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Peace strategy'
disrupted
Recent visitor Vincent Caprani looks at the latest developments
in Israel/Palestine.
HEN ISRAEL'S PRIME minister and Labour
V Party leader, Yitzhak Rabin, came to power
in last June's Israeli elections, his coalition government declared an aim of Palestinian autonomy within nine months'. This gestation period expired in March, a particularly violent month dubbed
birth of peace and security as promised by Rabin, there has been a bloody breach, the violent rage of the Intifada and vicious Israeli repression.
During March, Rabin cut short a visit to the US due to a sharp escalation of violence. Thirteen Jews were killed and many more injured in a wave of surprise attacks, usually carried out by
Israel/Palestine • 11
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stench, its 80,000 inhabitants PLO supporters, The worst packed into two square ki- of these was in Rafah, south- Who are Hamas?
ROBABLY ABOUT 50% Pto 60% of Gazans now support either Hamas or other Islamic fundamentalist groups, in that they would vote for them in local elections ete, although many of them are not religious. Much of the Hamas support is based on its implacable opposition to the talks, its resolve to destroy Israel, ita acts of individual terrorism, and that, at this stage at least, it is not corrupt.
Hamas is an acronym for the Arabic Islamic resistance movement, and the word itself means courage or zeal.
It emerged from the Islamic Brotherhood in early 1988, during the first few months of the Intifada.
At that stage the Israelis encouraged it as a counterweight to the PLO, a strategy that has dramatically backfired Iran gives it $30 million a year and it receives large lone Palestinians. In one incident, a Palestinian stabbed six schoolgirls and their teacher. Virtual hysteria gripped the Jewish population. National police commander, Yaacov Terner, publicly called on Jews to arm themselves, and the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, approved the expansion of the police force by 3,000 to 21,000. On 30 March, Rabin announced the 'sealing off of the West Bank and introduced a new phrase, 'Sovereign Israel', into the diplomatic vocabulary. Over the first nine months of the Labour-led coalition, the Middle East peace talks, for the Jewish population, were increasingly discredited; whilst a veritable dichotomy developed among the Palestinians, supporters and opponents of the talks. This question became particularly sharp in the Gaza strip. Hostility to the peace talks by Palestinians became deeper and more widespread as the Palestinian delegation to the talks showed their willingness to make more and greater concessions to the Israelis.
One of the delegates, Fisal Husseini, in an interview with the Jerusalem Report, (30 July 1992), said that he was prepared to stop the stone throwing in return for confidence-building measures by Rabin. Days later his car was stoned by youth in the West Bank. He jumped out and proclaimed, I am a representative of the Pales- 12 • |srael/Palestine sums of money from around not only to buy arms, but the world.
Over the first two years of its existence, its founder, Yassin, conducted a struggle against the method of individual terror. But an influx of Intifada-hardened youth into the Hamas ranks com- fundamentalism. Mosques, by pelled Yassin and his elderly supporters to acquiesce.
Two years ago 1 was brought to a splendid house in Gaza city. It belonged to a PLO chief. About one mile from its gate was Jabalya anti-left. Its emergence saw refugee camp - squalor and many violent clashes with lometres - a hotbed of the Intifada.
In contrast, Yassin is a disabled old man who has lived a life of poverty and squalor.
In the years before he was imprisoned, he rarely left his shack in the impoverished PLO members as two women Zaitoun quarter of Gaza city. on board were not wearing His organisation uses its cash veils. in the West Bank'.
Last year another partment.
outside the primarily to build Mosques, schools, give out welfare to the most impoverished Palestinians, and give financial aid to the families of political prisoners, often of prisoners who are opposed to Islamic the way, are not simply places of prayer. They are also social and sports centres, often they are the only facilities in a wide area.
Hamas though is bitterly ern Gaza strip, when last October 2,000 PLO and Hamas adherents battled it out. One person was killed and dozens seriously injured. The rioting started after Hamas supporters stoned a bus carrying tinians. One of the youth held up a stone and said, this is a representative of the Palestinians Hanan Ashrawi, delegate, implored Palestinians in the US to vote for Bush during the presidential elections. Earlier, when the talks were in Washington, the Palestinian delegates bragged that they had written their speeches in conjunction with the US state de- From early autumn there was an intensification of the Intifada.
