Iterview with isreali labour

[cormacobear]

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH AMIR PERETZ

Amir Peretz is the leader of the Histadrut, the national trade union center in Israel, and he's a candidate for leadership of the Israel Labour Party. Elections within that party take place at the end of June, and we felt that LabourStart readers around the world would want to know what the leader of the organized working class in Israel thought about such matters as the role of trade unionists in politics, relations with the Palestinian unions, how to end the occupation and create an independent Palestinian state and so on. The full text of the interview is here:

http://www.labourstart.org/docs/en/000130.html

[viva le revolution]

Do you honestly think that contesting in elections will bring about any real change?
A socialist standing for party leadership in a bourgeois democracy is a spit in the face of true revolutionaries that existed in the past.

[El_Revolucionario]

Here's a really cool organization:

The Communist Party of Israel (http://www.maki.org.il/english/english.html)

[cormacobear]

Yes I do beleive it is a good thing.

How many of the poor die in every violent revolt? By discounting peacefull means of change you become a murderer. You might as well start shooting the poor yourself.

Violent revolution is the last resort not the first, the fifth or the hundred and fifth option. Besides how do you think this imaginary revolution of yours will come about without organized leftwing groups. I think anytime workers unite to have there voicve heard is a good thing and a step in the right direction. If you fight against evry movement in the left you'll soon find your revolution is you and a pitchfork and no one else.

[viva le revolution]

Bourgeois democracy is designed to uphold the status quo. The main participants are bourgeois and upper-class politicians. Participating in the system is like legitimizing it. True organizations are neede but not political parties contesting elections but educating the masses. creating a true class consciousness not giving a merely leftist view in a bourgeois setting. tell me how many leftist political parties exist in the world. all those contesting elections, how many have actually gained anything. Britain etc. leftist parties are mere reflections of the right. That's because for votes they concentrate on populist issues. the communist party of india has been sidelined for decades and are limited to a miniscule no. of seats. Why? because more than the true struggle, they focus on the wrong things to get the maximum no of votes and political contributions.
True organizations are needed, but organizations outside the system.

[Severian]

The Histadrut, besides being a labor union, is also the largest employer in Israel. IIRC it excludes Arab workers from membership...could be wrong about that.

The Israeli "Labor Party" is in fact the party of the elite, as Peretz admits in that interview.

[il Commie]

The Histadrut is not the largest employer in Israel, and has both arab and jewish workers in it. Severian, check your facts, they are correct for the early 50's.

Amir Peretz might be good when compared to the other candidates in the "Labor" Party, generals and ordinary right-wingers, but he's no catch at all. He's not a socialist, and barely is a social-democrat, so all the debate going on here about the revolution is irrelevant when talking about him.

He runs the Histadrut in a very corrupted and opportunist way. At the begining of his campaign he already developed connections with Beni Gaon and other milioners, calming them by saying he's not going to "hurt israeli buisnesses". His idea of social justice is the Irish economy - not very leftist.

So I'll go with El_Revolucionario - in Israel, don't look for Socialism in parties who aren't Maki.

[Severian]

Originally posted by il [email protected] 16 2005, 03:05 PM
The Histadrut is not the largest employer in Israel, and has both arab and jewish workers in it. Severian, check your facts, they are correct for the early 50's.
Gotcha. Still an employer, though?

[il Commie]

Originally posted by Severian+Jun 17 2005, 10:43 AM--> (Severian @ Jun 17 2005, 10:43 AM)
il [email protected] 16 2005, 03:05 PM
The Histadrut is not the largest employer in Israel, and has both arab and jewish workers in it. Severian, check your facts, they are correct for the early 50's.
Gotcha. Still an employer, though? [/b]
Yes. But much (much!) smaller. The state is currently the largest employer in Israel, growing smaller and smaller every day (thank you dear Netanyahu...).

[Andy Bowden]

Do the Histadrut still have the "Jewish land, Jewish produce, Jewish labour" slogan?

[il Commie]

Originally posted by Andy [email protected] 17 2005, 07:58 PM
Do the Histadrut still have the "Jewish land, Jewish produce, Jewish labour" slogan?
That slogan is from the 20's :blink: