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The
Histadrut: Continuity and Change
Introduction
The Histadrut ('The Federation') was established in 1920 as the General Federation of Hebrew Workers in the Land of Israel in an effort by the two rival major labor Zionist parties, Ahdut Ha’Avodah and Ha’Poel Ha’Tzair, to coordinate Jewish labor matters. Until 1948 the Histadrut incorporated the primary economic infrastructure of the Jewish Yishuv (Zionist community) in Palestine, controlling the mainstream Zionist instruments of colonization, economic production and marketing, labor employment and defense (the Haganah), with trade union activity as only one division its activities.
In the period of the British Mandate Government of Palestine (1922-1948) a modus vivendi based on a de facto division of labor was established between the colonial British Government, the World Zionist Organization (WZO)/ Jewish Agency (JA) and the Histradrut. The colonial government was in charge of enforcing ‘law and order’, security and taxation, the WZO/JA represented the Yishuv before the British Government and controlled foreign relations and fundraising, and the Histadrut managed and developed the economic infrastructure of the Yishuv, directed the political mobilization of the Jewish workers, and controlled the Zionist organized labor force.
The Histadrut established, among others, the network of the Kibbutz, Moshav and other agricultural cooperative settlements; the General Sick Fund (Kupat Holim Kelalit); the educational network of kindergartens and schools (Workers Section); the daily newspaper Davar; a publishing house (Am Oved); construction companies (Solel Boneh); industrial and manufacturing concerns and holding companies (KUR); housing associations (Shikun Ovdim); banks (Bank Hapoalim); insurance companies (Ha’Sneh); tourism (Histour); agricultural marketing companies (Tenuvah); supplies company (Ha’Mashbir); labor exchange offices for unemployed workers.
In other words the Histadrut, rather than being a trade union federation in the social democratic European sense of the term, was founded together with the WZO/JA as a primary forerunner institution of the State of Israel in the making. After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Histadrut developed to become the second largest employer in Israel, which also had a Department for Trade Unions. Half a century after its establishment, Histadrut owned enterprises contributed just under 20 percent of Israel's Gross National Product (GNP). Needless to say that in these circumstances it was difficult for the Histadrut to maintain a balance between its interests as the second largest employer in Israel (second to the state) and the trade union interests of the workers, including its own employees organized in the framework of the Histadrut Department for Trade Unions. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, however, the Histadrut underwent progressive change, reflecting and responding to economic, social and political changes inside Israel, in the Middle East region and the world as a whole.
The changes began immediately in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel when in 1948 certain functions hitherto under the control of the Histadrut, e.g., education and labor exchanges, were transferred to the state. Other functions, mainly in the area of agricultural settlements, were intensified.
These changes culminated in 1994 when MK Haim Ramon's New Histadrut list (RAM) won plurality in the May 1994 elections for the 17th Histadrut General Congress (46.42 percent of the vote) and Haim Ramon became Chairman. Under his leadership the bureaucratic and corporate structure of the Histadrut was reformed. The reforms were officially launched at the 17th Histadrut General Congress convened in two sessions, session one in July 1994 and session two (the "Session of Reforms") in January 1995. At this time, the Histadrut was renamed the New Histadrut (New General Federation of Workers).
The reforms included the overall sale of the Histadrut lucrative industrial and manufacturing assets as well as other holdings (e.g., KUR, Bank Hapoalim) in the private market. The sale allowed the Histadrut to plug its mounting financial deficits and also reduced the degree of conflict of interests between the interests of the Histadrut as employer and the duties of the Histadrut Department for Trade Unions.
This paper aims to consider some milestones in this process of change.
Change of Name of the Histadrut and Arab Membership
True to its name and commitment to Zionist ideology and practice, until 1960 the Histadrut did not allow membership of Arab citizens of Israel into its ranks. It was only in 1960 at the 9th Histadrut convention that legal provisions were made permitting membership in the Histadrut to Arab workers citizens of Israel. In 1966, the 10th Histadrut convention introduced the official name change from the 'General Federation of Hebrew Workers in the Land of Israel' to the 'General Federation of Workers in the Land of Israel' and corresponding adjustments were made in the constitution of the Histadrut. The reference to 'Hebrew' workers was removed from the name of this Histadrut and from Chapter One, Article (1) of the Constitution ('The Foundations of the Histadrut’), otherwise leaving the original pre-1966 text intact.
