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ABSTRACT
While scholars agree that the labor movement’s demise was a turning point in Israeli history, they have failed to explain how, why, and even when it happened. The influence wielded by its cultural institutions declined in the 1960s; political support for it declined in the 1970s, and its economic institutions crumbled in the 1980s. Which of these marks the beginning of the end? Were these manifestations related to each other and, if so, how? And why did it take such a long time? I argue that the Israeli labor movement’s rise and fall can only be understood if it is viewed as a social movement integrating, as most labor movements do, economic, political, and cultural functions. While these components operated in harmony, the movement prospered; when they worked at cross-purposes, it deteriorated.
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Notes
1. Weiss and Lahav, Anatomia shel nefila; and Weiss, Ha-mahapakh.
2. Shiv, “Tochnit ha-yetzuv.”
3. Cohen, “Yazamey medeniut”; and Greenberg, Anatomia shel mashber.
4. Rozolio, Ha-shita ve-ha-mashber.
5. Harvey, Neoliberalism; Lemke and Marks, “From Decline to Demise”; Polychroniou, Socialism: Crisis and Renewal; Silber, Socialism: What Went Wrong?; Ray, Social Theory; Eley, Forging Democracy; Sassoon, One Hundred Years of Socialism; and Offe, Contradictions of the Welfare State.
6. Weiss and Lahav, Anatomia shel nefila; Shapira, Elita le-lo mamshikhim; Horowitz and Lissak, Trouble in Utopia; Chetrit, Ha-ma’avak ha-mizrahi be-Israel; Gutwein, “Ha-higaion ha-ma’amadi”; Gonen, “Behina geografit”; and Arian, The Elections in Israel, 1977.
7. Rozin, A Challenge to Collectivism; and Heilbronner, “Resistance through Rituals.”
8. Gutwein, “Ha-halutziyut ha-burganit”; and Elmaliach and Kidron, “Meha’a tzeira.”
9. Rozenfeld and Carmi, “Nikhus emtzaim tziburiyim”; Gross, “Kalkalat Israel 1954–1967”; Ben-Porat, Ha-burganim ha-hem; Cohen, “Michael sheli”; and Gan, “Hasufim ba-tzariah”.
10. for labor movements in general see: Voss and Eidlin, “Labor Movements”; regarding the Israeli case see: Shapira, Ahdut ha-avoda ha-historit; and Horowitz and Lissak, Mi-yeshuv le-medina.
11. Snow and others, “Social Movements”; Snow and others, “Mapping the terrain”; and Morris, “Reflections on Social Movement Theory.”
12. Snow and others (eds.), Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, vol. I, 327; and Davenport, How Social Movements Die, 299–320.
13. Fantasia and Stephan-Norris, “The Labor Movement in Motion”; and Fantasia, Voss, and Eidlin, “Labor Movements.”
14. Hobsbawm, Worlds of Labour; Davis, A Comrade or Brother, 126–141; Denning, The Cultural Front; and Jackson, The Popular Front in France 1934–38.
15. Morris, “Reflections on Social Movement Theory.”
16. Fantasia, Voss, and Eidlin, “Labor Movements.” For further reading see: Hobsbawm, Worlds of Labour.
17. Fantasia, Voss, and Eidlin, “Labor Movements”.
18. For further reading see: Frankel, Prophecy and Politics; Moss, Jewish Renaissance; and Peled, Class and Ethnicity.
19. Liebman, Jews and the Left; and Cohen, Jewish Radicals and Radical Jews.
20. On ethnic solidarity see: Nielsen, “Toward a Theory of Ethnic Solidarity.”
21. See for example the Bund in Poland and the Workman’s Circle in the U.S. for further reading: Rojanski, Zehuyot nifgashot; Michels, A fire in their hearts; and Frankel, Prophecy and Politics.
