingly be treated as enemies of Egypt." "The only way to fight colonialism is a unified front between all anti-colonial powers"
The Brotherhood created their own memorandum instead to be submitted to the government. This split led to a shuffling of the organization; with the departure of the Brotherhood the committee rename itself to 'The Higher Executive Committee of the Students'. el Nokrashy exploited the political divisions between the Wafd and the Brotherhood to protect his government. During the Balfour Day riots on 2 November, he instructed the police not use firearms against the looters. These riots indicated that al-Banna did not have full control over his movement, as the rioters clashed with police despite his orders. The student movement was briefly weakened due to infighting between the Brotherhood and Young Egypt, who was now aligned with the leftist Wafdists. Around the same time, a strike in Shubra El Kheima gave the government an opportunity to arrest communists in the first week of January 1946.
The 1936 treaty was signed in the lead up period of World War II. Egyptian nationalists questioned as to whether it was appropriate for the post-war geopolitical circumstances. They argued that the values laid out in the Atlantic Charter and the Declaration by the United Nations laid the legal foundations of complete Egyptian independence. Under intense pressure from Egyptian nationalists, prime minister Mahmoud el Nokrashy sent a note the British government on 20 December 1945, stating the end of the war had rendered British troop presence in Egypt pointless and harmful to relations between Egypt and Britain. The British government responded on 26 January 1946, agreeing to a review of the treaty but not intending to remove Egypt from its sphere of influence.The texts of the Egyptian note and the British reply can be found in J. C. Hurewitz, ed., Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East: A Documentary Record, 1914–1956, vol. 2 (Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand, 1956), doc. 79, pp. 259–261, “Egyptian and British Views on Revision of the 1936 Treaty, 20 December 1945–26 January 1946.” This reply caused an explosion of nationalist anger, with the old nationalist cry of 'No Negotiation Except After Evacuation!" returning to the street. Students from al-Azhar went on hunger strike. The Young Muslim Men's Association held a meeting at its headquarters to organize a march on 9 February. The plan was to submit a memorandum to the palace calling for breaking negotiations, revocation of the 1936 treaty and refusal for Egypt to sign a military agreement with Britain.
Events On 9 February 1946, six thousand students marched from Cairo University's Giza campus across the Abbas bridge in Cairo. The police tried to stop them by raising both halves of the bridge, which were then lowered by the students. When the demonstration continued, the police raised it again, throwing students into the Nile. For the next three days, students clashed with police. After a Sudanese student - Muhammad Ali Muhammad - was killed, the police battled students trying to hold a funeral at the Faculty of Medicine. In total, three students died and 170 were wounded. King Farouk was supposed to visit a ceremony for the opening of new dormitories on campus on 10 February, but found no students and ruined royal decorations. On 13 February, el Nokrashy resigned. King Farouk appointed Ismail Sidky prime minister on the 15th.
On the 17th, the student committees issued a national charter calling for the complete removal of British troops from Egyptian soil, the Egypt submitting its case to the UN Security Council and the country 'liberated from economic slavery'. On the next day, a meeting of students from Cairo University and al-Azhar met on the latter's campus to form the 'General Union of Students'. They then approached trade unionists and workers to form the National Committee of Workers and Students (NCWS). On the 21st, they called for a general strike, and were answered by another wave of protests. In Cairo, tens of thousands of students and workers marched to center of the capital; the police did not raise the bridge this time. When the leader of Young Egypt, Ahmed Hussein, tried to speak at this rally, he was shouted with cries of "Down with fascism!". Afterwards, they entered Ismailiya Square and confronted British troops. British machine gun fire killed twenty-three and injured 120. On 4 March, another violent clash occurred in Alexandria, when protesters pulled down a British flag and attacked a British position leading to more deaths and injuries. At Mahalla al-Kubra, 25 thousand workers at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company went on strike.
+Student and Worker Committees, 1945/46Unless otherwise indicted, the source is (Abdalla, 1985) pg 69 Table 4.1NameDate EstablishedPreparatory Committee for the National Committee of StudentsAugust 1945National Committees of Students7 Oct. 1945Preparatory Committee for an Egyptian Trade Union Congress29 Oct. 1945Executive Committee of StudentsDec. 1945Higher Executive Committee of StudentsMixed Committee of Students17 Feb. 1946General Union of Students18 Feb. 1946National Committee of Workers and Students17-19 Feb. 1946Nationalist Committee of Students28 Feb. 1946Congress of Egyptian Trade Unions1 May 1946
The main body of this movement was the National Committee of Workers and Students (NCWS). This body was composed of both communists and left Wafdists, trade unionists and students across Egypt. This was the organization that lead the marches of 21 February and 4 March and lasted until July. It was criticized by the preparatory committee of Egyptian trade unions for being too centered around students. They believed that no decision should be taken without the consent of at least half of the worker members of the NCWS. The NCWS lacked any level of concrete organization, quickly burning out by July.