The Israeli government, under the influence of the capitalists, has been trying to privatize the docks for years.

Their interest in that privatisation is clear, and it comes down to their intention to break the power of the organized workers. The dock-workers are one of the strongest groups within the Israeli working-class, having in their power the ability to shut down the docks and cause direct damage to the industrialists’ profits.

Working people of the region will pay the price

At 5 in the morning on Monday, as Sheikh Ahmed Yasin left a mosque in Gaza, three missiles launched from IDF helicopter gunships killed the founder and leader of Hamas, four of his escorts and four unrelated civilians, wounding 15 others.

There is no limit to the brutality the Israeli bosses and state will use to profit from the sweated labour of migrant workers. They keep workers in conditions of virtual slavery, imprison them without trial, deport them and tear families apart. At the same the capitalists destroy the livelihoods of Israeli workers by mass sackings, and slashing welfare and pensions. The Capitalists incite hatred against the migrant workers in order to deflect the workers anger from themselves.

AS PREDICTED, the journey along George Bush's 'road map' to end the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is now decidedly 'off-road'.

The imperialist-in-chief who wants to placate Arab opinion following the US-led war and occupation of Iraq, has failed to persuade Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon to make any significant concessions to the Palestinians. Instead, Sharon seems determined to sabotage any attempt to create a 'viable Palestinian state'.

When recently visiting Washington for talks, Sharon insisted that he wouldn't halt the building of a 370-kilometre 'security fence' - which will steal a further 7% of Palestinian land on the West Bank and rigidly define Israel's borders ahead of any negotiations.

After just a couple of days of tremendous action, the leadership of the Israeli trade union federation, the Histraduth, called off a general strike on 30 April.

The government and the bosses tell us that now is not the time - that we must stand together during wartime - that this is not the right time for internal conflicts.

But all these moving patriotic sentiments do not prevent them from declaring a one sided war against us: a massive third round of cuts within a year, price rises everywhere, mass redundancies, factory closures, cuts in welfare health and education budgets, and a war against the unemployed instead of against unemployment.

It is time that we, the workers, the unemployed, youth and pensioners told the government and the capitalists: we won't eat your bullshit any more. We are fighting for our daily bread and the right to earn a living wage. If you cannot even provide our most basic needs, then hand us the keys and step aside!

Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak suffered a crushing defeat in Tuesday's general election, loosing to the right wing Ariel Sharon by around 25%.

The rotten agreement between the Histadruth (the Israeli TUC) and the treasury on the 30th of January, which ended the general public sector strike, showed once again the high price of the bureaucrats' control over the trade unions.

After all the blood that has been needlessly spilled in the last days, we stand today facing the danger of an even more unnecessary regional war, that will multiply the number of victims of the idiotic policy of solving political problems by military means. And the political problems are clear to everyone who looks at the situation with open eyes: Barak and his government did not even try to solve even one of the social and economic problems that brought them to power, that hurt both Jews and Arabs, and Barak’s promises to bring and end to the national dispute sound today like a sad joke. On the other hand, Arafat and his partners who lead the Palestinian Authority used their leadership in order to line their own pockets, and those of their cronies, and to base the Palestinian Authority on a repressive, corrupt regime.

We, the youth, are sick and tired of being humiliated, patronized and thrown aside by the establishment. We've had enough of an oppressive education system that suppresses our individuality, our creativity, our initiative, and instead teaches us all that we're stupid, and to obey our elders like sheep. We've had enough of a State that expects us to sacrifice three years of our lives, without pay, in an army where we are constantly degraded, insulted and punished at the whim of some sadistic officer, and where female soldiers are constantly under threat of sexual harassment and rape.

And what do we get in return for our humiliation, suffering and sacrifice?

Since the mid-80s, the tax burden has been moved from big business onto the backs of workers, through laws such as the cancellation of the employers health contribution, and the reduction in corporation tax. And where do our taxes go? Not into welfare spending, which has been massively cut (NIS 100 million cut in higher education, cuts in unemployment benefit and child benefit, all in Barak's first year). Instead, workers' taxes subsidize multi-million dollar businesses, such as Intel, who received NIS 800 million for their plant in Kiryat Gat.

The Histadruth leadership is demanding that Amir Peretz sit in the bosses' committee to discuss taxation on kupat gemel, keren hishtalmut, etc. But he will be in a minority there, the struggle will be limited to how much the government is going to steal from us, and he will have a carte blanche to sign an agreement with the bosses without the democratic consent of the majority of organized workers.

Arnon Mozes has used barbed wire and thugs armed with sticks against the very workers who have built his empire. This is a declaration of war against workers whose only crime is to defend themselves and their families against management's attempts to drive down pay and conditions by introducing casual labour.

The management of the Israeli daily newspaper, Yedioth Aharonoth, has cordoned off the workplace with barbed wire, and sent thugs armed with sticks to beat up workers, in order to prevent them from entering the building. Three workers sustained injuries, and one was arrested.

Shokhat and Ben Bassat claim that the tax reforms will put money in the pockets of the workers, reduce the gaps in society, transfer wealth from capital to labour and increase social justice. Their sudden concern for our interests is heart warming. But have they really been miraculously converted from the cold-blooded economists who waged ferocious opposition the NIS4000 minimum wage law, refused the demands of the disabled, and who champion the interests of big business at every opportunity?

Maavak Sozialisti sends May Day greetings to all youth and working people struggling against the oppression of the capitalist system in Israel, the Middle East, and throughout the world.

With the fall of Stalinism, and the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, the capitalists heralded in a golden era of world peace and prosperity. In fact, in the past ten years, capitalism has brought the world nothing but increasing poverty, inequality, conflict and war.

The fall of the Eastern bloc led to an orgy of bourgeois triumphalism. This affected the leadership of the workers parties and unions, who abandoned all talk of reforming capitalism and embraced the market. This allowed the capitalists to attack workers with minimal resistance. Their attacks took the form of an onslaught of globalization, through pressuring governments to eliminate trade barriers and implement neo-liberal economic policies.

We have had enough of Politicians on fat salaries, who give themselves pay rises every month, who only care about their own careers, who think they owe everything to the millionaires who fund them, and nothing to the people who elected them. We have had enough of a disintegrating health service and collapsing schools. Unemployment? Pensions? We have had enough of Councils not paying wages.

The established parties are now playing the elections charade, mouthing slogans written by American advisors. They are all servants of the 12 billionaire families that control this country, and do their bidding, at our expense. They only pretend to address our problems, in order to win our votes.