Programme of the Communist Party of Israel 1952

PEOPLES’ DEMOCRATIC ISRAEL –
FOR A GOVERNMENT OF PEACE AND NATIONAL
INDEPENDENCE –
FOR A GOVERNMENT OF THE WORKING PEOPLE

(Adopted by the XIIth Congress of the Communist Party of Israel, June 1, 1952)

The profound changes in the relation of forces in the world, following World War II, between the camp of peace, democracy and socialism headed by the Soviet Union, and the anti- democratic, imperialist war-camp headed by the United States of America, – changes in favour of the former, as a result of the historic victory of the Soviet Union over German fascism and Japanese imperialism; the general weakening of imperialism and the deepening of contradictions between British and American imperialism in the Middle East; the growing struggle of the peoples for national liberation in Palestine and the entire Middle East; the firm, consistent and principled attitude of the Soviet Union in defending the right of the peoples to self-determination up to secession; – all these created the conditions for taking of the decision by the United Nations Organization of 29th Nov. 1947 in respect of the abolition of the British Mandate and withdrawal of the British troops from Palestine and for the creation of two independent and democratic states, – Jewish and Arab.

Full realization of this decision would have still further weakened imperialism in the Middle East, strengthened the forces of peace and friendship among the people, the anti- imperialist national liberation forces, and would have laid the basis for relations of economic cooperation between the two States – Jewish and Arab – as a step for political co-operation in the future.

However, the Anglo-American imperialists made all efforts for wrecking this decision in order to safeguard their interests in Palestine each at the expense of the other, and both together at the expense of the Jews and the Arabs. With this criminal aim in mind, the American imperialists tried in April 1948 to enforce a UNO decision for the imposition of an “International Trusteeship” on Palestine. They relied on the support of the American leaders of the Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency on the one hand, and on part of the ruling clique in the Arab countries on the other, in order to secure for themselves economic and strategic positions in Palestine. The British imperialists on their part utilized the governments of the “Arab League” and by means of them started a shooting war against the State of Israel, in order to wreck the UNO decisions. This military invasion failed, to a large extent, because of the fight for independence of the people of Israel, because of the resistance of the Arab anti-imperialist peace- forces, and thanks to the help of the world camp of peace, democracy and socialism. Theinvasion did not succeed in smashing the State of Israel, and prevented the creation of the independent Arab State in Palestine.

The bourgeois-Mapai government of Ben-Gurion from the first day took the way of high treason, abandoned the achievements of the independence war of the people to the American imperialists, by turning Israel into an American estate and into a strategic base of the American warmongers. Reactionary leaders of the Arab people in Palestine and rulers of the Arab states helped British imperialism to reconquer part of Palestine, after having together with the imperialists and aided by the Ben Gurion government’s policy of expulsion, brought disaster on the Arab people, – after having caused the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of them and converted them into refugees without work and without housing in the neighbouring Arab countries. Thus the Ben Gurion Government played into the hands of imperialism and the rulers of the Arab States by its resistance to the establishment of an independent Arab state and by its policy of expulsion of Arab inhabitants of Israel.

At the expense of the blood and the great sacrifices of the masses of the Jewish and Arab peoples, the American and British imperialists, aided by their Jewish and Arab agents, divided up between themselves the spheres of influence in Palestine.

2. Contrary to the interests of political and economic independence which demanded the development of the rich natural resources of Israel, the development of industry and agriculture and the raising of the living standard of the popular masses, the Ben Gurion Government saw to the retention of concessions by their former foreign owners and opened up the country widely for increased domination of monopoly capital over all the spheres of national economy.
   
   As a result thereof, the State of Israel remained a semi-colonial country, economically and politically dependent on American and British monopoly capital and enslaved particularly by the former. The four years since the establishment of the State of Israel were years of economic and political conquest of our country by the American imperialists, – of incorporation of our country into the American plans for aggression against the camp of peace, democracy and socialism.
   
   The enslaving “loans” of the American Import-Export Bank, the extension of Truman’s “Point Four” Programme to Israel, the “Friendship, Trade and Shipping” Agreement, the American “Grant-in-Aid” agreement, and the negotiations regarding US “military aid” to Israel, – these are some typical landmarks of the Ben Gurion Government’s policy of surrendering national independence and of placing Israel into the camp of the warmongers, contrary to the people’s desire for peace.
   
   This policy of active support for the aggressive plans of the American and British imperialists, and of chaining our economy to the US war economy, endangers the security of Israel, obstructs the development of industry and agricultures and the utilization of the natural resources; it has led to the appropriation of the lion’s share of the State’s Budget for warpreparation, has caused the reckless lowering of the living standard of the popular masses, the restriction of democratic liberties and the national oppression of the Arab population.
   
   This decisive fact of Israel’s enslavement by American imperialism has also led to the flooding of the market with American goods, to the drastic curtailment of trade with the countries of Socialism, to a soaring cost of living, to increasing unemployment, to heavy taxation borne by the people and to the curtailment of social services. The representatives of the United States’ Government became the supervisors over the foreign and home policy of the Ben Gurion Government, over its economic and financial policy and over the “Israel Defence Army”. At the United Nations Organization, the Israel delegation turned into one of those delegation which are most servile to the State Department’s instructions, into one of the promptest executives of the American government’s war-policy.
   
   
3. The aim of American imperialism is to use Israel as a strategic base against the Soviet Union; to employ for this purpose all harbours, aerodromes and strategic highways of our country; to utilize the military and industrial potential of Israel; to rob the country of its resource and to exploit its manpower – everything for the purpose of preparing a new world-war and for use, when necessary, against the national liberation movements in Israel and in the Middle East. The Ben Gurion Government extends full support to the American imperialists in their efforts to attain their aggressive aims.
   
   In order to ease the whole business of high treason and of selling out to the American imperialists, the representatives of the big bourgeoisie and of the Mapai-leadership preach national nihilism and the reactionary “theory” of cosmopolitism. Their propaganda is based on the State Department’s “assumption” that nowadays there is no room for independent states, that particularly small states “have no other choice” but to lean against the “strong” back of the US, etc. With the help of this propaganda they hope to weaken the national independence struggle of the popular masses and to turn them into instruments of the American warmongers.
   
   
4. The enslavement of Israel by the American warmakers weighs down on the working class and on all the toiling masses in town and country (working peasantry, fellaheen, etc.) on artisans, on the working intelligentsia, on the middle classes, and even on industrialists, – particularly on the owners of smaller and medium size enterprises, who suffer from the combined regime of foreign monopoly capital and the Israel big-bourgeoisie.
   
   This state of affairs particularly affects the masses of the Arab population who suffer of double oppression, national and social.
   
   
5. The working-class is hard-hit by the American domination and by the policy of war preparations. In comparison with 1939, the real wages of the working people decreased by 63% till April 1952. The average nominal wages of the worker increased only six times in the same period, while average prices rose 18 times. The real wages of the workers are at present lower than at any time before. Workers come hungry to work. The share of taxation in the totalexpenditure of a family of four reached 45% in 1952 (direct and indirect taxes). Social services are being reduced and especially health services become increasingly expensive. School-fees are being raised contently. At the same time, the working class suffers from unemployment which has spread particularly since the realization of the “New Economic Plan” dictated by Mac- Daniel, American High Commissioner in Israel.
   
   Still worse is the condition of the Arab workers who suffer two-fold as workers and as Arabs. The policy of national oppression of the Ben Gurion Government causes serious unemployment among Arab workers and payment of lower wages to Arab workers in comparison with the wages of the Jewish workers. The Mapai leadership bars the Arab workers from the general labour exchanges and from the Histadrut (General Federation of Jewish Labour), institutions based on racial principles.
   
   The working women and the working youth suffer from wage discrimination and from the absence of proper legislation for the defence of the working women and working youth.
   
   The struggle of the workers against growing exploitation and against the methods of compulsion applied by the “Production Councils” working to increase the profits of the exploiters at the cost of the worker’s health; against undernourishment and the fraudulent calculations of the “index” and of the CoL. allowance – this struggle is being met with furious resistance from the part of the Mapai-leaders in the Histadrut and with the interference of the police.
   
   This difficult state of affairs further incites the anger of the working class and its determination to fight against the Ben Gurion Government and its American masters.
   
   
6. The peasants suffer heavily from the rule of foreign monopolists in Israel and the inflated war budget. The working peasantry in its diverse forms of settlement suffers from a severe lack of supplies, manure, equipment, seeds, water, etc. It is hard hit by the absence of credits and groans under the heavy burden of debts to foreign banks and various companies. The prices paid to the producer for the agricultural products are extremely low in comparison with the general price-level which raises the production cost of agriculture. The cancellation of subsidies for essential food further increases the pressure on the prices of the producer and on the other hand means higher prices for and the customer. The peasants are interested in sufficient land, in machines, supplies at official prices, and long term low interest loans. At present they have to pay, – semiofficially – up to 30% interest on a one year loan.
   
   New settlements, completely neglected by government, are in particularly difficult position.
   
   The situation of the Arab fellaheen is even worse because of the national oppression.
   
   The government seized much soil from the fellaheen; most of it lays waste now without being cultivated. There is discrimination also in respect of the prices paid for their products. They are forced by the military governors to sell their products for amounts which, in many instances, are even below production costs.
   
