A Voice from Below in the 1940s Egyptian Press: The Experience of the Workers’ Newspaper Shubra

This chapter examines the emergence of a labour newspaper in the context of the industrial struggles of the 1930s and 1940s in the Cairo suburb of Shubra-al-Khayma, a stronghold of the textile sector and scene of a dynamic workers’ movement. The fight for official recognition and better economic conditions was only part of the workers’ struggle. From April 1942 until January 1943 the General Union of Mechanical Textile Workers of Shubra al-Khayma produced Shubra, one of the few papers in Egypt managed and edited by trade unionists and aimed specifically at an audience of workers. The chapter examines the workers’ voice expressed in the ideas, values and conceptions of labour, discussing the launch and management of the newspaper before dealing with its content and focus on specific issues such as textile labour in Egypt, union matters, ‘labour culture’ and the national struggle.