SITUATION IN ISRAEL AND STRUGGLE FOR BREAD AND PEACE.
S. Mikunis, General Secretary, Communist Party of Israel
Never before has the economic situation of our country been so critical as it is at present. The standard of life of the broad masses is steadily deteriorating. The country is suffering from a shortage of foodstuffs and consumer goods. Inflation is rampant and the black-market is flourishing. The working masses are groaning under the heavy burden of levies and taxes. Industry and agriculture, despite objective possibilities for development, fail, by far, to satisfy the minimum requirements of the population. The country is becoming ever more dependent on foreign imports, while exports are but, 19 per cent of imports.
The complete subordination of the Israel Government to the Washington dictat, the support rendered by the Government to the US-British, warmongers, the orientation of the Government on American “aid” and of merging Israel’s economy with the system of U.S. military economy—these, above all, are the reasons for the accelerated ruin of the country’s industry and agriculture, for the impoverishment of the masses, intensified political reaction and loss of national independence. The big bourgeoisie and the leadership of MAPAI (Right Social-Democratic Party), the loyal pillar of American imperialism in Israel, are solely responsible for the critical situation in which the country finds itself.
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Government representatives announced at the end of January that an investigation carried out in a number of large enterprises showed that 55 per cent of the workers came to their jobs hungry. Such is the state of affairs judged from the viewpoint of official statistics.
Actually, the situation is much worse. The Government does not supply in full and in time even the rationed foods and goods. In February, many had not received their flour ration for December and January. Shortage of bread is a common occurrence. Meat, butter, milk and other basic foods have long ago disappeared from workers’ tables. Black-market prices soar daily. The price of a kilogram of meat amounts to three days wages of a worker, a kilogram of margarine—2 days, kilogram of fats—a day and a half and a kilogram of sugar of flour—one day’s earnings, etc. Clothing and footwear are fabulously expensive. There is an acute housing crisis.
Real wages are constantly declining. Even official statistics show that prices of foodstuffs in 1951 were 9 times higher than in 1939, while the nominal wage rose in the same period less than 4 times. In mid-February, state prices for food and manufactured goods, and charges for transport, electricity, etc. were raised by 80-100 per cent. The cost of fuel increased by 50-150 per cent.
Simultaneously, the profits of the parasitic bourgeoisie, waxing rich from the intensified exploitation of the working people and from the astronomical rise in prices, are growing. The newspaper “Davar” writes that in our county iron used for building purposes costs £700 per ton, while in Britain the price is £11. The newspaper ‘Gaarets” reports that goods produced by local industry are sold at a price 5-6 times higher than cost price.
The big bourgeoisie of Israel who have the support of the Right-wing Socialist chieftains of Histadrut (Confederation of Jewish Trade Union), are waging an all-out onslaught against the working people, intensifying exploitation and freezing wages. This attack, connected with the switching of the Israel economy to a war footing, is conducted under the command of American gauleiters.
The Israel Finance Minister, submitting to the Knesset (Parliament) the draft budget for the 1951-52 fiscal year, admitted that “the situation had worsened in the 8 months of 1951”. He predicted a further deterioration in the standard of life which, he said, had declined by 22 per cent in the past year.
The situation is particularly critical for the quarter of a million new immigrants living in the Maabarot (immigration camps). The grim winter of 1951-52 laid bare all the horror of the tragic life of these perp cooped up in tents, which were useless against cold, rain and wind. The immigrants live in sanitary conditions that are indescribably bad. They suffer most of all from lack of food and clothing, and from unemployment. The new immigrants are paid the lowest wages. The highest percentage of disease and child mortality falls to their lot.