   While there is semi-starvation in Israel and food-imports were increased, only 3,5 million dunam (of the total 8.5 million dunams available land) are under cultivation and Government cut the budget for agriculture. This state of affairs sharpens the resistance of the peasants to Government policy.
   
   
7. Artisans, petty – and medium-scale industrialists are also hit by Government policy. The purpose of liquidating “unprofitable” enterprises, – as laid down by government in the “New Economic Programme” is primarily directed against artisans and petty and medium-scale industrialists. They receive almost no supply of raw material. It is difficult for them to procure instruments, spare-parts for machinery and credits. Industrial enterprises are run only up to 35% of their production capability. Dependence on the “American International” commission for the allocation of raw materials and absence of normal trade relations with the Soviet Union and the countries of Peoples Democracy as a result of American pressure led to severe lack of raw materials in most of the factories not engaged in war production. Competition of American goods which swamp the market, destroys the chances for developing local industries.
   
   There is discrimination of Arab owners of small and medium-scale enterprises in respect of supply of raw materials and spare parts.
   
   Strikes and demonstration of artisans and of petty producers which were met with police interference, gave expression to their indignation at the wrecking of their livelihood and to their resistance to Government policy.
   
   
8. The working intelligentsia of all kinds:- teachers, doctors, engineers and technicians, clerks, nurses, etc. – were forced to strike to defend their working conditions. There is a complete lack of proportion in the salary of an Israel scientist, not engaged in military tasks, compared with the inflated salaries of US “experts, “advisors”, and “supervisors”, swarming in the Army and in all Government departments. Scientists find conditions of research most difficult. There are no funds for the encouragement of authors and artists.
   
   Low also is the living standard of the Government and private office workers. They all suffer of the present state of affairs and their interests are identical with those of the working class and all the toiling masses.
   
   
9. The workers and poor strata among the hundreds of thousands of new immigrants who entered Israel since the establishment of the State are in a situation still worse than that of the corresponding classes among the old timers. Government, the American leaderships of the “Jewish Agency” and the Zionist Organization did not provide for the minimum requirements ofhousing, employment and public services for the hundreds of thousand new immigrants. Inspite of the enormous sums and property at the disposal of the ruling circles, they failed the turn the immigrants into a productive force. The total dependence of the government on American imperialism and its war preparations led to big expenditure for the armaments race and the building of military bases, and – as a result thereof the country remains economically backward. This decided also the issue of the mode of life of those hundreds of thousand new immigrants who suffer of want and live in poverty in tents, canvas huts, tinplate sheds – mostly unemployed, devoid of public services embittered and disappointed. The ruling circles in Israel and their Wall Street masters try to exploit the new immigrants in low-paid jobs in order to exert pressure on the wages and the living standard of all the toiling masses, in the interest of the big bourgeoisie. The rulers of Israel see in the new immigrants a man-power reserve for the aggressive plans of the American imperialists.
   
   The policy of selection practised lately with respect to would be immigrants which was introduced on orders from the State Department and is based on the principle that only healthy persons under 35 years of age should immigrate, confirms the assumption that the immigration policy of the Israel rulers is not derived from national, but from considerations of American strategy. This is further shown by the unbridled slander campaign on the subject of immigration against the Soviet Union and the countries of the People’s Democracy, which is part of the “cold war” of the American lynch-heroes and anti-Semites. This crusade of slander and incitement against the camp of peace, democracy and socialism headed by the Soviet Union is meant to serve as psychological preparation of the youth and the masses of the people of Israel for aggressive wars at the side of America against the Soviet Union and Peoples Democracies under the slogan of “liberation of our brethren”… from socialism. Simultaneously, Jewish-American millionaires from among the leadership of the Jewish Agency and the Zionist Organisation and other Wall Street agents, and also Ben Gurion himself declared more than once that “Kibute Galuyot” (Ingathering of the Exiles) does not apply to American Jewry, for America is their homeland, for America is not Diaspora”.
   
   This unbridled incitement against the countries of Socialism, in which Jews enjoy equal rights and complete freedom, – is also meant to cover up and whitewash the economic and political catastrophe brought into the State by the government.
   
   This wild incitement is also intended to “justify” the activities of the American bosses of Government and of the Jewish agency who revive the Nazi Wehrmacht, set free the war- criminals, – murderers of millions of Jews and millions of other peoples – , and all this in order to prepare a third world war, bound to lead to new extermination.
   
   The masses of new immigrants begin to understand more and more the anti-popular policy of Government and to fight against it. Large masses of immigrants fight a stubborn struggle for bread, work and housing unafraid of police batons, arrests and trials. They increasingly converge on and fuse with the organized working class. Contrary to the estimationof the imperialists and Israeli reaction, more and more workers from among the new immigrants join the general struggle for peace and independence of our country.
   
   
10. The vast majority of the people is hard hit by the policy of enslavement by imperialism and its aggressive plans, – by Ben Gurion’s policy of hitching Israel to the American war economy; the vast majority of the people is interested in a policy of peace, democracy and national independence leading to the development of all branches of the national economy and to the rise in the living standard of the masses of the people.
    
    The vast majority of the people is bitterly disappointed with the high sounding promises of the Ben Gurion Government following the experience that since the Government started on the way of “American Aid” and of “attracting foreign capital”, the situation deteriorated up to economic breakdown.
    
    The masses of the people increasingly learn to recognize the Ben Gurion government as hostile to the people and the necessity to replace this government serving the interests of foreign monopoly capital and of the Israeli big bourgeoisie by another government. Thus the objective conditions and real possibilities have arisen for the unification of the majority of the people in a broad people’s front, for the welding together of all anti-imperialist and democratic forces, headed by the working class, for the strengthening of the struggle towards a fundamental change of the situation in the State. Thus the conditions have arisen for a broad concentration of forces against the policy of hunger and war, against the prostitution of national independence and against the oppression of democratic liberties of the people – against the policy of the present regime and for the establishment of a People’s Democratic Regime in Israel which will be directed against imperialism and against the foreign monopolies and Israeli big bourgeoisie, connected and cooperating with them against the interests of the national economy.
    
    
11. The predominance in Israel economy of foreign monopoly capital and of the big bourgeoisie also decided the issue of political domination of these circles over Government and its apparatus. The political regime in Israel, – a bourgeois “democracy” in the process of fascisization, protect a small clique of exploiters and black marketers, giving them full freedom for exploiting and robbing the masses of the people. Thus, the political regime in Israel is a regime of democracy for the rich, and of dictatorship of the bourgeoisie against the working people. The leadership of Mapai carries out the dirty work of this dictatorship against the workers and the masses of the people, In the same way as the right wing social democrat leaders all over the world, being agents of the local bourgeoisie and – at the same time – agents of American imperialism. For, has there ever before been so much prosperity for the big bourgeoisie in Israel, as in the period of the Ben Gurion Government? Has there ever been an epoch that brought worse suffering to the working class than the rule of the present government in which the Mapai leaders play a decisive role?
    
    
12. Owing to the pressure from the masses of the people at the time of the War of Independence, the big bourgeoisie and the Mapai leadership were compelled to proclaim certain political freedoms in the Foundation Declaration of the State of Israel. However, we have been witnessing since, how the rulers of the State have continuously curtailed these freedoms in the interest of the big bourgeoisie and the American and British warmongers.
    
    The experience of the Knesset elections proved that the big bourgeoisie and the Mapai leadership deprived the masses of the people of the freedom of the vote by setting into motion the propaganda machine of the State in order to deceive the people, by economic pressure and intimidation, by the terror of police, army, government staff and hired thugs, by bribery and buying of votes etc., (particularly among the Arab population and the new immigrants). In this way the exploiting minority together with the treacherous Mapai leadership gained the majority of seats in the Knesset. Their representatives act in the Knesset and in the government in accordance with the interest of the rulers of Washington and the big bourgeoisie of Israel. All political and economic matters of basic importance are in the first place being discussed and decided upon in the State Department and at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv (support for imperialist aggression, oppression of the Arab minority, greater privileges for foreign capital, the new economic programme, Middle East Command, negotiations with Bonn, composition of the Government, persecution of the democratic forces, etc.); only thereafter are decisions brought for “approval” to the Knesset here, as stated above, the agents of imperialism and the big bourgeoisie are in the majority. That is how Israel “democracy” looks like. Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich – this is the democracy of capitalist society” – wrote Lenin (Vol. 25, p. 432). This minority carries out its anti-popular policy with the help of its executive organs, misnamed “Organs of the State”, organs “above the classes” In reality these are coercive organs of the capitalists and their agents – the Mapai leaders – for the oppression of the majority of the people. These organs are sustained by the oppressive institutions of the State: police, army, intelligence service, prisons, military governors in Arab districts etc., all equipped with dictatorial emergency powers. The experience of the four years of the State of Israel has proved, that the bourgeois-Mapai government brings police, army, intelligence service and prisons into action against striking workers and artisans, against unemployed, homeless new immigrant demonstrators, against patriotic parades of fighters for peace and independence, against the Arab population and particularly against our Party, the revolutionary party of the working class, against the Communist Party of Israel.
    
