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Expanding the Split Labor Market Theory: Between and Within Sectors of the Split Labor Market of Mandatory Palestine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Deborah S. Bernstein
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Extract

Palestine, under British mandatory rule since the end of the First World War, was an arena of confrontation between Arabs and Jews over land, immigration, and political power, as well as over place and position in the labor market. This article will deal with the split labor market of mandatoryPalestineand the actors within it. The analysis will make use of the split labormarket theory of Edna Bonacich. In her theory she posits a situation in whichtwo groups of labor, belonging to different ethnic and national origins, meet in the same labor market. The more advantageous ethnic group has been able, due to its past history and its more advantageous position within world capitalist development, to ensure a higher value for its labor but considers itself threatened by the presence of the less advantageous groups, whose labor has lower value and thus greater attraction to employers who aim to maximize their profits. The theory then goes on to develop the different ways in which cheaper labor might serve to displace and substitute higher-priced labor and the strategies pursued by the latter in recurring attempts to maintain its relative advantage.

Type
Cultures of Economy
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , April 1996 , pp. 243 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1996

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References

1 Bonacich, Edna, “A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism: The Split Labor Market,” American Sociological Review, 37 (October 1972), 547CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed—59; Bonacich, Edna, “The Past, Present and Future of Split Labor Market Theory,” Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, 1 (1979), 17–64Google Scholar; Bonacich, Edna, “Class Approaches to Ethnicity and Race,” Insurgent Sociologist, 10:2 (1980), 9–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Bonacich, “Class Approaches,” 14.

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12 Bonacich, “Abolition, the Extension of Slavery,” p. 603.

13 See Bonacich, “Past, Present and Future,” 35; Bonacich, “Class Approaches,” 65.

14 Boswell, “A Split Labor Market Analysis,” 367.

15 Marks, “Split Labor Market,” 293—308.

16 Ibid., 294—5.

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18 Ibid., 287.

19 Ibid., 293.

20 Shafir, Gershon, Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 1882—1914 (Cambridge, 1989Google Scholar).

21 See Peled and Shafir, “Split Labor Market and the State.”

22 Shafir, Land, Labor; Shalev, Michael, Labour and the Political Economy in Israel (Oxford, 1992CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

23 Metzer, Jacob and Kaplan, Oded, The Jewish and Arab Economies in Mandatory Palestine: Product, Employment and Growth (Jerusalem, 1991), 104–105Google Scholar (in Hebrew).

24 Ibid.

25 Gilbar, Gad, “Trends in the Demographic Development of the Arabs of Palestine, 1870, 1948,” Cathedra, 45 (1988), 43–56Google Scholar (in Hebrew).

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29 Government of Palestine (1928:3. ISA, CO, 733/152).

30 Palestine Royal Commission, Memoranda Prepared by the Government of Palestine (London, 1937), 140Google Scholar—6.

31 Survey of Palestine, Prepared for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry (Jerusalem: Government Printer, 1946), 734Google Scholar—45.

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33 Cohen, Abraham, The Economy of the Arab Sector during the British Mandate (Giva't Haviva: The Center for Arab Studies, 1978Google Scholar) (in Hebrew). Abramovitz, Zeev and Gelfat, Y., The Arab Economy in Palestine and in the Middle East (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1944Google Scholar) (in Hebrew).

34 Ofer, Gur, The Service Industries in a Developing Economy: Israel as a Case Study (New York: Praegar, 1967Google Scholar).

35 Metzer, Jacob and Kaplan, Oded, “Jointly But Severally: Arab-Jewish Dualism and Economic Growth in Mandatory Palestine,” The Journal of Economic History, 45:2 (1985), 340Google Scholar.

36 Ibid., 339—42.

37 For discussion of relative share in revenue and expenditure, see Gross, Nachum, “The Economic Policy of the Government of Palestine During the Mandate Period,” Cathedra, 24 (1982), 179Google Scholar—80 (in Hebrew); Metzer, Jacob, ”Fiscal Incidence and Resource Transfer Between Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine,” Research in Economic History, 7 (1982), 118Google Scholar—20; Survey, vol. II, 570—80; Smith, Barbara, The Roots of Separatism in Palestine, British Economic Policy, 1920—1929 (London: Tauris and Company, 1993Google Scholar), ch. 8.

38 Metzer and Kaplan, “Jointly but Severally,” 342—3.

39 Metzer and Kaplan, The Jewish and Arab Economies, 115, Table H—7.

40 These figures refer to the years 1935—36. Palestine Royal Commission, Memoranda, p. 143.

41 Thus omitting the category of “others,” which was composed mainly of ex-patriates.

42 Ibid., 140.

43 Ibid., 146.

44 Ibid.

45 By dividing the total man-days into the number of days an average worker works per year.

46 This assessment is very similar to that arrived at by Metzer and Kaplan, The Jewish and Arab Economies, 113.

47 Gertz, A., The Statistical Handbook of Jewish Palestine (Jerusalem: Department of Statistics, Jewish Agency, 1947), 366Google Scholar—7.

