Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 311)

غرض

عنوان

Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 311)

المحتوى

workers’ attempts to form separate labour organizations were often
disrupted and Arab union leaders were frequently jailed. When the
first Arab Labour Congress was held in 1930, less than half of the
labour delegates could attend, the rest were either in prison or under
house arrest. Moreover, labour newspapers were often banned, workers’
strikes were violently crushed and licenses to form unions were almost
always denied. (57)
To form their own organizations Arab workers did not only have to
face the opposition of the state. They also had to combat the
Histadrut which often tried to intervene in their affairs and, in more
than one instance, broke their strikes. (58) Perhaps more important
was the fact that these workers had to fight an internal enemy for
whom organized labour had become a threat to their political status.
During the 1930s, when Arab workers' organizations were formed
in almost every major city and village in Palestine, traditional
leaders, mainly Heads of large Hamulas, began to feel threatened. Ina
move to counter the growing power of labour organizations they began
to form similar organizations and to infiltrate the labour movement.
Their role as mediators petween the state employer and the Arab
workers was more disruptive than beneficial to the labour movement.
(59)
The indigenous Palestinian working class struggled at various
fronts. At the pure economic front, workers' demands for higher pay,
less working hours and better working conditions were voiced through
the frequent strikes they waged. Between 1931 and 1933, not a single
month passed without at least one strike. These strikes affected
almost every industrial sector and thousands of Arab workers. (60)
In 1935, one year before the 1936-39 revolution, striking Arab
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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation

تاريخ

١٩٨٩

المنشئ

Nahla Abdo-Zubi

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