When the Israelis tried to capture the student leadership of El-Najah University in the West Bank, the students defended them and a week long siege ensued. The siege ended when the Palestinian delegation intervened and arranged for the student leaders to be deported to Jordan. Their original position on the question of those deported to Lebanon was that they talks until Israel promises not to
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deport any more Palestinians'. Under pressure from the Palestinian masses, they then said that they would not take part in the talks until all of the deportees were returned.
an intensification From early autumn there was of the Intifada. In Gaza there were daily clashes with the state with increasingly wider layers of the population involved. The fifth anniversary of the Intifada was on 9 December. It was marked by an sharp upturn of struggle. Five years of Intifada saw the deaths of 19 Israeli soldiers in the occupied territories. But in the first five days of its sixth year, five more were killed. During December and January alone, the Israelis killed 27 Palestinians and wounded 911, including 355 children under 16 years old.
-HIS WAS The backdrop to Rabin's order, supporters of Hamas and other Islamic fundamentalist groups. Over 400 were deported, more than the total of deportations since the 1967 war. The rest were put in prison, where they remain. Lebanon refused to admit the deportees and Israel faced international outcry. The Palestine Liberation Oganisation (PLO), who had publicly attacked Hamas in the weeks before the expulsion, suspended the peace talks in protest.
Rabin thought he could deal a blow not just to the Islamic fundamentalists, but to the Intifada itself.
Rabin acted almost single-handedly in ordering the expulsions. He thought he could deal a blow not just to the Islamic fundamentalists, but to the Intifada itself. Instead, the expulsions sparked a general strike of Arabs inside Israel, the majority of the Palestinians now oppose the talks, and Hamas has been elevated to hero status. Among the 396 deportees still in Lebanon, a split has developed between the Hamas and Islamic Jihad who, of the deportees, number about 50. Two points of divergence have emerged so far. Hamas welcomes Egypt's support of the deportees whilst Jihad refuses its support on the grounds of Eygpt's heavy repression of its own Islamic fundamentalists.
Jihad have also refused an offer to the deportees by Saudi Arabia of a pilgrimage to Mecca at the Saudi's expense. The pilgrimage, timed to coincide with this next round of the peace talks, was designed to take the deportees out of the political picture at that time so as to make it easier for the Palestinian delegation to attend When in February Rabin announced a major climbdown on the deportation question, with one hundred to be allowed to return and the rest within one year, the US and the UN backed away from their threats to Israel. The Arab states, who fear the development of Hamas (in announcing Lebanons refusal to admit the deportees, prime minister Harari referred to them as Israel's garbage), quickly indicated their willingness to continue the talks.
Only the PLO, under enormous pressure from the Palestinian masses, refused at that stage to re enter the talks. But they also greatly fear Hamas and would no doubt ditch the deportees for the resumption of talks if at all possible. have continued anyway with behind the They scenes' talks.
• ABINS CLOSURE Of the West Bank an • Gaza, effectively sacking over 150,000 Pa -lestinian workers who cross the Green Line daily to work in Israel, was initially welcomed by the majority of Israeli Jews. But very quickly, opposition grew to the policy from Israeli farmers and businesspeople who rely on the Palestinians for cheap labour.
Israeli Prime Minister Rabin.
Israel's economic difficulties are causing hardship for many Jewish workers. 150,000 are unemployed. Thousands more are threatened as a number of large employers are in financial state owned, crisis. During the past two years there have been many strikes against government privatisation plans, which have subsequently become rationalisation' programmes. That 20,000 Russian Jews returned home in 1992 is an indictment of Israeli capitalism. Regular strikes, some involving thousands of workers, will continue in Israel over the next The Israeli army plays a central role in Jewish life. Every male must serve three years and every female two, from the age of 18. They do not get paid for this. In addition, every Jew may be Israel/Palestine • 13
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Daily harassment in the West Bank.
called up for service for up to 30 days a year until they are 55 years old. Great esteem has been attached to those regiments. But the Intifada has been central in changing the outlook of the Jewish population to the army.
The Middle East peace talks are now 18 months At the start of organisation of soldiers called Yesh Gul (there is a limit/border) was formed. It campaigned against that war and now campaigns for soldiers to refuse to serve in the occupied territories whilst stating that they are prepared to fight for Israel if attacked by external forces. Punishment for refusal is severe - imprisonment, career ruination and ostrasization at home. One hundred and fifty Yesh Gvul members were imprisoned for refusing service in the war with Lebanon and a (including 42 officers) have been gaoled for refusing serve in the occupied territories to Intifada began.
