The Cairo Forces Parliament was a meeting of British soldiers in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

in February 1944 which voted for the nationalisation of banks, land, mines, and transport in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Among those that took part was

Leo Abse Leopold Abse (22 April 1917 – 19 August 2008) was a Welsh lawyer and politician. He was a Welsh Labour MP for nearly 30 years, noted for promoting private member's bills to decriminalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce la ...

who later became a Labour MP. Another participant who later became a Labour MP was

Henry Solomons Henry Solomons (7 November 1902 – 7 November 1965) was a British businessman, trade unionist and Labour Party politician who briefly enjoyed a Parliamentary career. Early career Solomons was born in London and educated at London County Counc ...

, who was appointed the Labour 'Prime Minister' of the Cairo Forces Parliament. Sam Bardell, a member of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

was secretary and the parliament attracted political activists from the

Common Wealth Party The Common Wealth Party (CW) was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom with parliamentary representation from the middle of the Second World War until the year after its end. Thereafter it continued in being, essentially as a pres ...

and the

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

movement. The Parliament was eventually shut down because of the growing support for the revolutionary ideas promoted by members of the Workers' International League. Adopting the tactics of the

Proletarian Military Policy The Proletarian Military Policy was a policy adopted by the Fourth International in response to World War II. It was an attempt to apply transitional demands such as trade union control of military training and the election of officers to transform ...

, they were elected to the positions of Prime Minister and Home Secretary. Their revolutionary work was successful in winning the support of many soldiers, as described by

Ted Grant Edward Grant (born Isaac Blank; 9 July 1913 – 20 July 2006) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain. He was a founding member of the group Militant and later Socialist Appeal. Early life Grant's father had s ...

"From the reports of our soldier comrades, the Eighth Army soldiers were saying that after the war they would refuse to disarm, and return to Britain with their guns to ensure that things would change. This was the mutinous mood that was developing amongst these troops. At the 1943 conference of our tendency, I made the point, to illustrate the thing graphically, that the military establishment though it their army, but in fact, the soldiers of the Eighth Army were in rebellion. This reflected the revolutionary developments in the army. It was our Eighth Army in that it was being transformed. It was becoming revolutionary and in the process of moving over to the side of the working class."

Similar parliaments also took place within the British Army in this period of the war. In the British Army in India such parliaments existed briefly at both

Mhow Mhow, officially Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, is a town in the Indore district in Madhya Pradesh state of India. It is located south-west of Indore city, towards Mumbai on the old Mumbai-Agra Road. The town was renamed as ''Dr. Ambedkar Nagar'' in 20 ...

and

Deolali transit camp Deolali transit camp was a British Army transit camp in Maharashtra, India. Established in 1861, the camp remained in use throughout the time of the British Raj. It served to house soldiers newly arrived in the country and those awaiting ships ...

, and perhaps others. The Mhow parliament took place six months after the Cairo parliament, with 70-100 members and official blessing, although was soon shut down from above. The original structure of the Mhow parliament had a government and left wing opposition, but due to a larger number of left-wingers in the parliament the government dissolved and was replaced by the left party, with a centre and right opposition parties.Fyrth, Jim. An Indian Landscape 1944-1946. Socialist History Occasional Papers Series No 12. 2001. . Page 19.

References

Bibliography

* Andy Baker, ''The Cairo Parliament, 1943-4: An Experiment in Military Democracy'', Leigh on Sea, Essex : Partizan Press 1989 * Gilbert Hall, ''The Cairo Forces’ Parliament : the inside story'', London : C. A. Smith, a. 1948 * Jim Fyrth, ''An Indian Landscape 1944-1946'', Socialist History Occasional Papers Series No 12. 2001.

External links

Independent Obituary of Leo Abse, a member of the Cairo Parliament who later became an MP
History of Cairo 1944 in the British Empire 1940s in Cairo British Army in World War II 1944 in Egypt 1944 in politics 1944 conferences 1944 in military history February 1944 events {{UK-poli-stub

See also

References

Bibliography

External links