48 Ndabezitha, Piyabonga and Sanderson, Stephen, “Racial Antagonism and the Origins of Apartheid in the South African Gold Mining Industry, 1886—1924: A Split Labor Market Analysis,” Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, 5 (1986), 241Google Scholar; Bonacich, Edna. “Capitalism and Race Relations in South Africa: A Split Labor Market Analysis,” Political Power and Social Theory, 2 (1981), 255Google Scholar.

49 Palestine Royal Commission, Report (London. 1937), p. 34Google ScholarPubMed, Article 2.

50 See Weitzman to Under-Secretary of State, Article 15 (October 9, 1928. Labor Archive [hereafter, LA], IV208—1—128); Shertok for the Executive of the Jewish Agency to E. Mills. Acting Chief Secretary (July 16, 1933. ISA, CO., 733/238); Memorandum Submitted to the Palestine Royal Commission on behalf of the Jewish Agency for Palestine (London: The Jewish Agency, 1936), Articles 385—95.

51 Weitzman, to Under-Secretary of State, Article 15, October 9. 1928.

52 Executive Committee of General Federation of Jewish Labour to High Commissioner (Article (b), 21.6.31. ISA, CO. 733/203).

53 J. A. Chancellor to Lord Passfield (Article 5.. July 23, 1931. ISA, CO., 733/203).

54 Ibid.. Article 18.

55 Palestine Royal Commission, Report.

56 Abramovitz and Gelfat, The Arab Economy, 64.

57 Palestine Royal Commission, Memoranda, 144.

58 Herbert, Gilbert, “Crossroads: Imperial Priorities and Regional Perspectives in the Planning of Haifa, 1918—1939,” Planning Perspectives, 4 (1989), 313CrossRefGoogle Scholar—31.

59 Letter of Aba Houshi, Secretary of the HLC to Action Committee of the Histadrut concerning the functioning of Manoff. including a copy of the contract between the partners (August 8, 1934. LA, IV208—1—615).

60 Report on Work in the Haifa Port (1939, Haifa Labor Council [hereafter, HLC], LA, IV250—27—2—244).

61 Biletzki, Eliahu, In Work and in Struggle (Haifa: Am Oved, 1981), 156—9Google Scholar (in Hebrew).

62 From the numerous documents concerning the immigration of Saloniki port workers to the Haifa port, see letter of Aba Houshi to Jewish Agency and appending letter to Action Committee of Histadrut (15.11.33, LA IV208—1—608).

63 Among other sources see. Report on Haifa Port (1939, LA 250—27—2—244); Biletzki, In Work and in Struggle, 156; Letter of Labor Bureau to Kibbutzim (11.4.38, LA 1V250—27—2—325); Kfar Masarik, Kfar Masarik-Twenty Five Years (1958), 134—6 (in Hebrew).

64 A. Gertz, Statistical Handbook, 179—80.

65 LA, Report on Haifa Port (1939, IV250—27—2—244); also Gertz, Statistical Handbook, 180.

66 See the list of workers in all branches of the Haifa Port (25.1.36. LA, IV208—1—788A); Letter from Vidra to Meirovitz (23.12.36, Central Zionist Archive [hereafter, CZA], S9/1135).

67 Report on Work of Jewish Porters in the Port of Haifa, June 18, 1937; Report on the Employment of Jewish Labour on Porterage Work at Haifa Port (December 23, 1937. ISA, CO, 733/328, Tape 421).

68 The wages that Solel Boneh paid were, nevertheless, frustratingly lower, as far as the Jewish workers were concerned, than those paid in the Jewish sector for less strenuous work.

69 Letter from General Employment Office of the Histadrut to Department of Labor of the Jewish Agency (January 21, 1937. CZA, S9/1135).

70 For assessment of success, see Report of Employment of Jewish Labour (ISA, CO, 733/328, Tape 421).

71 See “Minutes of the HLC,” (February 25, 1937. LA, IV250—27—1—695).

72 Bonacich, “A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism,” 555—6.

73 Among numerous documents concerning the conditions of work in the PR, see Memorandum of the Working Conditions of the Railwaymen in Palestine (1928. LA, IV208—1—143A); Report to the Seventh Convention of the National Union of the Railway Post and Telegraph Workers in Palestine (May 1931, LA, IV237—20B); Report of the Central Committee of the International Union of Railways and Post and Telegraph Employees in Palestine to Eighth Convention, August 1939 (LA, IV237—20C).

74 Letter of RPTWO to Central Committee of the Histadrut (January 8, 1947, LA, IV208—1—5781). See also earlier letter concerning the resignation of Jewish workers from the Workshops, Letter of Volinski to Labor Department of the Jewish Agency (October 24, 1945, LA 208—1—3195).

75 The organization changed its name a number of times. From 1932 onwards, it was called the International Union of Railway and Post and Telegraph Employees in Palestine.

76 Concerning the three-day strike in the Railway Workshops on February 2—4, 1944, see February 10, 1944, Giv'at Haviva Archive, (4)15.90; February 23, 1944, LA, IV208–1—3660. Concerning the fifteen-day strike in April 1946, see May 14, 1946, Ba-Ma'avak, internal publication of the Union of Railway, Post and Telegraph Workers, LA, IV237—1946, Library.