22. Gorny and Greenberg, Tnu’at ha-avoda, vol. II, 863–893. See also: Shapira, Ahdut ha-avoda ha-historit.
23. Horowitz and Lissak, Mi-yeshuv le-medina.
24. See for example words of Berl Katznelson, Yosef Shprintzak, Yitzhak Tabenkin and others in the forming convention of the Histadrut. Gorny and Greenberg, Tnu’at ha-avoda, vol. I, 403–416.
25. Gorny and Greenberg, Tnu’at ha-avoda, vol. II, 863–893.
26. For further reading: Zayit, Halutzim ba-mavokh ha-politi; Tzur, Nofey ha-ashlaya; Izhar, Bein hazon le-shilton.
27. See: Elmaliach, “Tzavta.”
28. Gorny, “He-asor ha-mufla.”
29. Levi-Faur, “The Developmental State”; and Gross, “Kalkalat Israel 1954–1967.”
30. Heilbronner, “Resistance through Rituals.”
31. “Doh ha-va’ada le-bedikat halukat ha-hakhnasa ha-le’umit be-Israel,” 30–33, 182; and Nun, “Ramat ha-haim.”
32. Nun, “Ramat ha-haim.”
33. “Ha-doh ha-klali,” 79.
34. Moshayov, “Shloshet ha-sektorim ba-meshek ha-Israeli.”
35. Rozenfeld and Carmi, “Nikhus emtza’im tziburiyim.”
36. Bareli, Authority and Participation, 81–83.
37. Kadmi, Ha-histadrut bi-shnat ha-shivi’im, 13; and “Israel Statistic report,” 17.
38. Gal, Bitahon sotzialy be-Israel; and Gal, Ha-omnam netel me-ratzon?
39. see: Kedar, David Ben-Gurion’s Civic Thought, 7–8.
40. For further reading see: Bareli, Authority and Participation.
41. Tzameret, “Zalman Aran.”
42. Bareli, “Mapai and the Oriental Jewish Question.” It is important to note that heirarchization in the Israeli labor movement did not begin in the 1950s. However, it grew significantly in the time of the mass immigration. See for example: Margalit, “Hok, irgun, ve-mivneh ta’agidi be-hevrat ha-ovdim.”
43. Rozenfeld and Carmi, “Nihus emtza’im tziburiyim.”
44. “Doh ha-va’ada le-bdikat halukat ha-hakhnasa,” 4,7,12,58
45. ibid.
46. ibid.
47. Ibid, 160–166.
48. ibid.
49. ibid.
50. Nun, “Ramat Ha-haim”.
51. Hyman, The Jews of Modern France, 193–214.
52. Navon, “Ha-mitun.”
53. “Netunim Statistim 1968–1971.”
54. “Shishim Shana be-rei ha-statistica,” 10.
55. “Netunim statistiyim 1968–1971.”
56. Doron, “Mediniyut ha-revaha.”
57. ibid.
58. Tamir, Shinuyim be-dfusei ha-oni.
59. Hofgong, Meha ‘a ve-hem’a; Krampf, “Liberalizatzia.”
60. See: Cohen, “Haskala gevoha”; and Gutwein, “Ha-higaion ha-ma’amadi.”
61. Rozenfeld and Carmi, “Nihus emtza’im tziburiyim”; and Ben-Porat, Ha-burganim.
62. See: Bareli and Cohen, The Academic Middle-Class Rebellion.
63. Tokatli, “Dfusim politim.”
64. Michael and Bar-El, Shvitot be-Israel.
65. Bareli and Cohen, The Academic Middle Class Rebellion.
66. See: Bareli, Authority and Participation.
67. Kabalo, Shurat ha-mitnadvim.
68. Eshel, Shvitat ha-yama’im.
69. Bar-Or, “Min ha-yesod.”
70. Portugez, “Mi-smol sotzialisti li-smol hadash.”
71. Elmaliach and Kidron, “Meha’a tzeira.”
72. Ashkenazy, “Tnuat ha-meha’a”; and Ashkenazy, “Da me-ain bata u-le’an ata holekh.”
73. Rozin, Home or All Jews, 134–139; and Bashkin, Impossible Exodus, 151–179.
74. Chetrit, Ha-ma’avak ha-mizrahi; and Roby, the Mizrahi Era of Rebellion.
75. Shapira, La-shilton bahartanu, 176.
76. Ben-Porat, Ha-burganim, 168–169.
77. See note 70 above.
78. Eisenstadt, “Hirhurim al shinuy ha-mapa ha-politit”; Alexander Manor, “Mi horid et tnuat ha-avoda me-hashilton?”; Weiss, Ha-mahapakh; Weiss and Lahav, Nefila, 378; and Arian and Shamir, “Shney mahapakhim.”
