Re: [marxmail] Bundism, Zionism, and Bolshevism: Review of Molly Crabapple’s New Book

"An appreciative, balanced review by a Marxist revolutionist."

Yes, but

this erudite and well-written review misses the essential point by a mile, maybe by a galaxy.

Crabapple herself is a politician in the sense of a contemporary "tribune of the people." Here - and now - and "here where we live is our own country," she might add.

Her book makes accessible and relatable the perspective of "revolutionists." Here -- Crabapple herself -- is about discovering our common heritage -- because she participates in the big struggle.

The reviewer says she would "often abandon her work to join pro-Palestinian protests." A ridiculous phrase -- and a sectarian tell. Crabapple tackled this project her whole being -- her whole socialist, pro-Palestinian, activist, artist being. She never abandoned it.

She deserves deep respect, as a comrade.

Her book discovers the historic arc and context of her great-grandfather's life, uses the first person liberally, makes asides to Syria and Gaza and Occupy and elsewhere, drawing upon her own life authentically. It is important, and vibrant, and wonderful.

Think about it: Who among us is doing that? And with such panache?

The revolutionists in the eye of her book were the leaders of the Bund and she is telling their story in her own faithful and personal manner. And that is the magic. But she is rigorous too. (Perhaps her style troubled the reviewer?)

For the famous 1903 London congress one simply must quote Crabapple. She is succinct but also in the weeds:

> 
> After three itchy days spent arguing at the Belgian wool cooperative, the
> delegates in their hotel rooms were awakened by knocks. The political
> police had arrive to question them as foreign subversives.

> 
> After some unpleasant nocturnal interrogations, the delegates fled to
> London, where they booked meeting rooms under the pretense they were
> members of a fishing club. The congress mercilessly resumed. Medem
> immediately loathed the British megalopolis. When the steam-powered metro
> stalled, which it often did, its cars filled with black soot. Above
> ground, Medem wandered helplessly between identical apartment blocks while
> street kids, recognizing him as a foreigner, lobbed rotten vegetables at
> his back.

> 
> The congress had dragged on for six weeks when Martov put the Bund out of
> its misery. He demanded the Bund delete a paragraph of its rules that gave
> it the right to organize Jewish workers wherever it liked. It was a
> referendum on the party's autonomy. When the vote came the Bund lost 41-5.

> 
> There was nothing left to say. Liber announced the Bund's withdrawal from
> the RSDLP. The stunned delegates marched out, Medem wrote, as a "piece of
> flesh" torn from a living body.

Two paragraphs later:

> 
> Lenin had won, and though he didn't admit it, Medem had played a part in
> his victory. The Bundists had five delegates, whose votes they could have
> used to extract concessions. Instead, when the moment called for
> ruthlessness, Bundists made speeches, the showily left the room. They kept
> their principles but frittered away their power. Lenin himself was baffled
> by the Bund's exit. "They were actually masters of the situation," he
> later wrote.

A close reading will also find her wincing, yet faithfully telling, when the Bund too-slowly, with an internal struggle, decides to join the Bolshevik demand for peace at the time of the 1917 revolutionary triumph. It is not as simple as "supporting the First World War."

A person who has taken up the world view called historical materialism, I mean here the thoughtful reviewer of the book, we would hope, would look at historical questions at least empirically. On a moral level, we should look to our comrades to show curiosity -- critical criticism if you're old like me -- about it all. History as a discipline itself has a strong scientific aspect, informed by the evidence presented. And in the moment history was -- as it is now -- open-ended. (Epicurus's atomic swerve and all of that too.)

In these respects the Left Voice book review seems to race to the bottom, to judgy and sectarian conclusions. As if Bundism vs. Bolshevism remains the issue today. C'mon.

Delivering judgement that the vigorous humans of the Bund still deserve to have been thrown the "dustbin of history" for not embracing Bolshevism at the right time and in the best way -- and therefore calling into question the value of this work by a comrade in our own midst -- most regrettable!

The well-written review deals in serious terms with huge moments of human history. Yet in a dialectical sense, the value of Crabapple as Marxist historian shines out in its penumbra, for she is someone who would follow the evidence instead of ideology, who would try to stay faithful to the voices of real people. A sense of lives truly lived in the past informs us and recruits us to be our best selves in the present. Perhaps we need an artist? Molly Crabapple appears to be that artist.

Instead, the review's penultimate paragraph concludes:

> 
> The Bund’s internationalism is inspiring a modern generation of activists.
> But the Bund’s principle of Jewish-only organization lacks much relevance
> for today. Especially now that Jews no longer share a compact territory
> and a unique language, but rather live as a dispersed minority in many
> countries, what would a political project of Jewish separatism even look
> like?

Hello hello hello? Relevance? The book title is: **Here Where We Live Is Our Own Country.** Jewish separatism was never the goal of Bund and that is so very loud and clear in the work. Jewish separatism in the recent century is called Zionism -- and one of the points of this project is to demonstrate a Jewish, revolutionist, indeed socialist, tradition against "separatism." This misrepresentation instead suggests that Molly Crabapple's great work deserves our attention and respect, not its dismissal.

Here we are considering the work of a woman of our own time -- an artist, journalist, writer, historian, and crucially, an activist, herself a revolutionist. She chose to immerse herself in the history of one of the most oppressed communities of their time and place, with vital, revealing, relevance to the present events, plus a personal connection, that leads to a compelling introduction to the history of the "left" and indeed, Marxism.

I write this from the perspective of not only a close reading of her book and attention to several interviews readily available but from an in-person event, overflowing with young people. After the talk, the impressive queue of questions! 20-30 year-olds of all walks of life asking sincere questions about, yes, Zionism, but moreover how to organize, how to think about left history, how to be a contemporary socialist -- things like after all it was Stalin's USSR who ended the Nazis, so please help me think about this -- and let's talk more deeply about the idea of solidarity...

Crabapple explained how her publisher did not think about doing publicity, how she and her close friends/collaborators/comrades conceived of reaching out -- and sensed the response -- and indeed what a response she's gotten, organized bottom up not top down. She will be touring through April 2027, worldwide.

Her talking points are struggle, solidarity, humanity, hope -- and her jokes about Lenin and Trotsky are educational, not dismissive, not sectarian. The fact that she's doing this is remarkable in all aspects. Scholar / artists like Crabapple rarely emerge with this kind of momentum and we should offer full support.

PS

Glad to see a remembrance of Louis the other day. Also following Hari's efforts - thanks and keep going!

Glad too that you would share this review, Richard. Completely in the spirit of Proyect (whose father if I recall correctly was in the Workmen's Circle) and would have loved to read Crabapple's book with him at my side.


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