The change of the official name of the Histadrut was strongly debated, and through the debate, the underlying motives for the introduction of the change were revealed. Prominent among the opponents of the change was future Prime Minister, Member of Knesset (MK) Shimon Peres, then representing the Israel Workers' List (Rafi). According to Mr. Peres:
The question of the change of name will become more serious if we recall that though the name of the Histadrut Federation implies no limitation, it does imply a commitment. Are we not a federation aiming - and not just chanting in its anthems - for Aliyah (Jewish immigration)? A federation dealing with the absorption of Aliyah? A federation dealing with the teaching of the Hebrew language? This is clearly a general federation. This is clearly a Hebrew federation in Israel. Let us not make it nameless. Let us not make it devoid of identity. Let us not deny its anthems. Let us not manipulate its challenges. This is not a federation that ends with a question mark. I heard that one of the additional arguments for change of name is: What will they say in the world? I do not consider the proposed apologetics as necessary.
The late MK Israel Yeshaayahu, Chairman of the Histadrut Standing Committee, responded to the comments made by Shimon Peres above assuring him that although a new reality has been created with the opening of the gates of the Histadrut to Arab workers, and although it was necessary to effect a change in the name of the Histadrut to make it compatible with the changes effected by this new reality, 'the content and the mission of the Histadrut' were not thereby altered.
The change of name entailed the removal of the term 'Hebrew' - but not the removal of the reference to the 'Land of Israel'. The amendment proposed by the Israeli Communist Party (MAKI) to alter the name of the Histadrut to the 'General Federation of Workers in Israel' was turned down. In 1966, the Histadrut saw no reason to replace its commitment to the Zionist mission in the Land of Israel for the territorially more modest Zionist commitment inside the boundaries of the State of Israel.
It is also important to point out that Israel is an apartheid state, and that all Zionist parties and institutions - political and other differences notwithstanding - are committed to the aim of guaranteeing in law an ethnic majority of 'Jewish' citizens in the State of Israel. The watershed debate inside Israeli political, economic and military establishments, including the Histadrut, is how 'Jewish' ethnocracy can be best guaranteed in law and practice.
One year later, the Israeli victory in the War of 1967 indeed gave ample scope for the Histadrut to demonstrate that the saichange of name did not in any way entail alternation in the Zionist mission of the Histadrut. The General Federation of Labor in the Land of Israel effectively accommodated itself to the reality of post-1967 Israeli occupation, abandoning the Palestinian-Arab workers of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to the most extreme and degrading forms of economic exploitation and social and political repression.
The late MK Israel Yeshaayahu, however, was both right and wrong. The change of name did not in any way effect the content and the colonial mission of the Histadrut, especially not in the area of Zionist agricultural settlements. But, in parallel, the opening of the gates of membership in the Histadrut (first the Histadrut trade union structures, and subsequently the Workers' Company) to Arab workers who were citizens of Israel did contribute significantly to the progressive empowerment of the Palestinian-Arab community in Israel, inside the governing institutions of the Histadrut as well as outside.
It seems that the last bastion of Histadrut Zionist exclusion of non-Jewish members, first and foremost the Arab citizens of Israel, remains the land. In the area of corporate Zionist agricultural settlement the body of the Histadrut remained officially exclusively Hebrew, notably the Kibbutz and Moshav cooperative agricultural settlements. To the best of my knowledge there has not been to date a single admission of an Arab citizen of Israel as a Kibbutz and/or Moshav member. Whereas the name of the Histadrut was changed to remove the reference to 'Hebrew' workers from its title, as was the name of the Workers' Company (see below) – the name of the holding company of all cooperative Kibbutz and Moshav settlements, Nir Shitufi, remained unaltered highlighting the apartheid nature of this particular so-called experiment in socialism (see further, below).
As noted above, the name of the Histadrut was officially changed again at the 17th Histadrut General Congress from the 'The General Federation of the Workers in the Land of Israel' ('the Histadrut') to the 'The New General Federation of Workers' ('the New Histadrut’), as was the Histadrut logo (see below).
Such changes taking take place over the years need to be understood in the context of the progressive process of empowerment of the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel. These citizens, together with Hebrew democratic citizens of Israel, have since 1948 pursued all avenues of struggle against the official policies of discrimination by all Israeli governments as well as all Zionist institutions, including the Histadrut.
Over the decades, the sustained struggles of the Palestinian-Arab community in Israel, highlighted by the ‘Day of the Land’ in 1976, can boast of considerable achievements outside and inside the Histadrut, including the appointment of Arab members to the management of the Workers' Company.
