working class by the social crisis (inflation; unemployment; decline of social services; massive reappearance of povertys crisis of housing, the education system and the National Health Service; crisis of the patriarchal family; racism and xenophobia; erosion of the democratic freedoms of the working class, etc.). It must offer to these problems solutions for which the working class can be mobilized in the coming years and which, taken together, are incompatible with the functioning of the capitalist economy and the bourgeois state.
Through the struggle for this programme, the working class can acquire the experience and consciousness needed to create organs of dual power, a necessary precondition for it to become able to tackle in practice the destruction of the bourgeois state and the suppression of capitalist relations of production, In the process of this same struggle, especially following the appearance of a revolutionary situation through the spread of organs of dual
revolutionary Marxists can build the mass power,
revolutionary party which will lead their class to a victorious socialist revolution.
Under the given circumstances in Britain,
with an unfolding and deepening social
crisis, with innumerable variants of local
trade-union struggles, political struggles,
anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles,
struggles against the bourgeois family,
11
student struggles and struggles for democratic demands, ec, intertwining and
combining, there is a tery real danger
that the fragmentation and absence of a unilying central focus of the class struggle and the struggle of the oppressed in society will reflect inself in a revolutionary organisation through a growing fragmentation of intervention and actinity, each local branch or regional sector concentrating on the issues which happen in the opinion of comrades to be the most likely to lead to rapid recruitment, or even on the issues in which, for accidental reasons of age, profession, place of residence, etc., they happen to be most casily involved. Such a fragmenration would be disastrous for the capacity of the organization to appear as a real force in the
vanguard, presenting key answers to the key questions posed for the class in the present situation. The struggle for a central, unifying perspective, a central political line which the organization will fight for in the working class. thereby becomes in itself a struggle to strengthen and centralize the British section, both politically and organizationally
When so many struggles occur simultaneously in a country as they do in Britain today, the absence of a unifying and centralizing political line, axed around a key demand and a key political campaign, not only tends ta increase centrifugal tendencies inside the organization, thus preventing it from objectively playing a unifying röle within the vanguard, but could also strengthen a fundamentally wrong approach to party-building which sees the choice of priorities in function, nor of the objective needs of the class struggle and its perspectives, but of purcly subjective considerations of what this or that group of comrades considers to be the most "paying" activity in terms of short-term recruitment, gaining a foothold in this or that secror of the mass movement or increasing the influence of the organization in this or that area
Since the process of the rising mass struggles is uneven in scope and tempo, in relation both to sectors and to regions, such a method of approach would inevitably increase differences amongst the comrades, since these subjective judgements on priorities would vary greatis according to the specifi: circumstances and experience within which they operated.
For that reason, the adoption of a central political line by the organization greatly contributes to unifying the cadre and overcoming disputes about priorities in chis or that field of work. Provided such a general line is applied with the necessary flexibility, many activities which might seem contradictory and murually exclusive will appear as complementary and capable of being unified and focussed around a central campaign.
In this sense, the adoption of the line of a general strike to overthrow the government will transform the IMG into a strong pole of attraction for a growing number of radicalized workers and youth, and will help it to continue the growth and development which the organization has experienced since the last World Congress.
A.Said and M.Machover
ARAB REVOLUTION
AND NATIONAL
PROBLEMS IN THE
ARAB EAST
It is not our intention in this article to discuss the national
of the productive forces, and facilitates question in general, or to develop the subject from first
exploitation and domination. In fact, the Arab East was principles. Our general point of departure is the revoluin the first place balkanized by the imperialist powers, tionary Marxist position on the national question. Morein their own interest. Dividing the region between them, over, we are here concerned with this question only in so
they were able more easily to dominate cach part far as it is connected with the problematic of the Arab
separately and use one part against another. But from
the point of view of economic development this fragmensocialist revolution; our main interest is the impact of the national question on the revolutionary movement in
ration is an obstacle, because the various parts are the Mashreq (Arab East).* The Arab East has, in fact,
mutually complementary, each lacking what the others not one but several intertwined national problems.
possess in abundance. The main natural wealth of the
region is oil. But most of the oil is concentrated in tiny
and backward mini-states with small populations. (Even
First of all, there is the national problem of the
Libya, which looks vast on the map, is really small; Arabs themselves, who
constitute the overwhelming
most of it is uninhabitable desert, and its population is majority of the population of that area In addition,
about 1.5 million. The same is true of Saudi-Arabia; there are the problems of the various non-Arab nationalialthough its population is abour 6 million, this is in a ties living there.
