(1916-2008) Veteran politician and leading socialist reformer died on 5 August aged 92. The funeral of the founder of the 20-year-old Labour Party brought together representatives from across the political spectrum, including cabinet ministers, politicians, civil society activists and journalists. "The death of Shukri is a great loss to the political life of Egypt," said Safwat El-Sherif, chairman of the Shura Council and Secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). "Shukri was a great politician who stood firmly for great principles and it is no surprise that people from all walks of life are keen to bid him a final farewell." Moufid Shehab, minister of state for legal and parliamentary affairs, described Shukri as a great Egyptian socialist reformer committed to social justice. "To millions of Egyptian farmers and workers, Shukri was a great defender of their rights and a symbol of social justice." The son of a wealthy landowning family in the Nile Delta district of Sherbin (Daqahliya governorate), Shukri was born in 1916. Yet instead of turning into a spoiled member of Egypt's pre-1952 feudal aristocracy he espoused the principles of socialism. "I felt great sympathy for the hundreds of farmers who were toiling day and night to cultivate my father's land and who got little in return," he wrote in his autobiography. Shukri's embrace of social justice drew him to the world of politics. Instead of joining the Faculty of Law in compliance with his father's wishes he opted to join the Faculty of Agriculture, an experience that would later inform his calls for agrarian reform. When he was 19, Shukri took part in a student demonstration against British occupation. While crossing Abbas (now Al-Galaa) bridge he was shot in his abdomen. In 1935 he joined the newly formed Misr Al-Fatah (Young Egypt) party, which espoused a blend of socialist, nationalist and Islamist ideas. He graduated from Cairo University's Faculty of Agriculture and became an elected member of parliament (the House of Representatives) in 1949, representing the district of Sherbin. In his first year as an MP Shukri drafted an agrarian reform law attempting to restrict ownership of cultivated land to 50 feddans per family. It was rejected by parliament and attracted the wrath of big landowners, Shukri's father among them. The years between 1949 and 1952 were the heyday of Shukri's struggle for socialist principles. He contributed articles and features on social justice, political reform and Islam to Al-Ishtrakiya (Socialism), the mouthpiece of Misr Al-Fatah. Together with Ahmed Hussein, the founder of Misr Al-Fatah, he penned an article about the proliferation of beggars on Cairo's streets. The feature appeared under the headline "These are your people, King Farouk" and led to the jailing of Shukri. He was soon released from prison and on 25 September 1952 he became chairman of Misr Al-Fatah after its founder, Hussein, was detained on charges of helping organise the fires that burned Downtown Cairo in January 1952. Shukri welcomed the 23 July Revolution and became an active member of the Socialist Union. When President Anwar El-Sadat came to power in 1970 Shukri was appointed governor of Al-Wadi Al-Gadid. "President Sadat chose me for the post to spearhead efforts at land reclamation during the 1970s," Shukri wrote later. In 1976 he became minister of agriculture, and in 1987 founded the Labour Party. Instead of supporting Sadat after he signed a peace treaty with Israel, Shukri's Labour Party led the opposition against him. Then, when President Hosni Mubarak came to power in 1981, Shukri's Labour Party and its mouthpiece Al-Shaab became a leading critic of liberal economic policies. The Labour Party was able to clinch a relatively large number of seats in parliament during the 1980s but in 1990 decided to boycott elections in objection to new electoral laws. In the late 80s the Labour Party scrapped its socialist ideas in favour of Islamist ideology, and Al-Shaab voiced an increasingly radical religious line. In 2000 the paper was closed down and the Labour Party was frozen after it was accused of inciting Al-Azhar university students to demonstrate in favour of banning a novel. Shukri did his best to revive the Labour Party but to no avail, leaving Magdi Hussein, Al-Shaab 's editor, to wonder "why members of the NDP, who took the decision to freeze the activities of the Labour Party, joined in Shukri's funeral". By By Gamal Essam El-Din
