Report on the Mass Movement in Sudan

Sudan has been shaken by a powerful mass protest movement since December 2018 with the slogans “freedom, peace and justice”, “We are out [in protest], we are out [in protest] against those who stole our sweat [hard work]”  and “revolution is the people’s choice”. Also opposition to the Darfur genocide was expressed with the slogans “You arrogant racist, we are all Darfur!”. As it is common in Sudanese protests, women are playing a particularly important role in the movement, to the extent that it has been deemed a “women’s revolution” by the participants of the movement.

The public reason that triggered the mass movement in Sudan was the rising bread prices. Sudan has a tradition of workers struggles, going back to 1903. The protests began in rural areas and in cities such as Atbara, where there is a strong tradition of independent trade unions. A leading force of the movement was one of these unions, the Sudanese Professionals Association (including the Agricultural sector, Geologists, Dentists, The pharmacists, Specialized Medical Associations) which served as an organizational backbone for the movement. The regime responded with mass arrests of labor cadres and leadership.

In December 24, 2018, trade unions and professional associations called for a nationwide work stoppage soon after the protests started against price hikes and worsening economic conditions, and doctors vowed to continue their indefinite strike. The mass movement developed slogans against Omar al‑Bashir, the genocidal tyrant supported by the Muslim Brotherhood ruling the country since a coup d’etat in 1989. As the mass movement continued, so did class struggles, such as the port workers strike against privatization. All activities usually carried out in the Southern Port, Northern Port, the Green Port, Al‑Khair_Port, and the Osman Digna Port, in Suakin city were shut down by the workers who went on strike in different parts of the country in solidarity with each other. An important center of union activity within the protests seems to be The Alliance for Restoration of Sudanese Workers Trade Unions, which has also formally joined “the revolution” in early March, 2019, calling on all the “disbanded unions” to join forces with the protests.

Nevertheless, it has been reported that unions and professional classes are no longer as active in the movement as they had been in the 80ies. Other than the unions, women’s and youth organizations are involved with the movement, as well as parties of the bourgeois left such as the Sudanese Communist Party, which is a part of the Alliance of the National Consensus Forces along with other bourgeois parties. The general orientation of this “Communist” party, unsurprisingly, is a return to democracy. There is no doubt there are many others who envisage such a future for Sudan, such as the rest of the signatories of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, which include the Sudanese Professionals Association and the The Alliance for Restoration of Sudanese Workers Trade Unions. As such, these unions are ready to become regime unions as soon as a democratic regime is established.

The 2018‑2019 mass protests in Sudan are similar to two other incidents in the history of the country. The first, in 1964, was sparked by clashes between students and police at the University of Khartoum. These incidents mushroomed into a much wider protest movement that ended up toppling the military dictatorship of Ibrahim Abboud. The second, in 1985, broke out after years of economic unrest and, like today’s protests, was set off by an increase in the costs of basic goods, leading to a mass movement that forced Jafa’ar Nimeiri to step down. In 1964 and 1985, Sudan’s army intervened to support the transition to a multiparty democracy. It did this under pressure from junior and middle-ranking officers, and these decisions proved crucial to the overthrow of the rulers. This time too, after earlier reports that soldiers had intervened to protect protestors from police violence, the Sudanese army toppled Omar al Bashir and declared there will be two years of military rule, to be followed by free and fair elections. The defense minister in Bashir’s government, Awad Ibn Auf briefly became the face of the coup, only to be replaced following his resignation by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Adelrahman Burhan as the head of the Military Council. Burhan, unlike Ibn Auf, isn’t accused of war crimes in regards to Darfur.

The Sudanese Professionals Association rejected the army’s overthrow of al Bashir as a military coup and vowed to hold further demonstrations, as did many other organizations. In a post on Twitter, the SPA said it was demanding the “handover of power to a civilian transitional government that reflects the forces of the revolution”. Furthermore, the professional union called for mass protests in defiance of the curfew announced by the military, declaring “To comply with the curfew is to recognise the clone rescue government”. Nevertheless the SPA declared Ibn Auf’s replacement with Burhan as a “triumph of the will of the masses”, while calling on the masses to continue their protests in front of army garrisons.

Workers, and especially “professionals” are playing a very important role in the Sudanese mass movement but the democratic union leadership with their bourgeois party allies are in control of the movement politically. There is no indication anyone seriously hopes for a dictatorship of the proletariat in a situation and geography where a genuine, international Communist Party isn’t present.