Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 249

was established, and attempts were also made to establish a sports organisation. Negotiations are being conducted between the Party and the Association of Zionist Socialists with a view to bringing about unity. 10. Also the other Parties in Western Europe : in Belgium, France and Holland, have developed comprehensive activities. Only in Austria has the organised work ceased altogether since February, 1934. The work in England shows some improvement. 11. The Party in the United States and Canada has again made special efforts during the period under review to establish its organisation on a sound basis, which, considering the American conditions, requires much time to bear fruit. However, it has succeeded in attracting the co-operation of the English-speaking youth, who have hitherto stood aloof from Zionism, and who constitute a potential reserve of tens of thousands of co-workers and fighters for the Jewish labour movement and its ideals. During the period under review there has been established in the United States a League for a Working Palestine, which has enlisted new friends to the movement from among circles of the English-speaking Jewish intellectuals. Through the instrumentality of the " Gewerkschaft " campaign for the Jewish workers in Palestine, which has been conducted in the United States for the last ten years, the party succeeded in penetrating to the organised Jewish bodies and enlisting the co-operation of their leaders for the movement. The great Labour Order " Arbeiter-Ring," which was formerly dominated by elements inimical to Zionism and Palestine, is now actively participating in the campaign for a working Palestine. 12. The groups in the South American countries, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, are in contact with the Head Office and do their utmost to fulfil their duties. The same applies to the South African group. The Hitachduth in Russia. The Zionist Labour Party in the Soviet, which continues to exist in spite of persecution and pressure from external factors, has to work under conditions ruinous to the Jews as a national entity. The position of the Jewish masses has not undergone any change for the better in recent years. Hardly had they breathing space to recover from the " dollar persecution," which constituted a special factor in the deprivation of elementary human rights, than a new decree of " passportisation " was brought into force in 1933 throughout Soviet Russia. On the strength of this decree tens of thousands of Jews were condemned to exile from the larger towns and industrial centres, as they were included at the time in the category of déclassés. 249