On Saturday 30 October many cities in Sudan saw huge demonstrations against a new military coup, with around a million people on the streets.
In 2019 mass protests, including significant workers’ mobilisations, resulted in the ousting of 20-year Islamist-influenced dictator Omar al-Bashir, and a sort of power-sharing agreement between civilian representatives and the military. The military was supposed to handover the chairship of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council by 17 November this year.
Now, following the attempted military takeover on 25 October, civilian politicians including prime minister Abdalla Hamdok have been arrested. The military and police have also arrested numerous activists, blocked roads and put up barbed wire barriers. At least ten protesters have already been killed and hundreds injured.
Sounding eerily like the generals who seized power in Myanmar earlier this year, coup-leader General Abdel Fattah Burhan said he remains committed to civilian rule — in July 2023.
Sudanese civil society activist Hamid Khalafallah, who spoke at our Ideas for Freedom event in 2019, told us that while he and most democracy activists expected some kind of chicanery by the military, they did not necessarily expect this out-and-out coup attempt.
He said that, reflecting the outrage most people in Sudan feel, the demonstrations on Saturday 30th were significantly bigger than any during the 2019 mass movement. He also pointed out the number and size of solidarity demonstrations around the world, particularly in London.
Hamid described disagreements between activists in a widespread network of local committees, which are demanding the complete purging of the military from power, and politicians who want an improved version of the pre-coup set-up.
He said that Sudan’s labour movement is more fragmented than in 2019, when the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA) of white-collar trade unions played a leading role. Since then the SPA has split on political lines. But he also said that though strikes now are less coordinated than in 2019, they are still playing a very important role, and that many more groups of workers, including more blue-collar workers, have become organised.
Hamid said that the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are key foreign supporters of the Sudanese military and its coup attempt.
In terms of bigger powers, he emphasised the role of Russia, which he said wants a military base in Sudan. He said the US’s role has been better than he expected (the Biden government cancelled $700 million dollars worth of aid only 24 hours after the coup).
In the face of overwhelming popular opposition, Islamist groups are the military’s most important internal civilian support, but the generals are under pressure from their international allies not to give them too free a rein.
Hamid stressed the importance of international solidarity with Sudan’s democracy movement.
• Full interview on the Sudan page of our website. Interview from 2019 here.
• What you can do
- Sign this solidarity letter from UK trade unionists
- Rush protests to the Sudanese Embassy in London, calling on the military to immediately cease all forms of repression and restore civilian rule here
- Organise a meeting — get in touch and we will help you find a speaker
- Pass a resolution in your union branch or Labour Party condemning the coup and demanding that the British government breaks all links with the Sudanese military.
