5
Revolutionary activity in Israel tion of the Black Panther Movement [an Arabic.
The following interview was given to Gerry Foley in Paris on June 11 by Mikado, one of the leaders of the Israeli sec the Fourth International, Revolutionary Communist League. It has been translated and edited. of the interview dealing with the Lebanon war was published in our previous issue.
Question. Could you give me some idea of the growth of the Israeli section over the past period?
Our paper in Hebrew appears monthly and sells between 300 and
For example, in the June 5 demonstration to mark the fifth anniversary of the occupation, in which two to three thousand people participated, we sold 120 copies of the Hebrew journal.
Of our Arabic paper, also monthly, we sell between a thousand and 1,300 We have always sold more of the Arabic journal than the Hebrew one.
We began publishing in Arabic in 1971, putting out an Arabic supplement of our journal Matzpen. made our paper bilingual. Since 1979, we have been publishing separate journals in
Q. In what circles are you recruitWe recruit essentially Jewish Although there are a number of Palestinian vanguard elements that are very close to us politically, they see the Revolutionary Communist League as a Jewish organization. The radicalization and politicization of the Palestinians takes place through their national organi-
We think, therefore, that the ArabJewish revolutionary party will not be built essentially through our recruiting positions without running into To what extent is there a in Israel indepen of the Zionist state organizaA. There are workers committees. Every factory with more than fifty workers by law must have an elected workers committee. But they have very limited room for maneuver. To be legal, strikes need prior authorization from the Hista-
Zionist labor organization. There have been cases where the overwhelming majority of the workers in a plant wanted to strike but could not get authorization from Histadrut, and so if they wanted to act it had to be in defiance of the law.
There have been and continue to be wildcat strikes in this situation. But more important now is the formation of a cocommittee of thirteen of the biggest workers committees in portant enterprises, such as the electricity aviation, airports, and the potasThis could be the beginning of a restructuring of the workers movement independent of Histadrut. dent that Histadrut has declared a war to the death against this committee, even though most of the committees are led by Labor party members, some of whom hold high positions in Histadrut itself.
Has the economic crisis led to the formation of other mass organiza-
Tenants committees have appeared in some working-class neighborhoods. Often this is the response to cuts in the social budget. Often it has been in response to Likud's urban renewal plans, a major part of its platform. schemes have become big sources of cororiental Jewish radical movement] that existed ten years ago. It left its mark. The poor neighborhoods, of course, are the oriental Jewish ones.
Then the radicalization is developing mainly among oriental Jews?
That depends what radicalization you are talking about.
The more political, or ideological one, remains confined to the European Jews, an intellectual elite. In the Peace Now demonstration in Tel Aviv in March for example, there were virtually no oriental Jews, or very few.
There have been some representatives of the neighborhood committees in peace demonstrations who have taken up the slogan we launched, "Money for the Poor Neighborhoods, Not for the Co-
Q. Is it possible for the Israeli section to do open work in these commit-
A. That depends on the communities. In the one where I live, we have very good contacts. But they have asked us not to participate, saying that we could help better from the outside. Since we anti-Zionist activists, they were afraid that our presence would be exploited for a campaign against them.
But they do not have a gut antipathy to anti-Zionists?
No. But their attitude is paradoxical. They are emotionally pro-Begin
They see Begin as the antithesis of thirty years of Labor Party rule, the society they hate. That notion is a myth, but it has its force. example, they are capable of shouting
"Long Live Begin" and "Long Live Yassar Arafat" to express their hatred of the police, when they are sent by the Begin government.
Q. What impact does Arab TV have
Arab militants, although we do recruit
We think that it will be built through a process of fusion coming out of political differentiation within the
Sometimes this has involved Jew- it offered an internationalist message. What work does the Israeli section do in the workers movement?
A. What we do now is essentially propaganda work, and that is relatively
There is an economic crisis, and that is reflected in the consciousness of breaking down. The verities of Zionism have been very badly shaken since 1973, especially in the last three years. makes it possible to put forward very
Sometimes the demand has been raised that the communities themselves should be allowed to administer the ish communities abroad, because there is twinning between Jewish communities in ties have demanded that they get their twin communities and administer it themselves. These committees are often inter esting because they are independent of political parties, even if these try to manipulate them. They represent a continuaon the oriental Jews, whose language is
A. It could have a lot of impact if The propaganda on Arab TV is generally very cheap, and easily becomes counterdestroying the credibility of everything that is said. Arab TV could be a fearsome weapon against Zionism if it were in the hands of a conscious leader-
The success of our Arabic journal on a very small scale is an indication of the need for a principled militant press in