    “Kol Israel” (“The Voice of Israel” – radio), the majority of the press, cinema and theatre performances, schools and religious institutions, – all serve as instruments for the normal and ideological oppression and corruption of the masses of the people. War propaganda and propaganda for the “American Way of Life”, lynching and racialism, – these are the poisoned arrows which the big bourgeoisie and the Mapai leaders dart at the heart of youth and the toiling masses.
    
    This is the essence of Israel “democracy” and the “State above the classes”, as the hireling bourgeois and “socialist” scribblers of American imperialism call it.
    
    The working class is, of course, not indifferent to the question as to whether the bourgeoisie realizes its dictatorship in the form of a bourgeois democracy, – even be it only formally so -, or in the shape of an open fascist dictatorship. It follows therefore that also within the bourgeois “democracy” all possibilities must be utilized; that it is necessary to make use of the Knesset platform and of every other political freedom for improved organization of the working class forces, in the revolutionary struggle in defence of peace and for the liquidation of the enslavement by the US rulers; for the removal of the anti-popular regime and its replacement by the rule of the people. It is imperative to defend the democratic liberties of the people and to oppose their curtailment.
    
    
13. Among increasingly broader circles of the people, affected by the Government policy laid down by foreign and Israeli big capitalists, dissatisfaction and embitterment over this policy keeps growing. Masses of the people abhor the economic ruin of Israel and the adventurous foreign policy of the Ben Gurion Government.
    
    Workers, peasants and masses of the people fight daily in every possible way for their concerns and rights. But, as Cde. Stalin teaches us, this struggle, – and be it ever so revolutionary – cannot come as substitute for and cannot be effective and lead to those basic changes necessary for the solution of the problems confronting the people, unless linked with a clear political aim of changing the regime in the state.
    
    It would be a dangerous illusion to believe that the present government and every other combination of the existing coalition, representing and defending the interests of foreign capital, representing and defending the negligible minority of exploiters, could be interested in solving satisfactorily any basic problem of the State in the interest of the people.
    
    It must be clear that it is impossible to ward off the dangers threatening the people and to put an end to the miserable economic situation; to secure independence and peace, bread and freedom for the issues of the people – without doing away with the enslavement by American imperialism and without ridding ourselves of its faithful prop, ridding ourselves of the bourgeois- Mapai government, – without changing the class-character of the Israel Government and of the political regime in Israel.
    
    It must be altogether clear that the people of Israel, – like all peoples in the world – can contribute its full share in the struggle for the defence of world peace, can gain national independence and safeguard its own security, if it takes its destiny into its own hands and fights for its essential interest to the end: if the people throws all its strength into the struggle for a policy of friendship and cooperation with the camp of peace, democracy and socialism headed by the great Soviet Union.
    
    
14. The Communist Party of Israel, the vanguard of the working class, aim at ending with capitalism and setting up a Socialist regime in Israel in which exploitation of man by man will be abolished, and in which the problems of the working people will be thoroughly solved.
    
    However, at the present stage of economic and political development in Israel and in the Middle East, we do not see a possibility for the realisation of such a plan.
    
    At the present stage, we are not concerned with the problem of ending with capitalism in Israel and establishing a Socialist regime, but with crushing and liquidating the rule of American and British monopoly capital and of the Israel big bourgeoisie linked with it.
    
    Today, the following are the most prominent questions confronting the working class and the working peasantry in the first place, and also the intelligentsia, artisans, middle strata, part of the industrial bourgeoisie, particularly the owners of small and medium size enterprises, who suffer from the domination of foreign monopoly capital: where to go; what to struggle for and how to fight in order to get out of the impasse and to change the situation in the country from the bottom. The problems are:
    
    1. to safeguard peace; to prevent the incorporation of Israel into an aggressive anti-Sovietbloc;
    2. to win national independence and to liberate Israel from political and economic enslavement by American imperialism;
    3. to develop the national resources, industry and agriculture; to secure work for the toiling masses, and the ways and means for the absorption of new immigrants;
    4. to carry out land-reform;
    5. to secure democratic freedom for the people;
    6. to secure equal rights for the Arab population.
    
    These are the problems in the earliest solution of which the majority of the people is interested. The struggle for the solution of these problems is essentially an anti-imperialist struggle, is of general democratic nature and is linked with the struggle against the prop of imperialism; the big bourgeoisie and the Mapai-leadership.
    
    15. In order to solve these problems successfully, it is imperative for the State power in Israel to pass into the hands of the people, to be taken out of the hands of the minority, representing the pro-imperialist big bourgeoisie, aided by the devoted services of the leadership of Mapai. The Communist Party presents to the masses of the people the aim of replacing the present anti- popular Government by a People’s Democratic Government, by a coalition government of all the anti-imperialist and democratic forces in the State, by a Government of national independence, economic development, freedom and peace.
    
    We present a programme for a Government representing the majority of the people – the working class, the working peasantry, the artisans, the working intelligentsia, the middle strataand part of the industrial bourgeoisie. This Government will introduce a People’s Democratic regime in the interest of the people, the main force of which will be the working class and the working peasantry, and in which the leading force will be the working class and its Communist Party.
    
    The People’s Democratic character of the Government and the regime will be decided by the popular character of the coalition, by the fact that it will represent the interests of all the strata of the people with the exception of big businessmen and black-marketeers. The popular democratic character of the Government will particularly be decided by the hegemony in this coalition of the working class closely linked with the working peasantry. The Knesset will be a People’s Parliament, an instrument of democracy giving expression to the will of the majority of the people. The Knesset will be the legislative institution operating in the interest of the people, the bearer of the sovereignty of the people.
    
    From all this it is clear that the working class and the working peasantry will constitute the class-basis of the rule of People’s Democracy. As to the political basis: GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS WILL BE SELECTED ON THE BASIS OF GENERAL, EQUAL, DIRECT AND PROPORTIONAL ELECTIONS BY SECRET SUFFRAGE.
    
    16. The pre-condition for the change of the present political regime in Israel and its replacement by the rule of People’s Democracy is THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ANTI- IMPERIALIST PEOPLE’S FRONT OF THE WORKERS, PEASANTS AND PETTY BOURGEOISIE, WORKING INTELLIGENTSIA AND PART OF THE INDUSTRIAL BOURGEOISIE. THE ORGANIZED WORKING CLASS UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF ITS COMMUNIST PARTY will be the leader of all the patriotic forces, suffering from the enslavement of Israel by American imperialism weighed down by the burden of expenditure connected with war reparations and ruined by the brutal exploitation of American, British and Israel monopoly capital; interested in the conquest of national independence, in the development of national economy, in raising the standard of living and culture, in freedom and peace.
    
    In showing this way, we do not only proceed from the existing situation, but from what is bound to develop necessarily in the course of the revolutionary struggle against the domination of American imperialism, against the present reactionary regime in Israel; from the changes and the modifications which will come about necessarily in the relations of the political forces in favour of the anti-imperialist people’s front. Already today we witness stirring and differentiation in the workers’ parties as well as in the petty bourgeois parties.
    
    17. We point the way of revolutionary struggle against American imperialism and its prop in Israel, the bourgeois-Mapai government; the way to the establishment and victory of the people’s front composed of all democratic forces of the people; and to the establishment of the rule of a People’s Democracy in Israel. The way consists in day to day mobilization of the working class and the masses of the people for the struggle against the policy of the Ben Gurion pro-AmericanGovernment. It consists in gaining the support of the majority of the people for the programme of the anti- imperialist people’s front.
    
    The historical experience of the workers’ movement and of national liberation movements shows that imperialism and its local political prop, the big bourgeoisie and its “socialist” servants within the working class, does not voluntarily leave the historic scene and submit to the will of the people. Under no circumstances imperialism and its local agents will make possible the holding of free parliamentary elections which could give expression to the real desire and the true interests of the majority of the people. They bring into play all kinds of violence against the popular masses in order to maintain their positions and to perpetuate their dictatorial reign. On the other hand historical experience also shows that it is in the power of a broad people’s front led by the working class and its revolutionary party – particularly in the present international conditions – to defend the rights of the people and to break the resistance of imperialism and of local reaction, representing only a small minority of the people. THIS HISTORIC EXPERIENCE IS THE GUIDING LINE TO VICTORY OF THE ANTI- IMPERIALIST PEOPLE’S FRONT IN THE ISRAEL AS WELL.
    
    18. The interest of the struggle for the defence of the people’s anti-imperialist front, the interest of the fight for a change in the political regime in our country and the establishment of a people’s democratic regime demands the strengthening of the quality of action of the working class. This unity is essential to security the hegemony of the working class in the anti-imperialist peoples front.
    
    This unity of the working class cannot be achieved without waging a systematic and consistent struggle against the divisionist leadership of Mapai and against all the other agents of capitalism inside the working class; without daily exposing the policy of splitting and corrupting, perpetrated by the servants of the bourgeoisie and of American imperialism inside the working class; without lashing out at their policy hostile to the national interests of the people and hostile to the day to day and historic interests of the working class; without convincing the workers that the leaders of Mapai and all other agents of the bourgeoisie and of the imperialism inside the working class betray the cause of the workers and of socialism as such as they have betrayed their homeland and turned into miserable agents of the American aggressors.
    
