156 thE sudan handbookon the railway trade union, with its headquarters in Atbara north of
Khartoum, and was considered one of the strongest communist parties
in Africa and the Middle East. It offered, if not mass support for the
new regime, at least a significant organizational base, especially in the
urban centres of northern Sudan. The new regime embarked on radical
policies, especially with regard to the economy where a programme of
nationalization of banks and major businesses, especially foreign-owned
businesses, was soon under way. However differences soon developed in
the RCC between its SCP supporters and those closer to Nimeiri, who
were depicted as pan-Arabists. One of the areas of disagreement was over
Nimeiri’s initial wish to take Sudan into a union with Egypt, as well as
with Libya (where another young radical officer, Muamar Gaddafi, had
seized power in 1969); Nasser was anathema to the SCP who recalled
his repression of Egypt’s communists. Nimeiri’s aspirations for political
reform were linked to an even more serious issue; he wished to create a
mass single party movement of his own. That meant banning all Sudan’s
existing parties including the SCP, whose leader, Abd al-Khaliq Mahgoub,
went underground.
In July 1971 pro-communist figures in the RCC staged their own coup.
They were briefly successful, but Nimeiri escaped from detention and
rallied sections of the army loyal to him and after bloody clashes in
Khartoum managed to regain control. It was the first time since indepen-
dence that the involvement of the military had brought violence on that
scale to the capital itself. Nimeiri had survived and turned his wrath on
the SCP. This was never to fully recover its position. But without the
support of the SCP Nimeiri would need to look again at building some
kind of organizational base of his own; particularly since it was apparent
that the army itself could not be regarded as wholly reliable, and that
further coup attempts were a real possibility. At the same time, the death
of Nasser in 1970 had scuppered the support Nimeiri might have got
from Egypt and ended any prospect of the planned three-way union. It
was time to think again.
In the 1970s, bereft of the SCP, Nimeiri turned to a group of non-partyThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors figures who became known as ‘technocrats’. They were central to a
(www.riftvalley.net).