Anarchists and Palestine: Class Struggle or Popular Front?


  By Ryan Chiang McCarthy


   


  As the imperialist "war on terror" gains momentum, the conflict in Palestine is plunged continually into the center of world attention, conveyed so as to force us all to take positions along pre-defined lines- are you pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian? All states have joined the drive to polarize the world behind these fronts. For anarchists, it is vital not to compromise a class perspective, rejecting the programs of both Palestinian nationalism and Israeli genocide. In the US, where Israel must look for its lifeblood of weaponry and international clout, anarchists have a great responsibility to the proletariat of Israel and Palestine. Unfortunately, many US anarchists have chosen the way of the popular front.


   


                  Some of the statements emerging from the US anarchist movement on the Palestine conflict are imbued with the most naive relativism. Anarchist principles are jettisoned in favor of the right of the "Palestinian people" to "self-determination" and "democracy".


                   


                  A joint call by the Chicago sections of the Federation of Revolutionary Anarchist Collectives and Anti-Racist Action exhorts anarchists to join a march organized by Al-Awda, a liberal NGO, and to put their faith in its program, which demands a "pluralistic, democratic society where people of all religions, ideologies, and ethnic groups can live together free of racism and discrimination"- in other words, the mythical humane capitalism. The Chicago comrades explain- "This is a far more radical demand than the two state solution... and is a step towards positioning Palestinian and Jewish self-organization as the basis for a future society" (1). This notion repeats the old lie that liberals and Stalinists have been pushing throughout modern history, that the working class has common aims, albeit "transitional" ones, with the bosses.


   


                  This popular front mentality is echoed by Wayne Price in his article, "Anarchism and the Palestinian-Israeli War," in which he proclaims that "anarchists, and all decent people, should be on the side of the Palestinians. Criticisms of their leaderships or their methods of fighting are all secondary." Of course, Price laments the "hardened versions of nationalism" adopted by the Palestinian leadership, while he advocates a presumably non-hardened version of nationalism "in the broad sense of a love for your land and your people" and a hatred for your people's oppression." However, anarchism spits on all nationalism, "hardened" or otherwise, recognizing that the revolutionary struggle is that of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, necessarily international and internationalist, and not of peoples against one another. Above all an anarchist, Price still advocates "an international revolution throughout the region against all the states and all forms of domination," but does not elaborate a revolutionary praxis, instead concluding that "we must support the resistance of the Palestinian people. They have the right to self-determination, that is, to choose their leaders, their programs, and their methods of struggle, whatever we think" (2). This position takes no issue with the way in which both Palestinian and Israeli workers are being manipulated by their rulers to massacre one another. It also ignores those sparkling acts of class solidarity carried out across national lines, such as the refusal of some Israeli reservists to serve in the occupied territories. Are we to accept, on the grounds of "self-determination," the nationalist poison that drives Palestinian proletarian youth to destroy themselves and Israeli fellow workers in suicide bombings? Clearly, to anarchists this is unacceptable. If we have a friend who is dealing with personal problems through alcohol abuse, we do not encourage alcoholism but instead strive to guide our friend into a more positive direction. Similarly, as anarchists who sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian (and Israeli!) workers, we have not the privilege, but the responsibility to condemn tactics and programs they adopt which are reactionary, precisely because we wish to see them succeed in overthrowing their bosses and bettering their lives and ours. We are working for an international revolution, not a postmodern bubble bath of separate spheres.


