Against Zionism

Submitted by libcom on May 20, 2006

Written by the 'Campaign for Real Life'
in the mid-1980s, this is an optimistic, insightful little leaflet on
Zionism and the Palestinian Intefada struggle. In its conclusion it
refers to connections with the situation in the UK at the time; the
ongoing cuts in public services, gentrification, the aftermath of the
miners strike etc.

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AGAINST ZIONISM

FOR WORLD REVOLUTION

A
new stage in the battle against Zionism has been reached with the mass
rebellion in Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank, bringing a new clarity
to the situation. The 'liberal' zionist claims, that this repression,
like the invasion of Lebanon, the massacres of Sabra & Shatila etc
etc ... are aberrations and not 'true' zionism, are now as threadbare
as an Israeli flag after Palestinian youth have got their hands on it.
Zionism is a racist, oppressive ideology and will never be anything
else. It is based on the lie that non-Jews are inherently anti-semitic
- as absurd as the lie that Jews are inherently, whatever. It denies
the obvious - that whatever Jews are under conditions of persecution
in Europe, they are not under conditions of persecutors and settlers
in Arabia, and deliberately denies that any other change of conditions
is possible. We know better. Zionism thrives on anti-semitism and encourages
it.

But Zionism is more than
an ideology, it is a material force - an arm of capital, not the only
one but the most concentrated in the area. Capital itself is not racist
- it will act through whoever possesses it (or it possesses), but develops
racism and national divisions to help it turn resources into commodities
(as when the zionists 'bought' land from those who didn't own it in
a capitalist sense) and peoples into a reserve army of labour - to turn
everything into money so that those who have can buy and those who don't
can sell themselves or starve. The contradiction of Zionism however,
is that having dispossessed the Palestinians, it fears using this liberated
labour, preferring to use constant immigration, and using anti-Sephardi
(non-Europeans) racism to impose a division of labour.

The hope of Israel and its
backers was that the Palestinians would disappear into a diaspora as
a reserve army of labour for the arab world, but the resistance of the
Palestinians led to a spiral of repression and resistance involving
more and more states (such as Jordan and Lebanon) and making the Paletsinians
more determined. Meanwhile a Palestinian bourgeoisie has been forming,
mainly within the state (the PLO), which, while waiting for a land to
control, has been investing its capital in the exploitation of workers
elsewhere.

The western states are beginning
to see that it is only the PLO who have any chance of making the majority
of Palestinians finally accept dispossession in exchange for a 'homeland'
where they will be 'free' to labour for capital. This is why the killing
of Palestinians has become news and creeps like the Pope condemn Israel
for 'going too far'. Israel must be shown that it must sacrifice the
'occupied' territories to secure the territory it has occupied for longer,
and the continued accumulation of capital - even if it destroys Israel's
ability to be a home for all Jews - which will help to destroy the confusion
of the Israeli working class.

But if the Palestinian 'homeland'
is realised that will only be the start of the struggle. Have the Palestinians
fought fot 40 years just for the slavery of the factory? Will they quietly
accept the low wages necessary to attract capital? Will they be taken
in by the claim that they sacrificed themselves for this, that they
must now sacrifice themselves for 'Palestinian' capital? Today's struggle
by women and children is outside the control of the leaders of the struggle
for a homeland, because it is beyond that struggle, and will be continued
against all who stand in the way of total emancipation.

ALL LAND IS OCCUPIED TERRITORY

This struggle is not merely
something for us to watch from the sidelines, waving flags. Although
it is centuries since we in Britain were dispossessed from the land,
we still live under its shadow, and are daily dispossessed from the
wealth we produce. Once separated from our means of survival, we are
forced to produce for those who buy our labour - to produce greater
and greater wealth while remaining impoverished. And today a new poverty
is being imposed - cuts in our access to the resources we create, destruction
of mining towns (for example), eviction to camps in Barking, settlers
moving into Docklands - conditions aren't the same, but are comparable
because the logic is the same, the logic of capital, profit, money.
And though the forms of struggle may differ, the struggle is the same
- against the condition of being proletarians, of dispossession, of
exploitation, of creating all and being nothing.

PROLETARIANS OF THE WORLD UNITE


WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS


WE HAVE A WHOLE WORLD TO GAIN!

Written and produced by the Dispossessed


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