Sion Poale

The Poale Commission ("the worker of Zion ") or or or ( ) is a party Zionist Marxist created in 1906. It will give birth in 1919 the party Achdut Ha'avoda ("union labor").

It is one of the largest parties in the history of Zionism , which he has long been a major political forces.

He is one of the two founding parties of the Labour Party Mapai , in 1930 , alongside the Hapoel Hatzair.

Origin of Poaley Tzion

In the years 1890 , parties are structured Jewish workers in Eastern Europe. At the same time created the first Zionist organizations:

• In 1897 to create the General Union of Jewish Workers in Lithuania, Poland and Russia , known as non-Bund, who wants a Jewish Marxist workers' party in Russia.
• The same year held on ¹Zionist Congress in Basel.

Soon the Bund rejects Zionism. The current nationalist Marxist then separates the Bund. He originally organized in associations Poaley Tzion, which congregate in 1905-1906 to form a real party. This will be based in Russia until the Bolshevik Revolution , but from the beginning of other national branches, including a U.S. branch and a Palestinian branch (founded 1906).

Ideology Poaley Tzion

The leader and ideologue of the new party is an intellectual born in Ukraine czarist Dov Ber Borochov (1881-1917). It achieves a synthesis between Marxism and Jewish nationalism. In his view, the only oppression is oppression of classes, and the only motor of history is not class struggle. The national oppression, and thus the national liberation struggles, can be as powerful engines of historical evolution.

Borochov also believes that the Jewish population has an inverted social pyramid: lots of bourgeois intellectuals, artisans, shopkeepers, few workers and peasants. Only a national life will separate the Jewish population return to a social structure "normal" condition for the development of both national life and released a triumphant class struggle.

To do this, the mass emigration that Judaism knew then Russian (4 million immigrants in 1880 and 1932), especially to the United States , should be redirected toward Palestine , to allow concentration Jews on a particular national territory. Also, "instead of going to countries in economic development is too high for Jewish immigrants, he must go to countries whose development level is far below the Jewish production, so that the Jews are a dominant position in this country and not remain confined to marginal jobs, as was the case in the former Jewish communities and countries of emigration. It is necessary for transmigration to divest itself of its Jewish character of immigration and becoming a single colonization ^{Operation Poaley Tzion before 1914}

In practice, the Poaley Tzion is fully integrated with the World Zionist Organization (WZO). Between class struggle and national struggle, it will eventually always come first national struggle, looking for that the other factions of Zionist alliance, including the "bourgeois" of the General Zionists. Indeed, beyond its ideology, Poaley Tzion is emerging as a reformist party, the cause of the current Israeli Labor Party.

David Ben Gurion joined a local group Poale Zion in 1904, even before the formation of the party.

During the Zionist Congress, ranging from the death of Theodore Herzl (1904) to the Zionist Congress in Basel in 1911, Poaley Tzion will defend the "practical Zionism" (with other leftist groups, but also centrists like Chaim Weizmann ), against the advocates of "political Zionism" majority. "Zionism practice" wants to lead a Jewish settlement activity in intense Palestine. Faced with the hostility of the Ottomans , who have authority over Palestine , the "political Zionists" seek international support to establish a "charter" giving official status to the project of a "Jewish national home" in Palestine (which will be obtained with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 ). The Poale mission is part of the internal opposition to the World Zionist Organization. The synthesis of "best practices" and "political" will be found in 1911.

On Palestinian land, between 1903 and 1914, 30 to 40 000 Zionist settlers of the second Aliyah are largely dominated by the left, and among it, the militants are many Poaley Tzion. David Ben Gurion was well settled in Palestine in 1906. The party also creates a set of clubs, newspapers, institutional support, etc.. It also released its ranks that the Hashomer ("Guard") in 1909, the first armed group of Jewish self-defense.

Splits the Poaley Tzion

In the years following the founding of the party, it will see many divisions, mainly that of Poaley Zion Left , a new party based on the same ideological principles but demanding a more authentically revolutionary practice, less reformist.

Both Poaley Tzion Tzion Poaley the Left will participate in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Many members of Zion Poaley Left rally besides the Bolshevik party after that date. We will review some in Palestine, as agents of the Third International.

The Left Poaley Tzion is also one of the origins of future major party of the extreme Zionist left, the Mapam , who would later join the current Meretz.

Foundation Akhdut Ha'avoda (1919)

The party was founded in Palestine in 1919 after the First World War and the Balfour Declaration.

The birth of Akhdut Ha'avoda is related to a crisis and an opportunity.

The crisis Poaley Tzion (1914-1918)

The Poaley Tzion of pre-war was especially active in the Russian Empire in Palestine and the United States (among Russian immigrants).

In 1918, the Bolsheviks banned all parties, including the revolutionary parties in favor of the Revolution, as Poale session. The large base of militant Poaley Tzion is neutralized. Exception, the Left will Poaley Tzion authorized USSR until 1928.

