Israel: Histadrut to allow migrants entry under pressure from rival union federation

Good to hear about these progressive changes; it's worth putting them in context though; this is crudely an eqivalent of the BNP allowing black members...

Histadrut: Israel's racist "trade union"
Tony Greenstein, The Electronic Intifada, 10 March 2009

Histadrut has always been a strange creature. In most countries one joins a trade union which is affiliated to a national trade union federation. In Israel one first joins Histadrut and then one is allocated to a union. It is only outside Israel that Histadrut is seen as a normal trade union, the Israeli equivalent of the British Trade Union Congress or the American union movement AFL/CIO.

Less well known is the fact that Histadrut, an organization of the settler Jewish working class, was the key Zionist organization responsible for the formation of the Israeli state. As former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir remarked: "Then [1928] I was put on the Histadrut Executive Committee at a time when this big labor union wasn't just a trade union organization. It was a great colonizing agency." [1] Pinhas Lavon, as secretary-general of Histadrut, went so far as to describe it in 1960 as "a general organization to its core. It is not a trade union ..." [2] Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, held that without Histadrut, "I doubt whether we would have had a state." [3]

According to the Palestinian unions, Histadrut is still a racist organisation:

STATEMENT IN OCCASION OF THE WORKERS’ BOYCOTT CALL
Today, 11th of February 2007, we, the Palestinian labour federations, vocational and professional trade unions, and the grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, have convened a press conference to announce a call for solidarity with our workers and the Palestinian people endorsed by the General Union of Palestinian Workers, Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, the Coalition of Independent Democratic Trade Unions and other professional unions.
This call addresses the Arab and International Trade Unions and, in particular, the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, the Arab League, the Arab Labour Organization, the International Labour Organization, the International Trade Union Confederation, the Organization of African Trade Union Unity, the Palestinian people and the international community.
We call upon all the above to:
• Boycott and divest from Israel
• Work towards sanctions upon Israel
Until Israel stops its crimes against our people and implements international law safeguarding human rights for all.
This call from the Palestinian workers movement is part of our struggle against the Occupation and for Freedom, Self-determination, the Right of Return, Social Justice and a Palestinian independent state with its capital as Jerusalem and to end the racism against our people inside the Green Line.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and next year will mark 60 years from the Nakba. In the meanwhile, the Palestinian people still yearn for their right to live free in their homeland, and 6.8 million refugees scattered all over the world strive for their right (as enshrined in international law, including UN resolutions) to
return to their homes, villages and cities.
It is imperative to recognize that since its inception, the Histadrut has supported the Occupation and enacted racist policies against our workers, denying them their rights. It has kept silent in front of Israel’s crimes against our people throughout the decades of occupation.
We are thus asking the international trade unions to boycott the Histadrut to pressure it to guarantee rights for our workers and to pressure the government to end the occupation and to recognize the full rights of the Palestinian people.
Since July 2002, the Occupation is creating a new reality on the ground via construction of the Apartheid Wall. It turns the West Bank into ghettos, escalates the confiscation and isolation of our lands and water and increases racist policies against our people, eventually destroying the dream of a Palestinian state. On top of this, the Occupation continues with the policies of “targeted assassinations”, home demolitions, expulsion of non-Jews from Jerusalem and destruction of homes and historical monuments there, attacks on holy sites, and destroying our industries and entire economy then exploiting our workers, starving our people in order to force the Occupation’s projects upon us so that we will eventually surrender.
Today, we initiate as the Palestinian Labour Movement a Workers’ Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to build upon the United Palestinian Call for BDS against Israel to the International Community. This call has been signed by more than 170 Palestinian organizations and political parties from the West Bank, Gaza and the Diaspora.
We thank and express our gratitude to the movements, unions and organizations all over the world that in the last two years have taken up the call for boycott and launched campaigns in their countries. They challenged the Zionist lobby and have shown steadfastness in the face of attacks instigated against them.
We thus ask the international trade unions to grant their support to these initiatives in their countries, to organize their own boycott campaigns and to coordinate international efforts to effectively implement boycotts, divestment and sanctions in order to:
1. Stop the crimes committed against our rights, above all occupation and the expulsion
of our people;
2. Tear down the wall of silence built up by the international community in order to finally shun the crimes of the Occupation;
3. Keep the conscience of the world alive and nurture respect for international human rights law while promoting its implementation;
4. Reach a just and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian cause.
Greetings to the Liberation Struggle of our Workers.
Greetings to those around the World Standing in Solidarity and Struggling for the Palestinian Cause.
Eternal Glory to Martyrs for Freedom Everywhere.

