Jewish Communist Labour Bund in Poland

Part of a series of articles on the Jewish Labour Bund אַלגעמײַנער ײדישער אַרבעטער בּונד אין ליטע פוילין און רוסלאַנד 1890s to World War I Russia · Austria-Hungary Interwar years and World War II Belarus · Latvia · Lithuania · Poland · Romania · Soviet Union After 1945 International Jewish Labor Bund Branches: Australia · France · Israel · United Kingdom People Victor Alter · Henryk Ehrlich · Esther Frumkin · Arkadi Kremer · Pati Kremer  · Mikhail Liber · Vladimir Medem · Noah Meisel · Anna Rozental · Szmul Zygielbojm Press Arbeiter Fragen · Arbeiterstimme · Der yidisher arbeyter · Folkstsaytung · Lodzer veker Associated organisations Klain Bund · Kultur Lige · Morgnshtern · S.K.I.F. · Tsukunft · Tsukunft shturem Splinter groups Communist Bund (Poland) · Communist Bund (Russia) · Communist Bund (Ukraine) · Komtsukunft Categories Bundism · Jewish history · Socialist parties v · d · e

The Jewish Communist Labour Bund in Poland (Yiddish: ײדישער קאָמוניסטישנ אַרבעטער בּונד אין פוילין), generally referred to as the Kombund, was a Jewish political party in Poland. It was formed in 1922, after a split from the General Jewish Labour Bund in 1921 (which had seen the emergence of the Kombund fraktsie, 'Communist Bund fraction' inside the Bund).^[1] The split was provoked by disagreements over whether the Polish Bund should join the Communist International.^[2] At the first Polish Bund conference in 1920 a majority resolution passed, calling for the party to join the Communist International. The decision was never executed however, leading to the split and the formation of Kombund.^[3] The Kombund was founded in late January 1922, by Communist Bundist groups. The new party affiliated itself to the Communist International, adopting the twenty-one conditions.^[4] Around 25% of the Bund membership in Poland joined the Kombund.^[5]

According to one account, around 50% of the Bundist membership in Lodz had joined Kombund. The local Bundist newspaper, Lodzer veker, was taken over by Kombund.^[6]

Immediately after the split, the Bund and Kombund began fighting over control of trade unions. Important leaders of the textile, leather and paper workers' unions had sided with the Kombund in the split. The leather workers' union was seized by Kombund, soon to be followed by the clothing workers' union.^[4]

Soon after the foundation of the Kombund, negotiations began with the Communist Party of Poland regarding a merger between the two parties. In September the final decision was taken on the Kombund's merger into the Polish Communist Party. Just before the merger, the Kombund has suffered setbacks in trade union elections in Lodz and Cracow.^[7]

Shortly after the merger, the Polish Communist Party established its Central Jewish Bureau.^[5][2][3][8]

See also

• Komtsukunft

References

1. ^ Jacobs, Jack Lester. Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe: The Bund at 100. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001. p. 161
2. ^ ^{a b} Campbell, Joan. European Labor Unions. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1992. p.
3. ^ ^{a b} YIVO Archives, Fruma Mohrer, and Marek Web. Guide to the YIVO Archives. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1998. p. 43
4. ^ ^{a b} Johnpoll, Bernard K. The Politics of Futility; The General Jewish Workers Bund of Poland, 1917-1943. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1967. p. 117
5. ^ ^{a b} Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Yerushalayim, and Makhon le-Yahadut zemanenu ʻa. sh. Avraham Harman. Studies in Contemporary Jewry. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press, 1984. p. 20
6. ^ Jacobs, Jack Lester. Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe: The Bund at 100. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001. p. 104
7. ^ Johnpoll, Bernard K. The Politics of Futility; The General Jewish Workers Bund of Poland, 1917-1943. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1967. pp. 119-120
8. ^ Davies, Norman. God's Playground: A History of Poland in Two Volumes 2 1795 to the Present. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. p. 187