Class Struggle
Especially distinct is the difference between Betar and other youth organizations regarding the
idea of class-struggle in Palestine. This idea maintains that every Jewish worker should consider
himself an enemy of the Jewish capitalist even though the latter utilizes his capital to build
another factory or to purchase a plantation and employ in his concern Jewish labor
exclusively.
This conception Betar holds to be the most conspicuous example of "shaatnez" of a blind
absurdity. Classes can exist only in an already formulated and established society; since we are
concerned as yet with the colonizing stage, there are no "classes" or "proletarians" or "wealthy" -
there are only pioneers. These "chalutzim" each of whom participates as well as he or she
is able, in a mutual and very difficult enterprise are merely figures on the chessboard of Zionism
- whoever they are, they play a fighting game while being manipulated by one excellent player.
They, the chalutzim, are merely various instruments in an orchestra; each instrument has its own
musical score, but the combined instruments play at the same concert and are led by the same
conductor. In our case, the chess player and the conductor is named the Jewish State.
Nobody denies that even in Palestine the individual interests of the worker are unlike those of his
employer: the former want to earn more, the latter to pay less, - as in any other country.
However, whereas in France or Italy it is not the concern of the worker whether his employer, a
manufacturer, can "stand" a high wage or not, the case is entirely different in Palestine. There the
worker, if he is a Zionist, cannot afford the luxury of running a factory because thus the scope of
colonization is narrowed.. The manufacturer too, if he is a Zionist, should not tolerate impossible
working conditions in his enterprise which then would lose its colonizatory significance. In other
words: in Palestine, higher and mightier than class-interests, the common interest of rebuilding
the Jewish State rules supreme. Consequently there should be no talk of class war, a system, the
harmful tendency of which, is manifested when one side threatens the other by means of strikes
or lockouts. In Palestine, such conflicts must always be settled in one manner only: through
obligatory national arbitration.
Of course, as long as there is no Institute for National Arbitration, a strike might be, at times, the
only recourse to gain just concessions from a miserly employer. The Betari must never forget
that there is a solidarity among all wage-earners, if it only doesn't disrupt the solidarity of all the
builders of the State. The Betari must beware of such courses which threaten to turn the Jewish
worker in Palestine into a poor, needy man who cannot live decently and educate his children
properly. Upon noticing that arbitration bodies are as yet non-existent and the only manner in
which to defend just working conditions is, to our regret a strike, he, the Betari, is not allowed
to disrupt it. We are sorry that there are frequent and quite necessary strike in Palestine when
encouraged without economic need, these slow up the work of rebuilding. This is true especially
when referring to the strikes with the help of which Histadrut seeks to control the economic life
of the Yeshiva. The Histadrut declares a strike if a manufacturer or colonist hires laborers, (on just
the very conditions) that refuse to join the Histadrut or be subject to its employment bureau.
Most of these are Betarim - and the real purpose of a strike such as this seems to be the ejection
of Betar workers. Naturally, such a strike is not merely "unholy" - it is a crime, an injustice
which is intolerable for the state which needs every one of its pioneers. Such a strike must not
merely be disrupted - it must be made impossible; whether one is cursed with the name "scab" or
not. An unjust and state disintegrating strike must be mercilessly broken as well as any other
attempt to damage the reconstruction of the Jewish State. Finally, it is the right and duty of Betar
itself to decide as to the justice or injustice of a conflict; help of the former and break the latter.
In another sense too, the class struggle in Eretz Yisrael is but a fiction, in the sense of uniting the
"proletarians of all countries" in a common battle against the bourgeoisie of all nations. Every
Jewish worker in Eretz Yisrael knows very well indeed that if Arabian proletarians were to
attack the hateful bourgeois of Petach Tikvah, he being a Zionist, would defend middle-class
property against his "class brethren". Why? Because it is, first of all Jewish property, a factor in
Jewish colonization, a position to be eventually utilized in the process of attaining a Jewish
majority. A colonizatory period has its own social laws, which are fundamentally different from
those that, perhaps, govern the already established countries. Here are several social laws
pertaining to our colonization as comprehended and proclaimed by Betar.
a) 100% Jewish Labor in all Jewish enterprises. Otherwise these are, from the colonizatory
viewpoint, worthless. The worst of all national crimes in Palestine is the boycott of Jewish
Labor.
b) Decent labor conditions for the Jewish Worker. Otherwise, he will be unable to emigrate and
Palestine will then never be a Jewish State.
c) Normal investment of private capital otherwise capital will cease pouring into-Palestine and
thus the rebuilding of a Jewish State will cease.
d) Obligatory national arbitration in all the social conflicts of Jewish economic life and a
"Cheram", a taboo, against the two national crimes; Strikes and "lockouts".
Since the strongest of the labor organizations in Palestine the "Histadrut HaOvdim", does not
recognize these principles but insists upon the class-struggle viewpoint, the Betarim-workers in
Palestine do not join the Histadrut and cannot, therefore, find employment through its labor
bureaus.
The fifth demand is:
e) The formation of neutral employment bureaus, with an equal representation of all Jewish labor
organizations as well as of employers under the chairmanship of neutral elements; preferably
under the guidance and inspection of such an institute whose function is to be national
arbitration.