Signatories
General Union of Palestinian workers: Haidar Ibrahim (General Secretary)
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions: Amneh Rimawi / for: Shaher Sa’ad (Steering committee)
Coalition of Independent Democratic Trade Unions: Muhammad al Arouri (Coordinator)
General Union of Palestine Labor Vocational Associations: Hassan Sharake (General Secretary)
Palestinian Farmers Union: Adel Abu Ne’meh (General Secretary)

Refusing membership to undocumented workers is still racist.
What is misleading about Tony Greensteins article in relation to the roll of the Histradut today?
I'm also not happy with the term "Legal Migrant Workers". It is accurate to say "Migrant Workers with Papers" because international law gives everyone the theoretical right to cross borders; No one Is Illegal.

I've done a quick search on the theoretical right to cross borders and found the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees

In addition to the core protection of non-refoulement, the 1951 Convention prescribes freedom from penalties for illegal entry (article 31),

Einstein discovered that all positions are relative; there is no "neutral".

The AFL "subordinated Black workers into segregated affiliates" but the CIO were always for all workers. They were not started with the intention of expelling the Native Americans from America.

there may be freedom from penalties, but they can still be deported - there is no right to free movement of people in international law. This of course doesn't mean that I agree with this, but that's the way it is.

In Norway the unions are relatively xenophobic. While they do accept immigrants, they do not seek out to organize e.g. seasonal immigrant labour instead arguing that they are lowering wages and put pressure on the govt. to curtail immigration (I might add, this was the situation a couple of years back, so things might have changed.)

No One Is Illegal is a phrase first used by Elie Weisel, a Jewish survivor from Nazi Germany, a refugee and a Nobel prize winner. He was speaking in 1985 in Tuscon, Arizona at a national sanctuary conference in the USA in defence of the rights of refugees to live in the USA . The sanctuary movement undertaken by religious communities in the USA (and to a far lesser extent in the UK) in support of those threatened by immigration controls is one of many pieces of resistance to controls. Over the last few years No One Is Illegal groups have been formed throughout Europe and North America — for instance in Germany (Kein Mensch Ist Illegal), Spain (Ninguna Persona Es Ilegal), Sweden (Ingen Manniska Ar Illegal), Poland (Zaden Czlowiek Nie Jest Nielegalny) and Holland (Geen Mens Is Illegaal). In August 1999 anarchists organised a demonstration in Lvov Poland against the deportation of Ukrainian workers under the banner of No One Is Illegal. In France the sans papiers campaign under the slogan personne n’est illegal/e. There have been No One Is Illegal/No Border camps at the joint borders of Germany, Czech Republic and Poland, and No Border camps at Frankfurt, southern Spain and Salzburg. In June 2002 there was a demonstration against war, globalisation and in defence of refugees under the same slogan in Ottawa, Canada. In England groups are emerging calling themselves No Borders. The demand for no controls, rather than being seen as extreme,operates as a rallying call to the undocumented and their supporters.

No One Is Illegal Manifesto

Tony Greenstein wrote:

I think Judas is completely wrong, ignorant and guilty of what we used to call 'economism'. A leopard doesn't change its spots and neither does Histadrut.

The first thing that our leafy friend should ask is what is the nature of Histadrut, what type of organisation. How has it changed, when did it change from the primary colonisatory organisation in Palestine/Israel into a genuine trade union? Was it the Stability Pact and privatisation of its companies that turned it into a genuine trade union federation? Bear in mind that the position of first joining a federation and then a union in itself smacks of a corporatist 'union'.

Histadrut also took the dues off Palestinian workers in the occupied territories in exchange for providing representation that never materialised. It still does, some 1% of the wage packet and it keeps half. I don't see Histadrut as any different and its latest position merely reflects the fact that we have started putting pressure on this scab settler-colonial 'union'. So if Judas wants to relieve the pressure on them fine, because being an Israeli it will no doubt be easy for him to do so but in so doing he is actually aiding what was one of the key elements of the Zionist state.

