Ahmad Sadiq Sa’d

We were greatly saddened to learn of the death of Ahmad Sadiq Sa‘d — a comrade, collaborator and friend of several members of Middle East Report’s editorial family — in Cairo late last year. Sadiq was one of the intellectuals who stimulated the revival of the Egyptian communist movement in the late 1930s and a leader of the New Dawn/Workers’ Vanguard/Workers’ and Peasants’ Communist Party tendency before the formation of the united Communist Party in 1958. He spent 1959-65 in prison with the other Egyptian communist cadres. But his spirit was not broken, and he continued to struggle and to serve the Egyptian people, guided by a consistent internationalist vision, until the last day of his life. The historical writings of Sadiq’s last years are a lasting monument to his incisive intellect. They stand as a fundamental reference for all who seek to understand Egypt’s past in order to change its future.