Yaacov Oved

Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement

Israel's kibbutz movement uniqueness lies in the fact that while it embodies anarchist values in its way of life, it has never had any real linkage to anarchist movements. Anarchist literature was quite common among the kibbutz movement's founders, who had a theoretical. socia1ist education. The doctrine of Kropotkin, who at the end of the 19th century formulated the anarcho-communist theory, influenced the adoption of commume principles in the first "kvutzot" during the first decade of the 20th century. Similarly the views of Tolstoy also had considerable influence on these circles.
With the establishment of the big kibbutzim and the founding of the kibbutz movements in the 1920s, the influences exerted by Kropotkin's views was intensified. These views extolled Man's social potential and envisioned a society of federative-connected independent communities embodying a combination of village and city, agricolture, industries and workshops. During the same period, Gustav Landauer and Martin Buber made also a significant contribution by conveying theoretical anarchist messages. These two philosophers profoundly influenced the first members of "Hashomer Hatzair" who founded the "Hakibbutz Ha'artzi" movement which became one of the three big kibbutz movements.
From the thirties onward, the years of expansion and institutionalization of the three kibbutz movements and their integration into the building and settlement of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel, their Marxist and Social-Democratic views were strengthened and the linkage to anarchist theories was shunted aside. Between 1937 and 1939 a small group of young anarchists calling itself "The Free Socialists" was organized. The group published a broadsheet in which they printed excerpts from works of the classical anarchist theoreticians togethor with current information on the anarchist activities in the Spanish Civil War.
Among the few examples of linkage with anarchist theory over the next years was the publication of Kropotkin's works, and also the devoting of study time to the anarcho-communist theory at the kibbutz movement's ideological seminars. It should be emphasized that the kibbutz movement's institutions - which with the establishment of the State of Israel, sought to be at the center of the national endeavors, carefully avoided anarchist definitions because of their apparent damaging connotations.
More recently, especially from the 80s onward, a change in the attitude towards anarchist theory has taken place. A renewed tendency is discerned towards the plausible contribution of anarchist theory to the consolidation of voluntary communal life preserving the individual's free deve1opment. This tendency exists in a limited intellectual circle that is concerned with the superficial social thinking in the kibbutz movement and which is seeking new sources of inspiration. Nowadays too the leadership of the movement is exercising great caution with regard to anarchist definitions for the same reasons that characterized this caution in the past.
The lecture will review the various stages of the adoption of anarchist views in the course of the kibbutz movement's history, and will examine the link between communality in its lifestyles and the interest revealed in anarcho-communist theory.