Hopefully, this process of empowerment together with the progressive integration of the Israeli economy into the globalized economic market (privatization, including the Histadrut-controlled corporations) may lead to the breakdown of the last bastion of Zionist apartheid settler institutions, notably, to the admission of Arab citizens of Israel to Kibbutz and Moshav and other cooperative settlements.
Human rights organizations in Israel are applying increasing attention to this subject, pioneered by Al-Beit: Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Israel.
Change of Name of the Workers' Company
As noted above, the Workers' Company was established in 1923 as the 'General Cooperative Company of the Hebrew Workers in the Land of Israel'. The first aim of the Company was “to unite on a cooperative foundation the Hebrew workers of the Land of Israel in all professions of labor, both manual and spiritual” (Article 1). To advance this aim, the Articles of Association of the Workers' Company empower the Company to engage in every conceivable settlement, financial, manufacturing and other economic activity.
As noted above, the Workers' Company represented considerable economic muscle, manufacturing some 20 percent of Israel's GNP. At its heyday, the Workers' Company had serious interests in almost all branches of Israeli economy including agricultural production, fishing, shipping, food processing, water works, mining, metal industries, construction, transport, retail, banking, arms manufacture, insurance, electronics, tourism and publishing.
The process of selling Histadrut manufacturing and other assets to the private market in order to plug progressive Histadrut financial deficits began before Haim Ramon won the leadership of the Histadrut. It became official overall policy at the 17th Histadrut General Congress, from which point it was pursued by the New Histadrut in an accelerated manner.
In parallel, as part and parcel of the New Histadrut reforms, the aims of the Workers' Company were also altered radically in 1994 and 1995. Pre-1994, the Company aimed to “unite on a cooperative foundation the Hebrew workers of the Land of Israel in all professions of labor, both manual and spiritual” (1923 Constitution) and to “initiate, maintain and carry out the economic and market activities of the General Federation of Workers in the Land of Israel” (1967 amendment). In 1994, the aim to “make available the properties of the Workers’ Company ... to the Histadrut for the purpose of realizing its [the Histadrut's] objectives, provided that making such properties available to the Histadrut as aforementioned not prejudice the ability of the [Workers] Company to uphold all its [financial] obligations on such dates as they may be due” was added (1994 & 1995 amendment). Under this last amendment the vast proceeds of the sale of the Workers' Company assets were made available to the Histadrut to plug its huge financial deficits (see below).
The change of name of the Workers' Company was effected in 1979 at the 98th Council of the Workers' Company, 13 years after the Histadrut had changed its name. The Workers' Company resolved to change its name from 'General Cooperative Company of Hebrew Workers in the Land of Israel Ltd.' to 'General Cooperative Company of the Workers in the Land of Israel Ltd.'. However, only the name was changed, presumably for the same reasons that motivated the Histadrut to change the name. The constitutional aims of the Workers' Company remained unaltered.
For the Council of the Workers' Company, as for all Zionist bodies and institutions, the legal exclusion of the non-Jew and the apartheid discrimination against the Arab was not a problem; rather, these were fundamental elements in the formulation of the aims. The problem, however, was how to maintain effectively the lie that permitted the state of Israel to project itself in the West as the only 'democracy in the Middle East', and the Histadrut as allegedly a socialist trade union federation, while at the same time maintaining intact their apartheid legal structures and policies.
For this, it seems, the removal of the reference to 'Hebrew Workers' (but not the 'Land of Israel') from the name of the Histadrut and the Workers' Company was sufficient.
Adhering to racism in this context could not be expected to be consistent. Since 1960, the gates of the Histadrut were open to Arab membership, and because each Histadrut member was by constitutional definition also a member of the Workers' Company, a constitutional contradiction was introduced into the legal structure of the Workers' Company. As the Palestinian-Arab community in Israel became progressively more empowered, and as Zionist ideological dogmatism weakened alongside the progressive integration of the Israeli economy into the global market – Arab-Israeli members of the Histadrut have slowly won their way to senior positions in the Workers' Company including the management. Two Arab citizens of Israel, Dr. Hamra Majid and Nimr Ghanem, hold positions in the current management of the Workers' Company.
With regard to the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - Zionist colonization of the lan- the Histadrut continues to vigorously maintain the exclusion of its Arab members, denying them access to membership in Kibbutz and Moshav and other cooperative settlements. Here apartheid still rules undented.
