The founding nucleus of Tasht were Raymond Duwaik, Youssef Darwish, Ahmed Rushdi Salih and Sadiq Sa'ad, who had been members of the Workers Committee for National Liberation – Political Organisation for the Working Class.
[1] The founding congress defined two key strategic objectives; to elaborate an Egyptian path to socialism and to build unity with other revolutionary sectors.
[6] By late 1956, unity talks began among the three main factions of the Egyptian communist movement.
[1] But the Workers' Vanguard was hesitant to a merger, as its leaders had very strong reservations against Henri Curiel (whom they saw as pro-Zionist).
[7][8] In March 1957 the Workers' Vanguard held its second congress, changing the name of the organization to the Egyptian Workers and Peasants Communist Party (حزب العمال والفلاحين الشيوعي المصري, hizb al-'umal wa al-falahin ash-shiu'i al-masri, abbreviated "'A.F.").