country over four times the size of France). These oil
Let us start by analysing the national problem of
states are the most backward parts of the region, and the majority — the Arab nation. Only a small part of
have no economy to speak of other than that of oil. The this nation is ar present subject to direct foreign dominahuge oil revenues are shared between imperialism and a tion and oppression: the Palestinian Arabs, living under
small ruling clique which spends its share on lavish Israeli occupation or exiled by Israel. We shall return
luxuries. Hardly a penny of this fabulous wealth is later to this aspect of the problem, which is of very
invested in building up the local economy. (What the oil great political importance although it involves directly
sheikhs do invest, they invest not locally but in the West). only a small part of the Arab nation. With the aboveWhen finally the time comes when the oil reserves are mentioned exception, the Mashreq has achieved political
exhausted, the oil states will remain without any sort of
under
conditions
of extreme
independente - but
productive economy, like an oasis whose spring has dried balkanization. The national problem of the Arab nation is
up. All the wealth that had been extracted in the meanthus primarily that of national unification.
time will have been wasted as far as the regional economy
National unification is necessary not simply because
is concerned. On the other hand, countries like Egypt and the Arabs of the Mashreg share a long common history, a language and a cultural heritage. It is necessary
* By the "Arab East' or 'Mashreg" we mean the Arabic-speaking primarily because the present political fragmentation of
world cast of Libya, ie. the old historical Mashreg plus the Mashreg is a huge obstacle in the way of development
Egypt.
15
imperialist
imperialism. (This is not merely a theoretical prognosticaSyria are forced, in order to develop their economy, to incur huge foreign debts — a bitter irony, in view of the
tion: in the pact establishing the so-called confederation
between Syria, Egypt and Libya there is an explicit
that the annual oil profits would have sufficed to
clause to this effect!). Under these circumstances there finance the building of three Aswan dams. A similar
can be only two possible outcomes — either a victorious complementarity also exists in terms of availability of arable land in one Arab country and a surplus rural
revolution in the whole area, or a crushing of the revolution wherever it may start.
population in another.
All these historical, cultural and economic factors
one and indivisible — it cannot have a preliminary are vividly reflected in the consciousness of the Arab masses throughout the region.
The aspiration for Arab
separate national-democratic stage, and it cannot be national unification is one of the most deeply rooted
victorious in each country separately. Its immediate outcome must be the establishment of a united socialist ideas in the minds of these masses. But Arab national unification is impossible without a struggle to overthrow
Mashreg.
imperialist domination, which is the root cause of the present balkanization, And genuine
The Palestinian Struggle
anti-imperialist
struggle means at the same time struggle also against the ruling classes in the Arab countries.
nation which is under direct foreign rule. The Palestinian
The political independence of the Arab countries
armed resistance movement which developed after the was achieved as a result not of a victorious popular revolution, but of inter-imperialist rivalry and a com1967 war regarded its task as confined to Palestine alone;
it saw itself as a national liberation movement of the promise between the imperialist powers and the local
Palestinians alone. Even those Palestinian left-wing groups ruling classes. As a result of this compromise, the local
that favoured the idea of a socialist revolution, relegated ruling classes have achieved the maximum concession
it to a separate second stage
they could get from imperialism. Direct foreign political rule was ended and has been replaced by a neoto the dangers inherent in it. In an article entitled "The colonialist arrangement, consisting of an alliance berween
struggle in Palestine must lead to Arab revolution",
the local ruling classes in which the
imperialism and
latter have become junior partners in exploiting
published in Black Dwar/ (14 June 1969), we said: "The
balance of forces, as well as theoretical considerations, working masses of the region. Both sides are interested in keeping this alliance, since both are afraid of a
show the impossibility of confining the struggle to one
country. What is the balance of forces? The Palestinian socialist revolution which would put an end to their profits
people are waging a battle where they confront Zionism, and privileges. Thus both imperialism and its local junior
which is supported by imperialism; from the rear they partners have a stake in the continuation of the status quo
are menaced by the Arab regimes and by Arab reaction, and are ready to defend it tooth and nail.
