Socialist Labour Party (Egypt)

The Islamic Labour Party, previously the Socialist Labour Party ("Labour Party"; Hizb al-a'mal حزب العمل الاشتراكى), is an Islamist Egyptian political party. It is currently suspended.

Platform
The party platform calls for:
 * Establishing an economic system based on the Islamic Shari'ah.
 * Protecting the national industries.
 * Equal distribution of investments among the Egyptian governorates.
 * Achieving unity between Egypt, Sudan and Libya.
 * Liberating the occupied Palestinian lands.
 * Promoting ties with developing countries.

Political Ideology
The party established on September 9th, 1978, by Ibrahim Shoukry and others was originally a Socialist party. Since 1986 the party has undergone a major ideological change turning into an Islamist party. This change was first demonstrated in the party's fifth conference in 1989 which was entitled "Reform from an Islamic prospective".

1990 elections
The party and a few others abstained from the election because of an amendment to the 1972 Electoral Law forbidding unified lists, with the Socialist Labour Party attempting to combine with the Muslim Brotherhood for election purposes.

Suspension
On May 20th, 2000 the Egyptian committee for political parties' affairs (the committee responsible for authorizing the formation of political parties in Egypt) decided to freeze the activities of the Labor Party and suspend its newspaper al Shaab. The Committee referred to Article 17 of the political parties law, which enables it to suspend the activities of a party, as a means of stopping any decision or act by a party that is contrary to the higher interests of the country. The committee attributed its decision to the split within the party ranks, with one group led by Hamdi Ahmad, a member of the party’s executive committee, and the other led by Ahmad Idris. The Committee, in its decision, referred to the official complaint brought by the those members concerning the selection of a new party chair. The two party members also asked for Al-Shaab to be suspended from publication and a freeze to be put on the party’s bank account. Labor Party chairman Ibrahim Shoukry described these demands as illegal.

Renaming
The party has been renamed the "Egyptian Islamic Labour Party" (see website).