1977 Egyptian Bread Riots

The Egyptian 'Bread Riots' of 1977 affected most major cities in Egypt from January 18-19, 1977. The riots were a spontaneous uprising by hundreds of thousands of lower class people protesting World Bank and International Monetary Fund-mandated termination of state subsidies on basic foodstuffs. As many as seventy-nine people were killed and 800 wounded in the protests, which were only ended with the deployment of the army and the re-institution of the subsidies.

Lead up to riots

The riots' origin lay in president Anwar Sadat's Infitah (openness) policy, which had, since he took power at the beginning of the decade, sought to liberalize the economy. In 1976, he sought loans from the World Bank in an effort to relieve the country's debt burden. The bank criticized the state's policy of subsidizing basic foodstuffs, and Sadat announced in January 1977 that it was ending subsidies on flour, rice, and cooking oil and that it would cancel state employee bonuses and pay increases.

Food riots

Popular rejection of the announcement was not long in coming: On January 18 and 19, rioting by lower-class people who would have been hardest hit by the cancellation of the subsidies erupted across the country, from Aswan in upper Egypt to Alexandria.^[1] For two days, rioters attacked targets that symbolized the prosperity of the middle class and the corruption of the regime, shouting slogans like, "Ya baṭal el-`obūr, fēn el-fotūr?" ("Hero of the Crossing, where is our breakfast?") and "Thieves of the Infitah, the people are famished." There were also shouts of "Nasser, Nasser," in reference to Sadat's predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The rioting ended when the state abruptly canceled the new policies.

See also

• List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
• 1986 Egyptian Conscription Riot
• 2008 Egyptian general strike
• Egyptian Revolution of 2011

References

v d e Major revolts and riots in modern Egypt Major events 1919 Egyptian revolution · 1952 Egyptian revolution · 2011 Egyptian revolution Timeline Urabi (1881–82) · 1919 Egyptian revolution · Helwan Riots (1945) · 1945 Cairo pogrom · Cairo Fire (1952) · 1952 Egyptian revolution · Bread Riots (1977) · 1986 Egyptian Conscription Riot · 2005 Alexandria riot · 2008 Egyptian general strike · 2011 Egyptian revolution