Histadrut has not changed in any principled way, it has merely become weaker and less important in Israel. But as its importance in Israel declines, not least the competition from other non-racist workers' organisations, so of course it has had to adapt. And one of its roles is to sanitise Israel abroad inside the labour movements of other countries. So this anarchist is in reality helping to legitimise a scab settler union. Even the worst yellow union does what Histadrut does when the chips are down but this but it's nothing to do with precarity or other buzz words that Judas has transplanted from an entirely different situation in Europe.

Does Histadrut still only allow settlers in the West bank to join? Yes. Does Histadrut still campaign for the deportation of migrant workers in order that unemployment can be lowered for Jewish workers in Israel? Yes on a local level. Did Histadrut campaign or indeed say anything about the attempt of Israel rail to replace Arab Israelis with Jews last year? No. Has it ever campaigned against this racist phenomenon or the Wisconsin programme, which is directed almost exclusively against Arab Israeli and Ethiopian workers? No. I attach one article where Histadrut officials actually went on police raids against migrant workers.

So no I don't buy this nonsense. It has nothing to do with anarchism or socialism but to do with adaptation to national chauvinism.

Kav LaOved wrote:

Last month the Histadrut (claiming to be a general federation of trade unions) announced that it was "considering" setting up a trade union for foreign workers employed in Israel. While this is being "considered", it is becoming clear what kind of representation these workers are going to get.
The 13 September 2002 issue of the weekly "Tzafon 1" (= North 1) reports that
during the first weekend of September the Immigration Administration --
which is in fact a deportation police force, recently founded in order to execute the government's decision to deport 50,000 "illegal" migramt workers in one year -- went on a joint operation with the Histadrut in the Western Galilee. Here is how the operation is described in "Tzafon 1".

"Last Thursday morning, the Immigration Administration unit, headed by
Chief Inspectors Benny Fein and Yuval Knafo, raided the Tzinorot
Darom factory in the (Acre) industrial park and detained for questioning 11
foreign workers suspected of being in this country without valid visas.
Following questioning it transpired that six of them have no work permits
and are illegally employed. Later on, members of the unit raided
Hammefattel factory and detained nine more workers who did not possess the
required visas. All the workers apprehended were transferred to Ma'asiyahu
Prison in Ramleh and deportation procedure against them has been put in
motion."
And what did the Histadrut people do? Did they at least see to it that
before being deported the detained workers would receive their pay and all
other benefits owed to them? "Tzafon 1" reports:
"The Histadrut Chairman in the Western Galilee, Asher Shmueli, said
that this was the beginning of a process of defeating the phenomenon
whereby foreign workers without employment visas are employed in some work
places under most disgraceful slavery conditions, while Israeli workers
are rejected and are unable to find jobs."
If the Histadrut knew about workers being employed in conditions of
slavery, why did it not go into action and help them improve their
conditions of employment?

And what does it intend to do from now on?

"The Immigration Administration in collaboration with the Histadrut will
continue to locate work placed where foreign workers are employed," Shmueli
told "Tzafon 1". "We appeal to all workers who know that there are foreign
workers in their work place to report it to the Histadrut, even
anonymously, so that enforcement operations can be carried out to oust
those workers. In this way Israeli workers would once again be able to be
settled in jobs."

Thus far the report from the north. So, the Histadrut, which claims to
represent workers, volunteers for racist collaboration with the police
(and employers) against the workers; and it goes so far as to ask Israeli
workers to inform on their workmates. In fact, the idea of setting up a trade
union for foreign workers is also racist: if the Histadrut is so keen to
represent these workers, it could simply enlist them into its existing
unions. In fact, it is greedy for their membership fees, millions of
shekels each month, which would be levied by the employers and flow
directly into Histadrut coffers. By setting up a separate trade union for
"foreigners" -- workers in agriculture, construction, health services,
welfare and industry -- the Histadrut is saying that in its view there are
two classes of workers in Israel: Israelis, who are organized by
occupation, and "foreigners" who are organized separately by nationality.
Such an apartheid policy truly befits an organization which is ready to put
itself at the service of the mass deportation policy proclaimed by the
government, and should be exposed and condemned.