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By the end of 1951, Israel had a population of 1,562,000: 1,390,000 Jews and 172,000 Arabs. Hence, the Jewish population has increased by 113 per cent since the establishment of the Jewish state. The country was confronted with burning problems of economic development and the need to extend agriculture and industry. This required, in turn, a policy of peace and national independence. But the ruling circles of Israel staked the future of the country on the American card, linked the country’s fate with the aggressive policy of the U.S., turning over, in fact, the reins of state power to the lackeys of Wall Street. The U.S. rulers speak of Israel as their most reliable base—after Turkey—in the Middle East, as an advanced post for defence of “American freedom” in this area. The policy pursued by the Israel Government of Ben-Gurion can only bring the country, and actually is bringing it, to complete bankruptcy.
Tied hand and foot to the military plans of U.S.-British imperialism, the Ben-Gurion Government rejected even the idea of developing national industry and agriculture and based its economic policy on imports and “aid”, mainly from the U.S. According to official statistics, the foreign trade deficit of our country for the past 2 years and 11 months amounts to £258,500,000, despite sharp curtailment in imports of prime necessities, cattle fodder and raw materials for industry.
The state of agriculture is typical of the general conditions in the country. The predatory policy of the Government, particularly its plunder of the Arab population, has led to the neglect of tens of thousands of dönüms (one dönüm equals 0.1 hectare) of citrus plantations and to about 70 per cent of the olive groves. Crops of grain, melons and other items have sharply declined. The wheat harvest, for instance, was a mere 27,000 tons in 1949-50 compared with 104,000 in 1942 barley—36,900 tons compared with 174,500, vegetables and potatoes—161,000 tons against 194,000, grapes—16,900 tons against 53,000 tons and other fruit—11,400 against 42,000 tons. Thus, destruction of the economy of the Arab population has led to the disintegration of the entire economy of Israel.
Agriculture satisfies, on the average, about 40 per cent of the needs of the population for agricultural products. We are forced to import 90 per cent of the wheat consumed and a whole number of other products. The withdrawal of Government subsidies for agriculture and the abandonment of public works connected with the needs of agriculture, together with the illusions of the Israel Government on the question of U.S. loans, all have undermined our agriculture which, in addition, is burdened with a debt of 60,000,000 sterling to the banks and “national” trusts—a sum equal to the value of practically the entire inventory of agricultural implements.
Industry also is in a bad plight. Plant is used only to half capacity. The percentage of the population employed in industry declined from 29.3 per cent in 1945 to 23.1 per cent in 1950. In the light machine-building enterprises 2,763 workers were employed in 1950 compared with 4,058 in 1942, in the chemical industry the figures are 3,679 against 4,795. Nor did things improved during 1951. One of the main reasons for this is that Israel is dependent on the doles of the “International Commission for Distributing Raw Materials” which is controlled by Wall Street banks and which reserves all raw materials for the U.S.
There is hardly a branch of our industry, trade or finances to which American capital has not penetrated. American capital, as well as British capital, retards the development of our country, strangles the national economy and imposes political enslavement on Israel, assigning to it the role of a base in the aggressive, anti-Soviet designs of imperialism in the Middle East.
The links between the Israel Government and the military policy of the Washington rulers and the transformation of the country into a Pentagon satellite are clearly reflected in the state budget for the 1951-52 fiscal year. Expenditure on the army and police grows continually and actually comprises 60 per cent of the entire budget. Eighty per cent of the revenue is derived from direct and indirect taxation of the toiling masses.
The Communist deputies in the Knesset sharply criticised this budget which is directed against the people and demanded a fifty per cent cut in the military allocations arising from the military obligations into which the Israel Government entered with the U.S. Government. The Communist deputies demanded that the Government pursue a policy of peace as the sole policy ensuring the security of the State and its future.
The Communist deputies in the Knesset completely laid bare the ruthless exploitation of the toiling masses and particularly the oppression of the Arab population. The Arabs suffer from a dual exploitation—as working people and as a national minority. The Government imposes special levies on the Arab population. In addition to the poll-tax, collected on the basis of complete “equality” between the feudal chiefs and the unemployed, a harvest tax is imposed, plus an “egg tax”. The fines imposed by military courts on Arab workers looking for jobs outside their place of residence without the special permission of the military authorities, are likewise very heavy.
