several months later in 1990, abbas co-founded ctuws in helwan to support workers and address the lack of independent unions in the private sector. he was guided by the advice of yusuf darwish, a long-time communist and labor lawyer, with whom abbas had previously led the people’s socialist party. abbas had studied world labor movements, looking up to the power of unions in europe and the solidarity movement in poland in the 1980s. abbas changed his ideological focus from his early ties to marxist politics, instead focusing ctuws on practical reform.