A few weeks ago Yesh Gul members leafleted schools asking youth not to volunteer for undercover (death) squads. There was uproar from the right. Some members of the Knesset called for them to be tried for mutiny. Support by youth for Yesh Gvul shot up after a right-winger tore up their leaflet on national television. They had to reprint this leaflet three times to satisfy demand. 14 • Israel/Palestine who qualify for the elite Jewish youth.
old.
talks participants.
the Israel/Lebanon war, an supplies on which it depends.
isfied further 171 since the Increasingly, sections of the army are becoming demoralised, with many realising • that soldiers they cannot control the Most Jews territories.
think Gaza is not worth holding on to and many soldiers therefore do not see any point in risking their lives in Gaza, a risk that has increased as more and more arms are being used by the Palestinians.
Just after December's deportations, two Jewish youth produced a leaflet and gave it out on a demonstration. The leaflet was entitled Mery (Rebellion). It called for the setting up of an anti- Zionist youth organisation. Its main demands were for the establishment of a Palestinian state and the overthrow of Zionism, with other demands such as ending the right of return, no deportations etc. Within three days 22 Jewish youth joined them and now they have at least 35 members with a branch in Haifa, two hours north of Tel Aviv. This is a highly significant development among -HE MIDDLE LAST peace talks are now 18 months old. As the talks have wound on, the situation in Israel/Palestine has become increasingly unstable, contrary to the aims of the After the closure of the West Bank, the Israeli cabinet began meeting to discuss ways to formalise segregation'. It wants to reduce its massive costs of repressing the Palestinians, to delegate to the Palestinians aspects of government such as health care, education, refuse collection, civil policing etc, whilst maintaining control over its own security and important resources such as West Bank water Palestinian aspirations cannot ultimately be satwithin these perimeters. The process of revolution that is the Intifada is not being fought so that the Palestinians can fly their flag whilst remaining in abject poverty or so that their repressien can be subcontracted out. The settlers, especially those reactionary settlers on the Gaza Strip, are a stumbling block to the (now very violent) 'peace process'. The Hamas has become a 'destablising factor. It is very unlikely that the status of East Jerusalem will be resolved in the near future. Whatever the outcome of the talks, the situation will remain at least as unstable and volatile as it is at present.
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The Korean miracle ends IN THE FOLLOWING article received by the MIR, Kim, a Korean activist, explains the situation of the working class in South Korea and its history of recent struggle. This includes an important account of developments within the working class, hidden beneath the surface, both prior to and following the revolutionary upsurge of 1987. Sies in the worla, has now- OUTH KOREA, WHICH tries in the world, has now become an industrialised nation.
The Korean economy developed very quickly as the dictatorial governments that held power since the end of the 1950-53 civil war carried through, with the help of the United States, an economic policy directed at expanding exports on the basis of cheap labour. Korean cars can be seen throughout the US and Samsung is well known the world over.
From the mid-1960s the economy grew by 10%, even 15%, a year. They call it a miracle - the Korean wonder. At that time most people were very happy about the achievements because the ideology of industrialisation had been so powerful. Our government did everything for exports, to get foreign currency. Korea became a country for tourists. Everything was available for them at bargain prices.
workers were working Our without a break - no Sundays and 12, even 16 hours a day.
The working week in Korea was in the world. In the longest Korea • 15
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| the 1970s, nearly half a million people died at work. All health and safety rules were ignored and compensation for loss of life or injury laughable. The management at Kitchen Art, for example, did away with the protective guards on the presses, reckoning that at $80 a finger, the increased speed of working gave them more profit. But patient. The government had workers remained promised a bright future, when everyone would begin to live like workers in the West. And workers believed it. The first signal of discontent following the arrest of clothing was in 1970, worker Jon Te Il. He committed suicide, pouring petrol on himself and setting himself on fire. As he burnt, he shouted defiantly for workers' unity and for the eight hour working day. His death had a big effect on workers and especially on the students.
The workers' movement was extremely young. At that time, without any trade union organisation, workers at a shipyard rebelled and came out on strike. All strikes were spontaneous, simply bursting out from below. An organised movement did not begin until after 1980.
The committee felt that armed insurrection was the only way forward.