which is also supported by imperialism. As long as
The local ruling classes have also developed their own localist economic interests, those of one country comimperialism has a real stake in the Middle East, it is peting with those of another. This economic rivalry has
unlikely to withdraw its support for Zionism, its natural
ally, and to permit its overthrow; it will defend it to the led to political contradictions and conflicts, encouraged
last drop of Arab oil. On the other hand imperialist by imperialism. All these economic and political conflicts,
interests and domination in the region cannot be shattered as well as the fact that national unification requires an
without overthrowing those junior partners of imperialist anti-imperialist struggle and a mobilization of the masses, make the local ruling classes not only incapable of
exploitation, the ruling classes in the Arab world. The
conclusion that must be drawn is not that the Palestinian achieving national unification, bur actually opposed to it
people should wait quietly until imperialist domination is - though they pay lip-service to it in order to deceive the masses. It follows from all this thar national unificaoverthrown throughout the region, but that it must rally
to itself a wider struggle for the political and social tion — the main national problem of the Arabs in the
liberation of the Middle East as a whole... The formula Mashreg — cannot be achieved without overthrowing the
that restricts itself to Palestine alone, despite its revolupresent ruling classes, ie. a socialist revolution.
tionary appearance, derives from a reformist attitude
In Europe, the solution of the national problem was part and parcel of the tasks of the bourgeois revolution.
which seeks partial solutions, within the framework of But in the third world, the local propertied classes have
conditions now existing in the region. In fact, partial proved incapable of carrying our a bourgeois-democratic
solutions can only be implemented through a compromise revolution. Therefore, the unfulfilled tasks of such a
with imperialism and Zionism.
revolution have been left to the proletariat to solve in a socialist revolution. The coming revolution in the Arab
governments encouraged the attitude
the Palestinian groups, according to which they were East cannot be a national-democratic, bur only a socialist one — led by the working class, relying on an alliance
to confine their struggle to Palestinian issues only: The
very mobilization of the masses in the Arab countries — with the peasantry. Either a proletarian socialist revolueven if only for the Palestinian cause - threatens the tion, or none at all
By the very nature of its tasks, this socialist revoluexisting regimes. These regimes therefore wish to isolate tion can be conceived only as a revolution of the whole
the Palestinian struggle and to leave it entirely to the
Palestinians. The Arab governments — both reactionary Mashreq. This does not mean that it must occur simultaneously in all parts of the region; what it does mean is
and "progressive' — are trying to buy stability for their
regimes with a ransom to the Palestinian organizations. that even if ir starts in one part of the region it must
Moreover, the governments want to use this financial aid be conducted under the banner of an all-Arab revolution,
to direct the Palestinian struggle along their own politically because its immediate political aim will be to establish
convenient lines, to manipulate it and to utilize it merely a united socialist Mashreg. Moreover, a revolution in one Arab couniry will draw an immediate intervention by
as a means of bargaining for a political solution acceptable the ruling classes of the whole region, supported by
to them... The four great powers are now meeting to
16
The revolution in the Mashreg is thus necessarily The Palestinian Arabs are the only part of the Arab At the time we criticized this rendency, and pointed In the same article we pointed our why the Arab
prevailing among
reach an agreed solution which will then be imposed on the region. If the Arab governments achieve their aim, through this solution, they will be prepared to desert the Palestinians, and even take an active part in a political and physical liquidation of the Palestinian movement. The four powers will probably insist on this as a condition for a political settlement.
This analysis and prognosis was proved to be correct to the letter by subsequent events, especially the smashing of the guerilla forces in Jordan by the Hashemite regime in September 1970, with the complicity of the other Arab regimes and the support of imperialism and Israel. We can only reiterate the conclusion that we drew in that article. The Palestinian problem can only be solved through an all-Arab socialist revolution, and within the framework of a united socialist Arab East. The Problem of the Israeli Nation
In addition to the national problem of the Arabs themselves, there exists also the problem of the non-Arab national communities living in the Mashreg: the Kurds in Iraq, the South-Sudanese and the Isracli Jews. The solution of this problem too is among the tasks of the coming all-Arab socialist revolution. It therefore should be considered in the context of the united socialist Arab East which that revolution will set up.
As for the Kurds and the South-Sudanese, there is a wide agreement throughout the Arab left that these, as
nationalities, should be granted the right to oppressed
self-determination. The case on which there is no such agreement is that of the Israeli Jews. The main arguments against granting them the right of self-determination are (a) that they are not a nation, and (b) that even if they are a nation, they are an oppressing one. Sometimes it is also argued that to grant them the right to self-determination means to accept Zionism and recognize State of Isracl.
