The revolution that began in Sudan in December 2018 gave a massive impetus to the wave of uprisings that has swept throughout the African continent and countries all over the world. Huge street demonstrations over several months led to the overthrow of Bashir’s 30-year bloody dictatorship, with ordinary soldiers joining alongside the crowds. When special troops went on the rampage in June 2019 and killed dozens of demonstrators, the immediate response of the working class was to stage a general strike. The military high command was forced to agree an uneasy compromise, under which military and civilian councils would supposedly share power. But now, on the eve of the projected handover to a civilian administration, they have once again taken over and made mass arrests. Their coup is being resisted right now on the streets of Khartoum by crowds numbering literally hundreds of thousands.
To give us an overview of the lessons to be learned from the history of the Sudanese workers’ struggles; the events leading up to the revolution of December 2018; the military coup of October 2021; and the struggle being waged right now on the streets of Khartoum by grass-roots organisations, committees of resistance and workers’ organisations, we are proud to welcome Rabab Elnaiem.
Rabab is a member of the Sudanese Workers’ Alliance for the Restoration of Trade Unions (SWARTU), an umbrella group of individuals and workers’ organisations working to restore the freedom, independence and democracy of trade unions in Sudan, and building on the Sudanese working-class tradition of trade unions organising from below. SWARTU fights to reclaim the trade-union rights gained by working-class struggle; strengthen workers’ efforts to organise in their respective fields of work; build strong alliances among workers based on common causes; and revive the workers’ traditions of holding general assemblies, extended meetings, sit-ins and strikes.
She is also a co-founder of Ta.marbouta, a feminist podcast that discusses topics from women’s daily lives and intersections with capitalism, colonialism and other systems of oppression, in an effort to dismantle the social structures and institutions impeding their struggle for liberation.