The TUC and the Histadrut, 1945-1982: a problematic relationship Ronnie Fraser Royal Holloway College Doctor of Philosophy 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Ronnie Fraser hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 2 The TUC and the Histadrut, 1945-1982: a problematic relationship Ronnie Fraser Abstract The main purpose of this study is to explore and explain the attitude of the British trade union movement towards Zionism and Israel and how and why it has changed over the years. There have been several studies that concentrate on the attitude of the British Labour Party towards Israel but none that focus on the relationship between the British trade union movement and its Israeli counterpart. Although the unions and the Labour Party had a close relationship, their policies were not always the same with regard to Israel. The relationship between the TUC and the Histadrut, rooted in the 1920s and 1930s, changed fundamentally after the creation of Israel in 1948. This research analyses how that relationship developed and why. Key factors included the attitude of the TUC General Secretaries, the TUC's relationship with the Foreign Office, the context of the international trade union movement, Cold War politics, Britain's post-war role in the Middle East, and the (sometimes surprising) approach of individual trades union leaders such as Jack Jones. The four wars between Israel and the Arabs between 1948-82 also played a part. One constant throughout most of this study is the pro-Zionist stance of the Parliamentary Labour Party compared with the much more ambivalent TUC-Histadrut relations. The thesis investigates how the TUC's indifference towards Israel during the 1950s changed into a decade of positive engagement with the Histadrut, the only period of real friendship between the two labour organisations. It charts the rise of the Left, during the 1970s and the consequent trend towards increasing criticism of Israel and the Histadrut within the TUC which eventually led to the 1982 TUC Congress condemning Israel's invasion of Lebanon and recognition of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. 3 Table of Contents Introduction 9 Chapter 1 1945-1955 24 Chapter 2 1956-1966 96 Chapter 3 1967-1972 146 Chapter 4 1973-1982 188 Conclusion 251 Appendix 1 List of organisations and Personnel 264 Appendix 2 The Histadrut 269 Appendix 3 The structure of the TUC 281 Bibliography 282 4 Acknowledgments One never knows what life has in store and no one foresaw that fifteen years ago, when I left a career in engineering to become a Mathematics teacher that I would one day submit a PhD History thesis. My subsequent involvement with the trade union movement and Israel led to me undertaking, an M.A in Jewish Studies at Southampton University and then this research. None of this would have been possible without the agreement and support I received from Mina, Maryam and especially Viera, my former colleagues at Barnet College, who for six years willingly altered their teaching timetables to allow me to spend one day a week on my research -Thank you ladies. The time that I spent at Lavon archives in Tel Aviv, the Israel State Archives, in Jerusalem and the International Institute of Social History Archives, Amsterdam would have not been possible without the financial support which I received from the Friendly Hand fund and the British Friends of the Hebrew University. I am truly grateful for their help. I also have to acknowledge the help which I received from the staff at all the archives I visited. In particular I would like to thank, the staff at the National archives at Kew, Carol Jones at the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University, Darren Treadwell at the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, Manchester and Christine Coates at TUC Library in London. I first met Professor David Cesarani in 2004 at Southampton, who from then on believed I was capable of this work. I thank him most sincerely for his support, encouragement, plain talking, understanding and advice. I would like to thank my parents, my children and my grandchildren for their love and support as well as giving me the time and space to complete this work. The one person, however, who has been with me on this life changing journey over the last ten years is my best friend, my wife Lola. Without her help, encouragement, support, backing and sacrifices none of this would have been possible. I will always be indebted to her for suggesting that I undertook this research especially as she is the historian in the family. 