Page 7 - Iton 4

A good turn out from the
Tnuat Bogrim of Habonim
Dror gathered at Ramat Efal
on the morning of May Day
intent on sharing a meaningful
learning experience.

After the obligatory opening
game which involved a snail, a
magic sword, a tank and some
lightning, we proceeded to
split into pairs and each were
given information on the
beginning of May Day in all of
the countries that were
represented in the room -
England, USA, Uruguay,
Mexico, Brazil, Argentina,
Australia and Israel.

It was an interesting exercise
to examine the place of the
Haymarket Massacre in the
histories of May Day in the
different countries, the Pagan
origins of the day in England
of the Middle Ages, the
famous Rosa Luxemburg
claiming that it all began in
Australia, the first
celebration in the Yishuv in
1906 and the struggles of the
anarchist and Socialist
leaders in Argentina, usually
culminating with police
repression etc etc

We then looked at the involvement of Habonim Dror in
workers struggles, and read an amusing tale of movement
members digging graves in solidarity with striking workers
(See the HDNA publication ‘Builders and Dreamers’ for the
full story).

We rounded off with a talk by someone who spends his time
representing young workers in Israel. Ha’Noar Ha’Oved
Ve’Halomed is the only official legal body in Israel that can represent young working people in
Israel and Ya’acov, from Kibbutz Eshbal, came to speak to us about the plight of working
youth today. He shared with us some frightening statistics, such as that 9 out of 10
businesses infringe on the rights of workers and 56% of young workers earn less than the
minimum wage allowed by law.