The Government enforces an increasingly strict military regime in the Arab districts, a regime of a “pale of settlement”, and helps the monopoly companies to exploit the Arab fellahs in ruthless fashion. For example, the “Buston Karmel” Society pays the fellahs only half the market price for their goods. The Arab worker is paid half, and even less, the wage of a Jewish worker; an Arab woman worker gets one quarter of the wage of the Jewish woman worker. Thousands of fellah families were simply driven from their land which was thereupon distributed among tenants and Arab feudal chiefs—henchmen of the Ben-Gurion Government.
As is known, the bulk of the Arab population is occupied in farming. A mere £5,000 were allocated in the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture for the rural needs of Arabs, while £9,090 are spent on the upkeep of a police dog! Although Arabs account for 11 per cent of the total population of the country, only 4 per cent of the budget of the Ministry of Education is earmarked for the educational needs of the Arab population. It goes without saying that the Government shows no concern whatever for the Health of the Arab villagers, for sanitary conditions in the Arab villages. A regime of violence and arbitrary rule with every policeman and soldier master of the fate of the people—such is Ben- Gurion’s “democracy” in the Arab districts.
The Communist Party of Israel is the sole social force consistently and courageously defending the interests of the working masses, mobilising the democratic sections of the Jewish and Arab population against the policy-of national Oppression, hunger and war. The Communist deputies in the Knesset introduced a bill for abolition of the wartime regime and of the national discrimination against the Arab population. In this just struggle the Communist, Party is winning ever increasing Support among progressive public opinion.
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The critical economic and political situation in Israel evokes growing wrath and indignation among the working people. The working class and the broad masses of the working people are intensifying the struggle against attacks on their living conditions by the bourgeoisie and the Government. Demonstrations by newly arrived immigrants demanding homes and work are becoming more and more frequent.
1951 witnessed numerous unemployed demonstrations in Migdal-Gad, Tiveriad, Haifa, Rehovot, Ber-Shev, Aful and other towns. A big strike of railway workers took place last July. Strikes were also held in the oil refineries in Haifa, in the enterprises of the Shell and Socony Vacuum Oil Companies, in enterprises of the Iraq Oil Company and the Jerusalem Electrical Company.
In November 1951, on the initiative of the Communist Party and the MAPAM (‘The United Workers’ Party”), mass demonstrations of workers were held in Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem under the slogan “For Bread and Peace!”. Last October a strike of locomotive drivers for higher wages brought railway traffic throughout the country to a standstill.
A heroic six-week strike was fought by seamen at the end of 1951 for the right to join organisations freely and for better conditions. Police and soldiers were called in to break a big strike of the olive workers in the Arab districts in December 1951.
The Israel Government, acting on instructions from the American Embassy in Tel-Aviv, tried to smash the struggle of the strikers and demonstrators with the aid of truncheons, arrests, trials and victimisation. The police acted hand in glove with the MAPAI bosses of Histadrut in an attempt to split the working class and to sow national enmity among the working people. However, nothing could or can stop the rising wave of indignation among the masses, nothing can weaken their just struggle against the Ben-Gurion Government, against its policy of fomenting racial and national strife, against its policy of disruption. The exploited masses of Jews and Arabs find a common language and means of struggle against the common enemy.
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As a result of the enslaving loans and treaties concluded by the Ben-Gurion Government with the U.S. Government, of the “extension” to Israel of Point Four of the “Truman Programme”, of the treaty of “friendship, trade and shipping” and the treaty covering “American loans”, as a result of the political and military commitments assumed by the Israel Government, M. Davis, U.S. Ambassador in Tel-Aviv, and the Chief of the Appropriations Commission have become, in point of fact, the political, economic and military bosses of Israel. Under their control and on their instructions, and in accordance with the aggressive plans of American-British imperialism against the U.S.S.R. and the countries of people’s democracy, in accordance with the plans for suppressing the national-liberation movement, an Israel army is being trained, while aerodromes, strategic highways, supply bases and strategic points are being built.