   


                  If we are to offer up a suggestion of immediate aims that is not colored by the relativist slogan of "self-determination," we must first recognize the sorry state of the Palestinian and Israeli labor movements. The monolithic Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions has been from its inception dominated and manipulated by the various left and democratic political parties, primarily Fatah, having been formed in 1993 out of smaller union federations that were themselves each attached to a particular party. A congress of the PGFTU in 1996 was closed down by Arafat's Palestinian Authority when workers attempted to wrest independent control of the federation. Palestinian unions today are merely playgrounds for the political parties who downplay class struggle in favor of drawing the workers into the popular anti-colonial front (3). Among the Israeli workers, the Histadrut dominates as a trade union in line with the government's policy of apartheid, and has always placed national interests above class interests. One of the latest offenses of the Histadrut against the working class is its collaboration with the Israeli police in hounding undocumented immigrant workers, reporting their workplaces to the state, encouraging its members to snitch on them, and actively pushing for their deportation instead of organizing against the slavish labor conditions they face (4).


   


                  What is clearly needed, then, are autonomous labor movements of Palestinian and Israeli workers. In July 2002, 5,000 unemployed Palestinian workers protested against the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, condemning the PA's failure to live up to promises of unemployment support and accusing it of stealing donations made to Palestinian workers by sympathizers throughout the Arab world. As reported in Ha'aretz, "this was a spontaneous move by workers, which was not initiated by any of the political forces in Gaza... PA officials have claimed...that their grievances should be aired via their "elected" representatives, the unions. But the union heads...more usually represent the PA to the workers, and not the other way around... There were some reports of efforts to "buy" the leaders of the protest by offering them jobs, but the attempt failed." A workers' movement that bypasses the narrow lines of struggle dictated by the PA, Israel, and all the bosses, and fights for the unmediated demands of workers, is rooted in actions such as these, which must be closely followed and supported to the greatest degree possible. Shouldn't all this be obvious? Apparently it isn't. (5)


   


                  A grasp of revolutionary history is essential for all anarchists. The present reaction by anarchists to the escalation in Palestine is generally in line with that of the Left, and therefore utterly predictable, following a long tradition of popular fronts that aim to divert the mighty river of class struggle so as to irrigate the fields of the bourgeoisie. In this respect, the Palestine conflict is comparable to the collaboration of so-called proletarian parties, including the FAI, with the Spanish republic in the name of anti-fascism, or the entry of so-called anarchists into the Guomindang in the name of ending Manchu and warlord rule in China. In the end, the story was the same: the genuine workers' struggles were crushed by the same popular fronts they were called to support, on the eve of great imperialist wars where masses of workers were rushed into an international bloodbath. Today, the United States "war on terror" is escalating worldwide. The war in Afghanistan and the looming invasion of Iraq may only be the beginning of a new world war. In the face of all this, we are called upon by the Left to promote "multilateralism" to demand "inspections, not war," to honor the UN and its bourgeois Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "We feel that the real 'Axis of Evil' is right here in our own country," declares Anti-Racist Action of Columbus, Ohio, targeting the Big Oppressor of the day rather than the worldwide ruling class (6). It is easy to follow the Left in focusing on those figureheads of capital who are overtly greedy, reactionary, and, above all, "evil," a favorite label of liberal moralists. But anarchism is concerned "with the fruit and not the flower". The failure of anarchists to hold to a revolutionary perspective on Palestine will translate into our increasing irrelevance. Anarchists today are nowhere near as influential as on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, and we only serve to further marginalize ourselves by becoming indistinguishable from liberals.


   


  1. Quotations from "Call for an Anarchist, Anti-authoritarian and Anti-Fascist Bloc" issued by the Chicago Collective of FRAC and Chicago ARA on 17 September 2002


  2. Quotations from "Anarchism and the Palestinian-Israeli War", by Wayne Price, printed in Barricada #17, May 2002


  3. Source: "Anything but Workers in the Palestinian Trade Unions", by Sos Nissen, from News From Within, April 1996


  4. Source: "The Histadrut is collaborating with the police against migrant workers," by Kav La'Oved, 13 September 2002.


  5. Quotations from "5,000 Unemployed Stage Protest in Gaza," by Amira Hass and Aluf Benn, printed in Ha'aretz 2 July 2002


  6. Quotation from "Call for a Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Bloc," issued by Columbus ARA in October, 2002