Kibbutz, Moshav and Change of Name of Nir Shitufi
Until 1977, all Kibbutz and Moshav cooperatives in Israel were incorporated as daughter companies of the Histadrut-owned holding company, Nir Shitufi, which then was fully owned and controlled by the Workers' Company, the holding company of Histadrut agricultural, marketing, service and manufacturing corporations and associations. In 1977, the Workers' Company surrendered its controlling share in Nir Shitufi, and control reverted to the ‘Zionist Cooperative Federation for the Settlement of Hebrew Workers.’ Furthermore, in 1977, the Labor Zionist parties (the first Rabin Government) lost the elections to their historical Zionist opponent, the Likud, headed by Menachem Begin. One speculation contends that, fearing Likud takeover of the Histadrut, the Labor leadership sought to protect its settlement and land assets by severing the legal linkage between the Workers' Company and Nir Shitufi. By this, control of Nir Shitufi was directly vested with the Kibbutz and Moshav federations rather than with the Workers' Company and the Histadrut.
Nir Shitufi, however, was sufficiently unknown in the West to allow the reference to 'Hebrew workers' to remain in the name of the company. In 1973, with the restructuring of the company, the name was changed from ' Nir: A Cooperative Company for the Settlement of Hebrew Workers Ltd.' to 'Nir Shitufi: An All-Country Cooperative Association for the Settlement of Hebrew Workers in Israel Ltd.'.
The principle of the legal exclusion of non-Jews is clearly the constitutional unifying norm in all Kibbutz, Moshav and other cooperative agricultural settlements. These remain incorporated as daughter companies of Nir Shitufi. Membership in the Kibbutz or the Moshav constitutionally requires the endorsement of Nir Shitufi. Since Nir Shitufi is an 'All Country Cooperative Association for the Settlement of Hebrew Workers in Israel Ltd.', it is constitutionally obligated to veto the candidacy of non-Jewish Kibbutz and Moshav members.
The claim of the Kibbutz and Moshav cooperative agricultural settlements to socialism is misguided, since they are apartheid settler organizations, constitutionally obligated to exclude and discriminate against non-Jews. The attempts by socialist Zionist parties to reconcile Zionism, socialism and brotherhood among peoples have always been predicated upon a calculated lie.
Where the Kibbutz, the Moshav or Nir Shitufi have turned a blind eye to the admission of European non-Jewish spouses of Kibbutz and Moshav members, they have done so in violation of, rather than in conformity with, the law.
When the same principle is directed against Jews, the practice is rightly condemned as anti-Jewish racism (anti-Semitism). For whatever reason, when such racist principles and practices are applied against Arabs, the international cooperative and trade union movement allows itself to be misguided into embracing the Histadrut and the Israeli agricultural cooperative settlements federation as a legitimate affiliate organization, rather than expelling them from their ranks as racist organizations.
Haim Ramon’s New Histadrut Reforms
The lever for the reform of the Histadrut was forged by MK Haim Ramon as Minister of Health before he decided to run in the 1994 Histadrut elections. As Minister of Health in the second Rabin Government, he pioneered the National Health Law (1995) which denied the Histadrut one of its major sources of income.
Until the passage of the said law, the Histadrut could legally obligate all subscribers of the Histadrut health insurance program (Kupat Holim) to become members of the Histadrut and pay the compulsory dues of what was known as the 'Uniform Tax' (Mas Ahid). This tax was quantified progressively, relative to income, at something like 4-5 percent of the gross salary of the individual member or member family. Since Kupat Holim was the largest health service in the country with many localities, it was often the only health service available. Therefore, membership in the Histadrut was in many areas of the country less than voluntary.
The new law de-coupled this linkage, allowing citizens of the State of Israel to subscribe to the services of the Histadrut-owned Kupat Holim without having to become members of the Histadrut itself. Consequently, the Histadrut suffered an immediate and massive income drop, which became a primary consideration in its decision to accelerate the sale of its Workers' Company assets to the private market. The subsequent election of MK Haim Ramon as Histadrut Secretary-General completed the process.
Following the 1994 elections, the 17th Histadrut General Congress also endorsed the reform of the Histadrut election law to allow direct voting for the chairman of the Histadrut. Whereas previously the Histadrut was headed by a secretary-general, the system of governance in the now became patterned in analogy to the system of governance of the state, with the chairman of the Histadrut exercising 'presidential' powers. The electoral reforms took effect in the 1998 Histadrut elections to the 18th General Congress.
The first chairman of the Histadrut (and the last to be elected under the old system) was MK Haim Ramon, senior member of the Labor Party and former Minister of Health. On the eve of the Histadrut elections he broke away from the Labor Party to launch the New Histadrut list (RAM), which carried him to victory.
