Labor Zionism
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Labor Zionism (Labour Zionism, Hebrew: ציונות סוציאליסטית, tsionut sotsialistit) can be described as the major stream of the left wing of the Zionist movement. If it was not for many years the major stream in the Zionist movement, it was a significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizational structures. It saw itself as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labor movements of Eastern and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizeable Jewish populations. Unlike the "political Zionist" tendency founded by Theodor Herzl and advocated by Chaim Weizmann, Labor Zionists did not believe that a Jewish state would be created simply by appealing to the international community or to a powerful nation such as Britain, Germany or the Ottoman Empire. Rather, Labor Zionists believed that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class settling in Palestine and constructing a state through the creation of a progressive Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim and an urban Jewish proletariat.
Labor Zionism grew in size and influence and eclipsed "political Zionism" by the 1930s both internationally and within the British Mandate of Palestine where Labor Zionists predominated among many of the institutions of the pre-independence Jewish community Yishuv, particularly the trade union federation known as the Histadrut. The Haganah — the largest Zionist paramilitary defence force — was a Labor Zionist institution.
Labor Zionists played a leading role in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and Labor Zionists were predominant among the leadership of the Israeli military for decades after the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.
Major thoreticians of the Labor Zionist movement included Moses Hess, Nahum Syrkin, Ber Borochov and Aaron David Gordon and leading figures in the movement included David Ben-Gurion and Berl Katznelson.
Albert Einstein was among a number of prominent Jewish personalities that supported the Labor Zionist Movement.
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[edit] Ideology
Moses Hess's 1862 work Rome and Jerusalem. The Last National Question argued for the Jews to settle in Palestine as a means of settling the national question. Hess proposed a socialist state in which the Jews would become agrarianised through a process of "redemption of the soil" that would transform the Jewish community into a true nation in that Jews would occupy the productive layers of society rather than being an intermediary non-productive merchant class, which is how he perceived European Jews.
Ber Borochov, continuing from the work of Moses Hess, proposed the creation of a socialist society that would correct the "inverted pyramid" of Jewish society. Borochov believed that Jews were forced out of normal occupations by Gentile hostility and competition, using this dynamic to explain the relative predominance of Jewish professionals, rather than workers. Jewish society, he argued, would not be healthy until the inverted pyramid was righted, and the majority of Jews became workers and peasants again. This, he held, could only be accomplished by Jews in their own country.
Another Zionist thinker, A. D. Gordon, was influenced by the völkisch ideas of European romantic nationalism, and proposed establishing a society of Jewish peasants. Gordon made a religion of work. These two figures, and others like them, motivated the establishment of the first Jewish collective settlement, or kibbutz, Degania, on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in 1909 (the same year that the city of Tel Aviv was established). Deganiah, and many other kibbutzim that were soon to follow, attempted to realise these thinkers' vision by creating communal villages, where newly arrived European Jews would be taught agriculture and other manual skills.
According to Zeev Sternhell[1] in The Founding Myths of Israel Labor Zionism's ideology was dominated by nationalism and not by socialism. Socialist roots had been more important in the beginning, but the Marxists became progressively less influential and the followers of Ber Borochov, a marxist zionist, disbanded even before the start of the British Mandate. Aaron David Gordon's (1856-1922) teachings dominated the ideology of the Zionist labor movement throughout its existence. His ideas corresponded to the teachings of tribal nationalism in Europe. Zionism defined the Jewish people as a nation and as such was incompatible with ideologies that used other ways of categorising people. Marxism and socialism categorised people in classes, liberalism was based on the idea of man as an autonomous individual. Contrary to marxism labor zionism did not engage in a class struggle. It followed rather a strategy of cooperation between workers and capitalists for the benefit of the nation. All had to contribute to the ability of the nation to compete against other nations.
According to Sternhell[2] the main objective of labor Zionism was to conquer as much land as possible. He cites Ben-Gurion, the head of the Histadrut, in December 1922, 'making a declaration of the intentions to which he adhered throughout the rest of his life':
[...] The possibility of conquering the land is liable to slip out of our grasp. Our central problem is immigration ... and not adapting our lives to this or that doctrine. [...] We are conquerors of the land facing an iron wall, and we have to break through it. [...] How can we run our Zionist movement in such a way that [... we] will be able to carry out the conquest of the land by the Jewish worker, and which will find the resources to organise the massive immigration and settlement of workers through their own capabilities? The creation of a new Zionist movement, a Zionist movement of workers, is the first prerequisite for the fulfillment of Zionism. [...] Without [such] a new Zionist movement that is entirely at our disposal, there is no future or hope for our activities
Similarly Katznelson said in 1927 that the Histadrut existed 'to serve the cause of conquering the land'. Thus the Zionist leadership saw the Ahdut Ha'avoda party and the Histadrut as tools to reach their final goal of conquest of the land and creation of a Jewish state. It was primarily interested in effective ways of exercising power. The true nature of labor zionism was Ben-Gurion's principle of the primacy of the nation and the supremacy of the state over civil society.
