#bundist

[sproutflags]

Jewish Genders + Jewish Labor Bund combo flags. Made for my fellow intersex anti-Zionist Bundist Jews.

Original Androgynos, Tumtum, Saris, and Ay'lonit flags can be found here.

Curious about Jewish Bundism? This post breaks it down pretty well here. TL;DR Bundism is an old Jewish labor/socialist movement seeing a resurgence in recent years among anti-Zionist, pro-Palestine, leftwing Jews.

Fuck Zionists and Free Palestine. If you clown on this post you will be blocked.

[ellisdee161]

TS7

[rotzaprachim]

they certainly WERE radical and often socialist in many ways but I don’t think people who want to hold up bundists really get that there was a lot about the bund that was pretty normie too. Like one of the big arguments was about the language for Jewish public elementary schools and how to run Jewish public elementary schools, how to run libraries. Their thing was about living in a multiethnic socialist state - that’s politically and economically leftist but socially liberal. If we want to find a modern equivalent I think it’s in groups like omdim byachad and hand in hand schooling and whatever the local polticial organizations are in the places Jews already live. The whole society and politics are inherently fallen we need to go leave capitalist destination for a socialist agricultural commune? We need to build a new unfallen culture from scratch? THAT WAS THE ZIONISTS.

[punkass-diogenes]

Anyone who thinks they can just dust off the old dead bones of Bundism and resurrect it wholesale into a post-Holocaust post-Zionist world without making massive adjustments is completely deluded. You would have better luck trying to run a punched card program on a MacBook.

[chicago-geniza]

These portraits are slaying me, Irena’s public persona is exactly what it says on the tin, she is presenting “I am sexy, tragic, noir, clothed in silks, garlanded in pearls, draped in furs, why yes, I am in a menage a trois with a married man while also being married myself due to the vagaries of Second Republic marriage law and was raised by a single mother while my father was sentenced to hard labor in Siberia as a political prisoner and died of tuberculosis, why do you ask?”

[victusinveritas]

[sproutflags]

Jewish Labour Bund flag + Jewish Queer Anarchism flag combo

[mourning-again-in-america]

never tires me laughing at the way people cover the American Communist Party, America First, and the German-American Bund

[rotzaprachim]

honestly whenever I see supposed Yiddish lovers and Neo bundists wanting to uphold the bund as the secret answer for all present Jews (usually people not terribly involved in local Union meetings schule meetings or city council) who act like the bund ended solely because of the good Jews becoming secret evil Jews through *ziooooonist* evil plots and not because the majority of the prospective members were violently murdered by Jew-killing gentiles and the ascendant ussr and goyische socialist and nationalist movements violently repressed internal Jewish poltical organization and killed prominent Yiddish cultural activists. Well. I become angry

[tamamita]

why do zionists always assume its antisemitic to think that zionism a settler colonial idea

Modern Zionists aren't actually well-read into their own history. I could invoke the likes of Theodore Herlz, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, David Ben Gurion, and many other political Zionists and how they were ardent supporters of settler colonialism, yet it wouldn't get through their head, because they genuinely believe the land of Palestine is their right to claim, despite the people inhabitating the area. But to claim that the establishment of the Settler state was necessary due to antisemitism is not correct.

The pogrom of the Jewish people in the Pale of Settlement in Imperial Russia resulted in the mass displacement of Jews. But most Jews did not flee to Palestine, but to the US and Western Europe to live relatively better lives, due to the French revolution and so on. They had no desire whatsoever to move to Palestine due to its harsh climate and environment. Although the repression of Jews in the 19th century added to Zionism's appeal, Zionism did not emerge because of it as is often portrayed.

Jewish historian Michael Stanislawiski explains:

The first expression of this new ideology were published well before the spread of the new anti-semitic ideology and before the pogroms of the ealy 1880s. The fundamental cause of the emergence of modern Jewish nationalism was the rise, on the part of Jews themselves, of new ideologies that applied the basic tenets of modern nationalism to the Jews, and not a response to persecution.

