The corporatization of the Egyptian labor movement

Abstract

This essay seeks to illustrate three important aspects of the development of the Egyptian labor movement and its changing relations with the state. First, since World War II, Egypt's ruling elites have gradually restructured the union movement from pluralist to corporatist forms of organization.' Second, although the particular variety of corporatism that has arisen in this sector can be described as an example of state corporatism, the long-term consequence of corporatist policies has been to strengthen and selectively coopt working class organizations rather than to smash them and exclude them from the policy-making process.2 Third, this process of corporatization is by no means irreversible; indeed, it already has generated new tensions throughout the union hierarchy which may help to promote the reemergence of pluralism both in the labor movement and in the political system as a whole.3 These issues will be examined from three different perspectives, each of