May Day demonstration of the Workers Advice Center (WAC – Ma'an)
Worker Solidarity without Borders

Some 500 people, Arabs and Jews, gathered in the plaza before Tel Aviv's Cinematheque on Friday, May 2, in an event organized by WAC to mark May Day 2008. Above the stage, a banner used a phrase from the traffic laws: "Give Workers the Right of Way!" In front of this sign appeared, in succession, representatives of labor groups, social activists, singers and poets, all expressing solidarity. This special combination of manual workers, labor organizations and artists is typical for all WAC events. We saw it at Bread and Roses, an art exhibit, and in the recent march on International Women's Day. Nir Nader, the living spirit behind the present celebration, declared its broader purpose: "We are trying to create new patterns of struggle in Israel."

Asma Agbarieh-Zahalka, ODA candidate for the mayoralty of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, chaired the event, a red scarf around her neck. "This is a day of unity," she said, "that breaks down walls and crosses borders." She declared solidarity with the workers of Egypt, who have gone into the streets by the tens of thousands demanding better conditions. She also sent greetings to the Palestinian workers who remain shut behind the separation wall, as well as to the Thai and Chinese workers who are forced to wander far from home. "This is the most important day of the year," she said, "but the Histadrut canceled it 13 years ago….This day lives as long as the working class lives."

Agbarieh called Samia Nasser to read a greeting from the Egyptian workers, whom the two met on a recent visit to Egypt. The writer of the message was Hamdi Hussein, a labor union organizer who directs Socialist Horizons, a center located in the workers' city of Mahalla el-Kubra. Hussein wrote: "Our struggle in Mahalla el-Kubra for the workers' right to live in dignity is of one piece with your struggle against the Occupation, which is deepening poverty, unemployment and anarchy. Our common struggle for socialism, against the exploitative globalization of capital, and against the oppressions practiced by Occupation governments, will bring it about that our red flags - the flags of the working class all over the world - will ultimately wave with pride."

Wafa Tayara, a former farm laborer who is today a WAC activist, called on workers to unite within WAC's framework: "The isolated worker is weak and easily exploited, as in the proverb: 'The wolf attacks the sheep that have separated from the flock.' WAC offers solutions in the struggle against exploitation, discrimination and poverty."

WAC's National Coordinator Assaf Adiv called on the Israeli Left, which has learned to recognize names such as Bir Zeit and Bil'in, to add the name of Mahalla el-Kubra: "The Israeli regime bases its hope on its rotten, oppressive counterparts in the Arab states. The workers' movement against Mubarak and his dictatorship is shaking up the order that these regimes seek to impose at the expense of the region's peoples." Adiv went on: "In the past year WAC has taken important steps. These include the signing of an improved pension agreement for our members with the New Makefet Fund. We have given our first course in labor union organization. We have broadened our international contacts with unions in Egypt, Palestine and Europe. … WAC is not alone. We are glad to see new initiatives and new groupings of workers. We favor the new labor dialogue and seek a united movement. Our unique contribution is the experience we have accumulated toward building a labor organization that brings together Jews and Arabs."

Dr. Itzik Saporta, who directs the website Ha-Oketz (The Sting), stressed Adiv's point about the need for unity among social organizations and movements: "The reality we live in is not imposed by a Supreme Being. It is established by the wealthy, together with corrupt politicians. One day, when tens of thousands will gather in the square, we shall need to say: Come, let's unite! The force of numbers influences people. The rich and the politicians don't have a clue about the future. Just a few months ago they had no idea that a crisis in food prices was on the way. Today they give the same explanation: The market isn't free enough. That's an error. What's needed is not a free market, but a free working class! Not only are we right, we're the majority!"

Attorney Yifat Solal, a member of the Meretz faction in the Histadrut, called on the listeners to stop the preoccupation with gaining the minimum wage, as if that were enough, and return, instead, to the issue of workers' rights. "It's in the interest of the capitalist regime that we should talk in the language of the minimum. It seems to me that we stand at a critical moment. More people are beginning to think about the need to organize. If we don't organize, we'll all wind up at the minimum."

Dr. Roy Wagner from Kav la'Oved (Workers' Hotline) then spoke: "The invisible hand of the market is today no longer a hand and no longer invisible. It's a whole arm with an enormous fist. In Israel it consists of twenty families plus a few boys from the Finance Ministry. But this Israeli arm is no more than a single finger of the international body." Wagner continued: "On this May Day the number of people in the world who cannot afford enough food has grown steeply. It isn't yet clear if the crisis will also shake up our life here or just rattle us a little. But if it isn't this crisis that does it, the next one will."

The struggle crosses borders and language barriers. Roni Somek read his poem, "Arab Work," inspired by the 1995 strike of textile workers in Deir Hana, an event, he said, of historical importance for the history of the State. Yudit Shahar, whom Agbarieh called "the poet of the working woman," read her "God of the Secretaries." The poet Ahmed Kiwan called on the listeners to talk about the Egyptian workers: "It's important that we talk about them because they presage the revolution of hunger. If revolution breaks out in Egypt, we shall stand before a new Middle East. Not the one [Shimon] Peres talked about, rather a Middle East belonging to the workers." Kiwan excited the crowd with his militant poem, "The First of May Has Returned."

Poet Oded Peled, who came down from Galilee for the event, called us to exorcize the spirits that divide human beings: "Allah is one for all people," he recited from his poem, "Half Past Midnight." Also appearing was musician Amir Lev, together with the star of the legendary Israeli band Machina, Yuval Banai. Dan Toren sang the classic "Empires Crumble Slowly," and then he accompanied poet Yehezkel Nafshi in a translation of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero." Mati Shmuelov read his poem "Field Slave," and Roy Chicky Arad read a poem on the Polgat textile workers who were abandoned, he claimed, by the firm's owner.

The event was capped with a ceremony in which certificates of excellence were awarded to those chosen by their co-workers. Diplomas were also given to the graduates of WAC's first course in union leadership, which recently concluded in Kufr Qara. The participants then joined in the eternal anthem of the working-class movement, first in Arabic, then in Hebrew: the Internationale.