-- Zionism, a short introduction (Stanislawski, 2017)

As was the case for that time, the doctrine of nationalism became prevalent across Europe. Many versions of it gained hold of European intellectuals and the upper-classes. One of these were ethnonationalism, which emphasised common ancestry. Such a view was popular among Germans, Hungarians, Russians, Poles and etc, who saw their "tribes" as being distinct, and therefore needed to be preserved from foreign threats. Zionism would mirror some of these aspects, which was prevalent in Eastern Europe. The founding father of Revisionist Zionism (and the precursor to the Likud party), Ze'ev Jabotinsky stated:

"The creation of a Jewish majority, was the fundamental aim of Zionism, the term "Jewish State", means a Jewish majority and Palestine will become a Jewish country at the moment when it has a Jewish majority".

-- Zionism, and the Arabs, 1882-1948 A study of ideology (Yosef Gorny, 1987)

However, there was another ideology emerging which was far more popular among the oppressed Jewish people, which would propell them to emancipate themselves where they lived. Revolutionary Socialism.

According Ilan Pappe, the doctrine of Zionism was vehemently opposed by Jewish leaders all around Europe on the basis of Talmudic violations, the rise of revolutionary socialism and the rise of Jewish assimilationism. Additionally, in a conference in Frankfurt, rabbis decided to omit the mentioning of "the return" from Jewish prayers as a reaction to Zionism. However, Zionism would face intense opposition from Socialist Jews, especially the Bundists, who openly declared Zionism to be anti-Socialist, opportunistic and reactionary. Zionism was an alien idea, and revolutionary socialism emphasised the importance of the liberation of Jews where they lived, resulting in an ideological feud between the Bundists and Political Zionists. Even the likes of the Chaim Weizmann, the first president of the Settler state, and David Ben Gurion, the first PM of the settler state, would condemn the Bundists for their opposition to Political Zionism.

[bill-the-dog-for-the-check]

I'm a Zionist.

I'm tired of pro-Palestine anti-Zionists trying to turn 'Zionist' into a bad word, an antisemitic slur. And they demand that we Jews reject Zionism and that we only embrace alternative responses to antisemitism that they approve of.

You know what happened to the Jewish proponents of other solutions? The assimilationists, Bundists, territorialists, and Jewish communist revolutionaries were murdered. And now, the left wing antisemites hate the Zionists too. Why? What did the Zionists do that was so offensive to the anti-Zionists? I'll tell you what they did.

Zionists created the first independent Jewish state since the Bar Kokhba revolt. Zionists tried to bring as many Jews to safety as possible while the rest of the world closed their doors to them. And when they couldn't do so legally, they risked their lives to bring Jews home covertly during the Aliyah Bet. Zionists restored an indigenous people's sovereignty over their own land after a millennia of colonization, deforestation, and dispersion. Zionists restored an ancestral and historic language after millennia of forced disuse. Zionists took in and saved the lives of the Mizrahim when they were violently expelled by their home countries. Zionists created a prosperous, liberal democratic nation state in a part of the world very hostile to every word of that. And Zionists successfully defeated one, two, three, four, and are currently fighting off a fifth genocidal war of annihilation against all of their accomplishments and people.

What did the anti-Zionists do? They opposed every one of those things.

So, when you anti-Zionists hurl that label at my feet, 'Zionist', as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, because I will pick up that label and wear it as a badge of honor.

[genderoutlaws]

wait maybe this is dumb but i thought most zionists were jewish?

nope! there are quite literally more Christian Zionists in the US than there are Jews on the entire planet. a lot of that zionism is motivated by a very apocalyptic fantasy where essentially they get all the Jews in one place and then that kickstarts the rapture and fulfills their biblical prophecy or smth, that might lack some specifics since i'm generally a lot less well versed on the xtian bible, but that's a genuine belief for some ppl.

and then of course there's a legacy of anti zionist jews too, NK and the bundists come to mind, there's been jews arguing against zionism on religious and humanitarian grounds since before "israel" existed. idk stats or anything of course but i really feel like each younger generation is getting more away from the zionist propaganda, or at least i hope that's the trend we keep seeing

[fairuzfan]

If you can't see the difference between a diaspora Jew who has seen the violence inflicted on their community throughout history and the world for their entire existence since childhood and genuinely believes they will never be safe until they have somewhere to go that is made up of mostly Jews (and thinks that place might as well be 'where they came from'), and a Christian who wants all the Jews and Muslims back where they belong so that Jesus will come back or just so that 'their country' won't have Jews or Muslims anymore, and you believe those two people deserve the same scorn and violence, and that their Zionism is virtually indistinguishable, you're not a good person. I'm sorry you're just not.