5 Glossary ACTT Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians AFL American Federation of Labour (USA) AEU Amalgamated Engineering Union ASLEF Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen ASTMS Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs AUCCTU All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (Russia) AUEW Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers. AUT Association of University Teachers BOD Board of Deputies of British Jews CAABU Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding CBI Confederation of British Industry CGT-FO Confédération Générale du travail - Force Ouvrière (France) CIO Congress of Industrial Organisations (USA) CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain CTAL Confederación Inter-Americana de Trabajadores ( Mexico) DEP Department of Employment and Productivity DGB Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (Germany) EB Executive Bureau of the ICFTU EETPU Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union EFL Egyptian Federation of Labour ETU Electrical Trades Union ETUC European Trade Union Confederation FAU Federation of Arab Trade Unions FBU Fire Brigades Union FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office FO Foreign Office FPTU Federation of Petroleum Trade Unions (Lebanon) 6 GFPTU General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions GMWU General and Municipal Workers union GMB Successor to the GMWU HISTADRUT Federation of Hebrew Workers in the Land of Israel ICATU International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions ICFTU International Confederation of Free Trade Unions IDF Israel Defence Force IFTU International Federation of Trade Unions ILO International Labour Organisation IRGUN Jewish Defence Organisation (Irgun Zvai Leumi) ISTC Iron and Steel Trades Confederation ITS International Transport Secretariat LEHI Fighters for the Freedom of Israel LFI Labour Friends of Israel LMEC Labour Middle East Council LP British Labour Party MAPAI Israel Labour Party MAPAM Mifleget ha-Po'alim ha-Me'uhe det-The United Workers' Party (Israel) MOL Ministry of Labour NALGO National Association of Local Government Officers NCL National Council of Labour NUGMW National Union of General and Municipal Workers NUM National Union of Miners NUR National Union of Railwaymen NUT National Union of Teachers NVV Nederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen (Holland) OLCC Overseas Labour Consultative Committee PAWS Palestine Arab Workers Society PLL Palestine Labour League 7 PLO Palestine Liberation Organisation PLPC Palestine Labour Political Committee PSI Public Services International PTUF Palestine Trade Unions Federation TASS Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section TGWU Transport and General Workers Union TUC Trades Union Congress TUFI Trade Union Friends of Israel TUFP Trade Union Friends of Palestine UAR United Arab Republic UGTT Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (Tunisia) UKPC UK Palestine Coordination UN United Nations UNSCOP UN Special Committee on Palestine USDAW Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers WFTU World Federation of Trade Unions 8 Introduction In December 1917 a special conference of the British Labour movement approved the Labour Party’s war aims memorandum which stated; “The British Labour movement demands for all the Jews in all countries the same elementary rights of tolerance, freedom of residence and trade, and equal citizenship that ought to be extended to all the inhabitants of every nation. It furthermore expresses the opinion that Palestine should be set free from the harsh and oppressive government of the Turk, in order that this country may form a free state, under international guarantee, to which such of the Jewish people as desired to do so may return, and may work out their salvation free from interference by those of alien race or religion.” 1 This statement was the first official Labour Party declaration relating to the rights of the Jews and a Jewish homeland in Palestine. However the links between British Socialists and Jewish Labour go back to the 1880s when many British Labour and trade union leaders condemned the anti-Jewish pogroms of Tsarist Russia. Their action formed the basis of a special relationship between the British and Israeli Labour and trade union movements which has continued in one form or another to the present day. The Trades Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella body for the British trade union movement which has been in existence since 1868 has always appeared to the outside world to be a substantial and imposing organisation playing an important role in international union affairs.2 Since the creation of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1919, the TUC has played an influential role encouraging, training and supporting the establishment of trade unions throughout the British Empire and establishing a presence in the wider world beyond Britain. The Jewish labour movement in Palestine formed its own trade union body in 1920, the General Federation of Jewish Workers in Palestine, known in Hebrew as the Histadrut, to look after the interests of Jewish workers initially in the agricultural settlements and 1 This statement, which was also adopted by the London conference of the Socialist and Labour parties of the Allied countries. Schneier Levenberg, The Jews and Palestine: a Study in Labour Zionism, (London: Poale Zion, 1945), pp.204-5. 2 Taylor, The TUC from the General Strike to New Unionism, (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000), pp.15-16.