After 1922 there was not much discussion about ideology in labor zionism. According to Sternhell[3] the reason for this was that Ben-Gurion's principle of the primacy of the nation was accepted by the other leaders, and that the leaders didn't want an ideological discussion that might cause conflicts. They wanted the whole labor zionism movement to work together towards their goal of a Jewish state.
Like other nationalist movements Labour Zionism did have a social consciousness, but since the universal principles of socialism and the particularistic ones of nationalism were irreconcilable Labour Zionism made socialism subordinate to nationalism.[4] Berl Katznelson, the intellectual consciousness of Labour Zionism during the Mandate period, made a distinction between 'consumer socialism', which focusses on a redistribution of wealth, and 'productive socialism', which focusses on producing more wealth for the benefit of the nation, including the workers. According to Sternhell 'for Katznelson a socialist was not somebody who advocated equality or the socialisation of the means of production. A true socialist was someone who worked for immigration and settlement.' This kind of socialism was not at odds with capitalism, as far as capital was used towards the same goal, and did not require redistribution of wealth. Instead it required collaboration between the classes towards the national goal. In Katznelson's words: 'Interclass collaboration, necesarry for the implementation of Zionism, means mobilizing maximum forces for building up the homeland through labour.'[5]
[edit] Parties
Initially two labor parties were founded by the Second Aliyah (1904-1914) immigrants: the nationalistic and anti-socialist Hapo'el Hatza'ir (Young Worker) party and the Poale Zion party, with socialist roots. The Poale Zion Party had a left wing and a right wing. In 1919 the right wing, including Ben-Gurion, and anti-Marxists non-party people founded Ahdut Ha'avoda (United Labor). In 1930 Ahdut Ha'avoda and Hapo'el Hatza'ir fused into the Mapai party, which included all of mainstream Labor Zionism. Until the 1960s these parties were dominated by members of the Second Aliyah.[6]
The Left Poale Zion party ultimately merged with the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair, the urban Socialist League and several smaller left-wing groups to become the Mapam party, which in turn later joined with other parties to create Meretz.
The Mapai party later became the Israeli Labor Party, which for a number of years was linked with Mapam in Alignment. These two parties were initially the two largest parties in the Yishuv and in the first Knesset, whilst Mapai and its predecessors dominated Israeli politics both in the pre-independence Yishuv and for the first three decades of Israel's independence, until the late 1970s.
[edit] Decline and transformation
Already in the 1920s the Labor movement disregarded its socialist roots and concentrated on building the nation by constructive action. According to Tzahor its leaders did not "abandon fundamental ideological principles".[7] However according to Ze'ev Sternhell in his book The Founding Myths of Israel, the labor leaders had already abandoned socialist principles by 1920 and only used them as "mobilizing myths".
In Israel the Labor Party has followed the general path of other governing social democratic parties such as the British Labour Party and is now fully oriented towards capitalism and even neo-liberalism, though recently it has rediscovered the welfare state under the leadership of Amir Peretz.
Labor Zionism is ironically associated within Israeli society as representing the country's ruling class and political elite whereas working-class Israelis have traditionally voted for the Likud. Until the ascension of Peretz as party chairman, Labor Zionism was culturally associated with an Ashkenazi political elite more influenced by the Western world than the majority of Israelis.
What distinguishes modern Labor Zionism from other streams is not economic policy, an analysis of capitalism or any class analysis or orientation but its attitude towards the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Labor Zionists tending to support the Israeli peace camp to varying degrees.
[edit] Youth Movements
Labor Zionism exists today organizationally, manifesting itself in such Zionist youth movements as Habonim Dror, Hashomer Hatzair and college-age campus activist groups such as the Union of Progressive Zionists of the U.S. and Canada.
[edit] References
- ^ Z. Sternhell, 'The Founding Myths of Israel', 1998, p. 16, ISBN 0-691-01694-1
- ^ Z. Sternhell, 'The founding myths of Israel', 1998, p. 3-36, ISBN 0-691-01694-1
- ^ Z. Sternhell, 'The founding myths of Israel', 1998, p. 3-36, ISBN 0-691-01694-1
- ^ Z. Sternhell, 'The founding myths of Israel', 1998, ISBN 0-691-01694-1, p. 156
- ^ Z. Sternhell, 'The founding myths of Israel', 1998, ISBN 0-691-01694-1, p. 160-3
- ^ Z. Sternhell, 1998, 'The Founding Myths of Israel', ISBN 0-691-01694-1
- ^ Z. Tzahor, 'The Histadrut', in 'Essential papers on Zionism', 1996, Reinharz & Shapira (eds.)ISBN0-8147-7449-0, p. 505
[edit] See also
- Zionism
- Kibbutz
- Histadrut
- Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed
- Ameinu
- A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
- Farband
- Jewish left
- Havlagah
- The Founding Myths of Israel by Zeev Sternhell
- Rome and Jerusalem (text at Wikisource), a classic 1862 work on Labor Zionism by Moses Hess.
[edit] External links
- A history of labor and socialist zionism
- Ber Borochov - The Economic Development of the Jewish People
- The Jewish Problem and the Socialist Jewish State
- A general history of Zionism and the Creation of Israel
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