Egypt’s forgotten communists: The postwar Greek left

In the decade and a half after the Second World War, Egyptian Greeks were active in two communist organizations in Egypt: the wholly Greek AntifasistikÆ Prvtopor¤a (Antifascist Vanguard), and the Greek section of the Egyptian movement. Each pursued its own program of political priorities and enjoyed a different relationship with the Egyptian communist movement. While their activities were heavily circumscribed by the practical difficulties and ideological contradictions arising from the position of Greeks as a relatively privileged cultural minority, they both represent important expressions of an oppositional discourse within the complex dynamics of the Greek presence in Egypt. Though ultimately failing in the face of rising Egyptian and Arab nationalism and the decline of the Greek community in the late 1950s, the record of the Greek Left testifies to the attempts and accompanying difficulties of political engagement with the wider Egyptian community.