    An indispensable part of the problem of working class unity is the struggle for the intensification and broadening of cooperation the CPI and MAPAM, the struggle for a united between front of the two parties. The condition for the success of this struggle lies in the systematic disclosure of the vacillating opportunist and nationalistic policy and of the lack of consistency of the Mapam leadership; the constant exposing of the splitting anti-communist in policy of the right-wing in the leadership of Mapam in; in the encouragement of these forces in Mapam who are developing in the direction of Marxism-Leninism. Increased cooperation from below in recent years helped to bring about more cooperation between the two parties. This is thebest way that will convince increasing a united front which will gradually isolate the splitters in the Mapam leadership.
    
    19. The struggle for the establishment of the people’s front, for working class unity as its leading force, and the struggle for increased cooperation between CPI and MAPAM must proceed simultaneously and conjointly, without “waiting” for the completion of one of the tasks before tackling the next. The struggle must proceed on a countrywide scale as well as locally on the basis of either full or partial demands. The persistent, defence of the interests of all strata of the people affected by the assault of imperialism and its agents and the repulsion of this assault is the best and most useful way for mustering the broadest possible forces against imperialism and its agents, the big bourgeoisie and the Mapai leadership.
    
    The close bonds between the working class and the working peasantry, unity of action of the workers and the toiling masses irrespective of nationality and of political views in the day to day struggle in defence of the living standard, the trade union rights, the democratic freedoms, and for the strengthening of the peace movement is the best and most helpful way for organizing and increasing the fighting ability of the working class. In this struggle the worker will learn to distinguish between friend, and foe; his political and class consciousness will develop; confidence in his own strength will grow; he will be trained to take a stand with greater strength and success in the front rank of the struggle for national independence, democracy and peace; he will mature for his task as a leader in the peoples anti-imperialist front for the realisation of the revolutionary aim of establishing the rule of people’s democracy in Israel.
    
    20. At the 11th Congress of our Party, in 1949, we adopted a programme for the struggle for the establishment of a people's front and a people's government. That programme helped us to advance the struggle of the masses for bread, independence, and peace, to increase the Party's influence among the toiling- masses and to raise their political consciousness and activity.
    
    The principles of that programme have been and remained correct up to this day and constitute the basis also for the .present programme. The weak spot of the programme which we adopted at the 11th Congress was in that it did not fully show the way for the realization of the programme. We did not see the absolutely necessary connection between the realization of the programme by the people's government and the people's front on the one hand and the basic change of the state regime on the other. We regarded the people's government and the people's front as sort of transitional regime between the present regime which is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and the first stage of the rule of People's democracy to which we aspire in our present programme and which is the sole way to bring about a fundamental change in the political and economic situation in. our country. Further elucidation of the character and trend; of the policy of the Ben Gurion Government, the sharpening of the class struggle in the period between the 11th and 12th Congresses and the systematic study of Marxist-Leninist theory as regards the varied forms and means of transition from capitalism to socialism in accordance withthe historic and concrete conditions in different countries, helped as to overcome the weakness of the programme adopted at the 11th Congress of the Communist Party of Israel.
    
    21. The conditions instrumental for putting forth this programme and for its certain victory
    are;
    a.) The radical changes in the relation of forces between the camp of peace, democracy and socialism led by the Soviet Union, and the imperialist anti-democratic war camp headed by the USA, in favour of the former, the historic victories of the Soviet Union over fascism and the gigantic achievements of world historic import in the upbuilding of communism in the Soviet Union after World War II; the historic victory of the people's revolution in China; the establishment and success of the People's Democracies in Europe, the foundation of the German Democratic Republic, the establishment of People's Republic in Korea and Vietnam; the strengthening of the international workers movement, particularly in France and Italy under the leadership of the Communist Parties.
    b.) The intensification of the struggle of the colonial and dependent peoples against imperialism in Asia and Africa; growth of the national liberation and peace struggle in the Middle East.
    c.) The strengthening of the World Peace Movement.
    d.) The changes in the situation in Israel and the experience gained by the masses in their struggle against the governments heavy assault on their interests as a result of the domination of American imperialism and the turning of Israel into an American war base,
    
    22. This programme is basically a programme containing the demands of a bourgeois democratic revolution under new international conditions, This programme goes beyond the framework of a bourgeois democratic revolution in its usual sense, because in this revolution the leading, force is going to be the working class and its edge will be directed against imperialism and against those Israeli circles who constitute the social and political prop of imperialism,
    
    This is not a programme for the distant future, but a programme for the day to day struggle in the light of a clearly defined aim. Not the existing alone is the driving force in the struggle for victory of this programme, but also what is yet going to develop – and is bound to develop in Israel in the Middle East and in the entire world. We proceed from the Marx-Leninist assumption regarding the inevitable defeat of imperialism, regarding the revolutionary and guiding task of the working class and its Marxist- Leninist Party in the speeding up of this defeat, regarding the dynamic development of the popular revolutionary forces in the world, in the Middle East and in Israel, which will accelerate the pace of national and social liberation of the people in Israel.
    
    The problem lies in the necessity of winning over the majority of the people for this programme, – the working class, the working peasantry and all parts of the people interested in its realization; the point is in mobilizing the people against imperialism, against the war preparations, against the incorporation of Israel into the anti- Soviet war bloc and against the ruling minority in Israel against the dictatorship- of the big bourgeoisie and of foreign monopoly capital.
    
    Every struggle, every action must be based on this programme and be related to it; it must be directed towards the aim put forward in the programme the establishment of a People's anti- imperialist front, towards a People's Democratic Israel, towards a government of national independence and peace, a government of the working people.
    
    The Communist Party of Israel presents this programme to the working class and to the popular masses and indicates the line of struggle, – a programme destined for realization by the people's democratic government.
    
    THE PROGRAMME
    
    I. The State regime. The present regime in Israel is a “bourgeois” “democracy” undergoing a process of fascizisation, – an anti-popular regime steered by American monopoly capitalists and their agents in Israel, the big bourgeoisie and the leadership of Mapai. This is a regime running counter to the national, economic and social interests of the masses of the people and – which has been adapted to the interests of aggressive strategy of American imperialism in Israel and in the Middle East.
    
    The Communist Party of Israel puts forth, to the people the principles of the rule of a People's Democracy in our State, to be accomplished by the anti-imperialist front;
    
    1. The regime of the state is the rule of People’s, a regime of sovereignty of the people, – of concentration of all the power in the hands of the people. The supreme authority in the State will be exercised by the representatives of the people, elected by the people and constituting the legislative assembly of the State, – the People’s Knesset of Israel.
    2.The President of the State will be elected by the People’s Knesset.
    3.Abolition of all British and Israel emergency regulations. Abolition of all kinds of national communal and sex discrimination; abolition of military rule in the Arab districts.
    4.Enactment of a democratic and secular constitution. Separation of religion from the State.
    5.Universal, passive an active, equal and direct suffrage in Knesset, local and district council elections for all inhabitants having completed their, 18th year of age, irrespective of nationality, community and sex. Balloting will be secret. Proportional representation of political parties in all elections.
    6.Right to work and rest for all citizens. Individual freedom; freedom of abode and movement; freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, demonstration, organization and strike; freedom of religious worship; independence of the judiciary from Government; election of the judges by the people
    7.Equal rights for all citizens irrespective of their nationality, religion, community or sex; equal pay for equal work irrespective of locality, religion, community, sex and age; equal rights for the Hebrew and Arab languages.
    8.Fixing of progressive income-tax rates payable to the central authority and to local councils; maximum relief in taxation to workers, working peasantry, artisans, working intelligentsia and small producers.
    9.Compulsory and free education on State expense for all children up to the age of 16, irrespective of nationality and sex; Government subsidies to institutions of culture, science and art.
    10.Replacement of police by a People’s Militia. Abolition of the regular Army and establishment of a People’s Army for the defence of the security of Israel based on compulsory national service, exemption of girls from compulsory military service; limiting the period of military service to one year; soldiers have the right to participate in political and public life.
    11.Free health services for the people, – to comprise all inhabitants; special care for mothers and babies; organization of building for the housing of homeless, – in the first place for those living in tents, canvas, tinplate and mud-huts. National old-age, health, disability, work accidental, loss of working capacity, accident and death insurance; special care will be extended by Government for the victims of war, for disabled soldiers of the war of Independence, for orphans and the families of soldiers who died in war.
    
    II. Foreign Policy.
    
    THE FOREIGN POLICY OF ISRAEL WILL BE BASED ON SUPPORT FOR PEACE IN THE WORLD AND IN THE MIDDLE EAST, ON SUPPORT OF THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND TO NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. THIS WILL BE A POLICY OF NORMAL RELATIONS WITH ALL STATES ON THE BASIS OF EQUALITY AND MUTUAL RESPECT FOR NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, A POLICY OF FRIENDSHIP AND CO-OPERATION WITH THE PEACE LOVING NATIONS HEADED BY THE SOCIETY UNION. Such a policy expresses the desire of the absolute majority of the people. This will find clear expression in mass signing of the appeal for the peace petition for a peace pact between the five big powers and against the revival of the Nazi-army. 400.000 signatures were gained, i.e. over 43% of the grown-up population in Israel, in spite of slander and terror on the part of the reactionary parties.
    