The idea that the Isracli Jews do not constitute a
LEVINE
The Life of a Revolutionary
"We Communists are all dead men
on leave...I do not know if you will extend
my leave or whether i shall have to join
Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg...
But I know, whatever your verdict,
events cannot be stopped...
We have all of us tried to the best
of our knowledge and conscience to do
our duty towards the international,
the Communist World Revolution."
Published by Saxon House at E2.50.
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nation is a myth, a piece of wishful thinking based on lack of familiarity with the actual facts. In reality, they satisfy all the generally accepted criteria for nationhood First, they live concentrated on a continuous territory. It is true that they obtained this territory unjustly, by a process of colonization at the expense of another people But there are many other nations which developed as such on a territory conquered from others. One can, and should, condemn such depredations; but value judgements are irrelevant to the objective question of defining nationhood.
Second, they have a common language, Hebrew. It is true that Hebrew had been for centuries a dead language and has been revived artificially for political motives. But the objective result is nevertheless that the Israeli Jews have Hebrew as their common language, which they use both in literature and in daily life. In this language they have developed a new culture which is quite specific and different from the cultures of the various Jewish communities in East or West.
Third, the Israeli Jewish community has its own common socio-economic structure, with its own class differentiation, as in other capitalist societies. That the Israeli cconomy is heavily subsidized by imperialism does not change the basic fact that the Israeli socio-economic system exists as a real and specific entity
Finally, all these factors have helped to create an Isracli national consciousness, It is true that Zionist ideology has helped the formation of this consciousness by artificially fostering a synthetic Jewish national consciousness, which is supposed to embrace not just the Israeli Jews but all Jews around the world. The means used by Zionism have been self-contradictory. It revived Hebrew in order to foster the attachment of the various Jewish communities to each other and to their ancient history. But since this revival succeeded only in Palestine, the
the actual result was to sever the cultural ties of the Israeli Jews to the Jewish communities in their various places of origin. Similarly, in order to encourage the immigration of Jews to Palestine,
against the culture and mentality of the Jewish communities in the diaspora; in this too it helped to create a separate Israeli culture and mentality. But since the aim of Zionism is the ingathering of all Jews into Israel, and since it needs the material and moral help of world Jewry, Zionism is at the same time doing its best to combat this feeling of separateness of the Isracli Jews and to strengthen their feeling of identity with all Jews around the world. Thus under the pressures of Zionist ideology on the one hand and the influence of their real material conditions on the other, the Israeli Jews find themselves in a psychological conflict between a Zionist all-Jewish "national consciousness" and an Isracli national consciousness. When Zionism is defeated, the Israeli Jews will not lose all national consciousness; while their synthetic all-Jewish "national consciousness" will tend to wither away, their specific Israeli national consciousness will on the contrary tend to be reinforced
It is sometimes argued that the Israeli Jews cannot be a nation, since there is a constant stream of immigration to Israel, so that at any given time a considerable proportion of the Jews there are new arrivals, with their own language, culture etc. But in this the Israeli Jews are no different from any other nation created by immigrant settlers. In all such cases, once the national character of the older settlers crystallized, the new immigrants were soon assimilated. Mass immigration did not have to be stopped before an American nation was created.
17
Zionism struggled
Israel and the Arab Socialist Revolution
[p.18 checked against the scan, 2026-10-06; italics in print: in itself, per se]
As to argument (b) above, it is true that it is ridiculous to talk about granting the right to self-determination to an oppressing nation. An oppressing nation is in no need of being granted such a right: it has not only appropriated this right for itself, but is denying it to others! Clearly, the right to self-determination is meaningful only in the case of a nation which is denied, or in danger of being denied, such a right.
At present, the Israeli Jews are an oppressing nation. This is so because of certain conditions: the domination of Zionism, its connections with imperialism, the aggressive and colonizing rôle it is playing in the Mashreq. But what is being discussed here is not the right of self-determination for the Israeli Jews now, in the present context. What is here under discussion is the programme of the socialist Arab revolution. A victorious Arab socialist revolution implies the overthrow of Zionism and of the entire Zionist state structure, together with the liquidation of imperialist domination in the Mashreq. Under such circumstances the Israeli Jews would not remain an oppressor nation; they would become a small national minority in the Arab East. The question which we are raising, and which all revolutionaries of the region must raise, is how this national minority should be dealt with.
