Militants attacked by Sadat's stooge regime

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We have recently received a letter, which told us about the very probable assassination of comrade Mohammed Awad Chamis, a leading member of the RCL, who "disappeared" in the Torra prison in CairoHelvan.

The RCL, in earlier times being a sympathising section of the USFI has broken from it because of different reasons one of the most important of which was the intervention into the mass movement, The "angel of peace" Sadat has established a repressive dictatorship. in Egypt, under which any oppositional work is cruelly persecuted: all political parties with the exception of Sadat's own one are forbidden, any workers' organisations are illegal, especially unions, there is no right to demonstrate or to hold meetings, and participation in strikes is penalised by 25 years of prison.

Under these conditions the USec told the RCL to stop any mass work and to keep quiet to survive this period of repression.

Agitation The RCL refused and broke from the USFl, and continued their agitation in th • factories and the universities, thus being able to get a basis in the most important factories' in Alexandria and Cairo, winning the illegal union elections there and leading the strikes at the turn of this year.

Suppression

In reaction the dictatorship answered with massive suppression, imprisoning many of the RCL's members and assassinating one of its leaders.

The assassination of comrade Mohamed takes place in a time when the Sadat regime finds itself more and more isolated.

The basis of this isolation is mainly to be explained by the total failure of its economic policy, the so-called "Infitah" that is, the complete opening of the country to foreign capital.

Along with this project Sadat promised a l decisive improvement of the economic situation and especially of the material situation nf the poor masses.

in this way Sadat tried to appease them after the January riots of 1977 (in which the RCL played a decisive part); for a short time, in connection with the renewed total illegalisation of the lett opposition, he was successful.

The stepwise rise of the basic food prices and increased unemployment at the same time clearly expressed the failure of these promises.

The consequence of this was an increasing willingness in particular of the workers to resume the struggle against the regime: at the end of December 1979 strikes took place in important factories in Alexandria Tercena, Bata) and Cairo (Iron and Steel) followed by strikes at the univerty of Cairo in January and at a factory in El Mahala el Kobra in February 1980, which were directed against the economic policy of the regime and against the dictatorship.

Strikes

Since these events the struggles have not been stopped: strikes,• demonstrations, beginning of opposition in the army-this shows the inner crisis of the Sadat regime in a significant way.

The fact, that the negotiations with Israel on the Palestinian problem have failed de facto, aggravates the position of the regime, too.

The regime reacted-as it had done often before-by massive suppression of the rising opposition.

Strikes were "finished" by the army, the university of Cairo was closed for a short time and a lot of oppositionists were thrown into prison.

It seems as if the regime plans to smash the left finally: on December 12 1979 Zak Mouraol, chairman of the Communist Party of Egypt was brutally killed in the street-the secret police with four cars had run him over.

The assassination of Mohamed is a further step in this direction, in particular because of the fact that the RCL is one of the very few organisations which continued the resistance also in the period after the suppression of the riots of January 1977.

We call on all the Left to protest against the repression of the left and especially the assassination of Mohamed Awad Chamis by the Egyptian regime.

Palestine Committee, Vienna more details write to:

Wolfgang Stoger, Being. 31130 A-1150 Vienna, Austria.