Struggles, Organising, and a Socialist Exit Strategy from the Historical Crisis of Capitalism

The Israel-Palestine section of ISA, Socialist Struggle Movement, has been organising Socialism Conferences for over a decade. We have invited speakers from the different struggles, socialist activists from Israel and Palestine, as well as from our sister organisations around the world. They have earned a reputation as providing important opportunities for learning and even raising initiatives for action. As Ami Vatury, co-secretary of ‘Power to the Workers’ independent union federation said: “These conferences are good, good for exchanging opinions. Socialist Struggle’s conferences in my view are not events of grumbling on the situation. They’re attended also by workers’ committees representatives, people who lead significant struggles”.

Socialism Conference ’21 took place against the background of the unprecedented financial, social and health crises, as well as the political instability of the Israeli regime. The upcoming elections in Israel are the fourth in two years. These developments highlight the urgency of the questions around which Socialism Conferences have revolved in the past few years, among them the need to connect social struggles on a class basis and for a socialist political alternative.

During the week-long conference, more than 160 Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs and Jews, as well as international guests took part in lively, virtual discussions around the challenges, which workers and young people in social struggles face today, and in particular the tasks and lessons of the strikes of social workers, nurses and medical interns.

Different panels debated from a class perspective the climate movement, feminist struggles, especially against violence towards women and femicide, student struggles, the protests against Netanyahu…

Against the background of a deep crisis and processes of revolution and counter-revolution in the Middle East, one decade after the so-called Arab Spring, an important discussion took place around the struggle for peace, how to end the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, and on the ‘normalisation’ agreements between the Israeli regime and a series of Arab regimes, orchestrated by Trump in his final days in office.

The housing crisis, lessons from the 2011 tent movement in Israel, the upcoming elections and the struggle to build a political alternative of and for working people, socialist democracy and the nature of political revolutions were discussed.

Initiatives and Strategies

How to organize and promote socialist change in the face of the failures of capitalism, the question of which strategies could strengthen struggles and movements, and lead them to victories were recurring themes in the different discussions.

Particularly during the panels of the climate movement and the feminist strikes, questions of strategy in the context of the experience gained in those mass struggles which developed internationally in the past few years were brought out. So too the strategies of the movements that developed around the Covid-19 pandemic and the crises it brought on were debated.

A wave of protests against violence towards women has taken place due to the dangerous rise in domestic violence during the Covid crisis. In August 2020, after the murder of a woman, and a horrific gang rape on the same day, a feminist strike was organised. Despite this being the second feminist strike in less than 2 years, and the continuing situation leading to the murder of dozens of women, the government is yet to transfer the budget needed for an initial programme to combat domestic violence. This emphasises the urgency around discussing new strategies for the movement.

During these discussion the differences between a liberal and a socialist, class approach were made clear: instead of despair and cross-class approaches, including attempts to recruit parts of the ruling class for a “united struggle” for change, the need for an independent, socialist class approach was stressed, highlighting the need to organise on a stronger basis, with the mobilization of workers unions, as well as student organisations to support the struggle.

Tiphaine Soyez, from Alternatywa Socjalistyczna (AS) our Polish sister organisation, emphasised this point when she spoke about the feminist strike, which was organised in Poland against the right-wing government’s attacks on abortion rights.

The Movement against Netanyahu and his failing government

Both the elections and the collapse of the establishment parties which call themselves “left wing” or “center-left”, were also recurring issues in many of the discussions.

A panel titled “It’s not just Netanyahu, it’s the whole system”, was dedicated to the upcoming elections. This included perspectives and opportunities for building a political alternative and covered the despair of the establishment parties and parliamentarism, and issues of “lesser evil” politics. Also discussed was the new “Democratic Party” initiative launched by some of the activists and organisations, which participated in the protest movement against Netanyahu.

Despite differences in approach and emphasis, the speakers in the Panel including Ami Vatury from ‘Power to the Workers’, Raed Abu Elkian from ‘Standing Together’, Samah Salaime — a feminist activist and journalist, Avi Yalou from the Democratic Party, and Shahar Benhorin from Socialist Struggle Movement all agreed that a political vacuum exists, when it comes to independent representation of the social movements and the interests of workers, Jewish and Arab alike.

During the panel Ami Vatury as well as speakers from SSM discussed an early initiative to campaign for a new independent workers’ party, after the elections. Speakers from SSM argued that despite being a complicated challenge, practical steps are needed in the coming period to promote a broad party of workers and young people, Jewish and Arab, on a class basis.

This party could be a “political arm” of the different struggles taking place, could represent the interests of the vast majority of the public, around a socialist agenda.