The reckless policy of the Ben-Gurion Government, the stand of the Israel delegation in Uno, which opposed the Soviet proposals upholding peace, have caused alarm and indignation among the popular masses. A wave of indignation swept the country after the Israel delegation in Uno voted against the Soviet motion to dissolve the so-called “Palestine Reconciliation Commission”. Experience of the past years has shown that this Commission acted and continues to act against the conclusion of a peace treaty between Israel and its neighbours—the Arab states, that it inspires sanguinary acts of provocation along the borders and conducts agitation in the neighbouring Arab countries about “Israel threat”, while in Israel it agitates about an “Arab threat”—seeking thereby to whitewash the ruling reactionary circles in Israel and in the Arab countries and to justify their policy of rearmament at the expense of the vital needs of the masses. This commission sows enmity and mistrust between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East thereby facilitating realisation of the criminal plans of imperialism according to the formula “divide and rule”.
The people were particularly indignant at the suggestion of the Government that the Knesset should empower it to conduct official negotiations with the neo-Nazi Bonn Government on the pretext of receiving “compensation” for losses incurred by the Jews during World War II. It was clear that this was a matter of diplomatic recognition by the Israel Government of Hitler's successors in Western Germany, recognition of the assassins who killed six million Jews and many millions of other peoples. The Truman Government dictated this diabolical step to the Government of Israel, with the aim of obtaining in particular Israel “absolution” for the Nazis, to obtain Jewish sanction for reviving Nazism in Western Germany on the assumption that Israel’s recognition. of the Adenauer Government would help the Pentagon to break the resistance of the peoples of Europe. to remilitarisation of ‘Western Germany and facilitate revival of the Wehrmacht.
During the bitter debate in the Knesset, mass demonstrations and rallies against negotiations with the Adenauer Government took place at the call of the Communist Party of Israel and the Israel Peace Committee.
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Based on the struggle against remilitarisation of Western Germany, against negotiations between Israel and the Bonn Government, a broad peace-front movement is developing, uniting representatives of public opinion in Israel—working people of town and countryside, writers, men of science and art, clergymen, ex-partisans and ghetto fighters in the countries occupied by Hitler during the second world war, and others. The movement for peace and national independence is developing, despite persecution and threats from the Government and the Washington aggressors. To date, over 40 per cent of the adult population have signed the Appeal for a Five-Power Peace Pact.
The American gauleiters in Tel-Aviv and the Ben-Gurion Government make decisions without the master—without the people. And the popular masses in Israel haven't the slightest desire to be in the same camp as the Nazis, they are resolutely opposed to the incorporation of Israel into the North Atlantic Pact and its “Middle-East” branch. The masses in Israel are filled with feelings of friendship for the Soviet Union—the world bulwark of peace and democracy, genuine champion of the independence of the peoples, of their right to a free and peaceful life. The working masses are becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that the struggle for peace and national independence, against the incorporation of Israel into the aggressive bloc, against interference by American imperialism in the internal affairs of the country, is, at the same time, a struggle against want and poverty, against political reaction, that it is a struggle for the, genuine national interests of the country. The fight waged by the working masses for peace and national independence, for democratic liberties and for the vital interests of the working people is headed by the Communist Party of Israel. The Party consistently exposes the reactionary foreign and domestic policy of the Government, the machinations of the American gauleiters in Israel, the reactionary propaganda of chauvinism and hatred for other peoples.
The Party is unfolding a large-scale explanatory campaign for unity of action of the working class. It combats the policy of disruption pursued by the treacherous leadership of the MAPAI Party. We are fighting indefatigably to extend and broaden the unity between the Communist Party and MAPAM, overcoming the sabotage of the reformist leaders of the Right-wing of MAPAM. The Communist Party calls for the unity of all the democratic forces of the country in a broad people's front, in which the working class must be, and shall be, the main and leading force, for unity based on a programme of peace, national independence and democracy, for the struggle for bread, so that by means of our combined forces we can inflict defeat on the Ben-Gurion Government.
