Ber Borochov

“ One may be a materialist, the other a Kantian, one a Marxist, the second an empiriocriticist. I myself am an empiriocriticist, believing neither in materialism nor idealism, rejecting all religions whether in obvious or disguised forms. ”

“ Be that as it may, I regard the differences between socialists and anarchists as Zukunfstsmusik, as a question for the far off future, not a question that warrants the split in today’s labor movement. The complete split between socialists and anarchists is, I believe, the greatest misfortune of the socialist movement, the greatest obstacle to the progress of the revolutionary struggle. ”

“ There are also many questions of general import which cannot be left freely to individuals as private matters. The first question is how to link socialism and Zionism so that no contradiction exists between them and so that both great tasks support each other harmoniously. The problem is that socialism can be only realized through class struggle and Zionism only through the national struggle of the entire Jewish people. How do both lines come together? There are two distinguishable currents in the international Poale Zion movement: one calls itself Socialist and the other Social Democratic. ”

“ There is a party in the Jewish proletariat that takes on both tasks simultaneously in very radical form. This is Poale Zionism, or Proletarian Zionism, which wants to answer the social question through socialism and the Jewish question through Zionism. We define socialism as the socialization of the means of production of private property and the introduction of collective, socialized property in terms of land and capital. ”

“ I find every metaphysic laughable even when it hides behind the most innocent "scientific" masks. In other words I am a Marxist without "matter." But this has no direct bearing on the social movement and as far as I am concerned, all philosophical questions may be quietly left in abeyance until after the social revolution. ”

“ I regard the politics of state and organized coercion as a means of protective private property which will perforce be abolished by a collective organization of labor. I am a Marxist without the Zukunftsstaat. ”

“ It is therefore possible for socialists, anarchists, syndicalists and Wobblies, materialists, Kantians, empiriorealists, revolutionaries a la Marx, Kropotkin, and Isaiah–to come together in one party. What is essential however is that they actively strive toward the abolition of capitalism and any form of private property in land and in the means of production.
The same freedom prevails among us regarding Zionism. ”

“ Further details regarding the future social order may be the free concern of every individual Poale Zionist: One may be a collectivist and believe that the land and means of production will belong to a great state, and another may be an anarchist and believe that the means of production will belong to voluntary unions of workers, without powers of political organizations and coercion. ”

“ There must also be a reason for our having insufficient strength or for our not having worked hard enough.
The reason is that Poale Zionism is not serious about socialism and does not have the Jewish worker at heart. Poale Zionism is alienated from the theory and practice of the class struggle and consequently the working class is indifferent to Zionism. ”