    A foreign policy of Peace demands:
    
    1. Renunciation of support for the war policy of the aggressive American-British imperialist block, Definite resistance to the incorporation of Israel into an aggressive Middle Eastern block, or into any other instrument of the anti-Soviet aggressive alliance.
    2. Abrogation of all the open and secret treaties and engagements which enslave Israel to the plans of the American warmongers the “loan” treaty, the “friendship, trade and shipping” pact, the agreement under Truman’s “Point Four” programme, the grant treaty in accordance with the American “Mutual Security Act”, etc.; cancellation of all military engagements undertaken by the Ben-Gurion Government to the Government of the United States of America. Removal of all American officers and supervisors from the army, Air Force and Navy of Israel. Removal of all the ‘experts’ “advisers” and other representatives of the U.S. Government, who act as supervisors in the various departments of the Government of Israel.
    3. Support of the principles of the Potsdam agreements for the defence of peace in the World. Resistance to the revival of German and Japanese militarism, for the signing of a peace pact with a united, democratic and peace-loving Germany and likewise with Japan on the basis of agreement between the five big powers; punishment of war criminals.
    4. Support for the peace proposals of the Soviet Union for the absolute prohibition of atomic, bacteriological and all other weapons for mass extermination; for gradual disarmament and for a five power peace-pact.
    5. Prohibition of war propaganda as a crime.
    6. Peace with the neighbouring countries, based on mutual respect for the national sovereignty, renunciation of territorial annexations and recognition of the right of the Arab people in Palestine for the establishment of its independent and democratic state; the right of Arab refugees to return to their country.
    
    III. Political and economic independence. The State of Israel is politically and economically enslaved by American imperialism, Representatives of the US Government control and prescribe the foreign, home, economic and foreign trade policy to the Government.
    
    This state of affairs eliminates the possibility for economic planning, for the industrialization of the country, for the development of agriculture and utilization of the natural resources for the benefit of the people.
    
    Israel can be made a sovereign and independent state, where the conditions for economic development and flourishing are assured only if she is extracted from the dependence from American imperialism, by the abolishment of the domination of foreign capital in our economy; hence it is necessary to take for the following steps to safeguard the political and economic independence of Israel:
    1. Nationalization of all foreign concessions (the Electric Company Potash Coy., oil refineries, oil, copper, manganese concessions etc.), nationalization of all the mines and water resources, nationalization of all these industrial enterprises and banks, insurance, trading, are air and land transport companies, plantations and landed property, which are in the hands of foreign monopoly capital either directly or camouflaged as Israel companies.
    2.Concentration of import and export in the hands of one government agency.
    3.Development of trade relations and economic ties with all countries on the basis of mutual advantage and equality, and particularly with the peace-loving states, the Soviet- Union and the countries of the People Democracies.
    
    These steps will open the way widely for the advance of our country, and will enable the People’s democratic government to develop all branches of the national economy.
    
    IV. Problems of industry and the defence of working class interests.
    
    The patriotic attitude the problem of helping industry develop and safeguarding a decent living for the workers calls for the following:
    1. Protection of Israel industry against foreign competition.
    2. Development of the basic industries by means of utilization of raw materials found in our country. (Oil, copper, iron, ores, phosphates, potash etc.). Procurement of raw materials and equipment needed for the industrialization of the country, by means of barter trade with the Soviet Union, the Chinese People’s Republic and the countries of the People’s Democracies as well as with every other country willing to trade under conditions favourable for the development of our national industry, on the basis of equality and mutual advantage.
    3. Acquisition of cheap long-term credits to encourage the industrialization of Israel.
    4. Control of profits, of price of goods and commodities.
    5. Fundamental improvement of the condition of workers and of all toiling people, and the raising of their living standard; special care for those performing heavy work and employed on jobs detrimental to health. Guarantee of a minimum wage of an 8-hour working day at the utmost-of a 40-hours working week. Collective agreements; special protection for the working woman and the working youth.
    6. A general governmental labour exchange for all workers irrespective of their nationality, to cooperate with the Labour Federation.
    7. A single general federation of trade unions for all workers irrespective of their nationality, affiliated to the WFTU.
    8. Care for artisans and small and medium-size producers by means of supply of raw materials, spare-parts and tools.
    
    V.Problems of Agriculture.
    
    The dependence in the import of supplies and equipment for agriculture from the American war-economy decides the present state of affairs where most of the arable land remains fallow; where the majority of agricultural requirements is brought from abroad, where there is a serious lack of the most essential food stuffs.
    
    The destruction of Arab agriculture (which supplied most of the agricultural products of our country) as a result of the war in 1948; the aggravation by Government of the inefficacy of the existing Arab agriculture and the prevention of cultivation of lands by those fellaheen who were robbed of their land, the failure in recent colonization, following the attempt to carry it out, without securing the necessary prerequisites for its success; the price policy and the cancellation of subsidies for agricultural products; the discriminatory credit policy and the high mediation cost, the huge debts and interest; waste of most of the citrus and olive-tree plantations:- all these signify the Governments utter neglect of agricultural development. In the districts of Arab villages prevail ruinous tenancy conditions of predatory land-rent demand and brutal exploitation by the administrator of “ABSENTEE property” and by the marketing monopolies.
    
    Jewish agriculture is stuck in heavy debts surpassing the value of its entire inventory. Short-term and high-interest loans restraint advance of agriculture. Most of the land does not belong to those working on it, and all problems connected with the land depend on the “national” companies registered – not accidentally – in Great Britain up to this day.
    
    Instead of handing over the lands of the “national” companies to the state for disposal, Government transfers much land to the “Keren Kayemet”, a company dependent on the City and on Wall-Street. While “Keren Kayemet Leisrael” owned about one million dunam land before the establishment of the state, it now possesses 3 million (out of the 8.5 million dunams of arable land in Israel) as a result of the transfer by Government to the Keren Kayemet of over 2 million dunams within the last 2½ years.
    
    Today, as in the past, this “national” company keeps leasing on easiest terms and without public control important municipal lands to foreign and local big capitalists (in the Haifa Bay, in industrial areas etc.)
    
    The solution of land agricultural problems in Israel is urgently needed in the interests of the peasants and of the entire Israel economy, on the following lines:
    
    1. Expropriation of the lands held by the “Keren Kayemet”, “Pica” and other companies as well as by big land owners; concentration of these lands in the hands of one State agency together with the other lands belonging to the State.
    2. Distribution of the land to those tilling the soil who have no or insufficient land of their own,-free of charge and in portions enabling the peasant and his family to live decently. Encouragement of cooperatives in agricultural settlements.
    3. Cancellation of the fellaheen’s debts on loans by moneylenders and banks. Cancellation of the peasants debts to the “Karen Kayemet, the “Keren Hayessod” and to banks. Granting long-term, low-interest loan to all peasants requiring it for equipping and developing their farms. Government concern for water supply, for housing, for the upbuilding of the farms, for irrigation pipes, agricultural machinery, seeds, fertilizers, insecticides, for technical guidance and transport.
    4. Governmental subsidies for agriculture for the maintenance of decent prices for producers and low prices for consumers.
    5. Mechanization of work in agriculture and citrus production and development of agricultural by-products.
    
    VI.The question of the Arab population and Jewish-Arab relations.
    
    The Ben Gurion Government maintains a regime of brutal national oppression of the Arab population. 140.000 of the 177.000 Arab inhabitants live in restricted areas under military rule. The Arab inhabitants are denied the freedom of movement, freedom of abode, freedom of organization and freedom of the individual.
    
    Large portions of land belonging to fellaheen were seized by military rule. The racist “Citizenship Law” denies natural citizenship from most Arab inhabitants and places them in constant danger of being expelled from their homeland. The regime of oppression practised in relation to the Arab population, the fencing in the tens of thousands of people in ghettoes without work, discrimination towards the Arab inhabitants in all spheres of life, – signify the chauvinist policy of the Government which helps imperialism to cause hostility between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East.
    
    The relations between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine and in the Middle East since World War I were given shape by the policy of the reactionary triad. British imperialism, Zionist leadership, and the feudal bourgeois Arab ruling clique, in accordance with imperialist principle “Divide and Rule”. For tens of years, the democratic forces among the Jews and the Arabs led by the Communist Party, fought against this imperialist policy and for understanding and cooperation between Jews and Arabs, for solidarity of the Jewish and Arab toiling masses in their struggle against imperialism – for the independence of the country.
    
    Also today, under new circumstances, American imperialism and the ruling circles in Israel and in the Arab countries continue to stir up hostility between the Jews and Arabs and to sow mutual distrust, and to prepare the ground for tying the Middle Eastern countries to the anti- Soviet aggressive block. On the other hand, the democratic, anti-imperialist forcess, the force of peace and national liberation headed by the Communist Parties fight against the imperialist policy of “Divide and Rule” and against the incitement for hatred among the peoples. They fight for friendship of the peoples, for Jewish-Arab solidarity, for the success of the struggle of the peoples of the Middle-East for peace and national independence, for the evacuation of foreign armies and against the aggressive plans of imperialism. This condition for the success of this struggle is the fight-up to the end – against the pro-imperialist ruling circles, against the political “national” prop of imperialism.
    
    Against bourgeois nationalism and the hatred of peoples, the Communist Party of Israel holds out proletarian internationalism, the idea of international solidarity of the Jewish and Arab toiling masses. The Communist Party submits its proposals for the solution of the problem of therelations between the two peoples Jewish and Arab – in close connection with developments in the world and in the Middle-East. The general trend of this development inevitably leads towards the overthrow of imperialism and to the national and social liberation of the peoples.
    
