Bundism

Bundist Demonstration in Russia, 1917

Bundism is an ideology or ideological component within socialist theory which emerged as a resolution to the "Jewish Question" which seeks to promote local Jewish life and Community, and actively opposes Zionism. It promotes the concept of Doikayt (often translated as "Here-ness" or "At-homeness") meaning: wherever they live, Jews have a right to live and organise. Another concept is Autonomism, this refers to the broader Bundist goal of achieving Jewish national-cultural autonomy in the diaspora, of which Doikayt was a central principle. An aspect of early Bundism was Yiddishism, which is the establishment and promotion of Yiddish secular culture.

History

General Jewish Labour Bund

The General Jewish Labour Bund was the primary driver of Bundism in history, especially during the late 19th and early 20th century, it was illegally formed in Vilnus in the Russian empire at the time on October 7th, 1897. It was formed as a response to the rise of institutional antisemitism following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, including waves of violent pogroms and decrees spurred on by the May laws, which established racial segregation against Jews

The original GJLB promoted and established the core concepts of early bundism, namely Marxism, Autonomism, Anti-Zionism and Yiddishism. The Bund played an important role in the organization of the Jewish-Russian proletariat and organizing large labor strikes. It was a founding member and autonomous part of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party from 1898 to 1903 upon which they left the RSDLP over disputes regarding their autonomous status within the party after the second congress. Bundists actively organized self-defense units to protect Jewish communities from pogroms.

In 1906 the Bund rejoined the RSDLP.

WW1 and the Establishment of the Polish Bund

With Poland under German occupation, communication between the broader Bund and the Polish section broke off, and eventually the Polish Bund started acting as a de-facto independent force. This was formalized in December 1917, when Polish Bundists held a clandestine meeting in Lublin and reconstituted themselves as a separate political party. This created the independent General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland, which would become a major force in the interwar period.

This organisation fell largely under the influence of the Social-Democratic model of leaders like Henryk Erlich and Wiktor Alter. They firmly rejected the bolsheviks during this period.

The Russian Revolution and the Internal Split of the Bund

The Bund initially opposed the Bolshevik Revolution, instead advocating reformism, however pogroms driven and perpetrated by the White Army pushed many Bundists towards the Bolshevik cause, this first cumulated in the Ukrainian split, where a portion of the Ukrainian section of the Bund, comprised of bolsheviks and other pro-bolshevik revolutionaries, left to form the Kombund (Komunistisher bund) in March of 1919. This then finally climaxed with the complete split of the Bund proper in April 1920, between the Communist faction and the Social Democratic faction.

The Communist faction would later dissolve the russian branch into the broader Russian Communist Party. The minority Social Democratic faction was short-lived and was disbanded by the Soviet government in the early 1920s. This effectively ended the Bund's existence in Soviet Russia.

The Polish Bund in the Interwar Period

The Polish Bund was comprised of a large network of Jewish trade unions, which formed the base of their real power, and allowed them to achieve reform through strikes. It was a major force in Jewish municipal politics and a member of the Labour and Socialist International. The Polish Bund Established a form of yiddishist cultural dual-power, which culminated in the Central Yiddish School Organisation (TSYSHO). This network provided secular education in Yiddish for Jewish children across Poland, with the Bund as its most influential force.

In response to the 1936 Przytyk pogrom, the Bund called a general strike that was widely observed by Jewish and Polish workers alike.

WW2 and the Holocaust

Following the Nazi invasion of Poland and the establishment of formal Jewish ghettos, forcing the Bund into Clandestinity. Its activists organized educational activities, published underground newsletters, and maintained contact with the Polish underground and the Polish government-in-exile in London.

Bundists played a central role in the Jewish armed resistance. They were key participants in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, forming their own effective fighting units. Marek Edelman, a Bundist leader, was one of the key commanders of the uprising.

Shmuel Mordkhe Zygielbojm, the Bund's representative on the Polish National Council in London, became a tragic symbol of the Bund's fate. Unable to persuade the Allied governments to act to save European Jewry, he committed suicide in May 1943 in protest against the world's inaction.

The holocaust effectively destroyed the Bund in europe.

Modern Bundist Revival

After the second world war, Bundist groups began to reemerge across the world among the diaspora, though these remain small and fractured even today, they form an important part of the international anti-zionist movement.