The founder and theorist Poaley Tzion, Dov Ber Borochov (1881-1917), died of illness after his return to Russia to support the revolution.

The Ottomans were expelled nearly 30,000 Jews in Palestine (about 85 000 in 1914), especially the Russian immigrants, as David Ben Gurion (who fled to the United States ). These were the basis of Poaley Tzion Palestine.

Banned in Russia, having lost its main leader, neutralized in Palestine by the expulsion of its activists, the party is in deep crisis.

Opportunities

In 1919 , The Jewish National Home is still not officially announced (it will not be until 1920 by the San Remo conference and in 1922 by the League of Nations ). But the Zionist movement is in turmoil following the Balfour Declaration. A new era seems to portend that offers enormous opportunities for the Zionist movement.

The Bolshevik Revolution , though it has banned Poale sion enthusiasm of youth left, intending to establish in Palestine revolutionary new ideas as much as Zionism. But at the same time, there is no question of allowing non-Zionist Communists capture that enthusiasm to their advantage.

Creating Akhdut Ha'avoda (1919)

To take advantage of these opportunities, but also to overcome the crisis, it appears necessary to give new impetus to Poale sion, and reorganize it in depth.

This is the reason for the creation of Akhdut Ha'avoda in 1919. Besides the name change, the party is now based in Mandatory Palestine , not in Russia or the United States. Now his leadership there will always be installed.

The name of Poale sion remain widely used in Diaspora by local branches of the party.

The official ideology has not changed: it is always that of Poaley Tzion. But with the departure of the extreme-left party, it is gradually reinterpreted in a sense more and more nationalistic and less and less revolutionary, as indicated by the party's slogan "the people of the class." The Akhdut Ha'avoda become a reformist party indeed, but never a clean break with its Marxist origins.

After its creation in 1919, Akhdut Ha'avoda has three historical periods.

1919-1930: the march toward socialist unity

This period is marked by an intense activism on the ground. The constitution of the union Histadrut has thus much to Akhdut Ha'avoda. And paradoxically, the union itself will create many businesses, becoming one of the largest employers in the country. Thus David Ben Gurion , one of the leaders Akhdut Ha'avoda (instead of the right wing) who in 1921 became the head of the Histadrut.

After a period of reluctance, Akhdut Ha'avoda is also expanding into the establishment of kibbutzim , the draft comes from the Hashomer Hatzair , an advocate of rural socialism tinged with anarchism.

The ideologue of the party for the period after the death of Dov Ber Borochov in 1917, was Berl Katznelson. There is also a prominent leader alongside David Ben Gurion.

During the 1920s, the two parties of the reformist left came close: they argue together within the Histadrut, and generally adopt common positions. The Akhdut Ha'avoda and Hapoel Hatzair merged in 1930, founding the Mapai. This fusion is partly linked to the will to resist the thrust of the Zionist right Elections, the Revisionist Party of Vladimir Jabotinsky.

1944-1948 - The split in the Mapai

In 1944, the "faction B (Siah Bet) of Mapai left the party, she considers becoming too reformist. This faction includes the name of Akhdut Ha'avoda, many of whose members are drawn. However, there is no homology between the old and the new Akhdut Ha'avoda: most members of the former Akhdut Ha'avoda remained loyal to the party Mapai , its leader David Ben Gurion in mind.

The faction B is particularly pretty pro-Soviet, and hopes for more open rupture with capitalism.

In 1948 she founded with two other factions of Zionist extreme left (Left Poaley Zion and Hashomer Hatzair , a division of Hapoel Hatzair ) the Mapam. It will obtain good results in the elections of 1949 and 1951 (between 14 and 15%), demonstrating that extreme-Zionist left has a definite influence in the country.

1954 - 1968 - A division of Mapam

In 1954, Mapam broke out within the scope of several discrepancies, including the report on the Soviet Union. Akhdut Ha'avoda, regarded as the right wing of the party and more reserved on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , regained its independence. He presented himself for election as the historic Akhdut Ha'avoda - Poaley Tzion.

Beginning in 1965 , Akhdut Ha'avoda occurs on a joint list with the Mapai (the period known as the "first alignment," or Ma'Arakh). In 1968 it merged with him and the Rafi (split from Mapai dating from 1963 ) to found the Israeli Labour Party , which then forms the left wing. The "New" Labour Party is in fact the reconstruction in the perimeter of Mapai in 1930, reinstating the factions that had left him. Akhdut Ha'avoda disappears as a party in 1968 but remains as a faction organized within the Labour Party, and retains its name.

Despite its focus very left Akhdut Ha'avoda is also very nationalistic. In 1968, one of its members, Yigal Allon , who will develop the "Allon Plan", a project of annexation of 30% of the West Bank occupied after the Six Day War of 1967.

References

See also

• Mapam
• Mapai
• History of Zionism
• Histadrut
• General Union of Jewish Workers (Bund)
• David Ben Gurion
• Yigal Allon

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