[Socialism Today, No 26, March 1998, p. 8-9]
The last two years have seen a class polarisation of Israeli society and the birth of a working-class consciousness. The Histadruth, once virtually a state union, organised two illegal general strikes which paralysed the country. Both major parties are split along class lines, with trade unionists discussing the formation of a workers‘ party.
The Histadruth, once virtually a state union, organised two illegal general strikes which paralysed the country. Both major parties are split along class lines, with trade unionists discussing the formation of a workers‘ party.
These are important developments in a country where class issues have traditionally been pushed aside by the Israeli-Arab conflict. Over the last two decades Israel has changed from a relatively egalitarian society (if one ignored the systematic dispossession of the Palestinians) to a society with an enormous gulf between rich and poor. In the 1950s and 1960s, Israel was a garrison state with a spartan ideology and lifestyle. The state ensured minimum conditions, subsidised basic commodities, and provided housing. Many jobs had ‚kviut‘, ie were jobs for life. Wages were automatically linked to inflation.
As the private sector has grown, so has the class divide. The early Zionist ideology of austerity was replaced by the doctrine of the market. Subsidies were abolished, and social spending slashed. Workers were attacked by casualisation, outsourcing to manpower companies, and elimination of workplace rights. But these blows were cushioned by the expansion of the economy.
In the early 1990s, there was a massive boom, fuelled by the arrival of nearly one million immigrants from the former USSR, $10bn US loan guarantees, and a twenty-fold increase in foreign investment as a result of the peace process. Shopping malls and new apartment blocks were built across the country. But most working people did not benefit from this boom. On the contrary, the increased integration of the Israeli economy into world markets brought closures and mass redundancies in traditional industries like textiles. Sometimes there were bitter struggles against these closures, including strikes and factory occupations. But these were generally isolated, rearguard actions, where the strikers had no hope of saving their jobs.
The start of the recession coincided with the election of Netanyahu’s government in 1996. The boom had run out of steam, and the wave of immigration from the former USSR had diminished to a trickle. The collapse of the peace process and the resulting reduction of foreign investment pushed the economy into recession.
In December 1996 the government attempted to plug the hole in its budget by effectively raising taxes paid by workers. The Histadruth, under pressure from the shop floor leadership, called a public-sector one-day strike, in defiance of a court order. When one Histadruth official, Shlomo Shani, was arrested, the whole country was shut down in immediate strikes. Banks closed. Busses stopped in mid-route. Even trade at Tel Aviv stock exchange was stopped. Within five hours, the courts discovered that the arrest of Shani was ‚a mistake‘ and released him. Shani became an instant celebrity. He appeared on TV talk shows where he was enthusiastically cheered by audiences. The strike won concessions from the government in the form of cancellation of some of the attacks.
One year later, in December 1997, public-sector workers struck against government attempts to attack pensions, and other cuts. The strike not only forced the government to cancel some attacks, but caused a split in the ruling coalition, prompting David Levy’s Gesher Party to leave in protest at the government’s attacks on the poor, reducing Netanyahu’s majority in the Knesset to one.
Some believe that the officially organised panic about the danger of an Iraqi chemical missile attack is an attempt to divert attention from the economic crisis.
Some believe that the officially organised panic about the danger of an Iraqi chemical missile attack is an attempt to divert attention from the economic crisis by manufacturing an external threat. If so, its success is limited. Unemployment offices are on strike, demanding that the government provide extra staff and protection to cope with the enormous increase in claimants in recent months. Workers at the Israel Land Authority are working to rule against planned redundancies.
The recession, and the rise of labour militancy, occur at a time when the Israeli ruling class is split as never before. Prime minister Netanyahu is a master of the sound-bite and empty rhetoric. Since his election he has staggered from crisis to crisis, attempting to hold together his coalition. Those who voted for him were disappointed. But the Labor Party provides little real alternative. As the favoured party of Israeli capitalism, it has done nothing for Israeli workers fighting against government cuts.
It is clear today that Israeli workers need a party of their own. This idea has been raised by work-place leaders who were the driving force behind the general strikes but, at the moment, it is being held in check by Histadruth leader, Amir Peretz. During the general strike Peretz won the reputation of being the workers‘ champion. Many trade-unionists see him as the natural leader of a workers‘ party but he is more interested in advancing his parliamentary career, and is using the ‚threat‘ of a workers‘ party to secure a better position for himself in the Labor Party.
A workers‘ party will not need celebrity leaders, especially those who have not broken with the corrupt bosses‘ parties. It needs to be built not from the top down, but from the workplaces up. The establishment of a workers‘ party can break the stalemate of Israeli politics, defend workers‘ interests, and advance class-based solutions to the problems of the region.
An Israeli correspondent
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