The political despair which the crisis has caused was countered in the panel on the movement against Netanyahu, with speakers established during the movement including Sigal Kook-Avivi from the Democratic Party, Yaniv Segal from the Pink Front, Costa Black from Kumi Israel (“Rise Up Israel”), Basheer Karkabi from Standing Together and Yasha Marmer from SSM. This was a lively discussion involving contributions and questions from fresh new young layers, which demonstrated their determination and readiness to continue the fight. It also highlighted the political learning process that has affected these young layers during the movement.

The speakers agreed on the need unite the different struggles, and for a process of discussion developing around the lessons and conclusions from the movement. This process, while occurring at a stage when the movement is declining, has painted a positive perspective for the continuation of the struggle and the need to find ways to help it move forward.

The Trade Unions, Workers’ Strikes and Struggles

Questions of cooperation and strategical connections between struggles and protests by different groups of workers and young people were central to the Trade Union panel discussion. Speakers here included Anok Livne, chair of “Social justice”, the opposition faction in the main Israel TU Federation ‘Histadrut’, Hadas Zuqert, a leader of the social workers union’s and Atidenu (“Our Future”) movement, Zelikha Khalaile from the daycare workers’ union, Eran Dotan of the medical interns’ union “Mirsham”, Roei Tzoref, head of the teachers’ union in HIT college, Karni Gigi from the forum of organisations for public psychology, and Eyal Atsey-Pri from SSM, who works in hazardous waste transportation.

Several of the speakers highlighted that because of the social and health crisis, essential workers in public services now receive wide support. This was thanks to the public’s understanding that these workers are on the front lines of the struggle against the pandemic.

It is clear that there was — and still is — a potential for effective collaborations between various groups of workers, and the broad public, which could enhance struggles around working and living conditions, as well as promote the much needed struggle to save the collapsing education, health and welfare services.

Those workers’ struggles presented during the panel were striking examples of the current potential, as all of them had won gains — despite the Covid-19 and financial crises. This highlighted the conservative rule played by the Histadrut leadership, which has stayed silent during the Covid crisis, condoning mass unemployment, low levels of unemployment benefits, and a series of government mishandlings of the crisis, which have created health risks, and caused financial and social harm to working people.

This brought out the refusal to accept responsibility by the leaderships of those organisations which are supposed to represent us. During the panel on student struggles, the lack of support from the student leaderships on a local and national level was brought forward. This while students, as a social layer, have been deeply hit by the crisis.

International Struggle

Bureaucracy in the trade unions and the student organisations; a lack of political alternative; a vacuum on the left; all of these are international problems.

SSM, as part of International Socialist Alternative, managed to bring an international perspective to Socialism Conference ’21. Activists and leaders of struggles from different countries spoke in many of the discussions and panels.

International speakers led two of the discussions in the conference. Eric Byl, from the International Executive of ISA, spoke about the development of new formations on the left in the past decade. Eljeer Hawkins from Socialist Alternative in the US spoke on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, and on why Trumpism, as a political phenomenon, is here to stay. He talked about what socialists, together with workers’ unions, community organisations, and principled coordination on the left are doing to organise against the far right and the systemic racism which capitalism perpetuates.

The dangers of Trumpism were brought up in an international context as well. During the discussion about the struggle against the Israeli occupation and the ‘normalisation’, their potential to escalate the regional arms race was brought up. Speakers also pointed out the legitimacy these agreements grant the Israeli regime: to deepen the oppression of the Palestinian people, including the ongoing siege on Gaza, the occupation, continued building of settlements and the military regime in the West Bank.

A Palestinian representative of the residents of South Mount Hebron talked about developments in their struggle for their lives, homes and livelihood, and against both the occupation, military regime and the Jewish settlers’ attacks, which are enabled by it.

International perspectives for protests against capitalism, the crises it created and socialist solutions were central to the final broadcast which concluded the conference, featuring socialists from the US, Nigeria and Sweden, including Kshama Sawant, the socialist council member from Seattle.

Join the Socialists!

Several new people asked to join us in SSM around the conference, and we call on anyone who identifies with the urgency of an international struggle for socialist change, to contact us and join the movement.

Like all of our activities, Socialism Conference ’21 was organised with no funding from big business. This is how we ensure our ability to work independently; we do not depend on support from forces whose interests are foreign to those of the working class.

To fund the conference and raise the money and resources needed to continue our activity, we set a target to raise 1,800 shekels from ticket, t-shirt and newspaper sales around the conference. We raised over 2,400 shekels, with 5 new financial supporters joining immediately. We’re working to gain 50 new financial supporters in the coming period.