N 17 MAY, 1980, general Chun Doo-hwan imposed martial law throughout the country, closing the universities and banning strikes and all political activity. The students immediately came out in opposition and began organising demonstrations of defiance, most notably in Kwangju. The army opened fire and began shooting down the students. This caused a wave of protest among the ordinary citizens and they came onto the streets in force against the coup. workers, took up The citizens, especially the arms and established a 'citizens' army. Its leader was a teacher, Yun Sang Won, who perished in the course of these events but whose memory lives to this day as a great hero. For ten days the citizens' army held the city in what became known as the Kwangju commune. But they had only primitive arms, dynamite, grenades and a few guns. The armed forces on the side of the coup had tanks, airplanes and helicopters. When it became obvious that we were going to be defeated, Yun Sang Won called on the youth to go home. "You must survive and be witnesses to what happened. We are the older generation. We will stand the ground and fight and we will die". Nobody knows how many victims there were. The government announced that it was 300. Some say 4,000 and the CIA 2,000, which is the most likely figure.
This event had a huge influence on the movement. 16 • Korea At that time our movement was very primitive but a revolutionary organisation arose calling itself the 'Committee of Democratic Struggle'. Its members, including radical democrats', 'socialists' and 'communists, had drawn the conclusion first of all that the Kwangju uprising was defeated because there was no revolutionary organisation. Secondly, they believed that Korean capitalism, as distinct from in the West, was developing not from below but from above, and the bourgeois was not capable of even carrying out the 'democratic revolution; for that reason, this task fell to the proletariat. The committee felt that an association of workers and students must be established and that armed insurrection would be the only way forward.
A programme was worked out: first to establish a Peoples' Council for a Constitution' as an organ of power and later a provisional government and then, through general elections, to set up a democratic regime. But before calling together a Peoples' Council, strikes should be built up. Students' and workers' committees were therefore organised. Committees of students existed in all colleges and universities. But committees of workers in effect existed only in Seoul.
In 1985 a general strike began which involved 20,000 workers, the biggest strike since the civil war. Ostensibly, the reason for the strike was the suicide of a young woman worker who had been raped by her boss. He had done the same thing many times but the women workers concerned had stayed silent.
But the main reason for the strike was the situation of the working class. They were ready to strike and the girl's suicide was the match that lit the fire.
Two thousand strikers were arrested, but in spite of this, the committee had great authority and strength not only in Seoul, but in all the main cities. At the end of 1985, however, a raid was made on a secret meeting of the leadership of the committee and everyone of them arrested.
Undeterred, other members established a new leadership. A committee was formed also for participation in the 'free' presidential elections promised by the army for 1988. Until then, free elections had virtually never been held in South Korea. The committee planned for important events for 1988 - possibly revolution. That meant preparing cells in the universities and in the factories and collecting arms. They bought arms on the black market and wherever they could.
UT IN 1986, a huge ideological battle opened Bup. The Chue phosophical current appeared. on the scene, coming in from the North. The North Korean regime of Kim Il Sung was interested in the movement in South Korea, and a Korean National Democratic Front (KNDF) was set up. Members of the KNDF held that the most important conflict was not that of class but nationality and it was therefore necessary to unite
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all Koreans in a struggle against US imperialism. These ideas were based on the Chuje philosophy which maintains that what plays the main role in the development of society is not class but man in general and that Marxism is an outdated idea. This is a doctrine worked out by Kim Il Sung for 21st century man. Paradoxically, not only in South Korea but also in the North, it was forbidden to read Marx and Lenin; you could only read Kim I Sung! Unfortunately, most of the students fell for the Chuje philosophy. But the workers didn't - they couldn't accept that there was no need to fight the bourgeoisie. In 1986, a huge ideological battle opened up.
In 1987, an activist was tortured to death in jail. At first the government announced that he had died of an illness but there was an audacious prison at the time who doctor working in the supplied evidence that the man's death had been due to vicious torture.
This caused demonstrations that even the middle class supported. In June 1987 there were demonstrations in Seoul and other cities. Even the farmers in the countryside came out. I remember how they set on fire the headquarters of the political corporation and the editorial offices of the yellow press. The government could not keep the population under control. This went on for a whole month; it was real war. More than a million people would take part in mass demonstrations at any one time.
The government and the ruling class had two alternatives - the army or compromise. At the time I assumed that the government would choose We made hand-grenades and brought the army.
arms. But the wily government went for compromise and announced that there would be free presidential elections.