PGFTU Executive Committee member Manawel Issa Abdellal wrote:

Histadrut has failed to represent any Palestinian workers inside Israel and the PGFTU is forbidden from defending Arab workers in such areas. It is very painful. We can see, witness, and hear of Israeli brutal exploitation of Arab workers, but we cannot do anything.

Who is Tony Greenstein?

He's the author of the Electronic Intifada article you accsed of being "Misleading as to Histadrut's current position."

I think you are defending Histadrut when you argue:

It does have Arab members, and the local Communist party, which is Arab-dominated, has membership in its elected management. So it is a bit more like the AFL-CIO starting to take up immigrants, in terms of overall significance to the migrant workforce

Which Communist Party is this?

He's not defending Histadrut (as he's already said), he was arguing there that your comparison of Histadrut to the BNP is erroneous.

AIW

I think you are defending Histadrut when you argue:

Quote:
It does have Arab members, and the local Communist party, which is Arab-dominated, has membership in its elected management. So it is a bit more like the AFL-CIO starting to take up immigrants, in terms of overall significance to the migrant workforce

How is that defending histradut. Reads to me like a statement of facts, and then an (admittedly weak comparison to AFL-CIO. Even the news article that Tree wrote is in the spirit of "this is interesting, I wonder what will happen to the union landscape in Israel and what effects it will have on class struggle in Israel". Tree is clearly not a supporter of Histradut and is not trying to improve their image.

AIW, it seems like you're just having a knee-jerk reaction as the news article is not criticizing Israel enough. Are you heavily involved in Palestine solidarity activities?

Do most unions accept migrant workers, seek them out as members, run organization drives including them, etc?

Yes and no, certainly British general unions are very pro having migrant workers paying subs, will provide some legal protection and will support initiatives to recruit migrant membership, however the level of support they offer in a more direct sense is often appalling, such as the debacle with Unite and Justice For Cleaners.

AIW, it seems like you're just having a knee-jerk reaction as the news article is not criticizing Israel enough. Are you heavily involved in Palestine solidarity activities?

My intention was to put Histadrut in context. I'm not convinced that what I am involved in is any of your business.

No, that article is misleading as to Histadrut's current position.

I tought this related to Tony Greenstein's article rather than to my comment.
The Wikipedia page on Maki does not imply that it is "Arab-dominated":

Maki, the original Israeli Communist Party, saw a split between a largely Jewish faction led by Moshe Sneh, which recognized Israel's right to exist and was critical of the Soviet Union's increasingly anti-Israel stance, and a largely Arab faction, which was increasingly anti-Zionist. As a result, the pro-Palestinian faction (including Emile Habibi, Tawfik Toubi and Meir Vilner) left Maki to form a new party, Rakah, which the Soviet Union recognised as the "official" Communist Party. It was reported in the Soviet media that the Mikunis-Sneh group defected to the bourgois-nationalist camp.

AIW

My intention was to put Histadrut in context.

Which is fair enough, though your response came off more as a rant than "contextualization". While histadrut has its faults (plenty of them) Histadrut is not the BNP.

Histadrut is not the BNP.

OK, they're better compared to a more racist and much bigger sister of Solidarity, the BNP union.

Lol, you're not getting it. Again, no one here is trying to defend histadrut at all or ranking it according to some good to bad scale on unions (you'd find that many folks here very critical of unions, as such). Your so-called contextualizations are not helped at all by comparing it to racist political parties or their affiliated unions. Histadrut is clearly a very different beast than Solidarity

If you'd just said that histadrut is racist for these and these reasons (and you do provide some by proxy), then I think you have a decent argument.

AIW you look like your are desperately trying to point score, because you feel that the article was too friendly to Histadrut. Who you clearly feel should be denounced at every opportunity (for valid reasons), but this is clearly an important development and it will be interesting to see how this pans out in reality. You really aren't adding much here and are coming over as defensive and missionary.

Tony Greenstein wrote:

If you have a look at my Electronic Intifada article from memory it gives the Arab membership at about 50,000. Very substantially down. In some workplaces of course it will be the norm to be a member, possibly even a condition for a job. Though it's also the case that Arab members are increasingly looked on suspiciously. I know the Communist Party used to have representation at all levels of the Histadrut, having made its peace with the organisation following Stalin's volte face at the UN in 1947. Previously Histadrut had co-operated with the British to have members deported!

