This early 1980s statement was published by a number of youthful, 20-something, mostly Jewish born members of the New York and New Jersey based Libertarian Workers Group (LWG). The LWG was a very active group of young anarcho-syndicalists, libertarian socialists and libertarian communists.
The goal was to proffer a libertarian worker anti-zionist, anti-nationalist point of view.
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Too bad we never revisited…
Too bad we never revisited and updated this statement.
Is the update going to…
Is the update going to involve what a crock of opportunistic, self-righteous garbage it is?
This statement embodies the "obnoxious, co-optative ally" stereotype, except because it was written almost fifty years ago it is unfiltered of any attempt to pretend otherwise.
Putting aside the obvious -- these people are insignificant and *only the fact that they share the ethnicity of the colonizers gives them any significance* [compare someone saying "Look at me, I'm white and I have opinions!"] -- the actual statement about Zionism is terrible. It reduces Zionism to simply another nationalism, treats the dispossession of the Palestinians as a purely numerical issue (as if Palestinians weren't violently expelled from their land, a show of ignorance that completely discredits anything else they have to say), reaffirms the "self-determination" of the settlers, limits its critiques to "the occupation" and, aside from some verbiage about supporting Palestinian liberation in the abstract (classic two-faced ally bullshit) it simply makes unhinged broadsides against the PLO and the "Arab/Islamtic" [sic] states on the sole ground that they are, in fact, states (or quasi-states).
This is where low-effort meets complicity. The people who wrote this are not revolutionaries. They are two-faced chauvinists who decided that having the same ethnic background as the colonizers makes them important despite being objectively insignificant in every way, only to turn around and use their platform to whitewash barbarism perpetrated by the community with which they self-identify and to attack those who actually represent Israel's victims -- not for any legitimate reason (of which there are plenty), but because they seek political power to effect Palestinian self-determination.
I also have to say it is discrediting that left communist-oriented sites like LibCom seem to have a fetish for this bullshit when it comes from Jews despite the vehement (and justified) rejection of identity politics. But identity politics from people who benefit from racial inequality is not only still identity politics, it is even worse: it is literally just regular racism.
The garbage politics of this statement are embodied in today's two-faced Jewish non-profit groups in New York, who have equally asinine and opportunistic anti-Palestinian politics. I wouldn't be surprised if the silly gooses that wrote this pamphlet have grand kids in JFREJ or some other astro-turfed liberal Zionist outfit.
Well, being one of those …
Well, being one of those "silly gooses" involved with the original writing, many decades ago, I am curious as to your politics and 2026 views on Palestine Drakula13Masr?
syndicalist wrote: Well,…
Ahhh, I'm sorry. I try to respect my elders even when I think they are wrong, especially over something written many years ago. I didn't mean to be disrespectful.
Nonetheless, I do think the statement...needs work. For one, Jews and others who support Palestine should not be trying to set up their own special group. I understand this may have been a reasonable strategy at times, especially amid the anti-Semitism smears, but it also means that people who benefit from Israeli policy by definition end up setting up their own little echo chamber without any accountability to the people they are supporting, which ends up being co-optative. Jews (and others) involved in organizing for Palestine should set up organizational structures that are accountable to the Palestinians. We are seeing this right now, as Palestinian grassroots organizations in both the West and throughout the region repeatedly demand meaningful divestment from Zionism while Jewish-led "ally" initiatives like Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice consistently set up alternative protest rallies and organizational infrastructure designed to both water down basic goals but also reaffirm the political centrality of the Jewish community and its institutions (in which both groups are politically insignificant, much like the people who wrote this pamphlet) in determining what is acceptable to say about Palestine.
I would like to see Palestine liberated, from river to sea. In my view, Palestinian liberation ultimately means the same thing that liberation means anywhere else: a stateless, classless society.
However, that is a resolution to *all forms of oppression*. The Palestinian question is more specifically a question of racial violence, dispossession, and colonialism. Hence, a Palestinian state that prevents Israeli control and the ensuing dispossession, combined with the right of return to territories ceded to Israel as a matter of necessity, is a bare minimum to resolve the specifics of the barbaric arrangement Israel has imposed upon the Palestinian people. This goal should not be subsumed to the larger goal of liberation altogether.
Insofar as Palestinian and Arab movements have sought to use military and economic pressure -- effected through state measures -- to effect these two fairly minimal goals, they should not be attacked for that. Insofar as they have failed to effect these goals, much less prevent new and even more barbaric forms of subjugation, they should be condemned for their corruption and their general weaknesses, both the result of the class politics of Arab societies and the co-optation of the Palestinian resistance by the West amid the collapse of the USSR and other regimes to which they had hedged their support.
So yes, Arab regimes and the Palestinian elite should be condemned, but not for the reasons provided in the pamphlet as I read them.
Similarly, leftists have no business defending the right of self-determination by Jewish Israeli society. Jewish Israeli society is not a distinct society. It is simply the population of racial colonists who live on land stolen from other people. It is a form of racial/ethnic nationalism. It has no more moral legitimacy than white nationalism. Jewish Israelis can be equal members of a Palestinian society provided Palestinians are given the right of return and there is land reform, etc. Assuming an Israeli state is accepted as a matter of military necessity, it should not be a racial or ethnic state.
Quickly, I will come back…
Quickly, I will come back and try and engage in a conversation with you/others at another point. The tone we engage in should always be as comradely as possible, Drakula13Masr. Even when there are disagreements. People usually "tune out" the conversation when they're being insulted.
Given the passage of so much time, so many events and tragedies, this document is clearly dated. The times we then lived in, some of the movements we engaged with and a number people have changed or disappeared. I will try and give some context in my reply.
Most importantly, at a time (late 1970s/early 1980s) when being an anti-zionist person of jewish background was largely "taboo", we attempted to "proffer a libertarian worker anti-zionist, anti-nationalist point of view".. You may disagree with our aim or what we said, and that's ok. I look forward to at least having a civil conversation.
The early 1980s may have…
The early 1980s may have been a different time, but let's keep in mind: we are living in the now. My feelings of frustration are compounded by the fact that LibCom, in the past, has been a very Zionist apologetic site. Seeing those who demand the most selectively concede the least is a very hurtful thing to witness. Add to that that there are still people peddling soft versions of Zionism in the here and now who are clearly acting in bad faith (even if you weren't).