The petty bourgeois forces, the student movement, the movement of the intellectuals, were satisfied. But our workers' movement was not satisfied with general strike broke out, this victory. A mass especially in the city of Ulsan. The strikes involved large numbers but the middle class did not support them. A temporary lull in the movement began and a split ensued. But there was a single aim - the overthrow of the government. The middle class thought that first of all it was necessary to win presidential elections, which meant voting for the democratic candidate. But' even in the bourgeois opposition there were splits. Consequently, the ruling party candidate, ex-general Roh Tae-woo, won with 36% of the votes while the opposition was unco-ordinated and lost, their two candidates, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, RUSSIA Vladivostock CHINA - NORTH/ KOREA Beijing Tokyo Syongyang a SOUTH i Ulsar KOREA ' Pusa « Kwang] Shanghai TAIWAN winning 28% and 27% respectively. The workers' movement could not even put up its own candidate and declared the elections to be a fraud since socialist forces were banned under the anti-communist law.
•UBSEQUENTLY A NEW, movement began which differed from previous ones. Earlier there had not been a clear socialist movement. The new movement was socialist. Earlier, representatives of different classes were in the movement; this time predominantly workers. The movement got a president strikes. It was called the United Union of Korean Trade Unions', but in fact it was not a trade union as such. We had decided to set up a workers' front which we called a trade union. The character of this was reminiscent of Polish Solidarity, though the programme was completely different. Our programme was orientated towards socialism, you could even say to the USSR model, and Solidarity was nearer to capitalism. The 1988 Korean Olympics also had a big effect on our movement. It forced us to review our evaluation of socialism. Up until then we thought that the USSR was our reliable and loyal support. But Gorbachev had started 'perestrokia' and that set off a heated discussion about socialism amongst the activists in our country. It was the cause of another split in our movement.
Now, many currents exist but the majority of them don't have a particular ideology. Many regard themselves as socialists but in view of the collapse of Stalinism in the ex-USSR, they don't know what to do and sit with folded arms. It has become clear that they are totally confused. What Korea • 17
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Slum conditions in Pusan.
to do and how to act remains a closed book to them. Workers say the USSR had already broken up and that although capitalism is very bad, the USSR was even worse and they don't want to live as people lived in the USSR.
But what is the perspective for Korean capitalism? In spite of the huge growth in production of recent decades, Korea and the 'newly industrialised countries' cannot forever escape the contradictions of capitalism - internal or external. A crisis of overproduction has already started. Korea produces two million cars a year. But the USA has announced the cutting back in imports of foreign cars and Korean workers themselves do not receive enough pay to buy the necessities of life, let alone a car.
Nike
Labo
have ur force
found a cheaper
a che Indo
in Indonesia.
Thanks to strikes and other actions, they have increased the price of their labour. At the Nike shoe factory, for example, the workers have had rises and now receive between 160,000 and 250,000 Won. Before they earnt 80,000 to 120,000 Won. But nevertheless, they still don't have the possibility of buying these shoes that sell at 56,000 to 64,000 Won (there are 800 Won to the dollar). Now this firm has found a cheaper labour force in Indonesia and 50,000 workers in Pulsan will probably find themselves on the streets. Mass sackings have already started.
When Yeltsin recently went to Korea he said that socialism was dead and gone. Many workers think the same at present, but, by an irony of history, thanks to this propaganda and the events in the USSR, with the government convinced that their ideas are no longer dangerous, the works
18 • Korea
of Marx and Lenin are now being published! But the workers' movement is growing.
The December presidential elections will solve none of the workers' problems. Once again, workers didn't have the chance to put forward their own candidate. Just to register a candidate you have to find one billion Won!
Korean workers and students have already shown their readiness to make sacrifices. They have begun to appreciate the international nature of their struggle and the need for a movement not just in one country. In the future they will show they can win.
Postscript
AST DECEMBER SAW saw the election
of Kim Young-sam as the first civilian
president of South Korea since 1961. He succeeded former general Roh Tae Woo, who was elected following the revolutionary upsurge of 1987
In his inaugural speech this February Kim Young-sam promised a 'new Korea'. Three weeks later, however, he introduced his programme for a new economy with the rallying call, "the time has come for sweat and tears... everybody should work harder, conserve more and save more". (The Independent, 22 March, 1993).
The Korean workers have used the democratic interlude of the last six years to enhance their position in society. The Financial Times reports that between 1988 and 1991 wages increased by an average annual rate of 20%, "eliminating Korea's advantage as a source of cheap labour" With record bankruptcies, declining profits and economic growth falling to 4.2% in 1992, it is clear that the new president is set on a collision course with the Korean working class.
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