    RECOGNITION OF THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLES TO SELF DETERMINATION UP TO SECESSION. THIS IS THE ONLY BASE FOR THE SOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL QUESTION AND OF THE RELATION BETWEEN THE PEOPLES – THIS IS WHY WE SUPPORT THE RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION OF THE ARAB PEOPLE OF PALESTINE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INDEPENDENT ARAB STATE AND THE RETURN OF THE ARAB REFUGEES TO THEIR HOMELAND.
    
    The real interests of the Jewish and Arab peoples, the general interest of victory over imperialism and its local props, the interest of international solidarity of the Jewish and Arab toilers created by imperialism and its agents, and not the temporary facts are the guiding line for a democratic policy.-
    
    The interest of the anti-imperialist struggle for peace and national independence necessitates to oppose every attempt to raise question of frontiers to-day, oppose all attempts for the correction of frontiers and for conquest of areas by means of a big or “little” war. This interest necessitates international unity to be established between Jewish and Arab workers, and increased struggle to be waged against the ME “Command” plans, for the independence of Israel and for peace. This interest of the security and the future of Israel necessitates to fight a stubborn and unflinching battle for the abolition of national oppression of the Arab inhabitants in our country. This is not only an internal question concerning solely the Jewish and Arab inhabitants of Israel. This oppression has its direct bearing on Jewish-Arab relations in the entire region and aids the imperialist policy of “divide and rule” and of Jewish and Arab reaction.
    
    It is the patriotic duty of all those who fight for an independent democratic and peace- loving Israel, of all who care for the security of our State and its happy future, to unite in the fight for the abolishment of national oppression of the Arab population, for friendship between the Jewish people and the Arab peoples.
    
    Proceeding from these assumptions we submit the following demands:
    1. Recognition of and support for the right of the Arab people of Palestine to self- determination and to an independent state of its own.
    2. The right, of the Arab refugees to return to their native land and to be rehabilitated.
    3. Abolition of all kinds of national discrimination existing in Israel; abolition of military rule in Arab districts; establishment of democratically elected local and district councils. Equal rights for Arabs in all spheres of life: political economic and social equal rights for the Arab language. Those Arabs living in Israel to receive back lands and property withheld from them on the pretext that they were allegedly absent.
    
    VII.Problems of Immigration and its Absorption.
    
    The problem of the absorption of new immigrants into the economic and social life of Israel is inseparably connected with the general problem of economic development of the country and its political and economic independence. The enormous expenses for war preparations by order of the United States caused both, the failure of economic development and of the absorption of new immigrants. The patriotic duty of all the democratic forces in Israel is to stigmatize Governments abuse of the immigration problem for anti-Soviet incitement; to fight against the utter neglect of the immigrants and for housing, work and bread for the immigrants.
    
    As in the case of other essential problems of the people in Israel, this question cannot be solved without fighting for the re-placement of the bourgeois-Mapai Government by a People’s democratic government,-without mobilizing the masses of new immigrants themselves for this struggle and for the broad peoples front.
    
    The rule of People's democracy will open a broad way for the utilization of all possibilities of development of the State for securing a prosperous life of work for the masses of the people including the immigrants.
    
    The People's anti-imperialist front will act in this respect in the following way:
    1. The State of Israel will be open for immigration.
    2. The State will care for the absorption of immigrants by assuring employment, housing and public services.
    
    

    ---

    The Communist Party of Israel presents this programme to the masses of the people as the only realistic topical alternative to the bourgeois-Mapai government and to the reactionary political regime in Israel. The way to defeating the present government or any other similar combination of reactionary pro-American forces, is the way of establishing a broad anti-Imperialist People's front of workers, working peasantry, working intelligentsia, artisans, the middle classes, and part of the industrial bourgeoisie, – a front in which the leading force will be the working class and its Communist Party; a front which will establish a People's democratic government and the rule of People's Democracy, which will faithfully realize the proposed programme, which is in the best interest of the absolute majority of the people. The masses of the people in Israel will be able to realize the proposed programme, if they close their ranks and start a systematic ,unfading struggle against the foreign and local enemies of the people and the State, while leaning upon, the friendship of the mighty camp of peace, democracy and Socialism headed by the Soviet-Union, and cooperating in the struggle of the international workers movement and of the anti-imperialist national liberation movements. The Communist Party of Israel, guided by the victorious teachings of Marx-Engels- Lenin-Stalin thusshows the way out of the present impasse, the road to an independent, democratic and peace loving Israel.
    
    THE XIIth CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF ISRAEL
    
    The XIIth Congress of the Communist Party of Israel was opened in Tel Aviv on May 29th , 1952, and lasted three days – until June 1st .
    
    In the centre of the work of the Congress stood the proposed programme for peace, national independence and democracy, aiming at the achievement of a People’s Democratic Israel, the establishment of a government of peace and national independence, in the place of the present rule of the United States imperialism through its local capitalist and “socialist” lackeys, – the Ben Gurion Government.
    
    The way for the realization of these aims is the struggle for the creation of a broad democratic, anti-imperialist People’s front, led by the working class and its party, the Communist Party of Israel. The programme clearly and convincingly shows the way to peace, freedom and prosperity as the sole alternative to the Ben-Gurion Government of hunger and war.
    
    Cde. Meir Vilner, Secretary of the Central Committee, opened the first session of the Congress, held in the “Beth Haam” Hall, Tel-Aviv. The hall was decorated with huge portraits of Lenin and Stalin and slogans calling for a People’s Democratic Israel, for friendship with the Soviet Union, for intensification of the struggle for peace and friendship among the peoples of the Middle East. A banner bearing the inscription “Long live Comrade Stalin, leader of the toilers of all countries!” and the symbol of the XIIth Congress crowned by the hammer and sickle. The table of the presidium was immersed in a sea of flowers and flags. The session was attended by 232 delegates from all parts of the country, Jews and Arabs, and by more than 5000 guests.
    
    After the solemn opening ceremony, when dozens of Y.C.L.-ers carrying flags were called in by the call of drums and trumpets, and after singing the International, the presidium of the Congress was elected, composed of the outgoing Central Committee and Central Control Commission, district secretaries, secretaries of distinguished party branches, the Secretariat of the Y.C.L. and comrades who had distinguished themselves in the fight for peace, in trade union- activity, and in work among the Israeli soldiers.
    
    The Congress was attended by fraternal delegate, the General Secretary of the Working Peoples’ Progressive Party of Cyprus (AKEL), Cde. Papaioannou, who also represented the Communist Party of Greece, as well as representatives of the Israel National Peace Committee, the League of Friendship with the Soviet Union, the Arab Workers’ Congress, MAPAM, and many progressive personalities from the fields of science, literature and art.
    
    Correspondents of local and international press were on the spot in full strength. In his opening address Cde. Vilner declared:
    
    “The people of Israel will not follow the path of the American murderers of Koje Island. We solemnly declare before the bourgeois-Mapai agents of the warmongers, that their attempt to use our people for the ends of Wall Street will prove futile. The camp of peace is stronger than the camp of the warmongers, and we shall remember the words of Cde. Stalin that it is possible to prevent World War III.” Concluding, Cde. Vilner demanded the release of Jacques Duclos arrested on orders of the Germ-General, and the release of Cde. Fouad Nassar, leader of the Transjordan people and its Communist Party. Cde. Vilner declared that our party draws its strength from the teachings of Lenin-Stalin, from its internationalism and its faithfulness towards Soviet Union. – Cde. Vilner’s cheers for the great Stalin were received by the delegates with thunderous applause and prolonged ovations.
    
    Cde. Esther Vilenska took over the presidency of the Congress and her proposal to elect to the honorary presidium the Politbureau of the C.P.S.U. (B) with Cde. Stalin at its head and the leaders of other fraternal Communist and Workers’ Parties was accepted unanimously by all delegates and accompanied by stormy applause in honour of Cde. Stalin.
    
    The General Secretary of the Party, Cde Samuel Mikunis then read in Russian and Hebrew the cable of greetings received from the C.P.S.U. (B). The cable was translated into Arabic. The cable read:
    
    “The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel. The XIIth Congress of the Communist Party of Israel. We send you fraternal greetings and wishes for the success of the work of the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of Israel.
    (Signed) Central Committee of the
    Communist Party of the Soviet Union.”
    
    This message was received by delegates and guests standing up with impassioned stormy cheers for Cde. Stalin, calling “Stalin, Stalin, Stalin…”
    
    Messages of greetings arrived and were read from fraternal Communist and Workers’ Parties: from China, Korea, Hungary, Rumania, GDR, Bulgaria, Poland, Albania, France, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Norway, Vietnam, New Zealand, Canada, India, Britain, Western Germany, USA, Algeria, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Holland, Morocco, Denmark and Transjordan, Trieste.
    
    The Congress enthusiastically decided upon a special message of thanks and esteem to Cde. Stalin which was sent by cable. Another message of greetings was sent by the Congress to Cde. Mao Tse Tung.
    
