On January 22nd, revolutionary Marxist Ahmed Sehrawy, better known as Ahmed Shawki, died in Chicago, where he spent the biggest part of his life and political activity.
He died at the age of 62, after a hospital-acquired infection that afflicted him for years, caused a necessary amputation and eventually his death.
Ahmed was born in Egypt, in a prosperous family whose fate was intertwined with the developments in this great Arab country. His father was an engineer, specialized in mining, that emerged during the era of national development under Gamal Abdel Nasser. His uncle was a famous lawyer who excelled in defending members of the Egyptian Communist Party against persecutions from the regime. With the end of the Nasserist era, the family left the country. Ahmed grew up in London.
In the aftermath of May 1968, during the radicalization of the 70’s, he chose the path of revolutionary Marxism. He joined the IS (the predecessor of today’s SWP in Britain) and was politically educated while being active in its ranks. Over the course of his political life, he would remain committed to the ideas of “socialism from below”.
During the 80’s, Ahmed moved to USA in order to help building a revolutionary organization inside the den of western imperialism. There he was connected with Sharon Smith –his partner the following years of his life– and Lance Selfa, Paul D’ Amato, Lee Sustar and others who formed the leading group that built the International Socialist Organization. The ISO evolved to the largest activist organization of the far left in the USA by 2010.
These comrades constituted one of the most advanced “detachments” of the international revolutionary Left. Daily, systematic, and long-term political activity against the most powerful bourgeoisie in the modern world was not an easy task. The ISO took a strong and specific stand against American imperialism: In the context after September 11th, in the US under the Patriot Act, open support for the failure of American invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq was a very demanding political task.
Ahmed was a sensational political orator, a great propagandist of revolutionary Marxist ideas. As an editor of his organization’s journal, he made International Socialist Review a “center” for Marxist debates with and international reach. His work focused on issues like the relation of Black radicalism with revolutionary Marxism, the connection of antiracism with anticapitalist strategy, the tradition of Mao’s China and its influence on Maoist currents in the West, and more. As with Sharon Smith’s contributions on the strategies and tactics of the feminist movement, these were examples of an organization that tried to actually engage with contemporary pressing questions instead of hiding them “under the carpet” by resorting to platitudes and ambiguities.
At the outset of the 21st century, the ISO came into conflict with IST (International Socialist Tendency, the international “current” around SWP), reacting to their analysis of the international situation and the paternalistic treatment of IST organizations by the “informal center” in London. This rupture was especially bitter for Ahmed, but this didn’t hold him back from stepping up the effort to defend his organization and help it stand independently within the space of the international revolutionary Left.
We connected with Ahmed in Prague in 2000, during an international protest in the context of the movement against neoliberal capitalist globalization. We were surprised to find that we shared the same questions and outlined the same answers. The relationship between us was never disrupted ever since. Ahmed Shawki was a speaker in the founding congress of DEA.
Ahmed made a particular connection with the movement in Greece. He systematically followed its turbulent turns and came to love its people, its organizations, their habits, their capabilities and their weaknesses. In the course of his many visits here, we met a comrade who could always pose the right questions with stunning simplicity, a giving and generous man, a charming character. Ahmed’s humor, the jokes with which he peppered his political speeches –sometimes with self-sarcasm, but never sarcasm towards his interlocutors– were a reflection of the general goodness of this warm human being.
During this time, Ahmed was responsible for the international relations of ISO. He travelled a lot, in Europe, in Latin America, in Egypt and elsewhere. Everywhere he went, he would leave behind not only comradely political relationships, but strong friendships. That’s not an easy thing to do and it speaks volumes for the comrade we lost.
The ISO was Ahmed’s life work. The old leading group, which carried the experience of the era of “major events”, successfully passed the test of the harsh times of Reagan, Clinton and the Bushes. It normally and rightly sought its renewal. The younger comrades who succeeded them had the experience of important but also “centrifugal” events, of the era of Occupy, MeToo, Black Lives Matter. They appeared to be less resilient when faced with the pressures of the current around Sanders and the illusion that DSA, although affiliated with the Democratic Party (as its “left-wing”), might be some sort of solution in addressing Trump’s savagery.
The ISO collapsed, and many chose the path of individualized membership in the DSA. In Joe Biden’s era, it is clear that this was a suicidal illusion, but the self-dissolution of the ISO was a mistake that could not be reversed.
The old guard of the ISO, having the firm conviction that the Democratic Party in the US is a “graveyard” of radicals did not follow this downhill slide. They attempted a new beginning, launching the International Socialism Project, with the telling subtitle: “In defense of socialism from below”. In my view, this could well be the title of Ahmed’s political life.
His long illness prevented him from taking part, in the way he would have wanted, in the decisive battle for the course of his organization in2019.
Ahmed’s death is yet another link in the chain of huge losses for the international revolutionary Left, which is becoming poorer.
As for us, we have lost a precious comrade, a dear friend, a trusted brother.
Antonis Davanellos
Antonis Davanellos is a leading member of DEA (Workers' Left) in Greece.
