International Monetary Fund Riots or Nasserian Revolt? Thinking Fluid Memories: Egypt 1977. (April 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Henry, Mélanie
• Editors: Dakhli, Leyla; Bonnecase, Vincent
• Is Part Of: International review of social history. Volume 66(2021)Supplement 29
• Page Start: 161
• Page End: 180
• Publication Date: 2021-04
• Subjects: Social history -- Periodicals; Social history -- Bibliography -- Periodicals; 306.09005
• DOI: 10.1017/S0020859021000134
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-8590

Abstract

Abstract: In recorded memory, the 1977 uprising in Egypt appears as the end of a cycle. Yet, at an international level, it marks the beginning of a wave of protest against International Monetary Fund measures. In this article, I study how communist memories of the uprising, which are the only ones recorded, have built up a disregard for 1977's "immature" insurgents. The article investigates how these narratives can inform us about the history of the uprising and argues that the search for a Cartesian-type collective subject among insurgents limits our understanding of the insurrection. It refers extensively to the Alexandria Arsenal, a state-owned shipbuilding company where the uprising began, and the relationship between this "vanguard" and the rest of the insurgents. It deconstructs the theoretical presupposition of an analogy between insurgents and a Cartesian subject that permeates the sources, and also the concepts of "collective memory" and "moral economy". This leads inevitably to the diagnosis of a defective subject. It favours the concept of "fluid memory" and highlights other "January 1977s".