1977 Egyptian Bread Riots

The Egyptian 'Bread Riots' of 1977 which rocked most major cities in Egypt from January 18-19 of that year, 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 800 people were killed, and the protests were only ended with the deployment of the army.

The riots' origin lay in president Anwar Sadat's 'Infitah' policy, which had, since he took power in 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.

Popular rejection of the announcement was not long in coming: On January 18 and 19, rioting by lower-class people who would be hardest hit by the cancellation of the subsidies erupted across the country, from Aswan in upper Egypt to Alexandria on the shores of the Mediterranean. [AFP (Jan. 21, 2007). " [http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5112 30 years after bread riots, Egypt reform moves forward] ", "Daily News Egypt". Retrieved on July 17, 2008.] For two days, rioters attacked targets that symbolized the prosperity of the middle class and the corruption of the regime, shouting slogans like, "Yā batl al-`ubūr, fēn al-futūr?" ("Hero of the Crossing, where is our breakfast?") and "Thieves of the Infitah, the people are famished." There were also shouts of "Nasser, Nasser." Some 800 people were killed and many more injured. The rioting ended when the state abruptly canceled the new policies.

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