The Communist Party of Israel is waging a resolute struggle against the falsehoods and slander levelled at the Soviet Union and the countries of people’s democracy. The Communist Party tells the people the truth about the camp of peace and Socialism headed by the Soviet Union, educates the masses in the spirit of love and respect for the Soviet Union, fights for broad economic and cultural co-operation between Israel and the Soviet Union.
The Communist Party of Israel, true to the teaching of Marxism-Leninism and to proletarian internationalism and guided by the great historical experience of the heroic Lenin-Stalin Party, is intensifying its struggle to rally the working class and the broad masses of the people for defence of peace.
The Communist Party of Israel calls on the working people of the country for solidarity with the anti-imperialist, national liberation struggle of the peoples of the East; it is marching in the van of all the patriotic and. progressive forces battling for national independence, democracy and friendship among the nations, for the everyday demands of the working masses, for a happy future for the people of Israel.
For a Lasting Peace, For a People’s Democracy”,
No. 19 (183), Friday, May 9, 1952.
SITUATION IN ISRAEL AND STRUGGLE FOR BREAD AND PEACE.
S. Mikunis, General Secretary, Communist Party of Israel
……
As a result of the enslaving loans and treaties concluded by the Ben-Gurion Government with the U.S. Government, of the “extension” to Israel of Point Four of the “Truman Programme”, of the treaty of “friendship, trade and shipping” and the treaty covering “American loans”, as a result of the political and military commitments assumed by the Israel Government, M. Davis, U.S. Ambassador in Tel-Aviv, and the Chief of the Appropriations Commission have become, in point of fact, the political, economic and military bosses of Israel. Under their control and on their instructions, and in accordance with the aggressive plans of American-British imperialism against the U.S.S.R. and the countries of people’s democracy, in accordance with the plans for suppressing the national-liberation movement, an Israel army is being trained, while aerodromes, strategic highways, supply bases and strategic points are being built.
The reckless policy of the Ben-Gurion Government, the stand of the Israel delegation in Uno, which opposed the Soviet proposals upholding peace, have caused alarm and indignation among the popular masses. A wave of indignation swept the country after the Israel delegation in Uno voted against the Soviet motion to dissolve the so-called “Palestine Reconciliation Commission”. Experience of the past years has shown that this Commission acted and continues to act against the conclusion of a peace treaty between Israel and its neighbours—the Arab states, that it inspires sanguinary acts of provocation along the borders and conducts agitation in the neighbouring Arab countries about “Israel threat”, while in Israel it agitates about an “Arab threat”—seeking thereby to whitewash the ruling reactionary circles in Israel and in the Arab countries and to justify their policy of rearmament at the expense of the vital needs of the masses. This commission sows enmity and mistrust between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East thereby facilitating realisation of the criminal plans of imperialism according to the formula “divide and rule”.
The people were particularly indignant at the suggestion of the Government that the Knesset should empower it to conduct official negotiations with the neo-Nazi Bonn Government on the pretext of receiving “compensation” for losses incurred by the Jews during World War II. It was clear that this was a matter of diplomatic recognition by the Israel Government of Hitler's successors in Western Germany, recognition of the assassins who killed six million Jews and many millions of other peoples. The Truman Government dictated this diabolical step to the Government of Israel, with the aim of obtaining in particular Israel “absolution” for the Nazis, to obtain Jewish sanction for reviving Nazism in Western Germany on the assumption that Israel’s recognition. of the Adenauer Government would help the Pentagon to break the resistance of the peoples of Europe. to remilitarisation of ‘Western Germany and facilitate revival of the Wehrmacht.
During the bitter debate in the Knesset, mass demonstrations and rallies against negotiations with the Adenauer Government took place at the call of the Communist Party of Israel and the Israel Peace Committee.
……
For a Lasting Peace, For a People’s Democracy”,
No. 19 (183), Friday, May 9, 1952.