The first chairman of the Histadrut to be elected under the rules of the reformed system was Amir Peretz, current Chairman of the Histadrut, who took office following the 1998 elections. (In the 1998 elections Histadrut members placed three separate ballots in the ballot box: one, to elect the Chairman; second to elect their representatives to the region; third, to elect their representative to the General Congress (with women members of the Histadrut having a fourth ballot to the Naamat Working and Volunteer Women's Movement).
In the two years of his chairmanship MK Haim Ramon, steered important and thorough reforms, including changes regarding the name, the structure and the substance of the Histadrut. Having completed the reforms, Ramon returned to the Labor Party, his political home, where he resumed a senior position. The following details exemplify the reforms.
Name: At the 17th General Congress the name was officially changed from the 'The General Federation of the Workers in the Land of Israel' ('the Histadrut') to the 'The New General Federation of Workers' ('the New Histadrut'); the logo changed from depicting a combination of a hammer and an ear of wheat to a logo designed around the Star of David.
Structure: The Histadrut General Congress (Ve'idah) remained in place. Elected every four years in general Histadrut elections on a party-political basis, it currently consists of 2,001 delegates. The Histadrut Council (Mo'etzet Ha’ Histadrut), however, previously elected by the General Congress, was nullified. Instead, the General Congress now elects a new body named Histadrut Parliament (Beit Nivharei Ha’ Histadrut, equivalent to what was until 1994 the Histadrut Executive Committee - Ha’Vaad Ha’Poel). The Histadrut Parliament, currently consisting of 171 delegates, is the highest authority of the Histadrut between one General Congress and the next.
The executive body of the New Histadrut is the Steering Committee (Hanhagat Ha’Histadrut, equivalent to what was until 1994 the Histadrut Coordinating Committee - Vaadah Merkezet). The Steering Committee, consisting of at least 13 and no more than 27 members, is appointed by the Histadrut Chairman on a party-political coalition basis, in a process very much like the forming of a government coalition by the Prime Minister.
Substance: The most dramatic strategic change was the reform of the Workers' Company, most of whose major financial, industrial and manufacturing hwere sold off to the private market by the New Histadrut leadership. By 1996:
As a consequence, the paradigmatic contradiction characterizing the Histadrut since its establishment in 1920, the conflict between its interests as the second largest employer in Israel and its trade union interests was now greatly reduced.
Following the reforms introduced by Haim Ramon the Histadrut of today is much 'leaner' and closer to a trade union in the social-democratic European sense of the term than its earlier form.
Having said that, however, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Histadrut remains very much committed to the values underpinning all Zionist parties, and first and foremost, to the aim of guaranteeing in law an ethnic majority of 'Jewish' citizens in the State of Israel.
Conclusion
There is no question that globalization and privatization weaken the hold of the Zionist ethnocratic institutions inside Israel and abroad, and in this regard work to the benefit of democratization of the Israeli political establishment as a whole, and the Histadrut establishment in particular, and therefore to the benefit of the Palestinian people as a whole, and the Palestinian citizens of Israel in particular.
There is a limit, though, to incremental reforms in institutions operating in the legal framework of apartheid states. It seems that in order to bring the incremental changes outlined above to full fruition, Israel has yet to undergo the kind of structural legal transition that led to the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the transformation of the Republic of South Africa from an apartheid state into a democratic state.
Bibliography and Interviews
Books and Pamphlets:
Gabriel Bartal, The General Federation: Structure and Activities (Hebrew), The Executive Committee, the General Federation of Workers in the Land of Israel, Tel Aviv, 1991 (updated edition).
Uri Davis, Israel: Utopia Incorporated - A Study In Class, State And Corporate Kin Control, Zed Press, London, 1977.
Uri Davis, Israel: An Apartheid State, Zed Books, London, 1987 (second imprint) 1990.
Lev Greenberg, The Histadrut Above All (Hebrew), Nevo Publishing, Jerusalem, 1993.
Report of the Chairman of the Histadrut, The New General Federation of Workers, Spokesperson and Information Unit, 30 July 1995.
Interviews:
Advocate Taliyah Livni (Head of Histadrut Legal Department), 22 December 1998; Advocate Osnat Shtir (Secretary to the Histadrut Steering Committee), 6 January 1999; Ilan Gal-Pe'er (Director, Library, Pinhas Lavon Institute for the Research of the Labor Movement), 6 January 1999; Einat Berakhah (Legal Advisor to the Workers' Company), 26 January 1999; Moshe Horowitz (Secretary to the Histadrut Parliament), 26 January 1999.
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