My relatives aren't evil for thinking Israel should exist, they're just scared because they know what an angry, hateful world has done and can/will do to scattered Jews. They want to believe that there is a place in the world that is safe for Jews to live. (Whether Israel actually is that is beside the point- it isn't but that's beside the point).

And I'm a Bundist (not explaining it look it up idc) but with how things have been lately (and always really) I can't say I don't see the appeal.

Obviously Israel's government in general and the Likud party in particular is steeped in genocidal intent and abhorrent racism. Obviously the discrimination, colonization and brutalization of Palestinians should end. Obviously Israel should no longer be what it is- a militaristic puppet state by which the US keeps its hands in the middle east/swana region.

But don't you dare say that the Hobby Lobby CEO and my sister have the exact same Zionism or reasons for it.

I only say any of this bc you reblogged a post essentially saying all Zionism is the same and deserves the same treatment and seeing as diaspora Jews are neither the biggest material nor political backing force behind Israel, and also our fears are completely founded, I can't let you express that belief without at least making an effort to correct it.

(Also my sister technically just believes that Jews should be able to safely visit or live in the Levant, which we're indigenous to- and if you don't believe that where tf do you think we came from bc we didn't just grow out of the ground in NYC one day holding bagels I'll tell you that but I digress- but doesn't like the Israeli gov or its actions. So that may not even be Zionism according to you but that's what she calls it.)

Ok. Right now journalists are live blogging the massacre of my people and no one is lifting a finger and in fact sending them bigger and badder weapons. You're very heartless. I don't care if you don't think I'm a good person but I'm sad that you're not one either.

[pattern-recognition]

Take a concrete example. Can a Great-Russian Marxist accept the slogan of national, Great-Russian, culture? No, he cannot. Anyone who does that should stand in the ranks of the nationalists, not of the Marxists. Our task is to fight the dominant, Black-Hundred and bourgeois national culture of the Great Russians, and to develop, exclusively in the internationalist spirit and in the closest alliance with the workers of other countries, the rudiments also existing in the history of our democratic and working-class movement. Fight your own Great-Russian landlords and bourgeoisie, fight their ‘culture’ in the name of internationalism, and, in so fighting, ‘adapt’ yourself to the special features of the Purishkeviches and Struves – that is your task, not preaching or tolerating the Slogan of national culture.

The same applies to the most oppressed and persecuted nation – the Jews. Jewish national culture is the slogan of the rabbis and the bourgeoisie, the slogan of our enemies. But there are other elements in Jewish culture and in Jewish history as a whole. Of the ten and a half million Jews in the world, somewhat over a half live in Galicia and Russia, backward and semi-barbarous countries, where the Jews are forcibly kept in the status of a caste. The other half lives in the civilised world, and there the Jews do not live as a segregated caste. There the great world-progressive features of Jewish culture stand clearly revealed: its internationalism, its identification with the advanced movements of the epoch (the percentage of Jews in the democratic and proletarian movements is everywhere higher than the percentage of Jews among the population).

Whoever, directly or indirectly, puts forward the slogan of Jewish ‘national culture’ is (whatever his good intentions may be) an enemy of the proletariat, a supporter of all that is outmoded and connected with caste among the Jewish people; he is an accomplice of the rabbis and the bourgeoisie. On the other hand, those Jewish Marxists who mingle with the Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and other workers in international Marxist organisations, and make their contribution (both in Russian and in Yiddish) towards creating the international culture of the working-class movement – those Jews, despite the separatism of the Bund, uphold the best traditions of Jewry by fighting the slogan of ‘national culture’.

Bourgeois nationalism and proletarian internationalism – these are the two irreconcilably hostile slogans that correspond to the two great class camps throughout the capitalist world, and express the two policies (nay, the two world outlooks) in the national question. In advocating the slogan of national culture and building up on it an entire plan and practical programme of what they call ‘cultural-national autonomy’, the Bundists are in effect instruments of bourgeois nationalism among the workers.

Lenin, V. I., Critical Remarks on the National Question (1913)