(CHAPTER VII)
THE MARXIST UNDERGROUND
"Russia will not fail us. I believe Russia will always
support any movement which will help the Egyptian people. . . . But we will not talk of that now.
. . . The use of force and other tactics will he decided when the correct time comes''
Mahmoud Nabaoui, Egyptian Communist
EVER since my meeting with the students at Fouad University whom Gamal had described as Communist, I had
wanted to sec how the Communist party operated in Egvpt,
and what it stood for. In such a feudal, primitive, and violent
land, an inquiry like this was a risky undertaking. But every
investigation has its undercover approach.
I met my first nonstudent revolutionary at a secret meeting
arranged by an Arab newspaperman who worked for a major
American news agency in Cairo. Whether he was a member
of the Marxist underground, I'm not prepared to say. All I
know is that one day as the shadows of Mohammed Ali
Mosque deepened over the adjoining native quarter, he produced Anwar Kamel. An intense young man, Kamel told me
he had been jailed six times, first for Stalinist, then for
Trotskyist activity, in which he was now engaged. He provided me with background that I needed.
"At first men like Sidky Pasha [former pro-English Egyp-