But none of this changes the nature of Histadrut. The CP incidentally is not an anti-Zionist organisation and although it has always been an Arab dominated group numerically, its leadership was half-Jewish. Again I don't know whether this is still the case.

But I would support efforts to launch joint Jewish-Arab unions and workers associations. Histadrut is an inextricable part of the Zionist establishment and state, a declining component, but a part nonetheless. Why should Marxists and I assume you are to the left of the CP join an organisation which is rotten from the core? It is now, at best a settler union, nothing more. I don't think it's any accident that Amir Peretz, the former Secretary General in whom high hopes were invested, launched the Lebanon War and that Haim Ramon, another ex SG was the most hawklike of the cabinet that launched the Gaza invasion.

Anyway these are my views!

he's not talking about joining it! Look, I think you've got the wrong end of the stick here, like has been pointed out many times Judas is not defending Histadrut - I think that he like many people on here ultimately thinks that all trade unions are anti-working class organisations.

All people have done, however is point out that your comparisons to things like the BNP union, solidarity, are inaccurate. For starters, solidarity only has about 20 members, and doesn't act like a trade union anywhere, as it is not affiliated to the TUC, has no workplace branches, no recognition agreements, etc, it is actually just a small fascist political group.

AIW, just to reiterate all the above points, Tree of Judas, the guy you've been arguing with, is not a supporter of Histradut. You don't need to convince him or anyone else on here that they are a reactionary force.

What he is saying is that they are not the same thing as a far right political party, nor are they the same as a tiny outcrop of that party, even if they have in the past agreed on the issue of immigrant membership. I agree with the pope that environmentalism is important, it doesn't make me a catholic.

The reason this is important is because by comparing them you give random observers the impression that you're one of the "anything I disagree with is the same thing as fascism" wingnuts which infest the left. It's counterproductive in a situation where there are plenty of real things to criticise to keep trying to ratchet up the accusations like that.

Criticise what is, not what you think will shock the most.

Histradut should not be described as a trade union. It has displaced 3,737,494 registered refugees (UN)

:wall:

Could you point out to me where that document says what you claim? No you can't, as it does not even mention Histradut. Basically I think you are trolling!!

It is imperative to recognize that since its inception, the Histadrut has supported the Occupation and enacted racist policies against our workers, denying them their rights. It has kept silent in front of Israel’s crimes against our people throughout the decades of occupation.
We are thus asking the international trade unions to boycott the Histadrut to pressure it to guarantee rights for our workers.

So any moves towards this are good if caused by the boycott, but bad if caused by Hisadrut responding to losing ground to a new union federation.

Can we not just lock AIW in a room with Binyamin the persecuted Zionist folk hero and leave them to get on with it?

As I said, it's "Good to hear about these progressive changes". So I'm not saying that these changes are bad but that they are good. What do you mean by "trolling"?

It's an internet term used when people are using a forum to put their own point of view across while refusing to address what others are saying, are being deliberately disruptive for whatever reason, or are on the windup.

stop feeding.................................................................................................................
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damn now I am.

Sorry you feel that way Rob.
I can see that there are similarities between Histadrut and the AFL-CIO; just as Histadrut is "one of the key elements of the Zionist state", so the AFL-CIO is one of the key elements of the US state. The parallel between Histadrut and Solidarity the BNP union is that both are the union arm of a Nationalist movement. I agree that they are vastly different sizes.

When I said:

Histradut should not be described as a trade union. It has displaced 3,737,494 registered refugees (UN)

I was using the UN document to reference the number. Tony Greenstein's article explains the roll of Histadrut.

Wasn't me who said it, though I'll admit to feeling a little frustrated when you responded to me saying "criticise what is" by blaming Histradut for displacing 3.7m refugees citing a UN study which didn't even mention them.

AIW

I can see that there are similarities between Histadrut and the AFL-CIO; just as Histadrut is "one of the key elements of the Zionist state", so the AFL-CIO is one of the key elements of the US state. The parallel between Histadrut and Solidarity the BNP union is that both are the union arm of a Nationalist movement

This can be said of almost all unions, so what's your point? Your arguments are based in an Israeli exceptionalism, which is just bollocks.