    Cde. Papaioannou, Secretary General of the AKEL-Party of Cyprus addressed the opening session of the Congress, conveying the greetings of the heroic fraternal C.P. of the Greece and the greetings of his own party. With wrath and bitter indignation he described the evil deeds of sanguinary terror of the Greek monarco-fascist butchers and their American masters, the criminal murder of Cde. Beloyanis, beloved leader of the Greek people; he told the delegates with pride about the heroic resistance and struggle of the Greek people, led by its Communist Party. Summing up Cde Papaioannou declared that the peoples of the Middle East unitedly are strong enough to nullify the criminal imperialist schemes.
    
    All during the opening session, delegations from workers’ committees came in to greet the Congress. As representative of a workers delegation from the surroundings of Tel Aviv, Cde Nehemias, member of the Secretariat of the Workers Committee of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Port, addressed the delegates. Delegations of young Pioneers entered the stage to present flowers to the presidium and to beloved Comrade Mikunis, General Secretary of our Party.
    
    In the second public session, on Friday, May 30th, further message of greetings, this time mainly from workers’ committees and workshops, from progressive organisations and from villagers were read, among them greetings from workers of Haifa Port, of the Oil Refineries, the railwaymen, from groups of soldiers in different parts of the country, from factory workers from Nazareth, Jerusalem, Rehovot, Ramle, well as from Arab villages, Cde. Ozi Burstein, Secretary of the Y.C.L. of Israel brought the greetings of the Young Communist League, the young guard of the party, to its guide, the C.P. of Israel and its Secretary General Cde Mikunis. He declared that the Y.C.L. which has crowned its activities for peace by collecting more than 100,000 signatures for a 5 power peace pact, which has carried out various militant actions in defence of peace and the interests of working youth, will intensify its efforts in studying Marxism-Leninism and in applying the Party line in its work among the masses of Jewish and Arab youth in Israel.
    
    Cde. S. Mikunis, delivered the political report of the Central Committee. The report was repeatedly interrupted by prolonged cheers for Cde Mikunis.
    
    In his report, Cde S. Mikunis pointed out that in the world-wide struggle between the two camps – the anti-imperialist camp of peace, headed by the great Soviet Union, and the imperialist camp of war, led by the USA, – the rulers of Israel joined with the warmongers and the germ war gangsters and thus betrayed the cause of peace and the people of Israel, sacrificed the sovereignty of the state for the benefit of Wallstreet magnates and endangered the security of the country.
    
    Stressing the might, the historical achievements and the solidarity of the Soviet Union and the Peoples’ Democracies striving for peace and concerned with construction and providing a happy life for the peoples, as compared with the ever growing weakness, ever deepening crisis and impoverishment of the masses of the people in the capitalist countries, Cde Mikunis said that the broad working masses of Israel esteem the mighty camp of peace, they despise and opposethe bloodthirsty forces of war and their Israel agents. Cde Mikunis described the political and economic enslavement of the country by American imperialism and underlined the struggle for national independent as the immediate task, being our best contribution for the fight for peace. He delivered a grave bill of indictment against the Ben Gurion Government and its American masters, proving that Israel’s rulers, the big bourgeoisie and the Mapai leadership, active agents of American imperialism, bear full responsibility for turning Israel into an American base, for the loss of independence, the curtailment of democratic rights, the brutal discrimination of the Arab minority and for the economic disaster effecting the broad masses of the people.
    
    “We come to present the people a grave bill of indictment against the Ben Gurion Government and its American masters and to prove that the ruling circles of our states – the big Israeli bourgeoisie and the MAPAI-leadership are fully responsible for the situation prevailing in Israel. The terrible shortage and economic backwardness, the attacks o the liberties of the people, the abandoning of the immigrants and the intensification of the national oppression of the Arab minority, the loss of national independence and the entangling of our homeland in the net of the aggressive aims of the American-British warmongers – all this is the direct outcome of the complete servitude of the Ben-Gurion Government to the dictate of the U.S. rulers. James MacDonald in the past, Monte Davies and MacDaniel at present fill the “vacuum” created by the expulsion of MacMichael, the last British High Commissioner”, – stated Cde Mikunis, while analysing the political side of Israel’s enslavement to American imperialism. Citing many times the enemy himself, the book written by MacDonald then USA Ambassador, and statements of the American press as well as organs of the MAPAI-government, Cde Mikunis provided the enslavement-character of ‘agreements” for so-called “aid” from USA. “We call upon all those faithful to peace and national independence, irrespective of political views and affiliation, to join together in order to fight more forcefully against the American domination, against the enslavement of our country to the plans of war and the abyss of Washington”
    
    Cde Mikunis analysed the anti-national Israeli Budget of war preparation, being expended in the main on army and police, in accordance with the aggressive plans of the American-British warmongers. “We proved in parliament – he said – that this budget is not aimed at the defence of the homeland, it is aimed at alien schemes, criminal designs for a war against the USSR.” Here Cde Mikunis refuted the “argumentation” of the ruling quarters, who “explain” these war preparations by phrases about “security” and defence” against a “second round” in the war between Israel and the Arab States), while the very Ben-Gurion Government and the leaders of the American Zionist Organisation, continuously demand simultaneous “military aid from the U.S. for Israel and the Arab states”.
    
    In the economic field Cde Mikunis stated, after reading a list of the profits made by foreign firms and the Israelian ones connected with foreign capital: “The Ben-Gurion Government declares again and again that Israel is a “state of the toiling people”, but in fact is is a paradise for the capitalists and a hell for the toilers!”
    
    Concerning the discrimination and oppression of the Arab national minority, especially of the Arab villagers, Cde Mikunis declared: “This policy not only hits hard at the Arab peasant, it also hits and damages the economy of our country as a whole and the supply of the people with foodstuffs. This is a reactionary policy serving the interests of the monopolistic marketing companies and the feudalists.”
    
    Cde Mikunis analysed the wide struggle developing against this policy of betrayal and pointed out that under the leadership of the Communist Party this struggle is steadily growing in strength.
    
    Cde Mikunis said : “First and foremost the Communists have to mobilise every possible force in our country and to make it work for the peace movement. They are completely aware that by this they help to change the balance of power in Israel and throughout the world in favour of the World Peace Camp. The starting point of all our battles fought is the defence of peace!”
    
    Stressing the responsibility of the Party in developing the mass struggle for peace and against imperialism, Cde Mikunis criticised the work of the Party and stressed the need to strengthen its mass activity. Criticising the insufficient work that was done in the field of political education, Cde Mikunis underlined that this is a most important task, imperative for strengthening the Party as leader of the masses and for raising new Party cadres. Then Cde Mikunis laid before the Congress the detailed programme for saving the people and the country from complete ruin and for attaining national independence, by organizing the mass struggle of and uniting the workers, farmers, the working intelligentsia, the petty bourgeoisie and part of the bourgeoisie under hegemony of the working class and its Party, the Communist Party of Israel. This struggle will lead to the liquidation of American domination and of the rule of foreign monopoly capital and local big bourgeoisie connected with it, to the break of the war policy, and the establishment of a People’s Democracy in Israel. He called for intensifying the struggle of the people against the war-treaty concluded by the rulers of USA, Britain and France with the neo-Nazi rulers of Western Germany. To support the policy of peace of the Soviet Union, demanding the creation of a united democratic and peace loving Germany, to struggle for a peace pact of the 5 big powers, to lead a consistent day-to-day struggle for peace and bread, against the inclusion of Israel in an aggressive anti-Soviet block – this is the road of salvation for our people.
    
    Cde Mikunis designed the road to peace in the Middle East and Friendship between Jews and Arabs: through consistently supporting the Anti-imperialist national liberation movements of the Arab peoples in the neighbouring countries, by defending the right of the Arab Palestinian people for self-determination, leading to the establishment of the independent Arab State in Palestine, by opposing territorial annexations and by defending the right of the Arab refugees to return to their homeland.
    
    The report calls for the unity of the working class as a nucleus of the peoples anti- imperialist front and for a united front between the Communist Party of Israel and Mapam. Atthe same time it unmasks in a striking way the treacherous role of the right social democratic leaders of Mapai agents of imperialism. The report laid bare the opportunist policy of the Mapam leadership and unmasked its right-wing, pursuing an anti-Communist and splitting policy.
    
    Here Cde Mikunis stated : “The utterances of the MAPAM-leaders during the discussion in parliament on a specified status for the Zionist World Organisation to the effect that the Zionist Organization is the vanguard of the Jewish people, cannot be regarded but as a tragic- comic attempt to provide the reactionary political organisation of the big bourgeoisie with a “proletarian” theoretical justification. But the leaders of MAPAM chatting about Marxism ought to know that the vanguard of the Jewish people is the revolutionary proletariat and not the rich men from Wallstreet in New York and their rotten servants in the MAPAI-leadership!” and continued: “The rule of the MAPAI leadership and the bourgeoisie, irrespective of the actual government composition, is a rule adversary to the people! The present regime is not only incapable of creating anything for the good of the people, but it destroys and will continue to destroy anything good and useful, that has been created by the efforts and the sacrifices of the popular masses with the working class at its head!” – “To inflict defeat on this government is the patriotic duty of the working class and its allies!”
    
