clash between Trotsky and the Jewish Labour Bund 1903

THE JEWISH COUNCIL AND OTHER TOKENISTIC JEWS VS THE REAL JEWISH LEFT: 
IT'S A RE-RUN OF THE FAMOUS CLASH BETWEEN TROTSKY AND THE JEWISH LABOUR 
BUND 1903 BY PHILIP MENDES

By philip Mendes [1]

...

It is well known that the Bund played a major role in organizing and 
hosting the 1898 founding Congress of the RSDLP which later split into 
Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. Indeed, three of the nine founding 
delegates were from the Bund including Samuel Katz who was the only 
worker attending alongside eight middle-class intellectuals. That 
meeting was scheduled in the Bund stronghold of Minsk for security 
purposes, and the Bund was influential in planning the future program of 
the Party, and determining its revolutionary strategy and political 
tactics. Initially, the RSDLP granted autonomous status to the Bund to 
organize Jewish workers. But, the Bund's relationship with the broader 
socialist movement collapsed at the 1903 RSDLP 1

Congress over the question of Jewish nationalism. The Bund demanded 
formal recognition as the sole representative of the Jewish proletariat 
without geographical limits. However, the Bolshevik leader Lenin 
strongly rejected the notion of Jewish national culture, insisting that 
the concept was inherently reactionary, and that the only solution to 
antisemitism was the eventual assimilation of Jews into the broader 
population. Lenin proposed instead to restrict the Bund's autonomy to 
the practical question of communicating and interpreting Party views and 
strategies within the specific language and living conditions of Jewish 
workers. Twelve Jewish delegates led by Trotsky initiated an aggressive 
attack on the Bund's so-called nationalist perspective, claiming that 
they had as much right as the Bund to speak on behalf of the Jewish 
proletariat. Mark Liber of the Bund responded that these delegates had 
never worked with Jewish workers. As a result, the Bund decided to 
withdraw from the Party (Crabapple 2026: Chapter Four; Mendes 2013: 
2014: 211-215; Portnoy 1979: 288-290). I should add that Trotsky was not 
an antisemite, and later he transitioned to a less dogmatic view of 
Jewish nationalism (Johnson 2019). But regardless, his cynical 
manipulation of his Jewish background to marginalize the genuinely 
representative Bund in 1903 serves to remind us that Jewish involvement 
in the Left can best be framed as reflecting a spectrum of Jewish 
influences and identity.

...

https://www.academia.edu/171951795/The_Jewish_Council_and_other_tokenistic_Jews_vs_the_real_Jewish_Left_Its_a_re_run_of_the_famous_clash_between_Trotsky_and_the_Jewish_Labour_Bund_1903_by_Philip_Mendes

-- 
Dr abraheim Weizfeld

Ph.D. UQÀM,  M.A. York U.,  B.Sc. UdeW

[email protected]

514-235-7187

Montréal

Links:
------
[1] https://monash.academia.edu/philipmendes68?swp=tc-au-171951795


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#43123): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/43123
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120879304/6024700
-=-=-
POSTING RULES & NOTES
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
#4 Do not exceed five posts a day.
-=-=-
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/10173629/6024700/1441833971/xyzzy [[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-