Why do you think that my arguments are based in an Israeli exceptionalism? I think they're not. I support the workers struggle for the freedom to organise, as I'm sure do you. Is there any evidence for your claim that nearly all trade unions are Nationalist?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but would I be right to say that Kav La'Oved is not a union federation because independent trade unons are illegal in Israel?

Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide

I was not aware of this debate or forum before, hence why I'm only just posting and I have v little time at the moment. I would recommend you see my blog www.azvsas.blogspot.com where there are many articles on Histadrut etc.

Basically I don't accept that Histadrut has changed. Its support in a statement in January 2009 for the murderous assault on Gaza demonstrates that. It has never taken up the cause of Gazan workers sent back to Gaza without pay. Its recent promise to unionise migrant workers has to be seen in the context of international pressure. In fact they have always supported deportation of migrant workers to reduce unemployment for Israeli Jews.

One reason why there is very high unemployment among Arab Israelis is because when Histadrut was the largest employer in Israel after the state itself, it consciously refused to invest in Arab areas.

I would perhaps be convinced that Histadrut had changed if e.g. it had protested when Israel Rail last year tried to sack its Arab workers in order to replace them with Jews. The pretext was that they only wanted to employ those who had served in the army, but this has often been the pretext for discrimination in Israel (welfare benefits are lower if you or your relations haven't served - though they've found a way around this for Orthodox Jews who also don't serve in the Army - they give an extra large grant to the Ministry of Religion!).

I don't accept that trade unions are part of the state normally. That is a crude analysis which belies experience. They mediate between the state and workers, especially their leaderships. In Israel Histadrut founded the State, it was the most important such organisation.

Today it is a slimmed down affair which is why so few Arabs are members. Previously they joined for the health benefits, Histadrut owned the only NHS (Kupat Holim) in Israel and that was the only way you could get free medical treatment.

Rakah does participate in Histadrut. This is because the Communist Party is not Zionist and in fact supported the creation of the Zionist state in 1948. It has never understood nor wanted to understand the nature of Zionism and how it is a different creature from a normal capitalist state. People can be too simplistic. We oppose, I hope, capitalism but Apartheid in South Africa and e.g. Nazism weren't just capitalist. The former was a settler colonial state and hence white workers were the most racist of all (and also created white settler unions). The latter of course was fascist. Israel is like the first, not fascist but a settler colonial state and Histadrut, with its Jewish Labour (i.e. boycott Arab Labour) campaign began explicitly as an organisation dedicated to excluding Arab labour, first from the economy and then from the land altogether.

Histadrut has changed apparently. That presumably is why they urged the Israeli Labour Party to join the Netanyahu coalition with Avigdor Lieberman, who is a fascist. I have yet so see one scrap of evidence that Histadrut is now campaigning against the increasing discrimination and overt racism of Israeli society. I can see none whatsoever.

And further. We have a campaign inside British unions to have a boycott of Histadrut. UNISON, my own union and Britain's second largest voted last year to review its relationship with Histadrut. So has the Scottish and British TUC amongst others. To now start saying that Histadrut is just another union is to take a position against Boycott. is that what is being suggested here?

TG

Basically I don't accept that Histadrut has changed.

Depends on what type of change you're referring to. The OP simply states that Histadrut now accepts migrants as members, which they didn't do before. This is change, but only to meet the competition from other unions.

Nothing more, nothing less was stated in the OP.

Judas, just a quick point because I agree with everything you have said on here pretty much. But with UNISON you are mistaken, while it does support labour it has never used the slogan "British jobs for British workers", in fact it pays lipservice to organising migrant workers in order to attempt to boost its dwindling membership.

As for how genuine this effort is, regular posters here may remember how UNISON was in fact the opposite of helpful when me and my colleagues were attempting to defend a migrant co-worker and UNISON member, when they refused to allow us a strike ballot despite 97% of members voting to strike in an internal ballot.

The most effective tactic for national liberation movements is the strike, so the situation of military occupation is an essential opportunity for the working class. The employing class know that. That is why they use the OPT as a testing ground for their technologies of control.