79. See: Portugez, “Mi-smol sotzialisti li-smol hadash.”
80. Shapira, La-shilton bahartanu.
81. Gutwein, “Ha-yesodot ha-ma’amadi’im shel ha-kibush.”
82. Cohen, “Haskala gevoha.”
83. For further reading: Cohen and Nissim, “from patronizing partnership to competitive partnership.”
84. Bareli and Cohen, “Ha-siah ha-tziburi”; Shalev, “Ovdim, medina u-mashber”; and Navon, “Ha-mitun.”
85. See: Shprintzak, Politica shel de-legitimizatzia; Elmaliach and Kidron, “Meha’a tzeira”; See also: Etzioni-Halevy and Livne, “The Response of the Israeli Establishment to the Yom Kippur War Protest.”
86. Gutwein, “Al ha-stira.”
87. Gutwein, “Ha-higaion hama’amadi.”
88. As the rise of Ratz and Dash shows.
89. Between 1967 and 1977 settlements were established in limited areas, under the principles of the Yigal Allon plan. Nevertheless, this raised a protest movement. See: Portugez, “Mi-smol sotzialisti li-smol hadash.”
90. See note 87 above.
91. Balas, “Shnot ha-60 ba-omanut ha-Israelit”; Feingold, “Shnot ha-60 ba-te’atron ha-Israeli”; Holtzman, “Ha-safrut ha-Israelit”; Gretz, “Hakolno’a ha-Israeli”; and Har-Tzion, “Nitzanei ha-rock ha-Israeli.”
92. Sheinblat, “Litfos America.”
93. Shapira, Berl, 646–663.
94. Shavit, “From Tribal Culture to National Pluralistic Culture”; Karsl, “Hotza’at ha-sfarim Am Oved: bimlot arba’im shana le-pe’iluta hasdira.”
95. “Am Oved marhiv misgarto,” Davar, February 18, 1960, 3.
96. For further reading see: Almog, Pridah mi-Srulik, vol. I, 91–103.
97. As early as November 1950, the novelist, educator, and Mapai Knesset member Yizhar Smilansky (whose penname was S. Yizhar) reported that the younger generation was shirking the pioneering tasks of absorbing immigration and settling the land. See: unknown author, “No’ar ivri ayecha,” Davar, November 13, 1950. Regarding the decline of youth movements see: Paz, Paneinu el ha-shemesh ha-ola, 821–823. See also: Heilbronner, “Resistance through Rituals.”
98. Kaufman, “Sport la-alufim”; Elmaliach, “Sport, Society, Politics and Ideology.”
99. Rotenstreich and others (eds.), Min ha-yesod: kovets.
100. See note 69 above.
101. ibid.
102. Gan, “Ha-siah she-gava.”
103. Elmaliach, “Tzavta.”
104. For further discussion see Lipset and Altbach (eds.), Students in Revolt; Suri, Power and Protest; Horn, The Spirit of ‘68.
105. See note 71 above.
106. For further discussion see: Almog, Pridah mi-Srulik, 114, 129, 139, 146, 898; Dubnov, “the Missing Beat Generation”; Katorzah, “Ha-mahar eino yodea”; and Regev, “Sof onat ha-tapuzim.”
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Tal Elmaliach
Dr. Tal Elmaliach is a Faculty Member at the Department of Jewish History in the University of Haifa. His Book Hakibbutz Ha’artzi, Mapam, and the Demise of the Israeli Labor Movement was published by Syracuse University Press in 2019.