There are only three possibilities: expulsion from the region, forcible annexation or, finally, granting them the right to self-determination. As socialists, we are totally opposed to the first and second possibilities. There remains only the third possibility: self-determination. To deny them this right would in itself reduce them to the status of an oppressed nation, and the maintenance of a proletarian state is not compatible with the oppression of national minorities.
It should be stressed that the status of being oppressed or an oppressor is not immutable; being oppressed is no guarantee against becoming an oppressor. The Jews have been oppressed, but those of them who have immigrated to Palestine have become part of Zionist oppression. Similarly the Arabs, who are now oppressed, would by denying the Israeli Jews' right to self-determination become themselves oppressors.
It must be clearly understood that self-determination does not automatically mean separation. What it does mean is that the decision whether to separate or to remain in the same state is to be taken by the minority nation, not imposed on it by the majority. In the specific case of the Israeli Jews we do not recommend a Jewish state separate from the socialist Arab union. Such a separate state would not in fact be viable economically, militarily or politically. If Israel has existed so far, that is only thanks to imperialist support. Liberated from Zionism and imperialism, the Israeli Jews will have no viable alternative other than to integrate (preserving only some degree of autonomy) in the socialist union of the Mashreq. But in our view, the chances for a successful integration of this kind will be considerably increased if the decision about it is left to the Israeli Jews themselves. Conversely, denying them the right to self-determination will tend to strengthen their separatism and create a problem of an oppressed national minority struggling for separation. The task of struggling for integration is primarily that of the revolutionaries of the national minority. The revolutionaries belonging to the national majority should not try to enforce a decision on the minority.
Our position is not abstract, it does not consider the national problem per se, but is completely determined by our understanding of the strategy of the socialist revolution in the Arab East. The inclusion of the right of self-determination to the Israeli Jews in the programme of the revolution will help the course of that revolution. It presents to the Israeli masses an alternative to Zionism, and thus makes it possible to attract sections of these masses to the side of the revolution. It is true that it is not impossible for the socialist revolution to triumph in the Mashreq even without the support of any section of the Israeli masses. But without such support, the course of the revolution will certainly be much more difficult and bloody. Denying them the right to self-determination will push all Israeli Jews to the side of counter-revolution: they will fight to the bitter end because they will not see any acceptable alternative to Zionism.
Finally, does not granting the right of self-determination to the Israeli Jews mean accepting Zionism and recognizing Israel? On the contrary, it means just the opposite. Such a right can only be granted, will only become meaningful, when Zionism and the present Israeli state are overthrown.
But what about the borders within which the Israeli Jews will be allowed to exercise their right to self-determination? And does not this right conflict with the rights of the Palestinian Arab refugees? The answers to these two questions are inter-connected. Of course, the Israeli Jews' right to self-determination must not infringe the right of the Palestinian Arabs to be repatriated and rehabilitated. But even after their repatriation and rehabilitation, there will still be a continuous territory inhabited by an overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews. In that territory they will exercise the right to self-determination. The right of self-determination has nothing to do with the borders of Israel, or with any other borders that can be drawn on the map at this moment.
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closely interwoven with an account of the
party (pp. 10-11), he simply lists the
growing awareness
"institutional' errors committed by the
problem
Bolsheviks (the banning of factions; the
among revolutionary Marxists and their
REVIEWS
attempt to solve it both in theory and in
introduction of one-man management;
practice. Mandel criticizes those (like
the espousal of the single-party principle
- errors which necessarily aided
the
Socialisme ou Barbarie or Solidarity)
On Bureaucracy
who do not understand the material roots
polítical expropriation of the proletariat
a Marzint analysi
(p. 28). But he does not fully bring out
of this problem, as well as those (like
Ernest Mandel
Deutscher) who are fatalistic about it.
or give adequate emphasis to the relationMandel's account takes issue with
ship between proletarian democracy and
many common mistakes regarding the
the nature of the vanguard party of the
relationship between the working class
proletariat. It is, therefore, to a great
and its bureaucracy. The most common
extent left to the reader to put together
some of the key lessons of On Barcanmistake, mostly due to ignorance, is to
cracy.
believe that degeneration like that of the
Stalinist era would be impossible in an
The Leninist theory of the party is
advanced capitalist country. This is to
based on a double principle: the need
a combination of
for a party of professional revolutionaries
forget that only
favourable economic conditions, interthat necessarily organizes only a minority
national spread of revolution and a
of the proletariat, and the need for the
party to be rooted in the masses. The
principled revolutionary leadership can
effectively check the spread of bureau-