    Summing up, Cde Mikunis particularly stressed that the ever growing influence and success of the work of the Party is the result of its orientation on the victorious theory of Marxism-Leninism, its being guided by the rich historic experience of the CPSU(B), its faithfulness to proletarian internationalism, taking into account the concrete conditions and the relation of forces in Israel and in the Middle East.
    
    The programme was enthusiastically acclaimed and unanimously accepted by all delegates. An English translation of the new Party Programme will be sent to you very soon.
    
    Cde Tawfiq Toubi, secretary of the Central Committee, delivered the organizational report of the Central Committee, showing the successes in the period since the XIth Party Congress (Oct. 49) in the fields of better Party organisation, increased distribution of the Party press and increased fund drives, the publication of the History of the CPSU(B), Short Course, in Hebrew and of 5 chapters in Arabic, the appearance, in both languages, of the first number of the theoretical organ of the party, “Haderekh”, and the general growth of the party and its increased influence on the working people.
    
    Cde Toubi said: “The Communist Party being the vanguard of the working class and the masses of the people, headed the struggle against oppressive imperialism and its servants for the defence of the daily interests of the masses, their national rights and for the defence of power. This vanguard was always exposed to the attacks of reaction and imperialism, viz: throwing out of work, trials and arrests, under the cover of the so-called defence regulations and military rule; expulsion from cooperative villages and Kibbutzim (agricultural collective settlements); the libel-case of Ben-Gurion against Kol-Haam (the Party’s daily), the sending of spies anddiversants into the ranks of our party; provocative police actions and open attacks on Party members and sympathizers, repeated threats of the Prime Minister and the imperialist agents.
    
    In spite of the continuous attacks against the Communist Party, it has advanced from battle to battle. Brave, unafraid of the police rods and prison bars of Ben Gurion-Sheetreet, the members of our Party led by the Central Committee, march on their path, defending the rights of toiling masses for bread and work and leading the struggle of the new immigrants for dwellings and work; they keep high the banner of the friendship of the peoples and fight against racial discrimination and national oppression; they defend stubbornly the democratic liberties, fight against the war preparation plans and mobilise the masses of the people for the fight for national independence and sovereignty and for peace. In spite of the attacks of the ruling circles and the imperialist agents, in spite of hysteria against our leaders, the faithful leaders of the masses, the influence of our Party grows among the broad masses of the people.”
    
    The report showed the way to turn the party into a mass-party able to deal with the great tasks confronting it in realization of the programme and stressed the need for increased Marxist- Leninist education.
    
    “Quality does not suffice in itself. The quantity does not only become another quality if it is great, but also if it small in relation to the historical circumstances we are living in. We should, therefore, open the gates of our party for its supporters and sympathizers, should help them to join and to be organized in our ranks. Our statute states that everyone, accepting the policy of our party and its statute, organised in a party organization, pays his fees and has reached the age of 20 – can be a member of the Communist Party. We don’t demand more from people wishing to join the Communist Party. Concerning the duties to be fulfilled by a member of the Party this is a matter to be decided by the Party organ in accordance with the objective possibilities and the degree of his party education, his consciousness and readiness to perform various party tasks. The level of devotion and party responsibility of a member rises simultaneously with the rise of his consciousness and political education.
    
    “… During the party verification we met here and there statements by comrades – functionaries that they have no time for Marxist-Leninist study, that they are overburdened with ‘Party Work’. As if mastering the weapon which is Marxism-Leninism could not be regarded as party work! We like to stress that this duty of a comrade is more important than many other things. As great as may be the ideological level of our comrades-functionaries, if it is not renewed and enriched, it hampers the activity of the comrade and lowers subsequently his worth. There is no more dangerous thing in a Communist Party than the accumulation of rust in the brains of its instructors and leaders.
    
    “A Party functionary, be his work what it may be, must understand that without the continuous and organised study of Marxism-Leninism he will become paralyzed, unable to fulfill his party job, which in any case is in essence a political job. He should consider the study ofMarxism-Leninism as part of the duties laid up on him, when the Party choose him to be a revolutionary functionary in one of the organs or the apparatus of the Party, and this duty must be fulfilled as every other one.”
    
    Cde Toubi pointed out that the centre of the Party’s activity must become the place of work. Our success in leading the day-to-day struggle of the working class is the key to our success in implementing the new programme of our Party.
    
    The widening of our activities at the places of work and our leading the working class are unbreakably intermingled with our unceasing struggle against the right-wing treacherous leadership of the Histadrut (General Federation of Jewish Labour) and its unions, and are influenced by the extent of our successes and vice versa. Therefore the problems of realising our aims, – the building of cells at the places of work-, and our success in mobilizing the masses for the policy of our Party, are not only organisational problems, but they are at the same time problems of our political struggle against the MAPAI-leadership in the Trade Unions the agency of imperialism and betrayer of the interests of the working class. Our task is to unmask and to expose all their nationalistic make-up, to push them out of their defence positions within the professional organisations of the working class and to replace them by a democratic, progressive leadership, serving first and foremost the interest of working class unity and the raising of the standard of life of the workers. It is therefore our task to stress the importance our trade union activities for the benefit of the daily interests of the working class, while connecting this activity with political explanation, stressing the positions taken by our Party in every battle of the working class, and with the constant solidary struggle of the workers for their rights.”
    
    “….The party cell, as every other party organ should be the Party on its restricted territory and has to fulfil its duties in this territory. It should not only act according to instructions received from higher Party organs, but also according to the own initiative of the local and district organs in their respective territories, guided by the general policy of the party. In order to fulfil the primary duties with regard to the mobilization of the masses and guiding them politically in their struggle, the cells should handle their work in such a way as to solve the important problems, the meeting of the cell should all well prepared and there should be no improvisations. It is necessary to have a secretariat of the cell and not only a secretary. The existence of a cell secretariat not only secures the preparation for the cell meetings, but at the same time strengthens collective responsibility and a stricter division of the different tasks. If the secretary of a cell is helped in his functions by an official organ controlling the activities of the cell, there will be a thorough change in the life and activity of the cell.”
    
    Cde. Sh. Cohen, member of the Central Control Commission delivered the report on the work of the commission. Cde Dr. Biletzky, member of the C.C. explained the changes and amendments proposed in the Party Statute, comprising i.e. lowering the age required for acceptance as party member to 18 years, provided the candidate is coming through the Y.C.L., a new formulation of the duties and rights of Party member, aimed at facilitating the admission offresh elements from among the workers and working peasantry into the Party on one hand, and the establishment of the Party actives, with special meetings and special care for the most active cadres on the other hand.
    
    Fifty five delegates took part in the discussion following the delivery of the reports.
    
    The discussion showed complete political, ideological and organisation unity and the increased political maturity of the Party.
    
    The Congress unanimously endorsed the political and organizational report.
    
    It unanimously accepted the amended Party Statute.
    
    The Congress protested against the arrest of the leader of the French people, Cde Jacques Duclos, against the military treaty with Western Germany, against bacteriological warfare waged by the USA aggressors in Korea and China, against the imprisonment of the Leader of the Trans Jordan Party, Cde Fuad Nassar, and against the national aggression of the Arab minority in Israel. A protest cable was sent to the Adenauer Government against the refusal to grant an exit visa to the delegate of the Communist Party of Germany, deputy Otto Niebergall, who was to come to Israel as fraternal delegate to the XIIth Party Congress.
    
    The Congress adopted an appeal to the people of Israel calling upon them to the aware of the increasing danger of war and fight with greater unity and strength for world peace, against the re-militarization of Western Germany, and against rearmament. The appeal called upon all people to intensify the struggle against the imperialist rulers and their lackey, the Ben Gurion Government, for national independence, democracy and peace.
    
    The Congress elected the new Central Committee which unanimously re-elected Cde Mikunis as General Secretary.
    
    Concluding, Cde Mikunis declared: “Let us gather strength from the conviction that the XIIth Congress most patriotically served the interests of the working class and the people, peace and independence. Let us gather strength and courage from the historical fact that on our side is the world camp of peace, democracy and socialism, headed by the Soviet Union, – that on our side is the great STALIN!”
    
    After the closing session, a festive artistical evening was held is honour of the Congress and its delegates, attended by about 3000 people. In the course of the evening the audience enjoyed the reading by the famous Communist Hebrew poet Alexander Pen and the young Arab Communist poet Hanna Abu Hanna, of poems prize-crowned in a literary competition towards the XIIth Party Congress. Three choirs “RON”, “ATTALI’A” and “DIMITROFF” performed, the famous pianist Frederik Portnoi played Khatchaturian, Prokofieff and Chopin, several solo- singers and a little child-pianist appeared on the stage and a play was performed by the theatrical group “MAHATZ” of the Communist producer A.A. Wolff.
    
    An attempt by the reaction to disturb the closing celebration of the so successful Congress by throwing a smoke-bomb was doomed to failure, since the criminals were caught by the audience and the programme continued without further incidents.
    
    Late after midnight this festive evening wound up while the three choir-groups together sang the “Cantata to Stalin” by Alexandrov, thus expressing the feelings of love, esteem and thanks for the leader and teacher of all the Communists all over the world, for our great Comrade Stalin.
    
    The XIIth Congress of the Communist Party of Israel will be remembered as a historic event, a landmark on our people’s and party’s way to victory.
    
    

Typed Text
RGASPI, F.17, Op.137, Delo 959 LL136-161